Dell P1130 CRT Review

A Sony Trinitron in disguise! Here I "review" a CRT from 2003.
Hardforum Sony FW900 thread:
hardforum.com/...
spacediver's WPB Guide:
hardforum.com/...
Convergence guide:
hardforum.com/...

[@NoobixCube]

Man, LCDs were a mistake. A stopgap technology giving people what they thought they wanted. I remember my first LCD, in 2008, was such a disappointment.

[@theaverageblitzer4351]

Ah you see people would rather have a monitor that doesn't weigh 60lb and take up half a desk also find me a 500hz CRT

[@leothehuman_9476]

@@theaverageblitzer4351 the maximum refresh rate that a normal person would use is 240, and there are many CRTs going easily up to 180hz which is still more than enough for the most competitive gamer. And by the way they're 20 years old monitors that weren't even intended for extreme esports gaming. If a CRT would be made today for gamers, it would easily reach 500hz. Also, CRTs even with lower refresh rate are still better for gamers than 240hz LCDs because they have 0 latency and handle motion much better: your "but they can't do 500hz so they're useless 🤓🤓😭😭😭" argument makes no sense because the benefits of a CRT are still better for gamers, a 180hz CRT is much better than a 500hz LCD for gaming.

[@theaverageblitzer4351]

@LeoTheHuman_ there would be zero input delay if any modern gpu didn't have to go through a digital to analog converter and CRTs can consume like 200-400w of power compared to like 65w for an LCD or OLED also 240hz oled looks better when it comes to blacks and color depth overall the only way a CRT can match those refresh rates is by dropping below 1024x768 which is unacceptable the only advantage CRTs have is res scaling

[@leothehuman_9476]

@@theaverageblitzer4351 Well, with a non-VGA GPU I wouldn't buy a CRT to use it with an adapter and get so much latency, but for any older hardware I would definetly get one. CRTs don't consume over 200w at worst, they're still mostly under 100w. In color depth and especially blacks, CRTs are much better: I just watched a lot of comparsions, you should go watch some because here CRTs are clear winners and close seconds only to OLEDs. Also no, only on a low end monitor you'd need to drop down the resolution to sub-720 for a high refresh rate, and well on a over 1440p resolution most modern games won't even run at such high framerates anyways. And even sub-720p resolutions on a CRT mostly look better than +1080p on a LCD.

[@Warp3326]

the montor just goes back far, most peoples desk have room@@theaverageblitzer4351

[@artyte_b]

“I love crt”. Words I haven’t heard since watching steins gate.

[@DwAboutItManFr]

What you mean?

[@EllRiver]

@@DwAboutItManFr its an anime, the charachters work out of a room above a CRT store and repair shop in 2011. Infact CRT's are the secret to make time travel possible.

[@DwAboutItManFr]

@@EllRiver How?

[@EllRiver]

@@DwAboutItManFr So it was a little complicated but effectively the data was being compressed by the massive vacuum tubes and sent through a connection that was accidently connected to Cerns super colider which happend to be a time machine of sorts. With phone controlled microwave being the control mechanism. This was all an accident but the core concept is what invents time travel.

[@Vary180]

xD

[@blackstealth8168]

this is one of the best videos I have watched that discusses the pros and cons between cathode ray tubes and flat panel displays

[@WaffleCake]

It's by far the best I've seen.

[@MattPilz]

I purchased one of these new in 2003-2004 for $100 with shipping. Loved it dearly and it made me postpone switching to LCD until at least 2009-10! I never knew the obscurity or true power of it (one of the highest end consumer CRTs) and wound up giving it to a scrapyard after a few issues that likely could've been remedied with a couple cap replacements. I have missed it ever since.

[@Isaax]

That's heart wrenching to hear...!

[@warrax111]

i still using one from 2005, samsung syncmaster. truly highend trinitron monitor. got it for $10, when people got mad from LCD, and was trowing out these massive space eaters in quantities. If I would know, and have more room, I would take at least 10 of them.

[@casedistorted]

Do you remember the type of CRT you had?

[@handykawara6440]

wow, such a quality in-depth review and tutorial, it answered the pvm hyped broadcast monitors demand for retro all in one gaming crt monitor. you saved me from buying that expensive crt and opted to med quality average consumer PC monitors, for such having capability of that pvm with more affordable price. sir, you deserved a sub!

[@Lady_Zenith]

What a nice screen. I used to have one myself, it unfortunately died few years ago, after 15+ years of service. Unfortunately in my case the CRT itself died, it developed internal short and the power from the green gun started to leak in to the red one. As a result, over time I had to tone up the green and town down the red to keep the image color balanced, right before death I had green at 100%, blue about 70% gain and red at 20%. It also started to suffer from the common issue of being "too bright before warm-up", and in last years in those bright periods it started to have red flashes which sometimes resulted by the power supply's self shutdown. I have measured the voltages and they were all fine, all guns were powered equally, so the issue was in the CRT itself. Well, thankfully for it to die it took years so it was not a "sudden surprise". By death I mark the point the red flashes became constant and did not go away after warmup. I have other CRTs of almost equal quality tho, my daily used one is IBM P260. Nice and very bright, high contrast and gamut, but it has developed a flaw of the screen being too bright (and even more so before warmup), so I had to dig in and add manual potentiometers to control the brightness. After this fix it keeps working fine and ironically "thanks" to it I can drive it very hard to the point I sometimes have to lower the contrast. Other two are NEC FE1250+, two units, one stored as backup one used. The one being used has also developed a flaw, before warmup the image can be horizontally a bit shorter, by about 0,5cm on each side, it stretches slowly as it warms up. I consider this not a serious issue, probably just a capacitor, this screen is noticeably sharper than the IBM P260 at high resolutions, but less bright. Overall, they are all veterans that are starting to show old age, but as long as the CRT is fine, everything else can be repaired. Iv so far had to retire 2 CRTs, the Dell, and IBM P200, which was my first high-end model, and I ran that thing to the ground, I ran so many hours on it that the CRT gun became tired over the years and lost most of its contrast/brightness, but otherwise it still worked fine. That thing was a trooper.

