MAG 19" CRT Life

[Clocker]

I have a 19" MAG DJ810 CRT. I've had it for about 6-7 years now and it's still going strong. I'm looking forward to getting a nice LCD panel in the next year or so but I don't want to be premature in my purchase.

It's been used a lot. For a few years, I never even had it power down to power saving mode. Now I have it powering down after 40 minutes of inactivity and it and I don't use it as much as I used to. Maybe about 2 hours per day of it actually being on.

How much life do you think I have in this monitor? Anthing I can look for as far as wear & tear to predict death?

 

[Handruin]

I've seen some of the monitors in our labs at work which tend to have bad contrast/washed out display, or their display is dim/dark with the brightness all the way up. That has been my experience with old monitors. If the brightness and contrast are acceptable in your monitor, I don't see why it couldn't live several more years without any issues.

 

[Computer Generated Baby]

I've seen some Mag (Mag Innovation) monitors from that era hang in there for a number of years. However, I can say that I've seen maybe 60% of them die after just 2 or 3 years (failed before 2000).

About the best monitor in that class (from that era) that I'm aware of are the Viewsonic G- series.



>> Anthing I can look for as far as wear & tear to predict death?

There are many indicators of imminent failure. If you're lucky, it won't be a power supply suddenly failing, otherwise, overworked / burned-in phosphors (lack of contrast, noticeable patterns on screen when monitor is turned off), un-correctable geometric distortions, power supply ripple causing a subtly "unstable" image, controls that won't respond, etc.

 

[Clocker]

I was afraid you'd say that. :lol: But that 2001FP is soooooo nice.

 

[Mercutio]

I have a Mag DX17F that I bought in 1994 for $1200. It's sitting next to my bed and I use it every night. It's never been in for service. It's been used at 1024x768@75Hz, around 55% brightness for its entire life.

It is not as bright it used to be, but it's a more than acceptable display given that it's 10 years and 5 months old.

 

[CityK]

But that 2001FP is soooooo nice.

Kev, you may be interested to know that they are poised to release the 2005fp.....rumours have it being 1920x12000 at 20.1"

 

[CityK]

actually there is some info on the 2005 on their site now. Here's a pic.....apparantly only 1680x1050 res, $799.

 

[Clocker]

Thanks for mentioning that CK. That brings up a question I've had about LCD panels.

I think Blake has mentioned several times that it's best if LCD panels are run at their 'native' resolution. Is that typically their max resolution? The resolutions that I see advertised with the panels seem so high that I wonder if I'd prefer to run at a lower resolution (with a penalty of a crappy picture due to not running at the 'native' resolution).

I'm pretty content at 1024x768 or 1152x(whatever) on my 19" CRT. Will I be shooting myself in the eye and have to get some magnifying glasses if I get one of these fancy high res panels and run it at the 'native' res?

Thanks,
C

 

[Buck]

When switching from a 19" CRT to a 19" LCD, I had the same concern Clocker. However, I run my LCD at 1280 x 1024, and my eyes are not strained. There is something about the clarify of an LCD and the extra bit of real estate space that it actually uses that seems to make the difference.

 

[Fushigi]

I'm fairly sure that native=max=recommended.

If you do run at a higher res, you can adjust the font sizes for Windows & pretty much all apps so that you won't be squinting any more than you do now. And graphics will appear sharper with fewer jaggies at higher resolutions. The only downside is that small images don't always look decent if you have to blow them up larger. Games might not look as nice either (if they don't support the higher res), but I'm not a gamer so I couldn't say for sure on that score.

If you have dual-monitor capabilities, the monitors can run at different resolutions so if you can borrow a high res monitor/LCD, you could do a side-by-side pretty easily. I run 1900x1200 on my laptop LCD & 1600x1200 on the 2nd monitor (a Dell Trinitron 21"). The LCD blows the Trinitron away for clarity, brightness, and sharpness.

 

[Corvair]

...That brings up a question I've had about LCD panels...

One thing for sure, you definitely want to have a graphics card with a digital output (15-pin DVI connector). Feeding one of these an analogue signal is a compromise.

If you need to situate the monitor a bit far from the CPU, you should invest in a longer DVI cable and not mess with adapting an existing analogue cable that you might have laying around.

With higher resolutions, you can adjust the system font rendering size to match the 82 DPI resolution standard.

 

[CityK]

One thing for sure, you definitely want to have a graphics card with a digital output (15-pin DVI connector). Feeding one of these an analogue signal is a compromise.

Which brings up the point that if your going to do that (graphics card with digital output), your going to want to make sure you buy a LCD that ihas digital input, as many of the lower end stuff is still analogue (i.e. Samsung xxxN models). This, of course, is not of a concern with the above mentioned Dell monitiors.....Of some interest, one of the features that I find most useful with the Dell's is the built in KVM, er, except there's no K or M.

 

[GIANT]

...Of some interest, one of the features that I find most useful with the Dell's is the built in KVM, er, except there's no K or M.

Actually, I would generally avoid using that feature, only because if you ever wear out that little switch on the monitor, it could be mighty expensive to fix -- not to mention you would be without a monitor. If you only have one computer on at a time, the monitor should sense which input is active and switch accordingly without mechanical intervention.

 

[P5-133XL]

I agree that CRT's that are working should not be inheirantly replaced: why waste money. If there is a need then I don't see why not replace it though.

I have a need - My close-up eyesight is starting to get worse and clarity matters. I'd actually replace mine except for the cost of DVI KVM's: I keep hoping that they will drop but so far I've been dissapointed.

 

[.Nut]

I agree that CRT's that are working should not be inheirantly replaced: why waste money...

'95 vintage or earlier monitors tend to suck juice out of the wall rather hard.

So, if you are they type that leaves the monitor running 24/7, beware.

 

[MaxBurn]

I bought a couple of MAG monitors because they were damn cheap but had good tubes with a good picture. I had problems with both. One would not turn on anymore and was fixed in the last week of waranty, actually out of waranty but they delayed my email responses for RMA requests and I had to harass them to get the monitor fixed (got me po'd). The other ran for a long time with a fantastic picture throught it's live but developed a problem with the shuttle menu controller so that it would turn down the contrast and brightness by itself. I dumpstered it after a week of that.

Models were DX700T and an XJ810 I think. 17" and 19".

Only good monitors for me from here on out. Still not a LCD convert though.

NEC FE1250+ <-- really nice 22"
IBM P202 <-- bought it second hand, still great picture.