Monitors which one to buy LCD or CRT

“My monitor died Friday night. I ended up using an old,old,old monitor that I had saved.

I am in the market for a new monitor and was wondering which is the best way to go LCD or CRT.

Just doing a quick search it seems the CRT's have improved and are cheaper than LCD's.

Need Pros and Cons on both monitors.

Oh BTW if buying a LCD do you look for one with a 300:1 or 700:1 contrast ratio”

“Go LCD, for computer monitors and for TV's. Uses about 1/4 the power of a CRT and prices on LCDs have dropped significantly. You won't even be able to buy a CRT in another year or two, some companies are already phasing out their CRT production.

That 1/4 power use will more than pay for itself over the next few years as energy prices continue to spike.”

“Unless you're doing higher end graphics work that requires excellent color rendering and high resolution, I'd go with the LCD.”

“I do high end graphics work and I prefer LCDs to CRTs now. I can't really think of a reason to use a CRT over a LCD any more.

The best looking LCD I've ever used was an apple 20' cinema display. Super nice but steep at like $800 a pop. Yes, you can use an apple display with a PC. Just be sure your video card can support the monitor.

At my new job I'm using a Viewsonic VP930b. I like it, it's a nice '19 no complaints here and quite a bit cheaper at around $350. But had I the cash I'd go with the apple.

I can't help you with specs. I just go look at monitors on disply to determine what works with my eyes. Like boots, I only buy monitors in person.”

““I do high end graphics work and I prefer LCDs to CRTs now. I can't really think of a reason to use a CRT over a LCD any more.
humanpackmule
12:19:56 PM
7/24/06

Good to know. The last time my office bought a new monitor we ended up with a 19" CRT, because the LCD's (at least the ones in our price range) still couldn't get the resolution we wanted. Of course thinking about it now, that was about 1.5 to 2 years ago.”

“Yeah the LCDS have made some really big jumps.

What I do is I watch gamer gear sites. The gear needed for high end PC games and graphics work is pretty much identical. So when you see an LCD being pumped up by sites like extremetech, tomshardware and the like you can pretty much rest assured that it will do what you want.

Still if you need a monitor to be press calibrated it is wise to compare specs.

I'm a web based pixel guy now so no presses for me anymore. My eye is the final arbiter of "correctness". Well.....my bosses eye too. lol.
last edited: 7/24/06 12:03:31 PM”

“Ewk: get whichever one will get you to get your Yosemite photos up sooner!”

“I just bought a new system from Dell, It came with a 19" Ultra Sharp LCD monitor.
I like it a lot!!!”

“yes sir Mr Bowlderman!!!

Windwalker, I thought you were suing your son's laptop. Did you just buy a new one?

ok, I will go with the LCD monitors.

Now about the contrast ratio? any comments?”

“Here's a thread on this from when I was looking:

http://www.thebackpacker.com/trailtalk/thread/35868,-1.php”

“I thought they were paying people to take CRT monitors now.”

“Ewk: get whichever one will get you to get your Yosemite photos up sooner!”
BowlderMan
1:48:16 PM
7/24/06

LOL@Bowlderman!”

“CRT = Model "T" in automobile terms :)

CRT actually is an acronym for "Cathode Ray Tube", an archaic vacuum tube technology.

Don't buy ANYTHING that is "CRT". That means "old technology".”

“Ewker I was using my Sony Viao Laptop.
Josh has his own laptop. I kept running out of room on my little hard drive. (30GB)

New system has 320 GB plus two external 320 GB drives...And that 19" monitor is great :)
last edited: 7/24/06 6:04:03 PM”

“I can vividly remember that day in 1994 when my secretary announced that if we bought a 486, with a 40 Meg hard drive and color monitor, we would never need another computer......










ever.............












ever..................












or, as I soon found out, ever, or 6 months, whichever was to come first.”

“Yeah...I remember those days I had a 386 with 2MB RAM and a 40 MB hard drive...it was fast!!! spent around $1,500 too...LOL!”

“I am looking at this monitor. Anyone have it?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7824278&productCategoryId=cat01013&type=product&cmp=++&id=1142295055176”

“I remember the days when my computer had 128K, and that was BIG back in those days ('88). And it wasn't a PC, either.

Ok, I'm showing my age now, LOL.”

“hey HPM, you ever use Princeton Monitors? A guy in the photo club recommended that brand

http://www.princetongraphics.com/”

“No sorry, I've never used one.

I've used NEC, Viewsonic, Samsung and Apple LCDs.

The NEC (15") had horrible color depth, pure crap in my opinion but it was not a high end NEC.

The Samsung was a 17" syncmaster 740n. It looked decent but the display striped (a dead vertical line) after four weeks.

The Viewsonics I've had I've been happy with and right now I'm using a 19" VP930b. It looks pretty good and if you shop around you can find one for say....$350ish?

The Apple as I said before was super nice. I loved it. One of the Cult of Mac dudes I know told me that the Apple displys are actually made by phillips. So maybe phillips packages the same display under their own name for less. I dunno.
last edited: 7/25/06 11:49:30 AM”

“Geee.. whatever happened to teletype terminals and papertape storage.... ?”

““Geee.. whatever happened to teletype terminals and papertape storage.... ?”
Tilt
3:30:36 PM
7/26/06

That was before my time.



But I do remember when you could fit almost everything on a 5" floppy?”

“Store it on a drum.”

“For high end image editing, CRTs still hold an advantage. High-end gaming graphics and photo-editing graphics are not necessarily the same market. One is more into speed, one is more in to extremely accurate color renditions. I get my drum scans and Photoshopping done professionally by a guy named Bob Cornelis at Color Folio. He does the drum scanning for guys like Frans Lanting and Galen Rowell (before he died, that is, he still does for Galen's Mountain Light Gallery). He also teaches Photoshop and digital workflow classes and he even taught alongside Galen Rowell. Bob continues to buy large screen CRT monitors for his professional editing and teaching (mostly refurbished because not too many manufacturers still make them). They just render color better, although high end LCDs are very good too. I just bought a new dual-processor Dell with a 20" widescreen ultrasharp LCD monitor and I like the monitor okay, but not as much as my old NEC Multisynch CRT monitor. But for most of us, LCDs are plenty good enough. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but if I could get a 20"+ CRT monitor for a reasonable price, I'd jump on it for my non-existant photo editing that I PLAN on learning sometime, ha ha!”

“I ended up buying the Samsung that I supplied the link to. I couldn't find any Princetons to look at.”

“So now that you have a monitor.... let's see those Yosemite photos!”