[@ktosnieznany616]

I have P1130 with identicial problem as yours. It's too bright on start, and it has flicker red color at turn on. I think it's going to die.

[@KokoroKatsura]

a n i m e n i m e

[@swagmastergreen1074]

Thank you for this beautiful comment sir

[@casedistorted]

dang, you seem to know a lot about CRT's and keeping them running over the years. I wish I had your knowledge as I just picked up an RCA TruFlat TV, a Toshiba 20FA44 I believe, and a 32 inch Sony Trinitron KV-32FS210 which is a 160 pound beast.

[@Pentium100MHz]

I have a P1130, used it for a while, then got a FW900 (which I use as my main monitor). The P1130 has an intermittent short in the tube which I think I managed to almost-fix (it still sometimes happens but only briefly and only when the tube is cold, there is no reasonable way to fix that unless it gets worse). Then did the white point calibration and it looks nice now. It is not as bright as the FW900, but I do not need that much light (some LCDs are a bit too bright for me even at the lowest setting). So, now I have a working P1130 and some skills in repairing CRTs. I still hope to find a FW900 to keep as a spare though. It's a shame CRT monitors are not made anymore.

[@hunterleach5710]

I'm a 15 year old that loves CRT TVs and I think they look cooler and more high-definition in my perspective than the LCD screens.

[@bigben9056]

its very bad for your Eyes,but lcd sucks balls.

[@Par_x3D]

based

[@badreality2]

Technically, the Dreamcast VGA signal is an improperly coded 720x480 signal, not 640x480.

[@TripleMoonPanda]

Shadow mask CRT monitors made in the late 90s and early 2000s really did catch up to Trinitrons when it came to dot pitch (also brightness). These P1130 have a horizontal dot pitch of .24 mm. I actually own a ViewSonic A90-2 shadow mask with a horizontal dot pitch of .22mm. I also had a Dell trinitron 1000hs and the Viewsonic was noticeably much sharper and brighter then the Trinitron to the degree that I replaced my Trinitron with it and gave the Dell to my buddy to enjoy. Shadow mask viewsonics from that time really were something special I recommend keeping an eye out for one and grabbing it if you ever come across one.

[@ApertureGrille]

Your post on reddit is one of the first results to pop up when searching for the ViewSonic A90-2! Looking at your videos, driving games like Forza really demonstrate how CRTs blow away LCDs in terms of motion clarity.

[@TripleMoonPanda]

@@ApertureGrille Thanks lol I didn't know my posts would pop up on that. And yeah I've been meaning to make more videos I'm just currently trying to get a better setup. I'm still using my phone to record and I just got a tripod for it the other day. I just wanna show off how good some games look on CRTs. Not every game looks amazing but a lot do and if you are after the best quality the black levels, motion clarity, softness they have really can make a nice difference.

[@ManOfAttitudeLP1998]

Diamontron is also an aperture grille I guess

[@casedistorted]

I know this was 4 years ago but maybe I will find a viewsonic shadow mask one of these days. I have a 32 inch sony trinitron i picked up off the curb and its a huge TV, but I love the CRT monitors the most because they remind me of the old days playing games with my dad

[@darksoulzfreak]

For emulating 224/240p 60FPS games on a VGA CRT monitor, I recommend using Retroarch at 224/240p@120Hz with black frame insertion. It's just about as sharp as a 15kHz PVM.

[@ItsPyrus]

1440p with a filter is much nicer

[@ManOfAttitudeLP1998]

@@ItsPyrus panics go back to reddit

[@Vary180]

what is PVM?

[@darksoulzfreak]

Professional Video Monitor, which is Sony's brand of professional grade 15kHz CRT monitors. The grille pitch, which is the distance between two phosphor bars of the same color, and the beam spot size are very fine on PVMs, which is what makes them professional grade.

[@Vary180]

@@darksoulzfreak thanks

[@RathOX]

CRT is god tier

[@kaisyaya8492]

story time: back in 2005 i bought a dell dimension and the retailer was literally begging me to get a flat 17" screen over the 19" crt that i wanted and offered me a discount of nearly 150$ on a digital camera (big deal lol) and i said no because i hated how lcd screen looks on laptops back then, since 2010 the whole pc was sitting in the closet with a bunch of useless things because it was so heavy to carry it to my place, until a saw the Digital Foundry video, i was so happy that the monitor was still there nearly intact.

[@simonRTJ]

the sharpens contrast ratio is overrated, natural "bloom" is an attractive image trait, and cinematographers try their best to encourage it. to much contrast ratio can look digital or in a movie, look like a soap opera, falling for the tech specs of technology can actually blind ones aesthetic until its too late and that aesthetic is sort of lost. great video.

[@targetrender9529]

This is the the BEST CRT explanation video on KZbin. This guy tells you everything. Excellent job. I’m looking for one of these crt monitors now.

[@ApertureGrille]

Thank you! Sometimes you can find them on craigslist by searching for "dell monitor" instead of CRT. But I think most people now know what they have. Good luck!

[@Azoic101]

Awesome video,you went into great detail and cool how you got native scanlines. I just got a Dell E773c for free off craigslist,got my pi running on it with a hdmi to vga,have it outputting 240p at 120hz

[@ApertureGrille]

Nice! Free really is the best price for a monitor!

[@zuubu]

Is it any good? What have you been using it for?

[@44htp5]

Such in-depth reviews, you could potentially become main KZbin monitor reviewers. You can potentially purchase monitors review them and return for the beginning. I really wish you could review LG 27GL850-B

[@ApertureGrille]

Thank you. It's tough when you first start out... no one is sending me monitors to review! I don't mind purchasing, but I really need to choose carefully to make sure I'm not reviewing stuff that's already been done. I don't really want to take advantage of returns, but I can probably sell the monitors after I've finished the reviews to make some of my money back. I have plans, but it may be several weeks before I get a new video up.

[@TripleMoonPanda]

@@ApertureGrille I actually have a monitor that it seems no one has done a real indepth review of, and it's cheap. Check out the Lenovo l24q-20 it's a 23.8" 1440p 60hz ips display that you can get from bestbuy for $160 honestly for the price I think it's a rather good monitor but I don't have the proper equipment to really see how good it is. Could be an interesting video.

