Flat CRT vs LCD

What I would like to know is what type of monitor provides the best picture?

LCD monitors have a lot of 'ghosting' issues from what I've seen. Other then there small convienant size, and lower power consumption, do they offer any other benefits?

At the moment I am an owner of a Samsung Syncmaster 753s 17" CRT. This can produce a maximum resolution of 1280X1024 @ 65Hz. Or a resolution of 1024X780 @ 85Hz. Is it true that most LCDs don't support a resolution over 1024X780 @75Hz?

The reason I'm asking all of this is because i am looking at a second monitor. It's a Flat Screen CRT Samsung SyncMaster 793DF:

http://www.samsung.com/uk/products/monitors/crt/lb17ksbbedc.asp?page=Specifications

It retails about £80. Does this look like a good buy? I'll be using it mostly for television through my Hauppauge Digital TV card

That's a great monitor you're looking at there. LCD's have improved quite a bit recently so on better models ghosting isn't of issue. However they still aren't the greatest at producing true blacks, often you just get a dark grey. The resolutions can be a problem. They often don't scale down well to lower resolutions like CRT's do. You often get a bloated image or stretched one. And you can often find a dead pixel or two (as many as 7 before most firms offer a refund) which is a real bummer. It's no biggie if it's in the corner but in the middle? Forget using that.
So as for right now unless space and sleek looks are your concern I'd suggest going with a CRT. LCD's are rapidly improving but for the price I'd go with the one you're looking at. The only downside is you won't get a DVI input out of the box naturally. And even a 19'' CRT can display some pretty grand resolutions, up into hte 1900 range on some select models.

Exfoliate said:

The only downside is you won't get a DVI input out of the box naturally

Click to expand...

I don't have a graphics card with a DVI output! :rolleyes: It's something that could hinder the monitor in the future, but who knows. There are few CRTs being manufactured now. Samsung seem to produce some of the best monitors around, so it makes sense for me to stay with them. My old SM753s is still going strong after all :)

Having used LCDs and CRTs regularly, it really depends on the specific monitor. The ghosting effect really is minimal with my Acer TFT, but some AGNeveo ones I've used ghost badly. I still use CRTs but I now prefer LCDs, smaller, use much less power (kinder to the environment), less dangerous to repair and generally the future. CRTs tend to be clumsy now, even though picture quality is great on some.

Another advantage CRTs have is the resolution, but larger TFTs display larger res. Depends on your uses really. Overall TFT for me. Btw, I have a CRT monitor which has a pink dead pixel, but no LCDs I've used has one. Says something...

A frien bought a flat crt cuz he's a very keen cs guy and i bought a lcd for space reasons. The one difference that i notice is that the colour on my lcd seems to be deeper and more vibrant that the crt. Maybe im just biased though

If youve got the buks then id say you should go lcd but as addis said crt gives you the best value for your buks

About the dead pixels. I did not get any at all and ive been asking around and ive only heard of one pixel out of four monitiors. Maybe they have just started to make them better now.

Yeah with a good brand I wouldn't worry about the dead pixels, you can't really help but get them now and then by bad luck but a good company should have a policy in place so you can get a replacement.
I imagine this is changing but the thing with bigger LCD's aside from the price you pay to get the high resolution is if you get a game that won't run well at say 1600x1200 you may notice it looks weird when it has to expand all those pixels of say something twice as small like 800x600 to fit the screen. Not so great but I'm no expert so I can't guarentee it will work like that all the time.

How much do you think I'd have to pay (in GBP ;) ) to get an LCD that is a good as the picture quality that the Samsung SM793DF is likely to produce?

thats a tough ques cuz you'd have to set them up next to each other and see. I say this cuz ive looked around at a LAN and all the guys have 17'' crts and they all look so different in terms of quality. They all have the same specs.

I have not looked that far into it but itd be very safe to say that the crt is gonna be much cheaper.

The CRT is always going to be cheaper, but in terms of RAW image quality, nothing can beat an LCD screen but a high end CRT. I use an Acer LCD and i haven't found any negatives to it yet. It handles blacks pretty well, it can be extremely bright when you need it to be, it's small and elegant, has the same max resolution as most 17" CRT's and overall just performs well.
At this point in time, i'd say get a LCD screen.

If you're willing to pay the extra dough go for it but if you're into bang for your buck the CRT does edge out in my opinion.