1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,320 These days, monitor manufacturers are trying to entice us 2 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:08,000 with high refresh rates, high resolutions, and high sex appeal, I guess, 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:11,760 with those curved panels and sleek chassis. But despite all this, 4 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:16,000 some gamers still prefer clunky, old CRT monitors. 5 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,560 You know those heavy, power-hungry boxes that you could probably use as a murder weapon? 6 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:25,240 But with their obvious inconveniences next to modern LCD and LED displays, 7 00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:30,560 why in the world would anyone still want to use them? Well, one very important factor, 8 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:34,600 especially for competitive gamers, is response time. 9 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,520 You see, anytime a pixel on a contemporary LCD display 10 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:42,040 needs to change, something physical has to happen. 11 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:47,800 Specifically, different voltages are applied to the tiny liquid crystals that make up the display, 12 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,760 causing them to turn and twist to let different amounts of light through, 13 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:57,040 which ultimately produces the image that you see. And although this is an incredibly fast process, 14 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:00,960 it does still cause a delay between pressing a button 15 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:06,400 and the corresponding action appearing on the screen. That delay is called input lag. 16 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:10,720 Old CRTs, though, don't suffer from nearly as much input lag, 17 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,880 partly because their process of changing the image is much faster. 18 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:18,880 An electron beam hits phosphors that coat the screen to produce light, 19 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:24,280 and these electrons travel at the speed of light, and the phosphors themselves emit light 20 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:28,600 nearly instantaneously. Additionally, the signals inside the CRT 21 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,960 are analog in nature and don't require extra processing 22 00:01:31,960 --> 00:01:36,120 the way that a digital display does, further cutting down on lag. 23 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:39,160 Competitive gamers can often actually perceive 24 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:44,200 a noticeable difference in titles like fighting games, where getting your punch in a split second earlier 25 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:48,000 can make a big impact, pun definitely intended. 26 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:54,480 Games with particularly fast action also benefit from the CRT's lower amount of motion blur. 27 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:58,640 You see, modern LCDs use a technique called sample and hold, 28 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:02,560 meaning that a moving object will be shown as a series of still images, 29 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:06,440 and each image remains on the screen for one full refresh. 30 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,720 However, the phosphors on a CRT flicker for shorter amounts of time, 31 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:13,880 and only small amounts of the screen are lit up at once, 32 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:20,560 meaning moving objects aren't held in one position on the screen for as long, reducing perceived motion blur. 33 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:25,360 And although there are some technologies out there that can reduce motion blur on flat panels, 34 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:29,000 such as strobing back lights that aren't turned on all the time, 35 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:34,760 this is an intrinsic property of CRTs that doesn't require any special features. 36 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:38,560 And CRTs also don't have a native resolution 37 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:42,880 like modern flat panels, which have a set number of pixels aligned in a grid. 38 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:45,920 So if you have a 1080p LCD display 39 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:52,560 and you try to run lower res content on it, the upscaling can often make your older games look blurry in, 40 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:56,080 distorted. CRTs, by contrast, don't have their phosphors 41 00:02:56,080 --> 00:03:00,520 pre-arranged into discrete pixels, and the electron beam can be adjusted 42 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:06,760 to light up the phosphors with different amounts of spacing, meaning they can look good at a wider variety of resolutions, 43 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:11,280 as the image doesn't have to be scaled to fit into certain area on a fixed grid. 44 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:15,880 Since older games were designed to run at lower resolutions than HD, 45 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:20,560 this is part of the reason that old consoles actually look better hooked up to a CRT. 46 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:25,120 But even with all these benefits, it still doesn't mean that CRTs 47 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:28,240 are gonna be making a big comeback anytime soon. 48 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:32,520 It's still much cheaper for the display industry to produce LCDs. 49 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,440 And since the image quality that they provide is definitely good enough, 50 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:40,280 especially for most folks who aren't in a niche market of gamers, 51 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,960 the average CRTs bulkiness and higher power consumption 52 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:48,560 mean that there's no real reason for manufacturers to not to keep churning them out. 53 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:53,320 However, if you still want that smooth, buttery smooth CRT experience, 54 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:57,240 you can still find plenty of CRT monitors on eBay. 55 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:01,480 Just be prepared to pay out the nose for shipping and get your waylifter buddies 56 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:06,240 to help you lug it up the stairs. So thanks for watching guys. If you liked this video, subscribe, give it a thumbs up, 57 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:10,080 and hit us up in the comments section with your suggestions for future topics.