24" Widescreen CRT (FW900) From Ebay arrived,Comments.

[Dr.Pants]

Was just checking the US craigslist and found this - fatal misnomer! He wants $20 for it, someone might be really interested

God do I wish there were offers like this where I lived, 6 hours driving would be a no-brainer.

Not many people can make it where I live (NW Washington) to Portland in six hours, but maybe I can.

Thanks for pointing this out. Fingers crossed this guy has it on Friday.

 

[roberta]

Tell him to turn it on , show the Nokia test pattern, and post the pics
Could save you a trip

 

[ZeosPantera]

Was just checking the US craigslist and found this - fatal misnomer! He wants $20 for it, someone might be really interested

God do I wish there were offers like this where I lived, 6 hours driving would be a no-brainer.

Not many people can make it where I live (NW Washington) to Portland in six hours, but maybe I can.

Thanks for pointing this out. Fingers crossed this guy has it on Friday.

Sorry Dr Pants. When I saw the post I asked the people on my vent if anyone was close to portland and had $20. My friend bishop was an hour away and picked that monitor up yesterday (2/13). I have been bragging about mine for a while and he knows a good deal when he sees it. Plus he was on a borrowed monitor for the last 8 months.

I am going to help him calibrate it via ventrillo which ought to be interesting and painful. Keep an eye out on Craigs and ebay there are always more of these monitors on the west coast.

 

[Dr.Pants]

Sorry Dr Pants. When I saw the post I asked the people on my vent if anyone was close to portland and had $20. My friend bishop was an hour away and picked that monitor up yesterday (2/13). I have been bragging about mine for a while and he knows a good deal when he sees it. Plus he was on a borrowed monitor for the last 8 months.

I am going to help him calibrate it via ventrillo which ought to be interesting and painful. Keep an eye out on Craigs and ebay there are always more of these monitors on the west coast.

Damn! Well, I'll keep looking; however finding one of these outside CA has been a PITA. But hey, its kay. I'll pick one up eventually.

 

[roberta]

They not as difficult to find if you know where to look
Craig's List is usually an end user @ home and the monitor is usually in not great condition
Start where they where sold to in the beginning
Hospitals,research labs,video production companies,engineering companies
You be surprised to see what they have in their closets
Remember they weigh 92lbs not easy to move
Also these large institutions have a computer recycler contractors ask who they are and call
Got 2 this way in prestine shape

 

[Pixel Eater]

I have 3 of these in a multi-monitor setup. The unfortunate thing that even my friends notice is that each monitor seems to contain its own color profile.

I've had the chance to try everything over the past few years and settled on the sRGB profile for all three with similar brightness/contrast settings. I really have ironed out all the minor tweaks to what feels like perfection for each monitor. Still, their looks are afflicted with different ideas of what white is and more.

I have not looked at where or how to order the windas cable yet. Will that and the Nokia test actually be the ultimate way to calibrate these equally, or is there more to it? I want them to live up to the whole professional imagery thing.

 

[Rock&Roll]

I have 3 of these in a multi-monitor setup.

That wouldn't happen to be an eyefinity setup? If so, I'd like to know how well it's running, and if you can run higher refresh rates than 60Hz.

All three of my FW900's (one in use) also look different. One is very blue. One is very red. The other is balanced. I can adjust them so they're very close to each other, mostly through the OSD. As far as whites go, none get as white as my PVA LCD panel. But that is to be expected. I'll gladly take an less-bright white over having the input lag and poor black response of an LCD.

 

[evileye]

I have 3 of these in a multi-monitor setup. The unfortunate thing that even my friends notice is that each monitor seems to contain its own color profile.

I've had the chance to try everything over the past few years and settled on the sRGB profile for all three with similar brightness/contrast settings. I really have ironed out all the minor tweaks to what feels like perfection for each monitor. Still, their looks are afflicted with different ideas of what white is and more.

I have not looked at where or how to order the windas cable yet. Will that and the Nokia test actually be the ultimate way to calibrate these equally, or is there more to it? I want them to live up to the whole professional imagery thing.

