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The biggest advantage is that CRTs can have variable geometry pixels which match a lot of older resolutions and aspect ratios. While it's a lot easier to deal w

The biggest advantage is that CRTs can have variable geometry pixels which match a lot of older resolutions and aspect ratios. While it's a lot easier to deal with non-square pixels on higher resolution displays (i.e. 1600x1200 can properly emulate a 1.2:1 rectangular pixel of a 320x200 display) CRTs still have effectively infinitely variable shaped pixels.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Let's not forget that you could freely adjust the refresh rate to resolution ratio to the maximum bandwidth supported by the monitor. On my old 21" CRT, I would have the desktop at 1600x1200 @ 75Hz for maximum productivity and when gaming I would switch to 1024x768 @ 120Hz for "pwning n00bs" in Unreal Tournament '99/Quake 3 Arena. Meanwhile my 2019 4K display is a fixed 60Hz regardless of how much I lower the resolution. What a downgrade. I heard some modern gaming displays now also let you crank up the Hz as you lower the resolution, but every cheap CRT could do this back in the days as everything was purely analog so the limit was the bandwidth of your monitor and you were free to experiment with any resolution to refresh rate ratio between the available bandwidth in your GPU control panel as the RAMDAC of the GPU did all the heavy lifting in driving the display, while now, the driving is handled internally by the LCD control board so whatever the manufacturer decides, you're stuck with. Most CRTs also supported overclocking beyond factory spec, but you really ran the risk of frying some internal components after long term use. Ask me how I know.
- beebeepka 4y ago
  There was nothing quite like Quake 3 in 800x600 @ 120hz. The smoothness and incredibly low input lag. I maintain that it was better, in many ways, than my current position 1440p @ 180hz setup. Sadly, UT99 was capped at 85 or 90 hz. It was very noticeable, especially at the time when my body was still young. I am still twitchy but not even close to what I could pull off 20 years ago. Mid 2000s to early 2010 were tough for monitor enthusiasts. LCDs were total crap and the vast, vast majority of gamers, let alone regular consumers, couldn't even wrap their heads around the whole FPS / Hz thing. The stupid 3d TV push didn't help much either because the masses were convinced all these TVs could do 100/200/400 etc. refresh rates even though the hdmi input was capped at 60 hz. Scary times
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    >Sadly, UT99 was capped at 85 or 90 hz. Such were the days when videogame engines tied the physics to the framerate, as having too many FPS would basically ruin the game. Just ask present day Bethesda :D
- nyanpasu64 4y ago
  Sadly CRT SDTVs don't allow increasing the horizontal refresh rate beyond around 15.7 KHz (480i or 240p). I wish I had a CRT monitor, but don't have a space set out for it, and haven't looked for one.
- dontlaugh 4y ago
  You get the same with OLED TVs. You often have a practical choice between 4k @ 60HZz and 1080p @ 120Hz, whether you're using a PC or a console.
NikolaNovak 4y ago
I never could reconcile the "variable geometry pixels" with my meagre understanding that they all had a matrix / mesh / mask at front, I think for separating individual colour pixels... Didn't they? Edit : here it is - shadow mask and trinitron. These feel like extremely fixed, physical native resolution? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_mask https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_mask
- dtx1 4y ago
  So TechnologyConnections made two Vids about that very topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX649lnKAU0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX649lnKAU0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6tw-gulnQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6tw-gulnQ It's...complicated.
  - maven29 4y ago
    That sounds really similar to subpixel rendering as used in AMOLED displays and their diamond/pentile subpixel arrangements. I found a demo online illustrating this http://www.clivemaxfield.com/area51/do-not-delete/pentile-rgbw-demo.html http://www.clivemaxfield.com/area51/do-not-delete/pentile-rg...
- grumbel 4y ago
  A subpixel on an LCD can only have a single brightness value across its whole area. The dots or stripes on an CRT have no such restriction, they are effectively little monochromatic pictures themselves. Don't think of those dots as fundamental elements of the image, the CRT doesn't address them and doesn't care about their shape. They are really just a color filter on top of the three greyscale images projected by the electron gun. The shadow mask ensures that each of those three electron streams land on the right color. See the TechnologyConnections video for more details.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
Dalewyn 4y ago
LCDs and their ineptitude with non native resolutions deeply annoys me. Sure, pixels in an LCD are fixed, but even resolutions that are multiples of 2 of their native resolution look like crap. 4K monitor? Surely it can handle 1080p, it's just dividing by 2; four physical pixels for one logical pixel, right? Nope! Looks like horseshit. Seemingly LCD monitors can't divide by 2. CRTs can handle any resolution within their spec range, so I could render a game at a lower resolution to have more video processing power for other stuff. LCDs? Gotta render everything at native or it looks like horseshit.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  That's why you should use GPU scaling instead.
- mike_hock 4y ago
  It's because there always has to be some retarded-ass "enhancement" going on fucking with the colors, fucking with the image in any which way possible. Bullshit sharpening filter, bullshit edge detection filter that produces shitty artifacts around actual sharp edges that don't need to be fucked with. The early LCDs were shit because they did only nearest-point sampling. The new LCDs are shit because they "enhance" the image to shit, even in native resolution.
  - midoridensha 4y ago
    >The new LCDs are shit because they "enhance" the image to shit, even in native resolution. If you're talking about motion interpolation and that kind of thing, that can all be easily turned off.
    - formerly_proven 4y ago
      The fact that many in-depth reviews contain a long section of "set these settings to these values to get an undistorted look" and the creation of filmmaker's mode belies this being easy to turn off.
- 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

