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Advantages of CRT over LCD

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Re: Advantages of CRT over LCD

#41
post #35

I can't imagine loving a monitor the way I loved my iiyama Vision Master Pro. 1600x1200 at 71Hz driven from a Matrox Millennium (4MB VRAM and no 3D acceleration whatsoever) with soft-edged pixels and no visible grain or mesh. It was by far the best computer-related object I had ever owned. But that would be so impractical now, given its bulk and what else is available. We actually still have a CRT as our main TV here…

> feels as if you're watching the making-of documentary rather than the film itself.

Isn't that because of many picture enhancers that come with modern tvs? I think major offender is the interpolation to go from cinematic 24 frames to higher frame rate. I believe it's commonly called soap opera effect...

Re: Advantages of CRT over LCD

#42
post #27

The biggest advantage is that CRTs can have variable geometry pixels which match a lot of older resolutions and aspect ratios. While it's a lot easier to deal with non-square pixels on higher resolution displays (i.e. 1600x1200 can properly emulate a 1.2:1 rectangular pixel of a 320x200 display) CRTs still have effectively infinitely variable shaped pixels.

LCDs and their ineptitude with non native resolutions deeply annoys me. Sure, pixels in an LCD are fixed, but even resolutions that are multiples of 2 of their native resolution look like crap. 4K monitor? Surely it can handle 1080p, it's just dividing by 2; four physical pixels for one logical pixel, right? Nope! Looks like horseshit. Seemingly LCD monitors can't divide by 2. CRTs can handle any resolution within th…

That's why you should use GPU scaling instead.

Re: Advantages of CRT over LCD

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. they're Thinner And Lighter™ 2. ...err... 3. ...that's it...

More comprehensive list or trade offs between the two: https://www.displaymate.com/crtvslcd.html

That seems to be a decade out of date at this point.

Re: Advantages of CRT over LCD

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not forget that you could freely adjust the refresh rate to resolution ratio to the maximum bandwidth supported by the monitor. On my old 21" CRT, I would have the desktop at 1600x1200 @ 75Hz for maximum productivity and when gaming I would switch to 1024x768 @ 120Hz for "pwning n00bs" in Unreal Tournament '99/Quake 3 Arena. Meanwhile my 2019 4K display is a fixed 60Hz regardless of how much I lower the resolut…

There was nothing quite like Quake 3 in 800x600 @ 120hz. The smoothness and incredibly low input lag. I maintain that it was better, in many ways, than my current position 1440p @ 180hz setup. Sadly, UT99 was capped at 85 or 90 hz. It was very noticeable, especially at the time when my body was still young. I am still twitchy but not even close to what I could pull off 20 years ago. Mid 2000s to early 2010 were tough…

>Sadly, UT99 was capped at 85 or 90 hz.

Such were the days when videogame engines tied the physics to the framerate, as having too many FPS would basically ruin the game. Just ask present day Bethesda :D

Re: Advantages of CRT over LCD

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. they're Thinner And Lighter™ 2. ...err... 3. ...that's it...

More comprehensive list or trade offs between the two: https://www.displaymate.com/crtvslcd.html

Wow, that list is so outdated, it's not even funny.

Most of the negatives listed on the LCD side have been non-issues for years (e.g. viewing angles).

Re: Advantages of CRT over LCD

#46
post #27

The biggest advantage is that CRTs can have variable geometry pixels which match a lot of older resolutions and aspect ratios. While it's a lot easier to deal with non-square pixels on higher resolution displays (i.e. 1600x1200 can properly emulate a 1.2:1 rectangular pixel of a 320x200 display) CRTs still have effectively infinitely variable shaped pixels.

LCDs and their ineptitude with non native resolutions deeply annoys me. Sure, pixels in an LCD are fixed, but even resolutions that are multiples of 2 of their native resolution look like crap. 4K monitor? Surely it can handle 1080p, it's just dividing by 2; four physical pixels for one logical pixel, right? Nope! Looks like horseshit. Seemingly LCD monitors can't divide by 2. CRTs can handle any resolution within th…

It's because there always has to be some retarded-ass "enhancement" going on fucking with the colors, fucking with the image in any which way possible. Bullshit sharpening filter, bullshit edge detection filter that produces shitty artifacts around actual sharp edges that don't need to be fucked with.

The early LCDs were shit because they did only nearest-point sampling. The new LCDs are shit because they "enhance" the image to shit, even in native resolution.

Re: Advantages of CRT over LCD

#47
It wasn't until I was shopping for an LED TV that I really understood a lot of the important details in how a sequence of images can be made to look like the images are in motion.

The biggest revelation was the difference between showing a still image for just a moment vs holding that still image on screen for a long time. Illuminating the screen pixel-by-pixel with a short duty factor gave CRTs sharp crisp motion compared to LED and LCD screens. The UFO tests really drove the point home (along with a lot of other visual phenomena).

https://www.testufo.com/blackframes

What got me hung up for so long was that so much of the conversation has been about frame rates and shutter speeds, when it's really a different (but related) effect. I've been wanting to play around with high framerate video with frames combined to mimic slower shutter speeds. That is, 120 Hz open shutter video blurred with a 4-frame sliding window to look like it was shot at 30 fps. Or other such tricks. I thought high-end cameras might do such things automatically but it seems like they don't and I want to figure out why not. (does it look bad?)

https://kevinlisota.photography/2020/04/understanding-video-...

https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/tv-motion-blur-...

Re: Advantages of CRT over LCD

#48
One advantage is that you can have another kind of fun with it, as displayed in the amazing demo "Copper" by Surprise!Productions (1992).

Most of the effects in that demo are made possible by varying values in the CRT Controller registers of the VGA card. Fond memories!

https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=2048

Re: Advantages of CRT over LCD

#49

I would love to see modern CRTs but we have to be honest with ourselves about the negative environmental side with their lead components. Perhaps we could build a more environmentally friendly CRT with our processes nowadays.

It’ll be very niche gadget so who cares about environment.

Re: Advantages of CRT over LCD

#50
post #35

I can't imagine loving a monitor the way I loved my iiyama Vision Master Pro. 1600x1200 at 71Hz driven from a Matrox Millennium (4MB VRAM and no 3D acceleration whatsoever) with soft-edged pixels and no visible grain or mesh. It was by far the best computer-related object I had ever owned. But that would be so impractical now, given its bulk and what else is available. We actually still have a CRT as our main TV here…

> feels as if you're watching the making-of documentary rather than the film itself. Isn't that because of many picture enhancers that come with modern tvs? I think major offender is the interpolation to go from cinematic 24 frames to higher frame rate. I believe it's commonly called soap opera effect...

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