You're looking for a Colorimeter. There are consumer packages for ~$100 such as the EyeOne Display LT. You hang a dongle on your screen and the software flashes colored boxes on your display. Afterwards, it modifies your Video Cards LUT to generate the color gamut/white point you chose. This way, all three monitors will match =)

Slight warning though - don't get a spyder3. They don't work well with CRT/Plasma.

Do some more investigating before you take this route though, as some cards don't handle color profiles on multiple monitors well and some games like to ignore your settings.

That being said, I couldn't live without my i1pro =)

 

[Volken8]

Slight warning though - don't get a spyder3. They don't work well with CRT/Plasma.

This is most intriguing.

Spyder 3 Elite is precisely what I've been using for FW900 and my other working LCD displays. Spyder3 covers everything from CRT to projector.

Both Elite and Pro have no such restrictions. I have no knowledge with usage of their baby line Express, perhaps you are thinking abut this line? But again, I can't confirm this as a fact. And when you make general claims about some product, please research your facts as well. Because it hurts other readers when they are looking for a genuine data. Specially in this classy crowd among owners of FW900

This will give you some rough estimation about key features among models : Monitor Calibration Solutions Comparison chart

 

[evileye]

This is most intriguing.

Spyder 3 Elite is precisely what I've been using for FW900 and my other working LCD displays. Spyder3 covers everything from CRT to projector.

Both Elite and Pro have no such restrictions. I have no knowledge with usage of their baby line Express, perhaps you are thinking abut this line? But again, I can't confirm this as a fact. And when you make general claims about some product, please research your facts as well. Because it hurts other readers when they are looking for a genuine data. Specially in this classy crowd among owners of FW900

This will give you some rough estimation about key features among models : Monitor Calibration Solutions Comparison chart

I said doesn't work well.

I was speaking towards the accuracy of the meters themselves. All of the spyder3 packages come with the same meter. The Spyder3Express dosen't have ambient detection.

While it may no longer be the case (not sure), the spyder3's were known to have problems with CRTs and Plasmas due to the diffuser being situated permanently in the light path as well as having a static internal LUT. Plasmas were an even bigger problem due to the temperature varience in non-compensated colorimeters (problem seen with most consumer-grade equip).

http://www.argyllcms.com/doc/instruments.html#spyd3
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12487866&postcount=85
http://lists.apple.com/archives/colorsync-users/2009/Mar/msg00183.html

I apologize for not validating my claims - I was simply trying to help and in my haste I guess I came across as an uninformed dolt. Of course these are just anecdotal as I've tried to get different sources (most of my data for my own purchase decisions comes from avsforum and avforums). Not many people run reviews with CRT's nowadays. Regardless, here are some general reviews of the spyder3 meters which may help the user decide:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/spyder3elite.htm
http://pcarena.pl/articles/show/86357/Kalibracja-monitora-i1-Display2-Spyder3-test-kolorymetrow-s-6.html (not in english, but the data is)

Just because a meter reads something doesn't mean it's completely accurate. Because colorimters use inference and equations to determine readings, I encourage anyone looking into buying one for accuracy purposes to research for their specific panel type (CRT/LCD/LED Backlit/Wide gamut/etc).

/thread hijack

 

[ivandurago]

Someone is selling one in Denver on Craigslist for $70.

I contacted him about, we will see how it goes.
I already have one fw900, but would be happy to replace my 24" lcd with another , or maybe eyefinity with fw900s

 

[Bummrus[H]a]

I have 3 of these in a multi-monitor setup. The unfortunate thing that even my friends notice is that each monitor seems to contain its own color profile.

I've had the chance to try everything over the past few years and settled on the sRGB profile for all three with similar brightness/contrast settings. I really have ironed out all the minor tweaks to what feels like perfection for each monitor. Still, their looks are afflicted with different ideas of what white is and more.

I have not looked at where or how to order the windas cable yet. Will that and the Nokia test actually be the ultimate way to calibrate these equally, or is there more to it? I want them to live up to the whole professional imagery thing.

Based on this article and many claims i read elsewhere that the DTP94 was the best consumer level colorimeter, i purchased one off of ebay for less than $100.

You can download the demo for Coloreyes Display Pro and calibrate your 3 FW900's.

