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Best 800x600 CRT Monitor ever? (poll)

inakito

inakito

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As far as image quality is concerned, which was in your opinion the best CRT 800x600 capable (aka SVGA, non interlaced) ever? (15 inches or less).
Yo know, that monitor you remember as being something unique since the very first minute you saw it on the store the day before Christmas !
 
I don't recall any that "stood out", but if you just want good image then the manufacture date would be a good quick indication. I think 1997 or later for most 15" monitors would have good 800*600*85hz as well as 1024*768*75 or 85hz or better.

Some, however, might recommend the original NEC Multisync because of its input capabilities and compatibility. Not sure of the actual image quality.

As far as 17" CRTs, Samsung SyncMaster 753DF was one of the better ones for its day!
 
I owned a Nec Multisync II. I wanted to purchase a Nec Multisync but my order delayed so much they sent a Multisync II instead. Quality was not so good. It was able to synch with almost anything but image quality was not its stronger point.
 
SomeGuy said:
Some, however, might recommend the original NEC Multisync because of its input capabilities and compatibility. Not sure of the actual image quality.
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I will vouch for the image quality and I still use the original NEC Multisync (Model JC-1401P3A) and its ForeFront clone (Model MTS-9600) for the reasons you stated. I've got one for sale, as well.
 
Of that era, my favorite was the flat-screen manufactured by Heath/Zenith. As I recall, it was the first perfectly flat glass CRT. They were horridly expensive and weighed a ton - but had a marvelous image. I eventually talked my boss into buying one for me and liked it so much that I bought one for myself when they released the 17" version. (Oh, man, I remember carrying that thing up to the second floor. Boxed weight was about 95 pounds!)
 
I remember we had a flat ZTM-Zenith at our office. The image looked 'parabolic' instead of flat (I mean, the screen was curved, with the edges towards you, much like newer 4K TVs are today). I recall a comment on PC-Magazine talking about this 'apparent' optical effect. But it was not an optical effect at all!. It had a loud fan that on the inside that was pretty uncomfortable to work with. According to the technical information that came out along the monitor, for some reason it took a lot of energy to bend out the cathodic rays to project them on a flat surface, and this produced so much heat that a fan was needed. The image quality was very good however.


jharre said:
Of that era, my favorite was the flat-screen manufactured by Heath/Zenith. As I recall, it was the first perfectly flat glass CRT. They were horridly expensive and weighed a ton - but had a marvelous image. I eventually talked my boss into buying one for me and liked it so much that I bought one for myself when they released the 17" version. (Oh, man, I remember carrying that thing up to the second floor. Boxed weight was about 95 pounds!)
Click to expand...
 
My vote would be for a Mag DX15F. I drooled over those in the early to mid 90's...$350 was just too much. Eventually when I started working for a local computer repair place, I ended up with one that had been sent off for warranty repair and come back...they let me have it for $175. I was in heaven. Today that kind of money will buy a nice 24" LCD! Of course I can also remember the first 15" LCD monitor we sold it that shop...it was a Compaq branded unit, I believe the price tag was $3700. Seriously.

The other monitors that stick out from my time there (1996-2000)...the one I really lusted over was a Hitachi 19" (CRT of course). Gorgeous screen...sold one or two to a place that did AutoCAD work. Never had one of those myself, though I eventually replaced the Mag with an NEC 19" "Trinitron" style flat-front CRT...that was a pretty nice monitor too. The other one that was impressive...suddenly drawing a blank on the brand name...Viewsonice maybe? The one that had the colorful birds as their logo. Anyway...it was a 15" or 17" CRT...when in 640x480 mode (or maybe 800x600), it would do 120hz refresh rate. That was impressive to behold...

My current monitor is a Dell Ultrasharp 19"...an older model picked up at the local computer recycling place...a beautiful monitor! Of course I dream of a new 24" Ultrasharp...or one of their 24" 4k monitors...that would be nuts...but as you can tell by what I've used, I'm a cheapskate too... :)

Wesley
 
A good period correct 15" choice would likely be the NEC Multisync FG series and whatever series replaced it.
 
I really 'skipped' 800x600 altogether... Right after my last VGA monitor that only did 640x480 I skipped right to a Samsung 3NE at 1024x768... I loved the 3NE, sold several dozen of them in the early '90's with systems when I was doing the white-box builder thing. It was a step up from the regular Syncmaster 3 in that it was .26 dot pitch instead of .28, would actually adjust edge-to-edge, had barrel, skew and phase controls exposed outside the case (I HATE when adjustments are buried under the tube, like say... NEC?). The phosphors also had a slightly slower decay making low refresh rates not flicker as bad, at the cost of some ghosting; not really a big deal when it would do 1024x768 at 86.958hz (exactly the XGA spec).

