any love for 4:3 LCD monitors.

[gravitone]

I know LCD land is a minefield filled with compromise, but sometimes you run into a display that comes close enough for at least the office/desk.
I have a b&o MX7000 for that CRT retro goodness we all love and care for, but my downstairs area does not permit such extravagance.

I've recently run into the little known samsung LW20M21C. It's a great 20" 640x480 LCD tv with VGA input, and supports 240p and 480i/576i through RGB scart.
Sure the black levels are a crime against humanity in a dimmed environment, but this thing is bright, and gives great color saturation.
Throw in some scan lines, and its easily my favorite 4:3 LCD screen for the time being.

I'm currently revisiting the psx library, so here's some closeup pics.

https://i.imgur.com/Mp1Zcst.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/58zsQFQ.jpg

[SuperDeadite]

The good old NEC AccuSync 71V supports 15/24/31khz and higher via RGBHV and is extremely cheap, making it a very decent starter monitor for exotic stuff like the X68000 computer.

[Battlesmurf]

How are those guys on response times/ ghosting/input lag and the like?

[SuperDeadite]

I use my 71V as a portable monitor, while at home I stick to CRTs. Input lag hasn't been enough for me to notice it. Picture quality isn't the best, but you can get these on ebay still for under $50. It's really hard to fault something so cheap.

[Strider77]

No, I do not.

[Ed Oscuro]

>great
>pre-2006

For what it's worth, you can use something like the marqs scaler + a $150 27" 1080p monitor released within the last year or two to ensure that information isn't being dropped. The second picture looks like it might be okay at representing 240p, but I think the effort would be wasted if pixels are getting dropped / blurred out of 480i sources.

Frankly, even if the stills all look amazing, I would still stay away from these as motion blur (and possibly backlight problems / wavy lines / and failing or discolored backlights and other components) is going to make it kind of painful to use one of these for serious gaming. YMMV of course, for an RPG it might work out great.

[Xan]

What are you using to generate scanlines there? The stills look pretty respectable, although I'm not sure the scanlines would hold up as well during vertical movement. One definite advantage is not dealing with any sort of pillarboxing, for anyone who deems that an issue in terms of immersion anyway.

Makes me wonder if it'd be worth hunting down one of these VA/IPS 1600x1200 or 2048x1536 Eizos for use with a scaler...

[Xyga]

Most of the early 4:3 LCD TV's (before even 'HD-Ready') had awful panels and performance, I'd stay away from those as well.
Yeah well, probably there were a few exceptions but AFAIK that's definitely not documented/tested anywhere.
Some big 4:3 plasmas were around too as shown in the old displays thread, but good luck finding one in good shape today.

4:3 PC monitors saw some decent to excellent 1600x1200 IPS and VA models, but none with properties up to what we would expect for gaming today.
Or indeed just not for the really-timing/response critical games.
Also scanlines emulation is nice but the slower the panel, the less efficient and realistic it looks, and fast-enough IPS and VA definitely did not exist before around 2010 when manufacturers finally got to implement effective RTC on those.

Today's 1600x1200 options are untested and way too expensive anyway, better go for 16:10 (1920x1200) keeping in mind a crushing majority of those are unable to correctly pillarbox and letterbox either 4:3 or 16:9 external sources (consoles, linedoublers), and sometimes both (so it'll be PC-only use, or you'd need to add a DVDO scaler in the chain to do the job).

[atheistgod1999]

Why? They're the worst of both worlds; it's a fixed-pixel display that's not even widescreen. 4:3 CRTs are actually better at widescreen because they can do it without losing vertical resolution. 4:3 fixed-pixel displays lose vertical resolution when displaying widescreen.

[Ed Oscuro]

What are you using to generate scanlines there? The stills look pretty respectable, although I'm not sure the scanlines would hold up as well during vertical movement.

I wonder if it's not just the TV itself. I did note that the edges of the second image seem to be slightly wavy.

[Xan]

OP said "throw in some scanlines", so I interpreted that as him using an external device for this purpose.

[Hoagtech]

Just for fancy. What's the probability of finding a custom Lcd manufacturer and having them a giant 4:3 Lcd? I noticed a lot of applacations these days are still in 4:3 so it can't be too unreal?

Examples: slot machines in casinos and iPads.

There has got to be a a need for a supergiant 4:3 Lcd for a giant slot machine somewhere..

[Xyga]

I'm betting only actual industrial-level 'workshops' have the million dollars worth machines to make displays, and probably 99% are located in China at the time.

You'd have to be able to get trough a certain level of sales management of a 'X' company that would talk directly with the engineers and the factory.
If you're lucky they'll have highly configurable machines allowing them to make whatever type of panel they want, if not they'll have specialized assembly lines with model-specific 'molds' and stuff. In this case they would have to build new parts to 'dedicate' an assembly line to that new panel.

All-in-all, admitting they even have the time to consider 'special orders', I would imagine your single requested display would cost around the price of a luxury car if you're very lucky, or a supercar, more realistically.

Ask titanscreens.com maybe ? ^^

[kamiboy]

Your best bet is to marry the ugly daughter of a Korean flat panel manufacturing mogul. That way you have your foot in the door.

[FinalBaton]

Your best bet is to marry the ugly daughter of a Korean flat panel manufacturing mogul. That way you have your foot in the door.

Agreed.
Hoagtech, let us know how this plays out