CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

grogthegreat · Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 166 Location: San Diego, CA

I just bought one of these beasts from the guy in IL. I have a friend who happens to be driving through that area on his way from northern WI to Daytona Beach. He agreed to pick it up for me on his way down. I don't think he appreciates the size of thing or he might not have agreed so quickly! I can hardly wait for it to arrive.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:23 am Post subject:

Lucky bastage! I still need 7 of these.

grogthegreat · Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 166 Location: San Diego, CA

I might see the need to own two of these. Maybe three if you want a spare in case one of the other two fail. But SEVEN??? I must ask: WHY?!?

That is almost 700 pounds of CRT monitors! There is no desk out there that can handle that weight or size. Don't tell me that you have seven different computers that all need one. You really have my curiosity I just can't think of a situation in which one person needs 7 huge and specific monitors....

grogthegreat · Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 166 Location: San Diego, CA

Sorry for the double post but I got to hookup and play with this monitor yesterday. This monitor doesn't take up too much more room than my 20" CRT but the screen is huge! Much more screen area than my 20". When I first turned it on, it looked really sharp at 1920x1200 but the colors and contrast ratio wasn't impressive. However, once I used the 'Image restore' function it looked like a completely different monitor. The colors are perfect and the blacklevels are amazing. I have a good amount of movies in 1080p and the clarity, detail, and 3Dness that this monitor shows completely blows away my friend's 1080p 24" LCD. This monitor is definetly worth way more than the $75 I paid.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 6:58 pm Post subject:

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Jester · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 90 Location: Villa Park Ilinois

I cant find it, was there more than one? I am not far from there and could use a new monitor. If you have any info I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Jester

grogthegreat · Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 166 Location: San Diego, CA

I've read about that utility but I am having a hard time justifying taking the time as it already looks so good and I'd rather be playing my 360 on it! I've been reading that thread on hardforum.com but I'm only up to page 70 out of 223!

Spanky: They don't seem to be as common as I initially thought so hopefully you can find one locally. I know that mine solidly beats my friends LCD monitor that is the same size and resolution but it is a little old. Maybe a brand new LCD would come closer to it but I'm doubtful.

Jester: He had a bunch but they are gone now. There were five left when I hit buy-it-now and just a couple hours later someone bought the remaining four. You could try calling the seller to see if he has any more. The number of the place is 847 582 1730. Craigslist and ebay are now your new friends (or old ones with a new interest...)

Jester · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 90 Location: Villa Park Ilinois

Cool thanks for the info ill ring him up tommorrow

Satanier · Joined: 25 Aug 2008 Posts: 185

I wish I could find one of these locally for 80 or less. I love my 24" Dell 2407WFP-HC but for gaming I really want a CRT.

Elaine Benes · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1416

Hey, anyone with one of these monitors, this is a HUGE thread about them with some great links in the first few posts, helped me pull the case off mine to clean out the piles of dust in there causing huge snaps on startup....

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=952788 at 234 pages, I'd think many issues would be addressed in it somewhere....

There's links in there to a "how to" for using a program to tweak the dynamic convergence for PERFECT convergence ! Pretty cool ....

http://dor-lomin.com/images/forums/hardocp/windas-conv/

Mark_A_W · Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:05 pm Post subject:

Paul did you find anything in that thread to fix the Green Raster on startup issue?

Both mine do that.

Elaine Benes · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1416

Sorry, I don't have that issue, so I've never looked for information about it...

That thread is 234 pages long, so I'd expect there is something there about it...

I know with mine, it starts up pretty purple, but after being on for 20 minutes you can just use the Image Restoration in the Color menu and it returns all color to the exact settings I dialed in with my Philips colorimeter.

Satanier · Joined: 25 Aug 2008 Posts: 185

10 months later, still searching for a comparable deal =\

Anyone know where I might be able to find one of these under $100 like the original post?