Let's not forget that you could freely adjust the refresh rate to resolution ratio to the maximum bandwidth supported by the monitor. On my old 21" CRT, I would have the desktop at 1600x1200 @ 75Hz for maximum productivity and when gaming I would switch to 1024x768 @ 120Hz for "pwning n00bs" in Unreal Tournament '99/Quake 3 Arena. Meanwhile my 2019 4K display is a fixed 60Hz regardless of how much I lower the resolution. What a downgrade. I heard some modern gaming displays now also let you crank up the Hz as you lower the resolution, but every cheap CRT could do this back in the days as everything was purely analog so the limit was the bandwidth of your monitor and you were free to experiment with any resolution to refresh rate ratio between the available bandwidth in your GPU control panel as the RAMDAC of the GPU did all the heavy lifting in driving the display, while now, the driving is handled internally by the LCD control board so whatever the manufacturer decides, you're stuck with. Most CRTs also supported overclocking beyond factory spec, but you really ran the risk of frying some internal components after long term use. Ask me how I know.

beebeepka 4y ago
There was nothing quite like Quake 3 in 800x600 @ 120hz. The smoothness and incredibly low input lag. I maintain that it was better, in many ways, than my current position 1440p @ 180hz setup. Sadly, UT99 was capped at 85 or 90 hz. It was very noticeable, especially at the time when my body was still young. I am still twitchy but not even close to what I could pull off 20 years ago. Mid 2000s to early 2010 were tough for monitor enthusiasts. LCDs were total crap and the vast, vast majority of gamers, let alone regular consumers, couldn't even wrap their heads around the whole FPS / Hz thing. The stupid 3d TV push didn't help much either because the masses were convinced all these TVs could do 100/200/400 etc. refresh rates even though the hdmi input was capped at 60 hz. Scary times
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  >Sadly, UT99 was capped at 85 or 90 hz. Such were the days when videogame engines tied the physics to the framerate, as having too many FPS would basically ruin the game. Just ask present day Bethesda :D
nyanpasu64 4y ago
Sadly CRT SDTVs don't allow increasing the horizontal refresh rate beyond around 15.7 KHz (480i or 240p). I wish I had a CRT monitor, but don't have a space set out for it, and haven't looked for one.
dontlaugh 4y ago
You get the same with OLED TVs. You often have a practical choice between 4k @ 60HZz and 1080p @ 120Hz, whether you're using a PC or a console.

NikolaNovak 4y ago

I never could reconcile the "variable geometry pixels" with my meagre understanding that they all had a matrix / mesh / mask at front, I think for separating individual colour pixels... Didn't they? Edit : here it is - shadow mask and trinitron. These feel like extremely fixed, physical native resolution? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_mask https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_mask

dtx1 4y ago
So TechnologyConnections made two Vids about that very topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX649lnKAU0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX649lnKAU0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6tw-gulnQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6tw-gulnQ It's...complicated.
- maven29 4y ago
  That sounds really similar to subpixel rendering as used in AMOLED displays and their diamond/pentile subpixel arrangements. I found a demo online illustrating this http://www.clivemaxfield.com/area51/do-not-delete/pentile-rgbw-demo.html http://www.clivemaxfield.com/area51/do-not-delete/pentile-rg...
grumbel 4y ago
A subpixel on an LCD can only have a single brightness value across its whole area. The dots or stripes on an CRT have no such restriction, they are effectively little monochromatic pictures themselves. Don't think of those dots as fundamental elements of the image, the CRT doesn't address them and doesn't care about their shape. They are really just a color filter on top of the three greyscale images projected by the electron gun. The shadow mask ensures that each of those three electron streams land on the right color. See the TechnologyConnections video for more details.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Dalewyn 4y ago

LCDs and their ineptitude with non native resolutions deeply annoys me. Sure, pixels in an LCD are fixed, but even resolutions that are multiples of 2 of their native resolution look like crap. 4K monitor? Surely it can handle 1080p, it's just dividing by 2; four physical pixels for one logical pixel, right? Nope! Looks like horseshit. Seemingly LCD monitors can't divide by 2. CRTs can handle any resolution within their spec range, so I could render a game at a lower resolution to have more video processing power for other stuff. LCDs? Gotta render everything at native or it looks like horseshit.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
That's why you should use GPU scaling instead.
mike_hock 4y ago
It's because there always has to be some retarded-ass "enhancement" going on fucking with the colors, fucking with the image in any which way possible. Bullshit sharpening filter, bullshit edge detection filter that produces shitty artifacts around actual sharp edges that don't need to be fucked with. The early LCDs were shit because they did only nearest-point sampling. The new LCDs are shit because they "enhance" the image to shit, even in native resolution.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  >The new LCDs are shit because they "enhance" the image to shit, even in native resolution. If you're talking about motion interpolation and that kind of thing, that can all be easily turned off.
  - formerly_proven 4y ago
    The fact that many in-depth reviews contain a long section of "set these settings to these values to get an undistorted look" and the creation of filmmaker's mode belies this being easy to turn off.
4y ago