[@x256h]

Overclock it to 160hz interlaced 1920x1440i with CRU

[@usonianassembly3962]

p1130s dont accept interlace for some reason

[@ManOfAttitudeLP1998]

@@usonianassembly3962 Yes mine doesn't like it somehow

[@jasonatkins1467]

Nice vid. Found it while looking for specs to post for one I am selling. You're right! CRTS ROCK! So does PLASMA for that matter. Imagine how far along Plasma would be if Panasonic never gave up on it?

[@Slamy4096]

I've watched the whole video and I also love CRTs. But at 14:22 I've felt a need to defend TFT manufacturers. ULMB monitors like the ASUS PG279Q that I currently use, love (brightness and resolution) and hate (motion blur and contrast) allows the usage of a 60 Hz ULMB mode via the CRU utility (for Windows at least, on Linux via custom Modeline). You need to select the 85 Hz mode as base and increase the vertical total size until you get 60 Hz. The monitor will take it and it works fine with 60Hz locked games like Freedom Planet. But you still get Strobing Crosstalk as the IPS response time is not fast enough. Now here is the issue. This just can't be integrated in the product itself as people with epilepsy might get a seizure. I use a Siemens MCM 1706 17" CRT next to my Asus for Retro gaming purposes and the 60 Hz of that monitor is not nearly as harsh on the eye as the 60 Hz strobing of the TFT. I can't really say why that is but my assumption is the time it takes for the phosphor to stop glowing. And I guess is that Asus wanted to avoid being taken to the court for health issues. 85 Hz already flickers noticeably on this monitor. Also at this position you say that the TV you use is capable of doing it at 60 Hz. But has it a strobing or a scanning backlight? Scanning backlight monitors seem to be very rare. OLEDs are now also using this technique by simulating a rolling shutter by incorporating the fast pixel response times. So I'm quite looking forward for the first OLED monitors if they will eventually arrive. They finally might be on par to CRT motion performances.... hopefully.... O.o

[@ApertureGrille]

Ooh, I didn't know about that 85 Hz trick. I just tried with both the VG27AQ and the VG279QM, but I can't get it to work. With CRU, are you increasing the vertical total to match the horizontal frequency in kHz with the 85 Hz mode? The TV I showed, the Samsung UN40KU6300, legitimately strobes the entire backlight at 60 Hz. It's a VA, and one of the slowest I've ever seen, so the end result looks quite bad, but they offer the option. A full blast strobe at 60 Hz is hard to look at when dealing with bright scenes, but it's tolerable for most video game scenes. CRTs at 60 Hz would sit well with more people because they have a rolling scan, like you mentioned. That keeps at least some part of the screen lit during the entire frame time, so it's less stressful on your eyes/brain.

[@Slamy4096]

​@@ApertureGrille The VG27AQ and VG279QM both use ELMB as Blur Reduction technique. I don't know if ELMB allows this hack. I'm also not sure if it has something to do with the horizontal frequency which makes this work and I currently don't have access to Windows. But I can send you some Linux Modelines which I have derived afterwards from my CRU settings and just tested to check if they still work. And it still is an issue for my eyes. During gameplay it's not as bad as on the desktop though. ULMB 85 Hz Modeline: "2560x1440" 346.50 2560 2608 2640 2720 1440 1443 1448 1499 +hsync -vsync ULMB 60 Hz Modeline: "2560x1440" 346.50 2560 2608 2640 2720 1440 1443 1448 2123 +hsync -vsync Both Video timings are exactly the same if it wasn't for the last number, which is the total vertical size in pixels that leads to the reduction of the frame rate. Sadly the strobing phase seems to be unchanged by doing so. So the Strobe Cross Talk remains. ULMB TN monitors are quite better at this but well... they have other problems. My TV is a Sony KDL-55W828B and also supports backlight strobing at 60 Hz. They call it MotionFlow Impulse. But the picture gets very dim and the mode doesn't support 50 Hz Input. You can mod most of the old gaming consoles to 60 Hz but the dim picture still makes it unusable.

[@ariathyf144]

I have one CRT to give in France. Diamontron 22' from Mitsubishi, fully working, no glass scratch, refresh rates up to 160hz in the lower res. You can check some of my fps gameplay using it.

[@channel-zz8kk]

Every Quake player will remember the pain of trying an LCD display as a replacement for their CRT. Amazing video, but depressing to realize that we are still behind 20 year old technology with respect to motion clarity. LCD strobing has a long way to go, and strobed high refresh rate displays still suffer from awful general picture quality (black levels, colors, backlight bleed, vignetting).

[@RBimas37]

Got myself a Dell P1130 CRT and HP P1230 Today and found your video. What sort of GPU should I ideally test it on? Something like a gtx 980? (I got a VGA-DVI cable)

[@Wobble2007]

Any GPU in now possible to use with native VGA thanks to USB-C display port alternative mode, you can get RTX cards with USB-C that are display alternate capable and simply run a passive USB-C to VGA cable to you monitor, it can in theory max out any CRT monitors refresh and resolution capabilities, 2048x1556 @ 85Hz for instance is no problem, if you don't or can't have an RTX card then a GTX970/980/980Ti are all fantastic, still very capable cards with nice 400Mhz VGA RAMDAC, if only there was a GPU with a native 5XBNC input to run my Sony GPD-5002PT9, 5BNC2VGA is fine but BNC2BNC would be better I bet, actually 5XBNC2DVI-A might be worth looking into, the BNC usually allows for a slight boost in res and refresh, plus it's supposed to give a slight edge IQ wise, could probably only tell side by side though tbh.

[@Sco1t19]

it's funny you say crts are hot. I have a 80s 28 inch crt that uses 60w of power that is less than my dads 40 inch sony lcd at 180w and that lcd is alot hotter. so the crt is using less per inch :)

[@json9865]

Those CRT's are better than the monitor I'm using right now. 😢

[@olivermood8003]

Go on eBay marketplace and have a sniff mate, you can get a bargain if you are quick enough and patient, otherwise go on eBay and you will also find something on therem although bargains are increasingly hard to find, I noticed the USA especially has a good stock of decent CRT's available, can't go wrong with a nice 17"+ Viewsonic, or a Dell which are often rebranded Sony Trinnys.

