View Poll Results: What do you think is better?

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  • CRT

    22 42.31%
  • TFT

    31 59.62%
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  1. #1
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    The Battle Of TFT vs The CRT

    Well im fed up of being told TFT is better then CRT without facts, and im after your views, why everyone thinks TFT is better then CRT?

    DO NOT TELL ME ABOUT THE SPACE SAVING......that does not class somthing as being good when deep down everyone looks for quality of picture, refresh rate and power.

    the only thing i think a TFT is good for is for saving space on a desktop, so please dont bring that one up.

    ive been told alot of things about TFT monitors, and just wondered if they are true, can you really play games with them? i dont mean the old windows platform games i mean the latest games e.g. doom 3, battlefield 1942, far-cry etc.

    im a big, big, big, gaming fanatic and been playing games for longer then what I can remember and ive played on a game on a TFT before round a mates house, cause he wanted to borrow battlefield from me, and when i went to play it the picture quality was really sh*t to say the least. sorry for bad lanuage but everyone makes TFT's out to be the best and clearly in that case it wasnt.

    also i noticed alot of distoring when scrolling on a web page, and creating and viewing pictures and things. anything with alot of colour and graphics in I noticed it was totally sh*t.

    dont get my wrong the TFT's do look nice but i just think paying £800 for somthing to be distored and poor quality to be a rip off.

    somtimes i just think you cant beat a good CRT

  2. #2
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    The major difference with TFT / CRT is the way the image is drawn on the screen.

    On a CRT (cathlode Ray Tube), it uses a magnet, to aim and fire a beam of light onto the screen, and zips it across the screen horizontally, changing colors as it goes depending on the pixel, creating a scanline. Then it does the next line. It does this really really fast to generate the picture, since the human eye has a memory of about 1/8th of a second.

    A TFT screen draws the image pixel by pixel, but it does not use scanlines. Because each pixel is individual, the TFT changes the pixels that need to be changed, rather than re-drawing the whole screen. Because of this, the refresh rate on a TFT varies. It used to be fairly poor with older model TFT's, but now on new ones, the refresh rate has improved dramaticall to the point where they match, if not beat, CRT screens.

    Another issue, is viewing range. Because of how the CRT is displayed, it has a fairly wide viewing range, where a TFT/LCD can sometimes have a limited viewing range. But this is changing as well.

  3. #3
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  4. #4
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    trouble is, (this is was makes me mad the most) is that to get an actual TFT that will run a decent game at decent quality you have to pay £800+ but for a CRT its only like £80 of ebay.....so do I pay £80 or £800?

  5. #5
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    I cannot believe that CRT is winning in the poll.

    Anywho - I've a very old CRT monitor, which I no longer use, and I could never use that one again (It's an old NEC in a Zenith case). It's old, every time you boot up the screen is in a different place (You then need to use the dials to put it back in place). The screen on my laptop is much much better than my old CRT, and my other CRT (My other CRT was better and much newer than my current CRT and in fact top of the range in CRTs, however there was a power surge so it's now unusable).

    I could never go back to a CRT monitor. You just have to get a good TFT screen, and you're fine - The same with CRT, get a bad one and you will think they are rubbish (Well... they are in my opinion).

    True, TFT screens do cost more than CRT - But I personally think it is well worth the money. You're in the UK, aren't you Flumps? Try contacting Medion UK or go on the Medion Germany website (Medion Germany won't sell to you directly, however if you have a friend in Germany they could receive the order for you and then send it to you).

    15” TFT Active XGA
    15" TFT Flat Screen Monitor MD7415
    15” TFT Active XGA LCD Colour Monitor, 16.7 million colours
    £189.99
    There you go, and a lot cheaper than your £800 figure. True, it's only a 15" but Medion products are very good. That is the screen which is on my laptop I think (although of course the laptop is integrated). But if you prefer CRT, they have a very nice 17" one for only £70.

    Medion Germany has a nice 19" TFT monitor for only €500... not bad at all. No where near your £800.
    I checked PCWorld, and even 19" TFT monitors there are only £400! Get around check some prices out, and you'll see they aren't that expensive any more.

