Seeking a CRT, 1024/768 Monitor...

In what way does a modern LCD monitor not meet your needs? They will have no geometric distortion and can be made very bright. And they can be run at low, non-native resolutions in order to boost the size of elements as displayed on the screen.

Sadly CRTs are going the way of the dodo, especially nice ones. Sony exited that business several years ago.

"In what way does a modern LCD monitor not meet your needs?"

I was wondering the same thing.

As an experiment I "pixel-doubled" my 1920x1200 24" LCD monitor so that it displayed 960x600. Made for very legible letters and icons, and as BSteely says, no geometric distortion.

Given your visual impairment I can see why an LCD screen might not meet your needs quite as well as a more traditional CRT-type. LCDs often do suffer from blurring and pixel creep when set to resolutions that are not their native level, and color balance, brightness and contrast can vary greatly across the face of the display. Those with good sight often don't notice these artifacts, or their eyesight quickly adjusts to them, but in comparison to the better uniformity and luminosity of a good CRT such as the Trinitron, many LCDs are less than ideal for visually impaired users.

Not all however, and particularly not the most modern LCDs with DVI (digital) interfaces. These typically have far more uniform panels with more crisp and contrasty image quality, and also suffer less ghosting in moving objects. I'd suggest you have a look at the Dell Ultrasharp range in particular - these have proven to give amongst the best display quality, and work well with the Mac mini. Even these do suffer a certain amount of fuzziness around character edges when set to resolutions below their native level, but a lot of that can be adjusted out with careful calibration in the Colors tab of the Display preference pane and if necessary by slight adjustment of the enhanced contrast slider in the Seeing tab of the Universal Access preference pane.

If Dell Ultrasharp displays are not accessible to you for some reason, when looking at LCD screens, look principally for those which have DVI inputs because these are almost inevitably clearer, sharper and brighter than VGA displays, and if you are hoping to remain with a similar size to the existing Sony Trinitron, I'd suggest you look at 19" LCDs. These have the same 1280x1024 native resolution as 17" models, but being larger, give a display which is actually more 'visually impaired' friendly.

The problem with LCD displays is that by the very nature of LCDs, they are, essentially, fixed resolution. That's why they each have a 'native' resolution at which they work best. Unlike a CRT where the screen is a continuous coating of phosphor, and each dot lit by a scanning beam making it possible to switch between all available resolutions with no incremental degradation of sharpness, LCDs screens are comprised of physical 'dots' (the LCDs themselves in fact). The number of LCDs dictates what the native resolution is - for example, a 15" panel has 1024 LCDs horizontally, and 768 vertically. 17 and 19 inch panels have 1280 horizontally by 1024 vertically.

LCD displays can operate at lower resolution than their native settings, but in effect only by interpreting the signal, which along with the fact that then the edges of objects don't correspond to the exact edges of the LCDs themselves, gives the edges that fuzziness.

Many people with significant visual disability are left with the choice of buying very large LCD screens in order to get a usable image or hunting for the few remaining CRT screens. Some of the LCD manufacturers, aware of these problems, have been working on improved displays which give sharper results below their native settings, (and LCDs have been steadily improving over the years in this respect too) but even the best are still relatively poor compared to the sharpness achievable with a good CRT.

LCDs with DVI really are a significant improvement though, because DVI enables the system to communicate with the display without 'translating' the digital signal inside to the computer to analog signal for use by the display. That process of translating it causes degradation, which results in less contrast, lower brightness, softer color and less crispness. A DVI display will therefore look much better, because it is sharper/brighter to begin with and while it will still suffer fuzziness when set below the native resolution, will give much better results than an equivalent VGA device.

Sadly though, it's LCD technology itself which is the cause of your problem, and it may well be, depending on the degree of impairment and your particular sensitivities, that a CRT will be the only real solution. I'd recommend you have a look at good display models such as the Dell Ultrasharp range before you give up on LCDs, though these may well be stretching your budget.

As such, it might be a better solution, certainly for the short term, to find a used CRT with relatively little use, and which should be quite inexpensive, thus giving you time to look around for a good LCD, and for prices of high quality LCDs to drop a little more. I know that many companies have been throwing often very good quality CRT displays away over the last couple of years as they have upgraded to LCDs, so there's been no shortage of used ones around - often free if you know where to look!