[@Oliveris5D]

Your cadence reminds me of Christian Bale in American Psycho (Enjoying the crt vids)

[@willis936]

Great video. I just saved two P1130 from the trash yesterday. My old 19” trinitron had a blow driver IC a few years back so I ditched it. Afaict the P1130 is a 4:3 version of the FW 900 with a dot pitch that is 0.24 mm rather than 0.23 and fewer input options. The FW900 is the Cadillac but this puppy’s the Lincoln. I didn’t realize how nice a find these monitors were.

[@NicheAsQuiche]

If something in CRT blows they're easy enough to fix it you know how to be safe. you don't have to throw it out, big waste

[@willis936]

@@NicheAsQuiche Yeah man let me just go out and find a replacement FBT or driver IC that stopped being made decades ago. Unlike you I actually know how to fix CRTs and do it. Not all can be saved. Fuck off.

[@idkrossplay]

10:55 why not just interlace? Youre using native analog out and even my 19" can do 1600x1200i 140hz and that's around 103khz

[@jskilabe5986]

Nvidia sucks at interlacing, you can do it but it's a process to get it working, you also have to do that process every time a fullscreen application shows up and everytime you boot up windows. It's a temporary solution that becomes a pain to deal with on the daily AMD is just plug and play, create the resolution then set it. and it always works. even when you restart your pc. it boots up into your interlaced resolution no problem.

[@idkrossplay]

@@jskilabe5986 I'm using an Nvidia gpu

[@jskilabe5986]

@@idkrossplay so do you know a simpler way of getting interlacing working?

[@idkrossplay]

@@jskilabe5986 yes go into CRU and use their interlacing features, not the ones built into Nvidia control panel

[@MM-cx2lw]

I remember needing deskspace and therefore traded my Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070SB asap for a 19 inch iiyama LCD......i was an idiot. If you could f8nd this monitor it was worth a review. Awesome CRT if not the best in my opinion.

[@Coldmustard899]

M M rip

[@AM-mk3zc]

@@Coldmustard899 ahahahahah yes stupid decision

[@Frolsa84]

That's like one of the most desired monitors these days, in the rank of a GDM-F520, Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454, FW900 or LaCie Electron Blue IV (which is a rebrand of the 2070SB if I'm not mistaken), as well as latter Mitsubishi models. Also, I'm probably forgetting one of the Nokia monitors which could also do pretty high horizontal frequencies.

[@adamplechaty]

@@Frolsa84 what's so special about the Iiyama 454? I own it but replaced it with 21 Dell P1110 instead.

[@Frolsa84]

@@adamplechaty Aww, my bad, I meant the Iiyama Vision Master Pro 514, because it's the highest specced CRT monitor out there (the 454 is the highest specced 19" monitor). Looking back at my comments, I got a W900 (FW900's older brother, one of only 5 CRT models that are widescreen and can do 1080p) and a 514 and could've gotten an F520, a Lacie IV (and III) and a 2070SB...

[@konchy]

Is this monitor suitable for modern FPS games such as Rainbow Six Siege where an enemy can be peeking from minute pixel holes? Are CRT monitors clear enough at that 1440 x 1080 resolution? Thanks

[@ManOfAttitudeLP1998]

Yes

[@AnimeGamer]

Now this is cool, I stumbled on your video, I own Monitor 2002-40! just 8 away from each other!!! PLEASE Tell me you still have the Driver file!! I lost my file!!

[@ApertureGrille]

Nice name, btw! Those numbers should be Year/Week, so if you've got 2002-40, it would have been made some time in October. You probably don't need any sort of driver for these CRTs. Most of the information is contained in the EDID, which Windows will automatically pull when you plug the monitor in. But you can really adjust whatever settings you need in CRU.

[@goblinphreak2132]

OLED utilizing Black Frame Insertion gets close to the CRT motion blur quality.... I'm desperate for an OLED gaming monitor which comes with a BFI option in the firmware.... because its turning the pixels off aka black. which is similar to how a CRT "pixel" fades to black nearly instantly after being drawn.

[@goblinphreak2132]

also, kinda makes you think that if we get LCD monitors fast enough, you could run the pixel refresh like a CRT where only a small line going down the screen, thus having native black frame insertion with no need for extra hardware/software to get it going.

[@nathanddrews]

This video looks great on my GDM-C520K. Nicely done.

[@mistamontiel00]

The big selling points of CRTs were flatscreens eeeh I don't know I like curved glass maybe more o.0

[@sebmeister67]

dude i'm literally buying this monitor, will get it next monday do you have some recommended settings for best color, best resolution, etc ? cheers from romania

[@ApertureGrille]

How did you even find one for sale? As I said in the video, there's a bit of work involved in getting a CRT to looks its best. Check out the links in the description to HardForum. spacediver's guide is what you'll want to follow.

[@sebmeister67]

@@ApertureGrille idk, i just looked it up online and found a guy who had a site running since 2006 and called him, he picked up, said he has some old p1130 in his garage and i'm meeting up with him this monday in bucharest We settled the price for 90 dollars Great review btw

[@SSketchii]

@@sebmeister67 how'd it go

[@sebmeister67]

@@SSketchii i got the monitor Took me an embarassing time to figure out the geometry settings lol Also can't figure out the colors on expert mode since the monitor doesnt have a chroma adjustment or a blue only setting so i keep it with preset colors All i have to say is that it's better than my previous tn panel asus vx238h when it comes to gaming and colors Its a different experience with a crt, at night it feels like a campfire experience, its warm and soothing Not as bright tho and during the day i have to keep the blinds on cause light significantly dims the screen Overall id give the tn a 6.5/10 and the crt 8.5/10

[@yousnoerd]

Great video! I bought a p1130 in 2009 for 20 euros. Used it daily since then, for like 6-16 hours a day and is still going strong! (although it does need to warm up for a couple minutes while I make breakfast) I ran it at the standard 1280x1024 85 hz. I recently changed it to 1280x1024 100 hz. Cant see a real difference, but it might be slightly better) Difference with 60 hz and 85 hz is gigantic. 60 hz seems like a stroboscope. I see you run it at 1340x1005 @120hz? Can you explain why you think thats better? And might 120 hz make the monitor last less long? When I put it on 1280x1024 120 hz it went black on me.. Maybe you can even give me some tips on how to maintain the p1130? When I start it up now, it goes green and then pops into some sort of a lightbulb shaped halo until its warmed up.. sometimes (especially in winter when its colder in my house) It seems that some protection kicks in and it switches itself off during warm up. I have to take out the powercable and wait till the light stops blinking and then quickly put it back in to continue the warm up. Sometimes I had to do this 4 or 5 times. But it has been doing that for like 5 years lol, it still isnt dead, and the colors still seem fine. Is there any (preferably free and simple) software you would advise for calibrating it? I have been trying some simple monitortests and its looking fine, but I dont think its as great as it can be yet. Thanks in advance, greetings from The Netherlands!

