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Are flat CRTs crap? I bought a flat WG 9800 and I kinda hate it! :)
brandon:
I grew up with CRTs ( curved ones) and recently picked up a 27" flat trisync arcade monitor (WG D9800) with high hopes of building the MAME cab I've dreamed of.. and man, the geometry on this thing is garbage! I also picked up a 27" flat Trinitron television.. it too is crap. My main gripe is scrolling games are nauseating due to the warped geometry.
Were these flat screens ever great or do mine just need TLC? I have serious doubts that replacing caps will fix either one of them but I'm not an expert. Should i just ditch this monitor for a curved one?
dmckean:
They're just more difficult to calibrate. You really need to learn what each setting does and how they all interact with each other. This includes the position and size controls which often affect the geometry pretty dramatically.
I would also make sure that all the capacitors measure at their listed values. Most flat screens came out right in the middle of the capacitor plague.
If you have a dvd player I would get a copy of the Avia II DVD, it has a wide range of patterns that can really help.
brandon:
I currently have a PC connected to the D9800 and I have a VGA to component video box to do the same with the Trinitron. So I can load up any test pattern you can think of. My main question was whether or not this was something I can fix with caps and tweaking the yoke, purity magnets etc. I don't mind putting the effort into it IF it's not a monumental task but I've never messed with a yoke or magnets before. I just want to be sure it's these issues aren't inherent in flat tubes or if I'd be better of just getting some "old school" curved tubes. I know flat CRTs CAN have excellent geometry because I have a 20" flat PC monitor that does. I guess when you get to large sizes like 27" it becomes more difficult.
Thanks for your input! :)
pbj:
Flat screen CRTs looked like garbage when they were new.
:cheers:
lilshawn:
hey, you try and bend an electron traveling at the speed of light 110 degrees at the neck though the envelope and then hit the same spot in a straight line a half millimeter apart. wouldn't be so bad if the turn wasn't so sharp...but then you tube would be 40 inches long.
superflat tube geometry requires some serious processing power and tuning, since you basically have to rely on a microcontroller and dedicated chips to automatically change the scan timing/duration 28,800 times a second (every line, 60 times a second.) and that's just the horizontal sweep.
it's not going to be perfect, you are going have to live with some compromises in your image unless you shell out for some serious video display monitors. the linearity is going to be a little uneven. The corners are going to be a little weird. The focus is going to be a little off here or there. it's a CRT, they aren't perfect. That's the charm of them.
you want a insanely bright, perfectly square, perfectly in focus, perfectly linear, perfectly stable picture 100% of the time, buy an LCD.
super bright, super sharp, HD displays have changed your idea of what "good" looks like.
Throw a game on there with stuff moving around, you won't notice the corner convergence is off cause literally nothing gets displayed there. play a game on there. you won't have time to notice the linearity is slightly off cause you are too busy getting killed by enemies.