DF Direct: CRT Displays - Was LCD A Big Mistake For Gaming?

Is that a plane? Is that a bird? No that's the prices of CRTs skyrocketing!

Can we get some respect in the chat for whoever managed to convince a camera to film that CRT screen at a ton of different refresh rates with no flicker.

This is exactly what I was preaching in a hardware forum 10 years ago. When Crysis came out I was still gaming on a Mitsubishi CRT on at 1280x1024 and I was playing it on an i7 920 and an 8800 Ultra and I was BLOWN AWAY by the graphics. The I upgraded to 2600K and a GTX 295, bought a new Dell 2560x1600 monitor and I remember thinking the graphics look flat and dull. I knew I wasn't imagining things back then.

What i love the most is that none of us can actually see how good the CRT looks since we're all on LCDs. Fantastic.

I'm still waiting for the name change to Analog Foundry ....

I wish there was a company making modern 16:9 CRT monitors, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

First ever footage of someone getting colleague zoned

These guys got me looking for Sony crt monitors in 2019

"I'm not joined by my friend... I'm joined by my colleague..." Alex: ... :(

Stop teasing me with a crt which I can't buy

A DF guide to CRT screens at all budget levels would be so amazing.

I absolutely remember buying my first 32" LCD to play Gears of War. After having played on a pretty nice CRT for months, I can still remember the let-down that was the flat panel. If anything, it just got more pixely and felt different in responsiveness - even though I didnt know that that was what it was at the time. Everyone told me I was crazy but I swore that I was better on the old CRT and that the game arguably looked worse on LCD. Years later I have a 65" OLED TV, 34" ultrawide monitor and am now thinking I want to see the CRTs again. I FUCKING KNEW IT. I TOLD THEM.

Y'all are just committed to making sure I will never get my hands on a FW900, huh?

A console player's CRT perspective - I spent most of my ps3 days on a monster 34inch Sony CRT. That picture was so sweet. For example - The nighttime driving in GTA V. Everything just popped. Deep blacks. Such vivid highlights and reflections. My current LCD cannot recapture that sort of magic... but it is 185 pounds lighter.

I feel this needs a bit of context: People didn't move from CRTs to LCDs for no reason. The displays DF showed are relatively high-end, even the 10€ Trinitron in its heyday. Most normal people that didn't work at TV stations or other audiovisual work were using 15"-17" CRTs at 1024x768 or 1280x1024, with wonky geometry, and often at a headache-inducing 60Hz (too ignorant to apply a resolution supported at 75Hz). Going from that to a sleek LCD monitor that was lighter on the eyes, lighter on power consumption and lighter on the desk was a given once the technology became affordable, especially for the millions that only used Office and the occasional Solitaire. For many it was an upgrade, as low-end CRTs can be a pain. Companies also benefited from switching, as having dozens of employees using displays that consumed a fraction of the energy was fantastic por power savings. Those masses dictated the market shift, but for many, many years, TV stations, pro gamers, architects, graphic designers, etc kept using CRTs and buying the high-end aperture grille Trinitrons and Diamondtrons, until LCD tech caught up somewhat. Only recently have those monitors come down in price, for most of their lifetime they were completely out of reach for the regular consumer. LCD won because it was equal or better for low-end use, not high-end, it's just that it took a while for it to climb up the quality ladder to the upper echelons of monitor requirements. That said, I have a 22" Diamondtron CRT and, while it looks great for retrogaming, my plasma looks far better for modern gaming, and my IPS laptop screen is better for web browsing and video, especially if we're talking about daylight coming through the window (where CRT becomes unusable due to glare). Newer machines also require adapters, which can negate the benefits of CRT (some adapters can't reach the CRT's max resolution/refresh rate, some graphics chips like Intel's can't output a lower resolution without wrapping it in what it thinks is the "native resolution", even though there is no such thing in this case). I get that John is giddy about this newfound love of this technology, but as someone who never stopped using it, the honey moon can end when you realize the limitations, and I feel some might be romanticizing the old days a bit too much.

I wonder if we'll ever see a modernized version of an analog display, with the benefits of a CRT but without the bulk.

Stop taunting me with this holy Grail monitor that I will never find....

8:33 I think at 160 Hz you can get motion blur on CRT. It's related to the duration of phosphor glow. If you look with ultra-high-speed camera there is a chance that glow from previous refresh is still present when new frame is drawn.

The colors on CRT's looked more vibrant. On thin monitors they look washed out and somehow brighter. I don't know how to explain it, but if you've owned a CRT and did the switch you'll know what I'm talking about.

hopefully people keep pushing crt's enough to make a comeback, it can become a situation of vinyl even, but with video, and stablish the concept of "video-philes"