[@Frolsa84]

That's a 5:4 aspect ratio and you might have geometry problems with it, you're better running it in 4:3 resolutions like 960p (1280*960) or 1200p (1600*1200). The 1340x1005 is probably a 4:3 resolution. I think it's probably optimal to run it in 1600*1200@85Hz from what I've read. That sounds like a cold solder joint or something. If it was made after a certain time period (like 2002-), it might not develop the G2 voltage fault that many Sony monitors have, so it might not REQUIRE calibrating. But I doubt you can calibrate it without special tools. I personally have a X-Rite i1 Display Pro I got for 50 euros unused, but these usually go for much higher.

[@Wobble2007]

A lot of people don't seem to realize if your CRT is emitting a high pitch noise, which it shouldn't do, it's because of the power supply it's plugged into, it is similar to the background noise you get on a sound system, interference as well as just a dirty power grid can cause this. All you need is a power strip with a filter, as well as ideally a kettle lead for your CRTs that also has filtering, not only will it get rid of any high-pitched noise it will give you a cleaner, flicker free image. Your audio quality will be much better too.

[@DragonProtector]

I wish i knew this.

[@AJ-po6up]

Thanks, this is some good info to know. I don't know how to get a cable with filtering but a power strip is easy enough to get.

[@darksoulzfreak]

RGB Phosphor triads are not physical pixels; they are just there to provide color, they are not the building blocks of the digital image. A monochrome CRT lacks RGB phosphors, but the image is still made up of logical pixels in the GPU's frame buffer.

[@Marc_Wolfe]

I'd love to see more CRT reviews. Specifically the models you'd expect offices to dump in bulk. Personally if I could find one that can do 1280x1024 90Hz and do it well, for dirt cheap/free, that'd be great.

[@JohnSmith-qn3ob]

Do you have an xbox 360? I'd love to see some games on one of those Dells with the VGA cable.

[@JohnSmith-qn3ob]

I'll take that as a "no"

[@Wobble2007]

@@JohnSmith-qn3ob The Xbox 360 looks incredible on an HD CRT monitor, for starters you have backwards compatibility to run OG Xbox games, and they of course look amazing and at their best given they were made for the CRT era, then you have tons of fantastic XBLA games, like Geometry Wars, PAC Man Championship Edition, Splosion Man, Trials HD, Castle Crashers, Banjo Kazooie & Tooie, Comic Jumper (and I could go on and on listing the tons of brilliant XBLA titles, man I miss XBLA :(), they all look at their absolute best on a good CRT. And lastly there is the main 360 games, don't get me wrong the 360 can look great on a decent LED, but it still looks and plays best on a CRT monitor through VGA, Alan Wake looks so damn good on an HD CRT, as does the Gears games, the Halo MC collection, Dead Rising and so on. Another amazing thing to do with your 360 hooked up to a CRT is installing CoinOps on it, giving access to all the retro consoles that also look their absolute best on a CRT and look as they were intended with some nice juicy scanlines.

[@Frolsa84]

@@Wobble2007 You can mod the original Xbox (that has a modchip, needs to be flashed with a special BIOS) to be compatible with Sync on Green and connect it to a CRT monitor via component cables. The monitor needs to be compatible with Sync on Green (usually Sony monitors, as they were big proponents of SoG, but other companies had monitors that supported SoG as well, usually higher-end models, my LGF900P supports it for example, and that's a slot mask monitor). Much better compatibility that way (basically every OG Xbox game has some problems on the 360 if it even works). There are some games that even support 720p or 1080i. You can do this with the PS2 as well (doesn't need to be flashed, but many games need to be forced in 480p, 720p or 1080i - not all games support 480p, let alone higher resolutions and some games will not have a proper resolution because the internal resolution of PS2 games varied). For GameCube and Wii games, you can just use the Wii U and an HDMI to VGA adapter (one without black crush). You can just use Retroarch on a PC and run games at 2560*240 @ 120 Hz with BFI (not all monitors can get bright enough to look good with this) or at 480p @ 60Hz with a scanline filter (should look indistinguishable from the first option from what I've heard). Many people play retro games this way. Another option is the MiSTer FPGA (scandoubled to 480p). Or you can get an OSSC and skip all of the above methods and just use original consoles. To me though, this option is way too sharp and I personally don't like it, but it's much better and preferable than any LCD. And it's going to look much sharper the bigger diagonal CRT you use. It's why I would never ever get a BVM for retro games, they're way too sharp (even though you have people paying crazy amount for them when you can just use a CRT and get comparable results).

[@Wobble2007]

@@Frolsa84 Yeah, I can't wait to get a Mister FPGA and hook it up via VGA to my HD CRT monitor, seems to me like one of the best ways to play the classics with accuracy and stability, plus the audio on FPGA is pretty much properly processed, whereas even the best SEGA Mega Drive emulator with nuked audio and low pass filtering doesn't sound as good as the real thing, audio is one of the most important things to get right.

[@TuiCatNZ]

Fantastic video. I have hopes for oled and micro-led to give me something as good when my Philips p202 gives out.

[@Vary180]

i googled "Philips p202" and got "PHILIPS LMP-P202 Projector Lamp" so you use a projector lamp? mind if ask your use cases?

[@TuiCatNZ]

@@Vary180 no, it's a crt monitor.