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:51 pm Post subject:

Still want 7 Very Happy

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

A long time ago, in a nearby galaxy, Grog commented:
> When I first turned it on, it looked really sharp at 1920x1200 but the colors and contrast ratio wasn't impressive. However, once I used the 'Image restore' function it looked like a completely different monitor. The colors are perfect and the blacklevels are amazing. <

I'm not sure why it is, since these all go through an auto-cal process at the factory that is computer-controlled (and there is software out that you can do the same thing in the field, by connecting a PC serial port through a TTL converter to an interface on the side of the GDM-FW900), but many of these units suffer from the same thing.

The sad thing is that Sony blew it with the labeling on Image Restore. It says "ON" in the menus, so the natural assumption is that whatever good it might do has already been done. Not so. It's not actually an On/Off thing at all. It's a process, and virtually no one realizes it. They should have labeled it "RUN". When you do initiate it, you may be a bit alarmed, because the screen goes blank (just a raster glow left). Then it runs through a sequence of ramping ops (one for each color, I think), and you can see the black level dropping.

When the picture comes back on, the image may be slightly improved, or substantially improved, but I've never see it not have a positive effect. On one of the 5 GDM-900 units I had (I sold one), it literally made a "day and night" difference. I say that to emphasize the transition, from having a "glow" you could see across the room, to none. I had already adjusted everything possible in the user menus, and there was no way I could get decent brightness out of that unit and NOT have an elevated greenish cast to the background when the screen was "black". It really ruined the contrast, and also threw off color balance in dark scenes. But I lived with it for a long time, since I mostly used it for computer purposes. When I started doing HD video editing on it (e.g., trimming heads and tails off recorded films on my 120TB media server) I got disgruntled, and running the Image Restore function completely cleaned that up. It really was a "WOW!" difference.

It's a shame that a lot of GDM-900 owners have never used that function because of how Sony mis-labeled it. Removing the background glow that these seem to suffer from really makes images "pop", and increases perceived sharpness as well.

The other thing I've always liked about these units is that unlike every CRT I've ever set up in the past (which is quite a few), it's fairly easy to get geometry set perfectly. Whereas on most monitors, there was always some compromise that needed to be made when you juggled the angles and pincushioning, etc. One corner would inevitably be off somewhat, and while a customer might never notice it, and think it was the best they'd ever seen, as a perfectionist I always knew it was there.

On the FW900 I'm using as I type (with my computer, at 1920x1200p @75 Hz), all 4 edges of the display are ruler-flat, with about 4mm of underscan border. With the exception of the lower-left corner, which at the very bottom is toed out about half to 3/4 of a mm. I really need to fix that. Wink

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

BTW, I had written:
> Capable of 2304x1440 @85 Hz, they have bandwidth up the wazoo. <

This was based on the specs for the unit, as the video cards I had at the time didn't go that high. I eventually sold one unit to my boss at work, for use on an engineering workstation we do circuit layouts and diagnostic wiring diagrams on. He cranked the video up to the max (the aforementioned 2304x1440p @85 Hz), and I couldn't believe it.

I had assumed like with all analog CRTs that the image would start softening, the higher you pushed it, but not so. The thing was still tack sharp. In fact, I think it was actually sharper than the unit I have at home I run at 1920x1200p @75 Hz. (I guess I sold him the wrong one... Very Happy

)

Satanier · Joined: 25 Aug 2008 Posts: 185

Looks like I may have finally found one of these for the right price, its got a small hairline scratch 3/4" on the very bottom off center which isnt bad and the price seems fair. My only concern is that it will randomly die on me shortly after I get it and my money will be wasted. Anything special I should look for when I go to check it out? Other than checking out geometry, brightness, focus, manufacture date, etc. I wish there was some way to find out how many hours are on the unit.

incova · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 789 Location: london

What you should look out for, a hernia, this mother is heavy! On a serious note make sure it can go black, if you go to the menu and go to colour there are quite a few settings for colour temperature, bias, gain and the image restore function is there as well and yes it works wonders. Obviously there is also brightness and contrast but you are a pj man so you will want to get all the colours correct greyscale wise as well I would guess.

Mine is staying where it is, because I am never picking it up again.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:47 am Post subject: Re: Hey