My last calibration had a black lvl of 0.01, brightness of 138cd/m2, and an avg DE of 0.48. Gamma was 2.2 and whitepoint ~8700k (just the way i like it). So i'm quite happy with it's performance.

There's one on ebay now for $50!

You'll want to recalibrate your displays every few months or weeks, depending on how sensitive your eyes are. Coloreyes isn't cheap, but saving so much on the colorimeter help offset the cost.

I also use powerstrip to keep the color profile persistent. It doesn't work in all games, but it gets it done most of the time.
-----------
Oops, i forgot about Argyll. It's free and i've read good things about it. Also you can get the GUI dispcal to make using it much easier. I personally havn't tried it out yet, but i think i might soon.

 

[roberta]

Installed new videocard and now monitor doesn't go into standby mode
Older videocard would cause the monitor light to pulsate an orange color keeping the screen "hot"
Now when I switch over systems the screen starts fresh and I have to start warm-up period all over again
Any clues for a work around
Thanks

 

[ZeosPantera]

I have a few tricks I use to calibrate my 2 FW900's I never have them on at the same time but I switch them out every 2 months so as not to leave one in storage for too long. one is missing the anti-glare so matching them would be impossible. Less I remove the damaged AG on the other one.

Get a good photo viewer. I recommend Faststone Maxview. or Faststone viewer.

Here is my Mediafire with calibration stuff..

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=92141eec4831e7feab1eab3e9fa335cae3a4c598efb4f6b4

Grab one of the Faststone Demo's. I think the viewer is freeware.

The Calibration.zip has 50 or so images I use for calibration. (not all of them are for CRT calibration but they are in there anyways.)

Most are self explanatory.

My photobucket samples.

 

[Volken8]

Thanks for quoting me Evileye,

Otherwise, I would have miss seeing how sleepless night might not grant me clarity of reading your actual note

I said doesn't work well.

Precisely the opposite sentiment I was reading by mistake yesterday.

I apologize for not validating my claims - I was simply trying to help and in my haste I guess I came across as an uninformed dolt. Of course these are just anecdotal as I've tried to get different sources...

No need for any apologies. Far from it. In fact I’m glad you provided those links.

Since this topic is hardly dedicated to colorimeter issues and one could always debate certain areas of methodology provided in both superlative and those tests that would criticize Spyder - for one or several issues. My requirement is 2x on monthly basis, while my friend’s is more on weekly basis with Spyder3.

Although not my primary choice, we simply could not resist phenomenal offer we got for complete Spyder3 Studio SR, and I’m very pleased with results. Always consistent and so far, very reliable indeed. Supplied Spyder3Elite may not be everyone’s forte, but for the moment, I have no reason to aspire anything better.

 

[Riddleofsteel]

Is the color balance on these good without calibration? And how hard are they to calibrate?

 

[ZeosPantera]

Is the color balance on these good without calibration?

The color is completely too variable and changing due to age-use too assume the colors will be correct. You can do a check by eye to see if one needs calibration and then decide how you want to calibrate it.
Since I use it for movie watching and gameplay the super accuracy of the colors isn't required. If you plan on doing photo editing or video production work, a separate calibrator or having someone professionally calibrate it would be best.

And how hard are they to calibrate?

I get my jollies from calibrating tv's and monitors. Been doing it for years at costco's and bestbuy and everyone's house I go to and during the superbowl (people hate me). That means I have the patience to calibrate most things myself and this monitor requires 2 hours. I may do a youtube instructional video for the basics if I figure how to record the modifications I make and their result.

 

[LAGRUNAUER]

Had just purchased (what I thought) was an excellent condition FW900 monitor off of ebay, last summer. Now, the monitor develop a sudden problem where it cycles through a "clicking" noise three or four times, when first powered on and never displays an image. I'm sadly now actually considering the Acer 120hz LCD that just came out, since finding someone nearby who still repairs CRTs is difficult and the cost of shipping this thing for repair is cost-prohibitive.

It's too bad; I really enjoyed this display.