  6. #6
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    I love my CRT and it will take a LONG time to convert me to TFT.

    I can get a 21" CRT for £129 or a 19" TFT for £400+. IMHO CRT's have much better image clarity and quality and are a lot sharper. They also seem better when working at high resolutions with such things as web design etc...

    Dont mind Plasma and LCD screens for television, but for PC monitors it has to be CRT for me
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  7. #7
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    As long as you go for a TFT with decent refresh rate (< 16ms) and spec you may well be pretty surprised with their performance. I use dual Iiyama 431S TFT's (17") and they are excellent in both everyday use and for games. No blurring or anything on games whatsoever.

    I agree with Anjay... I've seen a lot of rubbish TFT's with bad performance and they made me shy away from getting one for a while. It was only when I saw a decent one in use when I decided to research them further.
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  8. #8
    Originally posted by amish_geek
    The major difference with TFT / CRT is the way the image is drawn on the screen.

    On a CRT (cathlode Ray Tube), it uses a magnet, to aim and fire a beam of light onto the screen, and zips it across the screen horizontally, changing colors as it goes depending on the pixel, creating a scanline. Then it does the next line. It does this really really fast to generate the picture, since the human eye has a memory of about 1/8th of a second.
    Actually, a CRT uses a magnet to aim and fire a beam of electrons to a phosphor plate which in turn, produces light.
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  9. #9
    My monitor is old and has only 4 shades of green.
    I got my 17" monitor for about 660$, it cost more then the computer itself.

    Games run just fine, the quality is by far better, it hardly takes any space on my desk.



    Any more questions?



    Just dont skim when you get your monitor, get a good one and your all set.




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  10. #10
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    I have a 19" Samsung Syncmaster, I play games without any problems (Battlefield, Call of Duty)
    Really you can't buy just any brand of TFT and expect it to be great, gotta do your research... IMHO Samsung is one of the best although it is a bit pricey. (get what you pay for)

    Also you HAVE to use the Digital DVI-D input otherwise what is the point?

    The other big thing for me is my eyes... my old CRT which I use for PCs I'm working on... always hurt my eyes after looking at it for long periods of time. (Sony Trinitron 17")

    Now I can stare at the PC all day and there is NO eye strain whatsoever.

    And space may not be an issue for you, but it is for me. It really does make a huge difference on my desk. So don't discount space just because you don't care about it.

  11. #11
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    Daily work, Texting, SSH, coding: TFT. Cleaner, easier on the eyes (My vote).

    Imaging, Color work or (mostly) Gaming: CRT. More exact, no glare issues and better refresh rates.

    Best,

    Chili

  12. #12
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    Yeah IMO opinion a CRT is ideal for serious gaming and graphical work - there are a couple of VERY expensive TFTs out there designed for graphicaly intensive stuff but they are seriously big cash!

    But for coding, all the normal developers stuff a good size tft 17" above is the way forward. The actual normal picture quality for normal everyday use on a tft is much better than on a crt, as chili said less strain on the eyes.

    I have a dual tft setup on my working machine, and i have a 19" iiyama crt on my gamin machine as i do prefer a crt on there for the reasons everyone says.

    BUT, as the tft technology gets better with DVI etc surely soon enough the support for the gfx cards and the monitors them selves, crts will be a thing of the past! Look as plasma TVs for example, how long till those are in a monitor??

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  13. #13
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    Originally posted by Anjay
    I cannot believe that CRT is winning in the poll.

    Anywho - I've a very old CRT monitor, which I no longer use, and I could never use that one again (It's an old NEC in a Zenith case). It's old, every time you boot up the screen is in a different place (You then need to use the dials to put it back in place). The screen on my laptop is much much better than my old CRT, and my other CRT (My other CRT was better and much newer than my current CRT and in fact top of the range in CRTs, however there was a power surge so it's now unusable).

    I could never go back to a CRT monitor. You just have to get a good TFT screen, and you're fine - The same with CRT, get a bad one and you will think they are rubbish (Well... they are in my opinion).

