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Are there any manufactures that still make a good CRT or is it like compact cassette mechanism where all new manufactured ones are junk. Follow up question. Ar

by somat 4y ago

Are there any manufactures that still make a good CRT or is it like compact cassette mechanism where all new manufactured ones are junk. Follow up question. Are there application where the CRT is preferred? And don't say to play old nintendo games, that does not count. My dream setup would be to set up a computer system around one of those large monochrome SAGE raderscopes.

rolenthedeep 4y ago
There is a debate as old as LCDs as to whether CRT or LCD is better for oscilloscopes. The problem is complicated, but people argue that CRT is better because of the higher refresh rate, persistence effects of the phosphor holding charge, and no ADC quantization errors. Most of those problems are more or less solved these days, though. But you have to admit, there's a certain kind of elegance to old CRT oscilloscopes. You're effectively taking the signal you want to measure, and connecting it to an electron beam. Your signal directly alters the path of the electrons, which you see as a wiggle on the screen.
toast0 4y ago
> Are there application where the CRT is preferred? And don't say to play old nintendo games, that does not count. There's a huge range of games where CRTs are preferred. If old NES doesn't count, maybe other old games do. Vector CRTs are really irreplacable by modern screens, rasterizing is a usable approximation, but it's not the same. CRTs are nice for new games too, although if you get higher resolution CRT TVs, some of them have digital processing with delays, like modern TVs too; it turns out it's hard to build a CRT that can do all of 240p, 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i well, and you end up wanting to massage the picture. Light gun games really need a near zero delay output to work. It's hard to fill a hole in an arcade cabinet designed for 25" 4:3 CRT with anything else. (Sometimes you can put a 16:9 monitor oriented vertically, but not in a sit down car/tank game) I hope that one day, large 4:3 displays are produced again.

by somat 4y ago

rolenthedeep 4y ago

There is a debate as old as LCDs as to whether CRT or LCD is better for oscilloscopes. The problem is complicated, but people argue that CRT is better because of the higher refresh rate, persistence effects of the phosphor holding charge, and no ADC quantization errors. Most of those problems are more or less solved these days, though. But you have to admit, there's a certain kind of elegance to old CRT oscilloscopes. You're effectively taking the signal you want to measure, and connecting it to an electron beam. Your signal directly alters the path of the electrons, which you see as a wiggle on the screen.

toast0 4y ago

> Are there application where the CRT is preferred? And don't say to play old nintendo games, that does not count. There's a huge range of games where CRTs are preferred. If old NES doesn't count, maybe other old games do. Vector CRTs are really irreplacable by modern screens, rasterizing is a usable approximation, but it's not the same. CRTs are nice for new games too, although if you get higher resolution CRT TVs, some of them have digital processing with delays, like modern TVs too; it turns out it's hard to build a CRT that can do all of 240p, 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i well, and you end up wanting to massage the picture. Light gun games really need a near zero delay output to work. It's hard to fill a hole in an arcade cabinet designed for 25" 4:3 CRT with anything else. (Sometimes you can put a 16:9 monitor oriented vertically, but not in a sit down car/tank game) I hope that one day, large 4:3 displays are produced again.