If the "clicking noise" is in the power supply and no flashing in the internal circuitry occurs, then most likely you may have a faulty PSU and that is relatively an easy fix, provided you can get a functional PSU in the trade. Buying it from Sony, G-Board Complete, part # 8-933-441-00, provided if they have it in stock it will cost $311.91 plus tax and shipping. I do carry PSUs in stock for less.

Now, if you observe any type of flashing inside the internal circuitry and/or in the tube's neck when the clicking occurs, then you may have a shorted tube. It could be a G2 short (reparable) or a H-K short (non-reparable).

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!

 

[LAGRUNAUER]

Is the color balance on these good without calibration? And how hard are they to calibrate?

SONY HARDWARE CALIBRATION TO FACTORY SPECS:
Sony hardware calibration to factory specs is performed by using WinDAS/WinCAT, and you must have the required instrumentation to perform it correctly. Besides the programs, you will need a high grade professional colorimeter such as Barco or Sencore. We have Sencore CP5000 (Color Pro III and IV), and ColorPro V. Then you'll need a video generator capable of reproducing three backgrounds at an specific dot clock and bandwidth such as QuantumData, Team Systems/Astro, or Sencore VP series (we have all of them). The "prime" resolution of the GDM-FW900 for a white point balance using WinDAS/WinCAT is 1920x1200@85Hz, and three backgrounds must be generated during the process: Pitch Black (IRE 0), White (IRE 100), and IRE 30 (30% gray). In addition to this, a gray scale must be generated as well. The Sony GDM-FW900 has three reference points: D93, D65 and D50. The sRGB reference point is automatically adjusted once the D50 reference point (last in the sequence) is calibrated and adjusted to specs. The specs are listed in the GDM-FW900 maintenance manual, Section 4, page 2.

After the monitor warms up for 120 minutes (A MUST), the process can take 3-4 hours (if you want to do it correctly without cutting corners). That means, letting the colorimeter stand until it reaches full stabilization on each background reading (five per reference point), before going to the next one. In another words, adjusting the monitor to Delta Zero on each reference point spec: D93: -> x = 0.283 and y = 0.298, D65: -> x = 0.313 and y = 0.329; and D50: -> x = 0.346 and y = 0.359; all with Y=8.00, and luminance readings at 115 (D93), 95 (D65) and 85 (D50).

This is not an easy task for anyone who does not understand chromaticity and color gamuts.

If a Sony GDM-FW900 has all reference points off specs (due to bad guns, faulty tube, or corrupted EEPROM -G2 brightness issues/off specs white point balance), then it will become difficult and/or impossible to achieve a decent ICC profile by using any commercial calibration program such as Eye One, Monaco Optix, ColorVision, etc. These instruments and programs only read and reproduce values based on what the unit displays, and if the unit is out of factory specs, then you'll run the risk of reproducing erroneous profiles.

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!

 

[Pixel Eater]

On light, especially white backgrounds, I get a very faint trailing to the right of cursors or icons. Like 3 or 4 after images just sitting there. This is mostly noticeable for still objects, not like it's a motion thing.

Is there anything I can do to fix it?

 

[Bummrus[H]a]

From my experience, that usually happens when you use a faulty or inferior cable. Try replacing it.

 

[haste]

On light, especially white backgrounds, I get a very faint trailing to the right of cursors or icons. Like 3 or 4 after images just sitting there. This is mostly noticeable for still objects, not like it's a motion thing.

Is there anything I can do to fix it?

From my experience, that usually happens when you use a faulty or inferior cable. Try replacing it.

i agree. i have about 5 cables and only one of them works good...

 

[ZeosPantera]

On light, especially white backgrounds, I get a very faint trailing to the right of cursors or icons. Like 3 or 4 after images just sitting there. This is mostly noticeable for still objects, not like it's a motion thing.

Is there anything I can do to fix it?

From my experience, that usually happens when you use a faulty or inferior cable. Try replacing it.

i agree. i have about 5 cables and only one of them works good...

I also had that very bad side ghosting (the wrong use of the term) It happened from the ATI DVI to D-Sub adapter I was using. It happened on 2 of the 5 I had from all the video cards I have collected over the years. I also have a RadioShack adapter and one other HQ one I found in my travels that work flawlessly with my RGBHV and D-Sub inputs.
My advice is collect as many from friends as you can and try them all. One of them will be perfect and you can give the rest back.