[@Vary180]

@@TuiCatNZ well i blame google cuz all i see is lamps 😂

[@YourCRTube]

SIdenote. You should think of a better, more catchy title to reach "curiosity" casual viewers. Right now noone will ever look up about "Dell P1130 review" and I doubt YT will recommend it either.

[@CasualGamerCC]

I looked for it using those words, but I also own a P1130

[@brentgreeff1115]

Great vid - made a lot of topics clearer for me - although I think I still need to watch it again to really get it. - I have a JVC 21" TM-A210G - which I think is amazing - it definitely doesnt do scanlines but I like the fuzzy look - there is a kinda chromatic aberration effect which seems to have been taken advantage of in some games - Mega Turrican for instance. - although that might be just because I am using composite. - I don't think I would play Sonic on an emulator, but playing Dreamcast at 640x480 sounds pretty sweet - but doesnt that lower the FPS? - It seems intuitive that if you increase resolution that you would also need to increase the hertz - how can the gun draw more horizontal lines if it doesnt move faster?. I would love to see the gun in slow mo at diff resolutions.

[@Rasthro]

Keep in mind that modern display technologies like LCDs, LEDs, OLEDs, QLEDs, AMOLEDs and SuperAMOLEDs all have better color accuracy than the CRTs.

[@eleckson]

My PC CRT's don't squeal at all. Your flyback might have been going out! And yes, I can heard high frequencies. Lol.

[@segaknful]

Nice video! Grabbed my P1130 2 days ago for less than 20$. Previous owner said that he used it for about one month in 2003. It looks a bit used but the display is almost untouched!

[@Vary180]

wow lucky

[@codfish1113]

Heh. Here I am with a Compaq FS7550 running at 1600x1200, 65hz, scaled up 125%.

[@Andreas-nb1ow]

You can use 2560x224p and 240p @180Hz with Retroarch and custom resolutions set in the driver. 448p looks not good with NES or SNES. The Scanlines are wrong, 2x too much.

[@adamfred]

Swapped out my 21" Sony for dual Dell 2001fp (20" IPS) in 2005. I did miss the low latency but with the console gaming taking over most new games were abandoning high framerate AND putting motion blur INTO game deliberately. Quake die-hards and simracers were the only ones sticking with CRT at the time. I went to a single widescreen 32" a few years later. Most games from 2005-2015 were targeting HD instead of low framerate and they were putting blur effects in deliberately (30/60fps targets) ... dark days for pc gaming. I actually think Oculus/Vive release put a fire under ATI/Nvidia to properly focus on low latency. Stereoscopic gaming was the niche that spawned modern VR and the stereo guys were OG blur busters. I still have a stereoscopic kit for CRT in the cupboard.

[@gzitterspiller]

For competetive fps, the input lag+motion blur on lcd make them inferior to crts.

[@Terra101]

Yep. I connected my old CRT the other day and its crazy how much better they are when it comes to FPS games. The mouse movements felt like in real time and absolutely no motion blur. To bad my CRT is old as hell and the picture quality sucks etc.

[@JohnyTheWizKid]

I have a NEC MultiSync FE700 CRT from 2000 and I'm trying to get it to work fine with my 2070ti graphics card. It only has HDMI and a DVI port so of course I have to use an adapter. It does turn on but there are problems. The text on the screen look choppy compared to my last desktop which has a direct vga port and the text is crisp, clean and smooth. Idk if it has to do with my adapter so maybe I need a better one? But I don't know what are better ones. Second, when I hibernate my computer, my monitor will not turn on, not even when I reboot or restart. So I don't know if I need a different GPU or if there's some settings that need to be set. If you can help me with that, I'd appreciate it. I mainly bought this so I can stream console games, but I do want to play some modern pc games like Doom Eternal someday.

[@ApertureGrille]

I'm still using the 980 Ti with its native analog out, but the one HDMI to VGA adapter I've used is the Benfei HDMI to VGA. It'll do 330 MHz, but you have to use YCbCr. Otherwise I don't have much experience with other adapters. Check the FW900 thread on HardForum for more recent updates on some of the adapters.

[@JohnyTheWizKid]

@@ApertureGrille So I guess I do need a better adapter. Would the StarTech.com DisplayPort be a good choice?

[@ApertureGrille]

@@JohnyTheWizKid If we're talking about the same one, this is the only thing I've seen on that adapter: hardforum.com/threads/24-widescreen-crt-fw900-from-ebay-arrived-comments.952788/post-1044790107 They were having trouble with AMD cards, but since you're on a 2080 Ti, you may have better luck.

[@JohnyTheWizKid]

@@ApertureGrille Weeeellll... I AM using a AMD Ryzen 9 processor. So far, so good. But it isn't as quiet as I thought it'd be because every window I open or something I click, it hums louder. My 2015 Lenovo from Best Buy was quieter. I suppose it is to be expected if its trying to run on my CRT, huh?

[@ReclaimerTyphoon]

*Sigh* I found a P1130 in recycling dumpster at a PC repair place (after asking for permission to check what was out there). A year or two later, I ended up dumping the thing to "make more room on my desk", and "not turn my room into a furnace" (I had a three CRT AMD Eyefinity array going). That was just back in 2015 or so. Such. Regret. Back then, I was just enamored with the black levels and near zero input lag of CRTs - I wasn't even using them in a way that allowed for good motion clarity (my FPS never matched my refresh rate). The things I'd do for another one of these... Motion clarity beats everything, IMO, and every time I think about looking into "better" computer monitors, I'm reminded that I have a curved VA monitor I don't bother using at all (wife uses it for WFH sometimes), and that I'd just be angry about the blur in everything I play. CRT and VR headsets, all the way, forever (except when playing/watching with other people - then the DLP projector suffices. Which I bought thinking it'd be clear, too, but I have a double image issue, and I have no idea what to do about that/if anything can be done, or if that's just inherent to DLP/this projector).

[@prezeskodaty4637]

sony pvm 1354Q dell P1130 samsung 226BW

[@Lolimaster]

Nice review of my CRT Monitor, still hanging to life with some hits here and there. 1600x1200 @100Hz is best :D Feels weird dumbing down to 1980x1080 on normal LCD monitors. Lucky for me I jump between the CRT and the 2200x1080 Galaxy S9 OLED, even sensing an LCD gives me eye cancer.