You don't say where you're located, but you might find there's a local center in your area offering specialized help and support for the disabled and which may be able to put you in touch with sources for such things. I'd start by contacting your town/city hall to see if they run such a place, or know of one. Alternatively, your doctor may know.

That issue of viewing angle is another achilles heel of LCD technology, particularly for users who, like yourself, have partial sight in one eye. It tends to mean that even with the larger displays which can be made to give sufficiently sharp results, it becomes necessary to physically move up and down to read the screen or work on graphic objects etc.

CRT screens suffer somewhat similar issues of course, though for different reasons, but in general as you move away from the central axis of a CRT, the image fades (and other than flat screens) also distorts with the curve of the glass due to diffraction. It's much more manageable though, and the eye adjusts rather better to it than to the LCD where the image washes out much earlier and then disappears completely!

In terms of places you might try for a CRT display to suit your needs, perhaps have a look at http://www.pclauderdale.com/ and http://www.browrightcomputers.com/ - even if they can't help you directly, chances are they will know of somewhere locally that can. Also as suggested, talk to your city hall and ask if they can put you in contact with any local organizations which support the disabled and may know of a supplier you can speak to. Do the same with your doctor, because he/she may well know of local initiatives which help disabled individuals. In addition, it may be worth talking to the local chamber of commerce and asking if they have any contacts in local business who may be disposing of old screens. I'd be prepared to bet that many businesses have CRT screens gathering dust in cupboards and corners of their offices and which they would be happy to part with. My firm, for example, disposed of most our my stored CRTs, except a couple of 22" models which were just too big, through a contact at the local chamber of commerce.

While it's possible none of these will be able to directly help, there's a good chance that by talking to them you'll find one or more may be able to give you the name and number of someone who can.

And don't ignore the possibility of purchasing one from an on-line source such as http://www.usedcomputer.com/classifieds/XcClassified.asp - the only drawback being that CRT displays are bulky and heavy, meaning you'd likely be facing high shipping cost.

The worst of your problem isn't so much that no-one makes CRT screens anymore, but that the people who have them are unaware that there are some, like yourself, who would be happy to have one!

1 question, have you ever considered a flat screen CRT, KDS made some pretty incredible flat screen CRT's, in fact i have a spare 19" KDS flat screen monitor, it's your's if you want it.

The reason I think I understand your problem reasonably well is because we have had a legally blind staffer in my office, with whom we've worked for a long time to provide a suitable computer system, particularly display, which has proven problematic for all the same reasons you described at the outset. Even after a long period of trying solutions and discussing the problem with the individual, it is still hard to really grasp the extent of the problem, so it's perhaps not surprising that those who don't have the benefit or working with disabilities would not entirely understand why you couldn't simply get a reasonably good common-or-garden LCD and get the best out of it!

We tried that with our staffer, and of course it didn't work! What did in the end was a 22" CRT which to everyone else seems an awful backwards step from the 19" LCD we had initially used, but which proved nearly perfect for the task.

While Apple Discussions is certainly not for the purpose of trading equipment (and I have no doubt the moderators would trim content that were to overstep the mark in that respect) I can't help but think that if you aren't able to source a suitable display from the local area as suggested above, you may well find yourself with some possibilities from other Apple Discussions members.

Good luck - and let us know how you get on!!

The reason i suggest the KDS 19" flat screen CRT is because it has proven (to me atleast) tobe the best CRT ever made on the planet, it was designed by KDS as a gaming monitor and had been rated by gamers (well atleast in the magazines i read) as the best gaming monitor on the market, it has the best resolution i have ever seen, but is a little bulky which i why i switched to LCD's.

My intent is not to sell or trade it to the OP but to give it to him/her free of charge, but only if it will serve their purpose.

Oh, believe me, I have no issue with your kindness at all, I just hope the moderators don't either! Or that others might see the opportunity to try and sell equipment, which would bring the thread, and the OP's discussion, to a very swift end!

ok, email me at xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx and i will give you any info you need.




<Edited by Moderator>

OK, so what exactly did i do wrong, i looked for a way to send a PM but i couldnt find it.