 

[EnJoY120]

If anyone still wants one of these, I have one that's been sitting in my basement for years now. Good condition. I'm from Massachusetts, feel free to PM.

 

[ZeosPantera]

Just a heads up.. Here is one on ebay in Houston TX..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-Trinitron-...ZViewItemQQptZTelevisions?hash=item2a0516db94

Starting at $50.. 6 days left..
"Local Pick up preferable. I can help arrange for shipping (email me)"..

 

[grandpatzer]

is it a good idea to buy one of these and have as main screen with a 2405fpw mainly for office work but the occasional gaming?

so: 2x 24" one crt(main) and one tft secondary or maybe 2 tft as secondary so 3screen setup.

 

[dopee123]

is it a good idea to buy one of these and have as main screen with a 2405fpw mainly for office work but the occasional gaming?

so: 2x 24" one crt(main) and one tft secondary or maybe 2 tft as secondary so 3screen setup.

I use a similar setup and it works great. The FW900 is my main monitor, used for gaming @ 1920 x 1200, and the LCD handles the bitch work. So yes, it is a good idea.

Anyone running a 58xx series, Win7 64-bit, with FW900? What can I expect moving from a 8800GTX driver wise? I had to hack the nv drivers, as it would default to the max res 2304 x 1440. Was wondering if the ATI drivers played nicer with the FW900?

 

[PAo_ReVoLT]

I use a similar setup and it works great. The FW900 is my main monitor, used for gaming @ 1920 x 1200, and the LCD handles the bitch work. So yes, it is a good idea.

Anyone running a 58xx series, Win7 64-bit, with FW900? What can I expect moving from a 8800GTX driver wise? I had to hack the nv drivers, as it would default to the max res 2304 x 1440. Was wondering if the ATI drivers played nicer with the FW900?

yes i can max at 2304*1440 w/o any hack simply plug and play but i prefer 1920*1200 @ 85mhz (4870x2 win7 x64)

 

[dopee123]

yes i can max at 2304*1440 w/o any hack simply plug and play but i prefer 1920*1200 @ 85mhz (4870x2 win7 x64)

Thank you! Nvidia has no love for FW900 owners with their new drivers, such a pity.

 

[Rock&Roll]

I use a similar setup and it works great. The FW900 is my main monitor, used for gaming @ 1920 x 1200, and the LCD handles the bitch work. So yes, it is a good idea.

Anyone running a 58xx series, Win7 64-bit, with FW900? What can I expect moving from a 8800GTX driver wise? I had to hack the nv drivers, as it would default to the max res 2304 x 1440. Was wondering if the ATI drivers played nicer with the FW900?

Honestly, the nvidia drivers interaction with the FW900 seem to change with every release. Some releases i can setup custom resolutions and refresh rate easily. Other releases will be more limited. It hasn't gotten so bad yet that I need to hack the EDID. Though I'm suspecting I'll need to hack the EDID sooner than later with newer drivers. I'm currently running the latest WHQL drivers. Sometimes beta's actually work better though.

I can't speak about ATI yet. Maybe in a couple weeks.

 

[PAo_ReVoLT]

btw are you using BNC or VGA?

 

[dopee123]

I am using VGA cables and yes I see that option in the driver settings, however, it does not "stick". If I play any game full screen it will scale to the max FW900 res. See if you have this problem by runing a game full screen and then pressing on the menu button. It will show the res and frequency.

I've been mostly playing games in windowed mode, so I'm able to avoid this issue. Seems like a driver bug unfriendly to the FW900.

 

[PAo_ReVoLT]

I am using VGA cables and yes I see that option in the driver settings, however, it does not "stick". If I play any game full screen it will scale to the max FW900 res. See if you have this problem by runing a game full screen and then pressing on the menu button. It will show the res and frequency.

I've been mostly playing games in windowed mode, so I'm able to avoid this issue. Seems like a driver bug unfriendly to the FW900.

you mean like this?

 

[dopee123]

Does that 2304 x 1440 mean anything to you?