[@nubanimator]

For modern gaming QD-OLEDs are superior. 240hz + HDR, finally a true upgrade to CRTs in 2023.

[@nubanimator]

For modern gaming QD-OLEDs are superior. 240hz + HDR, finally a true upgrade to CRTs in 2023.

[@cristiannicolae6309]

How many hours do your monitors have on the usage counter? I have an LG Flatron F900P (the Slot Mask version) with 10k hours on the clock and the colors look quite dull. I can sort of go around this by cranking up the guns to 100% in the OSD, but I don't think this is sustainable. Just curious how a high end Trinitron compares to a mid-end CRT like mine.

[@sphericmystifiedaberration9469]

I have 3 CRT Monitors... nothing comes close to their Motion Clarity, nothing... but I'm not using them to play anymore, flickering is a problem to me, i guess i got too used to LCDs... I kinda love LCDs too.

[@DragonProtector]

i went from dell p1130 to lg 27 uk650 and now have that and lg 27gp950

[@TranscendentalAirwaves]

No one ever says what they use to connect it though. lol Unless you have an older Graphics card you gotta rely on some adapters or scalers and I've yet to find one that just always works.

[@theunculturedswine8605]

Honestly I've been meaning to get a CRT to play my old consoles on (mostly my wii, i crave to play Mario Galaxy again when i get everithing set up) since 2018, but it's been this year were i've really got into it. After discarding SD TV's, failing to find HD CRT's near me and not even considering BVM's for their absurd prices and scarcity, I decided on CRT monitors. I snarched a free Flatron 915ft which i calibrated by hand (really sloppy) and, despite the wear it had, i really got to enjoy the aspects that make crt's the best for me: their adaptability (went from 240p on my various emulated games, to 480p on my Wii, to 1600x1200 or even connecting my vita to it), their cheap good black levels and motion clarity. Sadly, i think something in the power circuit blew out yesterday. I was already looking for an aperture grille replacement for better color, so it wasn't much of a setback. I would repair it but i don't have the tools nor the time to troubleshoot. At least it definitely isn't the tube as they don't die suddenly. Bit of a ramble, but i just wanted to say that your review was awesome and you really nailed the aspects of crt's i love. Your LCD panel reviews are also golden.

[@ApertureGrille]

Hah, no worries. Too bad about the CRT. I don't have the skill to repair any of mine should something go wrong, so I'm hoping they last a good bit longer. I still occasionally see 17" CRTs pop up on craigslist in my area, but people now know when they have something valuable, so trinitrons are hard to find or expensive.

[@theunculturedswine8605]

@@ApertureGrille It's sad to see CRT's go, even if they are replaced by more convenient displays. And that Trinitron scarcity is real! Over here i only see 15 inch ones pop up and then an old and very used 19-20 inches sony who can't go over 1600, for upwards of 150 euros! It makes thinking of spares really difficult.

[@RWL2012]

Your speakers look intriguing - 2-ways with car subs as woofers. There must be quite a hole in the midrange.

[@kekethetoad]

You failed to mention the vast difference in light quality between CRT and LED & OLED (with the latter being very much inferior).

[@novzivot4113]

I have this,and WE ARE TRUE youTUBErs i use my dell Sony GDM-FW900 evry day

[@johnathanpearson3203]

Thanks for the vid. I still use a CRT with a 980ti to avoid the 1000s needed for a modern GPU. 1280 resolution. Everything you said was right especially the blacks in some games I can see detail in the fog I could not see in the LCD.

[@fiece4767]

I need your help. I have gtx 1070 and was thinking if its better to buy high quality VGA to DP adapter or should i downgrade to 980Ti. I was gonna replace 1070 anyway but should i keep her or sell and buy 980Ti. There is Startech adapter but im still concerned that i will lose picture quality even if i get high refresh rates.

[@johnathanpearson3203]

@@fiece4767 reviews I've seen say cheap adaptors are no good for high Res CRT analogue displays. I would suggest reading some reviews from geeks and trying an adaptor first if you have a LCD. Remember blur busters do a good 1080p monitor now it's on their website. If you need to use a CRT get a 980ti as at 1280 x 1024 it still rocks. 👍 and has support for Windows 10. Or get a blur busters approved monitor and if you have the money a 3060ti or AMD card equivalent.

[@AJ-po6up]

@@fiece4767 DP to VGA adapters are pretty good, I have compared two cloned high-end Sony CRTs, one connected directly to native VGA port and one to an adapter and there's no difference in quality or higher input lag, just make sure they're passthrough and don't do any sort of scaling or postprocessing, normally the ones that do advertise it somewhere so stay away from those, only buy the "dumb" ones that only do a fast digital to analog conversion.

[@gamma-qh5yv]

I have this monitor and it just died on me. Getting an amber light flashing on the LED indicator by the power button. The amber light turns on for 0.5 sec and then turns off for 1.5 sec in a cycle. I found a troubleshooting manual for it - this code indicates that there is something wrong with the ABL protector? I love this CRT, I really hope I can fix it. If anyone here has any info that might help, I'd really appreciate it :'(

[@electronkaleidoscope5860]

I just got one of these from a free monitor pile at my local pc repair place. Found this awesome video while digging up info on mine :> Those finds are still out there even now, you just have to keep your eyes open and be patient. I for one am completely ok with the fact my PC is potentially broken. Fair trade, universe. Fair trade.

[@monolypse9348]

I bought a crt for $30, used it 4 months and one day a capacitor blew. Now I have a useless beast of 30 kg in my room xd

[@amedusdeng3802]

can you recommend a fine hdmi displayport to VGA?

[@MkwRa]

i use the dell p1130 as my main gaming monitor :)

[@scpnoobers]

This went from reviewing a monitor to talking about crts. Great video (no really it’s interesting)

[@blazuma111]

I hate to break it to you, but the black level and nits depends on both the age and wear of the tube, and type of tube. Probably the best ones that I know of are the Gateway EV700, and the Compaq V500, the late 90s/very early 2000s white monitors are the best ones in the CRT era, and are both top of the line models, Trinitrons on the other hand have worse black levels because Trinitron tubes are 25 percent Brighter than regular slot mask tubes, resulting in blacks that are slightly grey. Sometimes, the best models aren't the ones that you always hear mentioned.

