What to think about when shopping for a monitor

The main reason why I would choose for a crt is that it's still better for colors, specially black. The main reasons why the tft is beter for me would be the space, the price (you have to compare the screen size, not the size with the borders), tilting (I mean that you can turn the monitor 90°) and powerconsumption. If you have enough money and space and you don't care about tilting, I would still say that a crt is better for you.
That is until the new generation of oled's arrive. Those have a much higher contrast ratio and will provide black like black should be.

Sir Markus said:

Well I'm so old I fart dust and have cobwebs growing behind my ears, and my CRT Sony Trinitron 21" just died on me after a good 7 year run of almost constant use. I said a prayer that she be given unrestricted access to monitor heaven when I threw her in the dumpster. And I'm going to buy the exact same one as a replacment, I've already found a refurbished one online for less than 200 bucks. No LCD's here.

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Are you joking?
50 bucks sounds more like it. Refurbished, cleaned, tested and with a short warranty. Maybe 100 bucks if it´s really a top notch CRT, but 200 is too much for a used monitor. Especially because most refurbished devices are leasing returns used in big companies. They were running at least 10 hours a day, if there was only one shift, 5-6 days a week for 4-5 years. That´s a lot.

They use about a 3rd of the power of CRTs as well; I've really been meaning to dump my old CRT just for that reason alone.

Your monitor is your window into your computer. It is the key component in your whole computer experience. It is the part that outlive all other components in it and it's the part that will effect your physical health the most (your eyes). I say that whatever you "save" when buying a computer, save nothing on your monitor. Every dollar you can spare on other parts, put them on the monitor.

Gorath said:

Are you joking?
50 bucks sounds more like it. Refurbished, cleaned, tested and with a short warranty. Maybe 100 bucks if it´s really a top notch CRT, but 200 is too much for a used monitor. Especially because most refurbished devices are leasing returns used in big companies. They were running at least 10 hours a day, if there was only one shift, 5-6 days a week for 4-5 years. That´s a lot.

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Well my 21" Sony that was a refurb lasted me a long time and gave me great service. If you know where I can get a decent 21" or 22" crt for 100 bucks, let me know. And I agree with the earlier post; I think the colors are WAY better and the picture is sharper. It's just my personal preference. My old monitor was refurbished by Sony (there was a certificate in the box and it had the full 'like new' warranty), so I think that's important to make sure the refurbish work is done by the manufacturer and not some local shop.

Corwin said:

I have several LCD's and NONE of them are fuzzy!!

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It's just my preference; I think there are HUGE differences in image quality comparing LCD's and CRT's. And to my tastes, the image quality with CRT's just look better. I'm sure I'll be dragged kicking and screaming into the LCD era, but I'm just not ready because I just don't like the image quality from the ones I've seen.

Sir Markus said:

Well my 21" Sony that was a refurb lasted me a long time and gave me great service. If you know where I can get a decent 21" or 22" crt for 100 bucks, let me know. And I agree with the earlier post; I think the colors are WAY better and the picture is sharper. It's just my personal preference. My old monitor was refurbished by Sony (there was a certificate in the box and it had the full 'like new' warranty), so I think that's important to make sure the refurbish work is done by the manufacturer and not some local shop.

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I´ve just checked it again. 50 EUR is indeed the eBay price in Germany for a good 20"+ CRT with warranty. Major brand of course or at least one of the big OEMs like Dell or HP, which often sell rebranded Sony or Samsung. Belinea or Acer are cheaper.
Nobody here wants to buy CRTs anymore because TFTs are easier on the eyes.

I'm at least partially with Sir Markus (although $200 is way too much for a refurb CRT!). I'm about to phase out my desktop altogether in favour of a new laptop but my desktop has used a Sony Trinitron dual-monitor setup for years and I still love it.

Ultimately, I guess it's the resolution freedom I love but the colour and image quality are fantastic, as well. Whenever I play an older 2D game, even 640x480 still looks pretty good, which I can't say for a TFT.

There's also the delay in TFT screens, and I'm not talking about the "response time" here (those say practically nothing about anything). Try plugging a CRT and a TFT to the same computer and play a fast game like Quake 3 - the TFT is quite a bit slower, especially at a non-native resolution.

I have to agree with Sir Markus. I already had a TFT screen once. After two weeks I got rid of it and bought a new 19" CRT. Never again TFT's for me thats for sure.

I had a Sony 19" and a 17" NEC in dual monitor setup, both were great for several years but aged miserably. The NEC began to produce random lines, the Sony got way too bright and lost contrast. Still, I held out as long as possible. Originally, I didn't want a TFT because of the steep price and general inadequacy for games.

But really, they have matured a bit since then. Eventually I replaced those two monitors with a single Samsung SyncMaster 245B (24" widescreen, pretty good TN panel) for only about € 380,-. It was a revelation. I can still have two applications open next to each other, the monitor obviously uses a lot less space than the two before, changes resolutions quickly, everything is sharp etc.

Clinging to CRTs nowadays seems to me like clinging to Win98 when there was already WinXP available for over a year. It may have been justified some time ago, but honestly, I don't see a reason to hold out on TFTs anymore. Any disadvantage is far outweighed by the advantages.

I currently have a TFT and I HATE IT!!!! I am planning an buying a new 19" wide LCD

I will never buy a TFT AGAIN... my eyes hurt alot from it damn!