CRT Monitors

jasonpicard

Since these problems have come up with LED and CCFL has anybody ever went back to CRT? I'm only asking because I pulled out an old CRT I was keeping and overclocked it to 110HZ and I can tolerate it. I think I can feel it just a little bit but there is no issue with blue light and I don't feel bad or sick using it. There is a lot of computer experts on here and I had a question. I was running Linux Mint the newest version and there was an option for the NVIdia card and I could change the resolution to 85 HZ and something called double scan. I am taking a guess but is double scan just refreshing the screen with two lines instead of one line every second? The double scan seemed to trick my brain more I think then putting the hertz up to 110hz in windows 7. There seems to be less options in linux mint then windows 7. Is there any way to add options like say 100 hertz and double scan by editing some text file in linux mint? It was strange only some resolutions had the double scan option and one was a really strange resolution. 800 * 524 or something random. I would prefer to use linux as I am not a fan of windows because I always use old computers. Apparently you can get CRT monitors and drive them up to 240hz that would be incredible. They are probably just harder to find now. It's garage season soon in Canada I am going to keep my eyes open for them because I could be on to something here.

JTL

I was running Linux Mint the newest version and there was an option for the NVIdia card

Do you have the default nouveau driver installed or the proprietary nvidia driver?

jasonpicard double scan just refreshing the screen with two lines instead of one line every second?

I did some googling and couldn't find much info. That does sound possible though.

MagnuM

jasonpicard I lugged up an old known-good CRT monitor out of my basement about 3 years ago and threw it on my new PC to see what would happen. I did not get the ache-behind-the-eyeballs and sharp headache that I get within minutes of using an LED, but I did get the normal eye strain that I seem to get using any device within an arms-length distance for too long of a stretch of time.

I believe I was also able to perceive the flicker from the monitor out of the corner of my eye quite easily, and maybe even at 75 or 85 Hz or whatever the highest setting was that the monitor could display. I used this monitor a lot playing CounterStrike as a kid/teen, so I know it's good. The only other inconsistency though was that I was using my new PC tower instead of the old one I used to game with this CRT on.

I guess that would be a true test: if you were able to find an old computer and CRT monitor paired together that you were still holding onto that you know never gave you problems in "the good old days"...

jasonpicard

I was going to try a version of Lubuntu as well to see if the nvidia driver gives more options.

jasonpicard

JTL it was the Nvidia driver.

jasonpicard

Here is the definition of that double scan trick with Nvidia drivers.

"The nVidia Driver now uses a monitor resolution of 640x960 for Freespace 1 by doubling every scanline. Of course, the game resolution remains at 640x480, but the black lines are gone. The image is much brighter now. "

I'm running Lubuntu at a stupid resolution 864 * 525 with this double scan. I have been using my CRT monitor for 4 hours now. It doesn't seem like i'm getting ill effects. I will report back in a week. it's at an 85 hertz refresh rate with double scan.

jasonpicard

Edit: Alternatively this can be archived by setting the registry key

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video{GUID}\0000\MonitorTiming

of type REG_BINARY from 00 00 00 00 to 80 00 00 00

Also not sure if this means anything to anyone but could be something to play with. I guess you run this mode with low resolutions in windows as well.

ryanynn

You're definitely onto something many people are revisiting the CRT monitor not just for nostalgia, but for genuine comfort. CRTs naturally avoid LED flicker and emit less harsh blue light, which can make long sessions easier on the eyes. On Linux Mint, using “double scan” mode (where each line is redrawn twice) isn't true high refresh, but it can still change how the image feels to the viewer.

If you're looking to push custom refresh rates like 100Hz or beyond, tools like xrandr in combination with cvt or gtf are the way to go. Some CRT monitor can even reach 160Hz or 200Hz, though those models are a bit rarer these days.

For anyone hunting down quality options, definitely check out Orange Hardwares—they’ve got a solid rep among CRT enthusiasts.