19" CRT or 17" TFT?

afterskoul

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Feb 22, 2003
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Hi all , i am trying to decide which one to buy :
A 17" TFT monitor or a 19" CRT monitor ?
I have been asking this question for about a long time and different people give me different answers .
I spend a lot of hours in front of my monitor only for two things : programming and movies .
People buy TFT monitors because they are trendy or because they are much better in comparison to CRT monitors ??
Can 19" monitors harm your eyes after 4 of 5 hours of continious work in front of them , or it is just the refresh rate that matters (and not the size ) ??
I own a 15" CRT monitor .

(sorry for my English )
 
Fact of the matter is ANY monitor will cause eyestrain when used for prolonged periods. There are several reasons for this- too high a contrast, too high brightness, low refresh rate so flicker is noticeable, and simply the fact that your eyes stare at a midrange object for a long time (and some people don't blink as often), and fuzinnes of text. Let's look at what an LCD releives of these factors:
LCD's have very high brightness (compare 100cd/m^2 of crt vs 230 or more cd/m^2 brightness of, while the optimal comfort level for the eye is 40)- so in this case it may (and quite possibly as I have found) be worse for your eyes. Also that regardless of how low you set the light and if u use a lot of dark colors on your desktop, there is plenty of light leakage from lcd b/c crystals cannot totally block the light.
Contrast- lcd's have ok contrast, that's not a big concern anyways unless u have a glaring bright image and then a totally black thing next to it
No refresh rate- that's good
Your eyes still are looking at a midrange object and u may not blink as often
Text on CRT can be fuzzy if it's a bad crt, lcd's have very very sharp text if you run at native res
Some people buy into the radiation myth, but actually a crt emits as much radiations as is around you when you are outside, so it's fine
That said, I too do a bunch of programming, gaming, movie watching, and other things, and one of the main reasons I have don't prefer lcd's is that their white is so bright! CRT is much much softer, so when I program my eyes don't hurt (I stay sometimes like 10 hours in front of the comp and my eyes feel fine afterwards). Also, if u take breaks every now and then you'll alleviate eyestrain quite a bit.
IMHO, a CRT might be better suited for your purposes.

Hilbert space is a big place.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by flamethrower205 on 02/22/03 03:33 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
Thank you very much flamethrower205 !!
Msot of the people i have asked told be to buy a CRT but after 1 year or 2 CRT's will vanish and then i will start thinking that i had been such an idiot buying a CRT and not a TFT !!

Thanks anyway , I will rather go for the CRT ...
 
1-2 years is a short time, and I doubt they will disappear, many pros will still need the accuracy in moving objects (compare even 16ms response time to several nanoseconds!).

Hilbert space is a big place.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by flamethrower205 on 02/23/03 02:09 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
if you go to lan parties get the lcd, if not then the 19in crt has far better image quality...and its BIGGER!


In battle Israel uses F-16's and big ass tanks, Palestine uses small children strapped to bombs. Which do you support?
 
Actually the useable display area on a 19" CRT isn't much bigger than on the 17" LCD display.

Frankly unless you are doing a lot of high frame rate gaming, the LCD monitor will probably be the better choice. Because of it's design you no longer have issues of focus, convergence or colour purity to worry about and LCDs are far less subject to interference from magnetic fields.



<b>(</b>It ain't better if it don't work.<b>)</b>
 
it depends on the monitor but 19in (usually 18" tho) is bigger than 17in (usually 16in) and as for image quality, a good crt beats the [-peep-] out of an lcd. Unless he wants to pay 500+ dollars for a good lcd gaming is almost out of the question due to lcd's refresh rates. Unless you move the computer around often go with a crt, colors come through truer resolutions are more flexible and refresh rates are good for watching movies and gaming. CRT's are cheaper as well

In battle Israel uses F-16's and big ass tanks, Palestine uses small children strapped to bombs. Which do you support?
 
Ummmm... PapaSmurf... you should check the measurements again. On most LCDs the size is the actual viewing area.. i.e. a 17" LCD is 17" viewable.



<b>(</b>It ain't better if it don't work.<b>)</b>
 
on SOME it is that way. I find that it is best to be pessimistic however.

In battle Israel uses F-16's and big ass tanks, Palestine uses small children strapped to bombs. Which do you support?
 
Consider also what resolution you want to use. I use 1280×1024 on my 17" CRT monitors and 1600×1200 on my 19" CRT monitor. Your 17" LCD is only going to do 1280×1024 so to my mind you should compare a 17"CRT and 17"LCD monitor. Even most 19" LCD screens won't do 1600×1200 and those that do are going to be at least twice as expensive a top of the range CRT such as the Iiyama VM Pro 454 or an LG 915FT.

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