 

[Dada]

Hi everybody
I'm a recent proud owner of an FW900. It's an amazing monitor, and I really like the CRT technology.

Until a while ago I used to hook it on to an older Apple Powerbook with VGA output, which worked fine. Now I'm using a slightly newer PowerBook with DVI output... and I've noticed there's quite a bit of image quality difference. I've tried three different solutions, and none of them seem to provide a crystal clear image.

I'm sorry if this has been asked before but the topic is quite long so I figure I'll ask again, what is the best way to hook up an FW900 when there's only DVI available? Would this work? http://www.computercablestore.com/2_Meter_DVI_A_to_5_BNC_Ca_PID1339.aspx

Thanks for any help, very happy to have found such an active topic on this monitor


EDIT: ps, I'm going to try and see if I can adjust the focus knobs from the outside. I'm quite unskilled so opening it up is out of the question for me. is the inner aluminum layer, the one directly underneath the plastic, safe to touch with a screwdriver or is that a surefire way to put your organs on a skillet? you know... just in case. (sorry for being such a noob!)

 

[Sinizar]

I use a similar setup and it works great. The FW900 is my main monitor, used for gaming @ 1920 x 1200, and the LCD handles the bitch work. So yes, it is a good idea.

Anyone running a 58xx series, Win7 64-bit, with FW900? What can I expect moving from a 8800GTX driver wise? I had to hack the nv drivers, as it would default to the max res 2304 x 1440. Was wondering if the ATI drivers played nicer with the FW900?

You can expect to give up on ATI and look forward to testing nVidia's next DX11 card.

Here is my experience with ATI 5850. I came from an 8800GTS 512MB where everything worked great from DVI to BNC cable. I could get a bunch of resolutions and refresh rates.

I built a new computer with an ATI 5850. ATI 5850 cannot identify a CRT and sets any resolution it gives me to 59Hz or 60Hz for the refresh rate. Absolutely no way to get the DVI to BNC to work under Windows 7 64 bit. So I had to switch to a DVI to VGA which side by side tests the colors look deeper on the BNC cable. With the DVI to VGA cable I have the same issue except I can go into the registry and add in the resolutions and refresh rates to set the registry and allow me to use the resolutions and refresh rates that my monitor supports. I created a batch file to do this because every time you install the ATI drivers you have to add the information to the registry. How to do this is on the ATI forums. If you can't find it let me know and I will send you the information.

Recap, ATI with CRT is terrible. ATI with DVI to BNC will not work. ATI with DVI to VGA works but you have to add the information to the registry.

 

[Riddleofsteel]

Wow, are you serious? Does this happen with all ATI cards?

 

[Sinizar]

Thank you! Nvidia has no love for FW900 owners with their new drivers, such a pity.

ATI 4k series did not have problems.

ATI 5k series does not support crt without a registry hack and you will not be able to use BNC.

 

[Riddleofsteel]

I'll try to find the registy edits, as I'll be dealing with this issue fairly soon. Thanks.

 

[Rock&Roll]

You can expect to give up on ATI and look forward to testing nVidia's next DX11 card.

Here is my experience with ATI 5850. I came from an 8800GTS 512MB where everything worked great from DVI to BNC cable. I could get a bunch of resolutions and refresh rates.

I built a new computer with an ATI 5850. ATI 5850 cannot identify a CRT and sets any resolution it gives me to 59Hz or 60Hz for the refresh rate. Absolutely no way to get the DVI to BNC to work under Windows 7 64 bit. So I had to switch to a DVI to VGA which side by side tests the colors look deeper on the BNC cable. With the DVI to VGA cable I have the same issue except I can go into the registry and add in the resolutions and refresh rates to set the registry and allow me to use the resolutions and refresh rates that my monitor supports. I created a batch file to do this because every time you install the ATI drivers you have to add the information to the registry. How to do this is on the ATI forums. If you can't find it let me know and I will send you the information.

Recap, ATI with CRT is terrible. ATI with DVI to BNC will not work. ATI with DVI to VGA works but you have to add the information to the registry.

Any chance you can post this batch file somewhere? Maybe just copy and paste the code here. I'd like to make hacking my EDID as easy as possible. I will be going ATI soon....