Ran those at 1024x768 with Win 3.x 8514 / Win95 large / Win98/MacOS/*nix 120dpi / 2K+ 125% / Win7+ medium / whateverTheBlueBlazesTheyAreCallingItThisYear in Windows since 3.1. To this day I still pick really high resolution at moderate size displays (like my 27" 2560x1440 IPS) with a larger default system font. One of the things that always pisses me off is when web developers or application developers piss on their accessibility by declaring their font sizes in pixels, as then they ignore the font scaling of the host OS and/or browser. There's a reason the WCAG says to use %/EM sizes.
 
My two favourites from the mid 90s were NEC and Sony. Just about anything with a relatively flat screen, digital controls and minimal bordering should be good. 0.28 dot pitch should be perfectly fine for 800x600 and 1024x768. 0.28 was considered above average in those days. If you want to see blurry, try a .39 dot pitch.
 
The NEC Multsyncs were good screens and I used them a lot but I never ever did get used to the two lines of the phosphor mask supports running across the face of the tube.
 
NEC Multisyncs had Trinitron tubes?

I had a Tektronix 17" 800x600 *only* monitor that was absolutely great. I had to pitch it last year though because I finally got tired of keeping it. These days, a single frequency monitor like that just isn't worth the space.
 
Earlier NEC MultiSyncs didn't, but by around 2000/2001 almost everyone was using Trinitrons. That is why I like the Samsung SyncMaster 753DF 17", it delivers about the same quality of video as a Trinitron without those annoying lines.

I remember walking in to the CompUSA back then and comparing monitors side-by-side, and it seemed like the Samsung model model was the only one that didn't have that mis-feature while still delivering crisp, sharp video.
 
Anonymous Coward said:
My two favourites from the mid 90s were NEC and Sony. Just about anything with a relatively flat screen, digital controls and minimal bordering should be good. 0.28 dot pitch should be perfectly fine for 800x600 and 1024x768. 0.28 was considered above average in those days. If you want to see blurry, try a .39 dot pitch.
Click to expand...

My Toshiba TIMM has a razor sharp .58mm dot pitch. It was only rated for 640x480, but even that was pushing it. It was great for playing DVDs though and looks fabulous with 15.75Khz RGB sources like the Amiga and Apple IIgs.
 
jharre said:
Of that era, my favorite was the flat-screen manufactured by Heath/Zenith. As I recall, it was the first perfectly flat glass CRT. They were horridly expensive and weighed a ton - but had a marvelous image. I eventually talked my boss into buying one for me and liked it so much that I bought one for myself when they released the 17" version. (Oh, man, I remember carrying that thing up to the second floor. Boxed weight was about 95 pounds!)
Click to expand...

I remember those, I had 3 of them in the early 2000's for my DOS gaming rig and case-modded Windows 98 full AT system.

The VGA Version was model# 1490. I had 2 of those, no stand, they had a fan in them that was good and loud, but god I loved the picture quality, even if I was stuck at 640X480.
The SVGA version was model# 1492, I also had one of those and used it for a long long while with said Win98 box

Wish I could find another one for my current DOS machines.
 
My first digital controlled ACER monitor (14" I think) was pretty decent ($350 new mid 1990's maybe?), used it until the screen got blurry and curbed it. Don't recall the model number but it would do 1024x768 at a crappy refresh so 800x600 was optimal. After that my new monitors were SONY Trinitrons (17sf2, 420gs).
 
Sony had some Trinitron monitors which had a 0.25 mm dot pitch and could synch down to 15 kHz. But those were rare and expensive when new, and extremely difficult to find now.

And these days you're better off choosing a CRT monitor based on its condition rather than its brand or specs. Even the best monitors can give a crummy image if they were in an office environment where they were left on for 8 hours a day for years, whereas a lower-spec monitor that only saw very light home use will still give a sharp, bright image.

Case in point, the cheapo Acer 54e 15" monitor that I picked off the curb has a much better image than any of the Dell Trinitron 17" monitors I got from work when they were being retired.
 
OK I lied, never trust your memory after 40. Anyway the Acer was a model AcerView 56L (15" CRT) and it could do 1024x768 @ 76hz. The generic analog monitor before it must have been the 800x600 one (sold that with a 386 system back in the early 1990's).

P.S. anybody else here keep old manuals for computer equipment they junked?
 
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