Shit, monitor broke.
polycounter lvl 18
My 19" CRT just broke. Was a damn fine monitor but I guess I got my money's worth since I had it in use for ~7 years. I'm currently using a crappy 17" monitor with a nasty problem with the blue channel which means I can't do any painting (its picture is as bad as TV so my eyes are starting to hurt just looking at it).
So now I'm looking for a monitor that can do 1280x960 (or higher but preferrably 4:3). From what I've seen in stores LCDs are 5:4 or 16:9 these days for no apparent reason. I think I can't fit an LCD on my desk (screen holder is sloped with a stopper wire at the end, an LCD would slip off) so a CRT is definitely preferred.
An LCD should have a good handling of scaling, adding black areas if the screen can't be upscaled by an integral factor. I'd rather sacrifice screen size than have those stupid doubled rows and columns that look completely ugly. Since I can't feasibly play every game at the screen's native resolution good upscaling is necessary.
No blurring since it's intended for gaming and good color reproduction since I'm trying to paint textures on the same screen should be a given.
So now I'm looking for a monitor that can do 1280x960 (or higher but preferrably 4:3). From what I've seen in stores LCDs are 5:4 or 16:9 these days for no apparent reason. I think I can't fit an LCD on my desk (screen holder is sloped with a stopper wire at the end, an LCD would slip off) so a CRT is definitely preferred.
An LCD should have a good handling of scaling, adding black areas if the screen can't be upscaled by an integral factor. I'd rather sacrifice screen size than have those stupid doubled rows and columns that look completely ugly. Since I can't feasibly play every game at the screen's native resolution good upscaling is necessary.
No blurring since it's intended for gaming and good color reproduction since I'm trying to paint textures on the same screen should be a given.
Replies
I used a Viewsonic a90 for about 4 years, works great. Supports all the way up to 1600x1200. Yes, it also supports 1280x960, and other 4:3 ratio formats.
Right now though, I'm using a BenQ 21" 16:10 widescreen LCD. It's amazingly good for the $315 tag. No blurring, no dead pixels - it's great. But, you don't have room for a LCD...
So you know, widescreen LCDs or CRTs can put borders around the lower resolutions you choose, so you don't *have* to scale them up. I run some games in 1280x960, and it's got borders around it, since my native res is 1680x1050. Much like a DVD movie, I don't notice the borders.
you can get it rebranded as ibm, sun or sgi and i believe dell as well.
you could probably get one for free, just check your local auction houses for bankruptcies.
Space isn't the issue, the desk is sloped and the stopping wire at the end won't hold an LCD with more than 1/3rd of its foot still on the desk.
Hm, I just found a 19" CRT for 150€, half the price of the cheapest 19" LCDs. Samtron 98PDF.