Who Still Uses Old Monitors?

skurrier asks: "Reading the comments for a totally unrelated article, an almost off topic post caught my eye: Someone said that they still had a Sun branded Sony GDM class monitor from way back, and (of course) it rocked then and still rocks. (Sorry, can't find the article, yet alone the comment) As I looked across my desk to that similar Sun branded Sony behemoth plugged into my PC I asked myself: How many people still use ancient monitors? And more importantly, what is the oldest monitor you still use regularly?"

Apple branded Sony here

[Dark Nexus]

A nice 20" Trinitron from 1996. Not REALLY old, but better than most monitors from 1996. Still a decent match for any current curved-screen monitor, actually. Well, in everything but refresh rate.

It gets me 1600x1200x32, so I'm happy.

IBM 3151

[krymsin01]

Not exactly a monitor, but I've got a IBM 3151 terminal hooked up to the serial port on my machine at home. Makes a nice dedicated mp3 player. Bought it at Goodwill for $3 (including keyboard).

MAME

[gnudutch]

I use throw-away VGA monitors in MAME hardware projects.

14" VGA, 20min warmup

[jago25_98]

14" VGA monitor that takes 20mins to warm up, though this time is decreased with vertical encouragement. Used all the time to:

- check freenode via bitchx
- config router

I'd love to show a pic, especially alongside the router with no case as it's laughable ...but the website it serves totally hides this.

In fact all my monitors are old - 15" at best and CRT :p

But... they don't lose pixels and are faily bomb proof!

Apple IIe Green Monochrome Monitor

[wimbor]

The oldest monitor lying around at home is the original monitor [blaatieblaat.net] that came with an Apple IIe. At that time (80's) it had a fairly nice design. It had a composite (banana?) video-in connector and hence was actually a TV monitor.

When I was playing with video camera's and a Panasonic 'digital' video editing board [cgi.ebay.ch], I used the Apple as a monitor of my incoming video signal. :-)

Ten years later the thing still works, but not used anymore.

Amiga Forever!

[mithras the prophet]

I watch TV on my 1987 Commodore Amiga 13" monitor. Hey, it works!

Re:Amiga Forever!

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a 1081 I use for my Playstation. Greenscreen option and all, from about the same age!

The compact Macs - 9" mono Mac SE, 1987

[mccalli]

I have a Mac SE which is still in use. Anyone with an old compact Mac will be able to boast some fairly old kit...

Cheers,
Ian

Re:Iiyama Vision Master 500

[PainKilleR-CE]

I'm still using an Iiyama VM Pro 450 [epinions.com] (19") here at work from around 1997. I had a VM 450 at home (closest match [epinions.com] not the same as the VM Pro 450), but it stopped working almost 2 years ago.

I've always been very pleased by Iiyama's monitors, but the replacement I bought 2 years ago was an NEC monitor, which is the best aperture grill screen I've ever seen (though I haven't seen Iiyama's newer monitors, since the 450 line is up to 455 for the AG screens, I bought the non-pro 450 for home use specifically because it was not an AG screen, because the AG usually makes games and images very dark). Unfortunately most people don't seem to carry Iiyama monitors, which means ordering online and hoping their new models are worth the money (as other manufacturers have gotten much better over the years) or going elsewhere.

Re:IBM 3151

[ptomblin]

I've got a DEC vt220 hooked up to my serial port. I use it for checking email (mutt) and Usenet news (trn) when somebody else is using the console screen for something graphical. Since my oldest step-daughter got a laptop, I hardly ever use it.

I use an Apple III monitor from 1983

[John Harrison]

I have an Apple III monitor, built in 1983 that I have rewired to use as a analog visualization device on my home stereo. Don't try this at home! I have had a monitor of a different brand start smoking after doing this. I basically cut the wires leading to the coils at the back of the CRT tube so that they no longer get a signal from the board. Then I routed the stereo wires through them, left for horizontal and right for vertical. It makes fancy green images on my screen.

I have also written a little WinAmp pluggin to demo the effect, since you can't download my old monitor. It is here. [angelfire.com] Go into the Preferences panel, select Plug-ins, then Visualization. Select the vis_text.dll pluggin and then in the drop-down box at the bottom select Strange.

DEC vt420

[ShaggyZet]

I have a vt 420 hooked up with a serial switch to be the console on 4 servers. I call it a poor man's KVM. (though I guess that's not technically correct since the M stands for mouse) The cables are just plain serial, the switch was about 20 bucks, and the vt 420 was free. It's a pain to find MMJ cables, so I usually make them myself.

Ahhh, Hercules...

[lburdet]

The good 'ole Hercules orange on black 12" is all a 486 LRP router really needs...

Re:IBM 3151

[toasterlizard]

I use an old wyse terminal as the console for a 486/50 running netbsd, but I think the oldest monitor I own is an IBM-branded 12" amber monochrome monitor that's plugged into another 486 (running linux 2.2.something and running as a dialup router. (hah))

Amdek Color-I

[CmdrTHAC0]

Yep, not even the Color-I Plus. No power LED for us!

My dad's had to repair it a couple times, but we still run it for video gaming. Man, that thing's had more stuff connected to it....

• 2 C= 64s*
• C= Plus 4
• 2 C= Amiga 500s** (running OS 1.2 and 1.3...)
• NES
• Super NES
• Sony PlayStation
• Currently, a PS2
• And the occasional VCR being repaired for friends

* I believe the Ohio Scientific with a huge 8K RAM used a different monitor, and the C= 64 was the original reason this one was purchased. But I'm too young to remember anything before the Amigas very well.

** To run the Amigas, my dad built a custom cable and added a plug to the monitor to hook the Amiga RGB output up more-or-less directly to the electron guns.

Can't beat Sun or SGI

[Anonymous Coward]

Sun and SGI both resold top notch Sony GDM monitors. Best of all, they're dirt cheap now. Watch out for incompatible 13W3 connectors. Still you can get a 21" multi-sync (1600x1200x85Hz) for under $200. Expect to pay $75 - $100 shipping - those puppies are heavy. SGI also had a 24" 16:9 [ebay.com] that did 1920x1080x85Hz for HDTV production and CAD. At 90 lbs, it was definitely a "two-person" lift.

Sony Trinitrons last forever

[sakusha]

My main monitor is a ten year old Sony 19in 300sf, I try to recalibrate it once in a while and it doesn't need it, no color drift or fade after years and years of use.
I still routinely use an ancient Apple (Sony trinitron) 13in color monitor, yeah the ancient one that only does 640x480. I plug it into my OS X headless server whenever I need to do maintenance directly instead of by remote. That monitor has to be 15 years old minimum.

Re:IBM 3151

[bhtooefr]

He's not talking about the Model M (this post was typed on a genuine IBM, not a Lexmark, Model M), he's talking about the old AS/400 terminal keyboards. That's some big iron (and I'm just talking about the METAL, not the processing power (which is nil)).

Not a monitor - a TV

[digital bath]

Just the other day I had a few friends over for a small starcraft LAN party. Turns out we were one monitor short, so we rigged my friends box up to an old 1983? 1985? Mitsubishi TV.

The resolution was a little (ok, a lot) crappy, but it worked. And it was damned cool at the time, too.