Moving back to CRT

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Troz
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Moving back to CRT

Post by Troz »

I've tried everything I can think of to get an acceptable image (to me) from my LCD monitor but have decided to move back to the original 19" CRT. Anything I used to tint the screen would reduce the color saturation too much, and the monitor outline could still be seen. I really like the flat image, lack of scanlines, and bright colors with the LCD, but being able to see the monitor outline ruins the effect for me. There was also a little screen distortion from using the pixel clock settings to manipulate the image size, but it wasn't a deal-breaker like the black level. For reference, the monitor I used was a Dell e2209w. The plus side is it'll work fine to replace my aging desktop monitor :)

While doing research on LCDs I found the Dell G2210 LED backlit monitor. It looks promising in regards to my biggest complaint of poor black levels, but I can't bring myself to drop $200 not knowing if the results will be acceptable to me. Here's an excerpt from a review at CNET:
CNET G2210 Excerpt wrote:Great scores in DisplayMate don't always translate into similar results in our real-world test, but the G2210 has some of the deepest blacks we've seen on a monitor; a critical attribute for good movie playback. We used the Movie preset to check out "War of the Worlds" ("WotW") on DVD and "House of Flying Daggers" ("HoFD") on Blu-ray. "WotW" looked great for a DVD, with a deep black level and accurate colors. "HoFD" also had deep blacks, accurate colors, and solid picture fidelity without any ghosting or streaking. The Gateway HD2201 used to be our favorite 22-incher to watch movies on, but it just cannot compare to the G2210.

Most of this incredible performance can be attributed to the LED backlight in the monitor. Most monitors use cold cathode fluorescent lamp-based backlights--several fluorescent tubes stretched horizontally across the screen. The Dell G2210 relies on individual LEDs all over the back of the screen that turn off or on independently, giving the display more precise control over the amount of light coming through. The purported advantages of an LED backlight are better energy efficiency, more accurate color reproduction, a conceivably thinner panel design, and a higher potential brightness level.

A high black level on a display will distort the grayscale and adversely affect color reproduction. However, thanks to its precise control of the backlight light, the G2210 is capable of a low black level, which translates into fantastic color reproduction. While its maximum brightness is lower than the Gateway HD2201 (249 versus 289 respectively), this was never a problem and at times we had to turn down the G2210's brightness to decrease the strain on our eyes. Its tested contrast ratio beat Dell's claim of 1,000:1 scoring 1,009:1 in our test.
This sounds like the LCD to pickup if anyone wants to give it a shot and report back here.
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GLModular
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Re: Moving back to CRT

Post by GLModular »

While the Dell G2210 sounds good in theory, the only thing that might be bad for a P2K application is the fact that the rear of the unit is not flat. Certainly it's better than some that I looked at with rounded and/or non-linear tapers.

Tony
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Troz
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Re: Moving back to CRT

Post by Troz »

I'm pretty sure that the G2210 uses the same shell as the e2209w I was using, which is slightly curved in the back but not enough to be a problem.
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KSKID
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Re: Moving back to CRT

Post by KSKID »

Here is a youtube video of the Dell G2410 (Big Brother to the G2210 ), shows it running in the dark with black background at Dos Command prompt, looks to be pretty promising for use in the LCD Conversion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH_QbCv7wu8
Troz
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Re: Moving back to CRT

Post by Troz »

I think I updated this elsewhere on the site, but I did eventually try the G2210 as well. The black levels were better, but still not close to where I wanted them.
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KSKID
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Re: Moving back to CRT

Post by KSKID »

Are you using NUCORE with a CRT , and if you are what are you using to convert your signal coming from the PC ?
Troz
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Re: Moving back to CRT

Post by Troz »

Yes, I'm running Nucore using the Ultimarc ArcadeVGA card connected to the CRT.
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KSKID
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Re: Moving back to CRT

Post by KSKID »

Thanks for the information, probably going to go the same route.
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Bay78
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Re: Moving back to CRT

Post by Bay78 »

Are there any videos showing how the LCD shows the outline of the monitor on the playfield when playing? I just picked up a SWE1 and am thinking seriously about switching to Nucore. I'm just in the learning stages right now but want to know what peoples thoughts are? 8)
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KSKID
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Re: Moving back to CRT

Post by KSKID »

Here is video of a RFM running Nucore but the video quality is not the greatest, maybe someone has a better video of a machine running an LCD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxvk3JdEvYk
Troz
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Re: Moving back to CRT

Post by Troz »

I don't have any good videos from when I had the LCD in my machine, but I do have these two photos which show the outline/black level from the LCD:

http://www.twistedrails.com/rfm/rightmartian.jpg
http://www.twistedrails.com/rfm/leftmartian.jpg
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