    True, TFT screens do cost more than CRT - But I personally think it is well worth the money. You're in the UK, aren't you Flumps? Try contacting Medion UK or go on the Medion Germany website (Medion Germany won't sell to you directly, however if you have a friend in Germany they could receive the order for you and then send it to you).



    There you go, and a lot cheaper than your £800 figure. True, it's only a 15" but Medion products are very good. That is the screen which is on my laptop I think (although of course the laptop is integrated). But if you prefer CRT, they have a very nice 17" one for only £70.

    Medion Germany has a nice 19" TFT monitor for only €500... not bad at all. No where near your £800.
    I checked PCWorld, and even 19" TFT monitors there are only £400! Get around check some prices out, and you'll see they aren't that expensive any more.
    yeah try and play a game with that cheap TFT and your see my point about them being crap at playing top of the range games.

  14. #14
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    Dont forget that TFT's also suffer from screen burn and have a lifetime of around 10,000 hours. A CRT, as well as being cheaper, will produce the same quality picture in 5 years time as it did today and will last upto 50 years.

    Of course, the picture quality will decline slightly ove its lifetime, but it will save you a LOT of money on the amount of TFT's you would have to buy...
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  15. #15
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    yeah try and play a game with that cheap TFT and your see my point about them being crap at playing top of the range games.
    Flumps, shouldn't you be working hard and not playing so many PC games?
    But Medion make great quality products - They really are a great company, making quality products at a cheap price. You know, the majority of the time the reason behind something being so expensive is pure profit. I saw on the news a bit back, BT were on BBC World or Sky News I think and they were talking about current profit levels, and how they were planning on dramatically increasing profits. Remove all the greedy men at the top, and you can have a quality product for less.


    Dont forget that TFT's also suffer from screen burn and have a lifetime of around 10,000 hours.
    Making it last only one year? Please... don't post rubbish about TFTs like that. I've no idea how long a CRT can last, however I've been using TFTs for a while and I've ones that have lasted longer than a year (In actual fact, none of mine have burnt out yet, and one of them is on practically 24/7).

  16. #16
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    Anjay, you check the manufacturers expectations. They are 10,000 hours usage for most TFT's.

    Its the reason OLED's have not been adopted for anything past mobile phones yet. Because they only have a life of 4,000 hours.

    CRT's will go on forever so long as they dont have an electronics faliure/power surge. I have CRT's still working from the 80's and 90's.

    Screen burn happens no matter what. It happens because the backlights are at the sides of the TFT's film and as they are constantly being lit up more then the rest of the screen, the edges of a TFT go darker. No matter what TFT you have, it happens. This does not happen to a CRT, because as mentioned by somebosy else, the screen only lights up when the electrons hit the phosphor plate. It is a reaction and therefore no backlight is needed.

    You seem very protective over your beloved TFT's, but please dont post things until you actually bother to find out the facts first.
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  17. #17
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    I LOVE my Samsung SyncMaster 21.3" Widescreen!!! Period!!! Awesome picture quality...no complaints from me on the TFT. A nice big CRT is good for gaming and graphics...on that system I use a Sony 21" Flatscreen CRT.

    BIG is GOOD!!! IMHO (just to clarify...I'm talking about monitors)
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  18. #18
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    Anjay, you check the manufacturers expectations. They are 10,000 hours usage for most TFT's.
    You know, they make the expectations less than what they really are to cover themselves, just in case.


    Screen burn happens no matter what.
    I never said it doesn't.


    You seem very protective over your beloved TFT's, but please dont post things until you actually bother to find out the facts first.
    All I'm disputing is that you claimed "Dont forget that TFT's have a lifetime of around 10,000 hours.", when you should have said the manufacturer says that is what you should expect - As I have never seen a TFT monitor which has burnt out after one years use, nor know of anyone who seen or had one burn out after about a year... or maybe that's just because Medion is such a great product.
    But I'm not disputing the fact TFTs probably do have a shorter life period than CRTs, just that you should have been more specific in what you stated.

  19. #19
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    Originally posted by Anjay
    You know, they make the expectations less than what they really are to cover themselves, just in case.



