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?"

Comments

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).

Amiga Forever!

[mithras the prophet]

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

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 (19") here at work from around 1997. I had a VM 450 at home (closest match 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.

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. 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.

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.