Are TFT's better than CRT's?

[Oobie-]

Ive been looking at getting a 19" TFT - but the fact that there is a response times means that it can't possibly be better than the performance of a CRT.

Ive been told 8ms is ample response for games but is it really?

[Syd]

I have had my Dell 2405 which has a 16ms response time and Ive never looked back , the resolution and colour reproduction IMO are so much better than the 19" Mitsi or iiyama I had before, but go and have a look in your local PC shop or a freinds TFT screen and try your favourite game

[teachmech]

Having made the change I don't notice any differnce in quality but the extra desk space is fantastic.

[Oobie-]

and what ms is the one you have teachmech?

[NightshadowUK]

12ms and below is ideal for gaming.

[arthurleung]

It depends. I once had a digimate 19" TFT and the colour was horrible compared to my 2001FP. The 2001FP looks a lot closer to a CRT.

Personally I don't see a different between CRT and TFT <25ms.

Though I've been using TFT as primary monitor for over 10 years (back then my first monitor was 75ms and I played loads of MOHAA on it)

[TheVoice]

I went from a good 17" CRT last year (LG Flatron F700P), to a Samsung 913N 19" LCD (8ms) and I haven't looked back either. I get so much less eye strain, and the image quality is much sharper. I'd never, ever own a CRT again.

There's no blurring, ghosting or anything else in games. The only issue which might annoy you is that of native resolutions. That said, I run most games at 1024x768 (whilst the native resolution for the display is 1280x1024), and aside from some lack of sharpness on small text, it still looks fine. A non-native resolution only becomes a real problem if you're trying to use Windows etc, and there's no reason to be doing that anyway.

www.dabs.com have an 8ms 19" panel going cheap. No idea what it's like, but it seems decent.

[jamena]

a TFT typically used a 60Hz refresh, but as they don't suffer from the same "flicker" as CRTs do this is not a problem. 60Hz means the screen gets updated approx every 16.67ms. The response time indicates the time it takes for a TFT pixel to settle on the colour requested. Older TFTs with 16ms+ response times inevitably suffer from residual images (i.e. "ghosting") while those that truthfully run at 16ms or lower (for ALL colour transitions) should not suffer from ghosting at all. Unfortunately the manufacturers have different ideas about how to measure response times so what you read on the label is not always what you get. One manufacturers 16ms screen may be great for gaming while another might ghost horribly.

Check out reviews of the monitors you are interested in. www.tftcentral.co.uk is a pretty decent info resource. These days most 8ms rated panels should be okay. If in doubt look for reviews or go look in a shop.

Whether they are "better" than CRT is entirely subjective. One person will tell you yes, another no. If you want the small size, light weight, sleek looks, etc of a TFT then yes it's definitely better. If you want lower cost, zero-response, and have loads of space and don't move the monitor around much/ever then CRT is great too. Picture-quality is individual. I like my TFT picture more than my old CRT in most ways but perhaps not all.

At the end of the day I'm very glad I now own a good widescreen TFT

YMMV

[Kumagoro]

The problem with TFTs is you just want to get a bigger and bigger one. I had a 17 inch
and the 19 inch felt much bigger. But now Im use to it I want a bigger one.

Is there an optimal size where you stop feeling this????

The dirt cheap ones are still reasonable (accept in extremly cheap laptops) but paying
around the &#163;200 mark gets you a much nicer one.

[jackvdbuk]

The problem with TFTs is you just want to get a bigger and bigger one. I had a 17 inch
and the 19 inch felt much bigger. But now Im use to it I want a bigger one.

Is there an optimal size where you stop feeling this????

The dirt cheap ones are still reasonable (accept in extremly cheap laptops) but paying
around the £200 mark gets you a much nicer one.

well LG are doing a 24 inch screen for around 800!

[arthurleung]

The problem with TFTs is you just want to get a bigger and bigger one. I had a 17 inch
and the 19 inch felt much bigger. But now Im use to it I want a bigger one.

Is there an optimal size where you stop feeling this????

The dirt cheap ones are still reasonable (accept in extremly cheap laptops) but paying
around the £200 mark gets you a much nicer one.

I stopped at Dual 20 inch. Anything bigger you'll strain your neck too much to actually hurt your health.

The pixel gets too small for your eyes to regonize beyond 30 inch (or dual 20")

There is not much difference between watching a 100 inch 2560x1600 screen and a 30 inch one if you're alone

[fuddam]

CRT always give better value if working on the professional end of video production

was watching a lighting demo this week, and the noise on the 32 sony LCD was ugly, aside from the obvious potential problem of not knowing whether the noise was coming from the camera or the screen (was the latter - video was being transferred from a digibeta camera)

having said that, would like a dell 2405 if i could afford one personally, right now

[Syd]

having said that, would like a dell 2405 if i could afford one personally, right now

Amen, its a stunning bit of kit, its changed my computer using experience!

Go on..................................

you know you want to stretch that plastic

[teachmech]

Mine a is Benq FP737s bought in Asda last year nothing special but still plays Quake4 and Oblivion without ghosting.

[Whiternoise]

I love my 17" CRT, because the picture quality is so good, although the space factor is very annoying. Though, if you get a CRT, it needs to be flatscreen really.

[Oobie-]

ahhhh thats what I forgot to mention. Those native resolutions that force you to use a resolution you might not want to, I use 1152x864 on desktop anything higher and I find myself squinting; anything lower is too big. The fact that nothing looks perfect in any resolution (unless native) unlike a CRT bugs me. I seem to notice if there are slight oddities in text ingame which picks at me. Finally the refresh rates; I've always been a follower of using high rates as games play better but it could just be cause they work differently on a CRT.
Just thought I would share what holds me back on liking TFT's

THanks for your replies guys some helpful replies

sorry for the ramble