    I never said it doesn't.



    All I'm disputing is that you claimed "Dont forget that TFT's have a lifetime of around 10,000 hours.", when you should have said the manufacturer says that is what you should expect - As I have never seen a TFT monitor which has burnt out after one years use, nor know of anyone who seen or had one burn out after about a year... or maybe that's just because Medion is such a great product.
    But I'm not disputing the fact TFTs probably do have a shorter life period than CRTs, just that you should have been more specific in what you stated.
    Dont forget though, when they are quoting a lifetime of 10,000 hours, they mean more like 3 - 4 years, as their average usage expectations would be 6 - 8 hours a day.

    And yes, I should have been a bit clearer on that point, it must have been my haste to post lol!
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  20. #20
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    Flumps, maybe you shouldnt play games so much
    sorry its a bit hard when your job involves helping people run game servers and testing them etc. not only that I like playing on them online and competing againest other people etc. not to mention I have pritty much every game thats come out since about 1998 suppose its more of an addition then a hobby but hey its better then smoking or becoming a druggie

    TFT monitors last around 10,000 hours which on adverage is about 6-8 hours per day.
    If I had a TFT it would proberly burn out in 1,000 hours if thats the case, cause I use my machine alot longer then 6 hours per day lol.

    I still say you cant beat a CRT! perfect gaming quality at a fraction of the cost of a TFT.

  21. #21
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    Dont forget though, when they are quoting a lifetime of 10,000 hours, they mean more like 3 - 4 years, as their average usage expectations would be 6 - 8 hours a day.
    That's very true. I only made it about one year as I use my monitor a lot more than six or eight hours; more like fifteen to twenty per day (And you said they do last about that long, not that it was an expectation by the manufacturer ).


    suppose its more of an addiction then a hobby but hey its better then smoking or becoming a druggie
    Yeah, I guess it is... or is it?


    If I had a TFT it would proberly burn out in 1,000 hours if thats the case, cause I use my machine alot longer then 6 hours per day lol.
    lol - The majority of manufacturers only say 10,000 hours just in case. The monitor should, and most likely will last a lot longer - But imagine if they say 50,000 hours and all of a sudden your monitor just dies at 25,000 hours; word will get around if it happens more than once and it won't be a happy picture for the company who makes that monitor. They do it with everything: expection rates, use by dates, etc. etc.

  22. #22
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    Yeah i know i had a feeling it was like that, just saying that to cover there backs etc

  23. #23
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    Originally posted by Flumps
    trouble is, (this is was makes me mad the most) is that to get an actual TFT that will run a decent game at decent quality you have to pay £800+ but for a CRT its only like £80 of ebay.....so do I pay £80 or £800?
    Not necessarily true. The ViewSonic VA720 is a GREAT monitor IMO for gaming. I play lots of games like Call of Duty, UT2K4, C&C Generals, Doom 3, and others on the VA720 and have had absolutely no problems with it.

    You can get a VA720 for $409 on NewEgg.com, which converts to roughly 335 Euro

  24. #24
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    £200+ is still expensive though specially when a good CRT can cost £100 or less.

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    Well, I have a 15" Samsung SyncMaster 152T on DVI and I just love the TFT-LCD monitor. I play games like Warcraft III on it and for regular picture/movie viewing, the colors are very sharp and vibrant. The best thing I love about the TFT is that it's great on the eyes (you can look at it for hours without getting tired) and the text that is displayed on the screen is "uber" sharp. However, for a really hard-core gamer like yourself, I would suggest that you wait perhaps a year or two before considering a TFT-LCD monitor because they're in the process of developing monitors with lower response times and better technology suitable for gaming.

    Also, when you do look for a TFT monitor, make sure you check response times, which should be in ms, as lower response times result in fluider gameplay. Good TFT-LCD monitors should have 25ms response times, while the newer ones manufactured by companies such as Samsung, Viewsonic, and Eino have 16ms and even 12ms. But of course, as with all new technology, you'll probably have to pay a fairly hefty sum for those monitors.

    Good luck with your decision!
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