[@MultiColiflower]

your skull is empty

[@LIMuscleBlackdevil]

Bring back the almighty CRT!

[@christineayres5339]

People here in the UK are stupid when it comes to CRTs as on Gumtree UK they are giving them away if your willing to drive a few miles lol

[@casedistorted]

This is a great video showing some amazing comparisons.

[@supercattelephone]

watching this on a Trinitron CRT monitor

[@eggbag4182]

I have two Viewsonic CRT monitors that are just begging to be used once I get a PC. Is there a way to use both at once? Hmm

[@kevinmccrea1335]

Would they be able to make a CRT monitor these days modernize it and make it a flat panel? Or make a modern monitor that mimics what does CRT does?

[@ApertureGrille]

CRT's last, best hope was SED (Surface-conduction electron-emitter display), but that never went anywhere. Modern LCDs can get pretty close to CRT by hiding their slow pixel transitions with backlight strobing. The new ViewSonic XG270 (not the XG270QG) had its backlight strobing mode tuned by Chief BlurBuster, but it still won't allow strobing at 60 Hz.

[@kevinmccrea1335]

@@ApertureGrille will you be doing a review of the x270? That was one monitor I was going to consider buying but not many people are talking about it.

[@pl0aie28]

What cables are you using for the dreamcast?

[@sirwes2924]

I miss my Trinitrons... I should have never sold the 4 i had

[@Wobble2007]

Damn, that sucks mate. Especially now with how hard to find a good conditioned Trinny monitor it is. A wee tip for you, look for the DELL/HP/etc. rebrands, they are easier to find.

[@agentorange8530]

Does this monitor have the G2 problem?

[@ApertureGrille]

I had a similar trinitron, the IBM P260, that had really bad black levels. I fixed that one ages ago by modifying the G2 value, but it's now much better to run through a full WinDAS calibration. I usually do that once a year or so for the Dells. Check out spacediver's guide in the description.

[@Frolsa84]

Depends on when it was manufactured. Sony monitors had a problem for like 2 years coming out of the factory, I think. They fixed that after 2002 or so.

[@bladecreed9965]

i found a dell M783p for free, these are realy nice monitors.

[@H0und0fHircin3]

Imagine Project Zomboid on a CRT

[@Italian_Isaac_Clarke]

I just bought a GT 710 years ago. I run it paired with my RTX 2070. Works as smooth as butter, too bad it has only one Analog output (VGA paired with HDMI and DVI-D) instead of more Analog outputs (because that would be nice). At least I can use CRTs natively.

[@DragonProtector]

mine never had that high pitch noise till i sold it when it was very small noise lol

[@trijetz3562]

My Pre-K class had two of these in the classroom to play starfall on. Memories :P

[@copper4eva]

Btw, you can use even more modern graphic cards than the GTX 980, even though they don't have analog out. You just need a 2nd graphics card that has analog out. You can have any 900 series Nvidia, and pair it with a Nvidia GTX 1060. You'll hook up your CRT to the older 900 series, and you can still use the 1060 to render all your games, even on the CRT monitor. Doesn't have to be a 900 series, can be even older, from what I hear (I use a 960 and 1060). You're basically using the older card as an over glorified digital to analog converter.

[@chickenee]

Shit, that's cool. Got a tutorial?

[@TechTalkTobi]

Sorry that i need to ask: so you used a DVI to VGA Cable ?

[@sundaranandadas]

This video brought good old memories :D awesome review, keep it up!

[@ygjt76v0-----]

I give you crt monitor and you give me led monitor , agree?😅

[@fmbroadcast]

What is the game name at the racing car scene at 13m ?

[@cortbelmont]

I've got a samsung syncmaster 753v looks fine but black level is high, it looks the same as my LCD monitor and color precision is not great. I tried correction via the windows controls but nothing made it better. I don't think this monitor is that bad at black level do you know of some configuration or service menu to correct it?

[@guyfawkes8873]

just checked for new videos yesterday hoping for more of the excellent monitor reviews you make x) (by far the best on youtube). guess I was a day to early to get my wish fulfilled o:

[@fmbroadcast]

Wooooow beautifull I want one !!!!

[@DragonProtector]

6:57 me: super monkey ball all of them

[@keisaboru1155]

i need a crt t.t i want one more urgently than a vr headset haha xD the frame time is insane

[@DragonProtector]

Sold mine in 2017 for $410.

[@XfStef]

Can you give me a headsup on how many hours should it have? I'll be testing and hopefully picking up a CRT next week. I have no idea what the hour count should be so that it's not towards the end of it's lifetime.

[@jskilabe5986]

I know this is late but how's the CRT?

[@XfStef]

@@jskilabe5986 Amazing! I had a bit of a journey getting it setup properly due to the lack of good converters and vga cables on the market. I also had to install 3rd party pixel clock unlocking drivers, which you HAVE to do it you want high resolution, high refresh rate hdmi output on some older GPUs. Otherwise things are great. For gaming it's my daily driver, I just keep it off most of the time because I want to keep it in good condition for as long as possible. I run it on 1600 x 1200 @100hz. Everything looks amazing, video, pictures, games. It's truly a beast.

[@TheDanupro]

This is the most impressive and very detailed review ever.

[@DemonGamerTT]

The thing you did a 10:00 was the most impressive configuration I ever saw for PC Crts on youtube. Almost ALL the channels always tells us that CRT its not good enough for retro gaming because the resolution its higher than TV crts and also because they are progressive's instead of interlaced, but you just made a CRT show TRUE beautiful scanlines just as good if not better than a PVM, that's AMAZING. You should really make a guide on how to get the most of this setting custom resolutions and making the scanlines apparent as this for different consoles/arcades... People would love to see that SPECIALY if it works with lower end CRTs, it would give a option for people that don't have/want buy a PVM because they (like me) mostly play emulators anyway.