i'v always heard that looking at monitors are bad for your eyes, and im aware that you should look away and focus on something far away every so often, and that you should take breaks.

but the monitor I have is a 5 year old CRT monitor, built with out consiterations to the users eye sight, other than keeping it at low resolution, is there anything i can do to make it easier on my eyes.

a long time ago i saw a monitor with some sort of thin grayish screne over it and i think that had something to do with making it easier on its users eyes. does anyone know what im talking about?

PS: i do not have the money to buy a new monitor of any type, so im stuck with trying to make the one i have better.

Those are glare filters. Most modern CRTs have a sprayed on film that does the same thing. If you just turn your desk towards the window(s), so sunlight isn't hitting the monitor directly, you really don't need one IMHO. I'm sensitive to high frequency noise, so switching to an LCD really helped reduce my stress level. A friend had one of those high frequency mosquito repellers and was surprised that I could tell him when it was on or off. Nobody else in the room seemed to be able to hear it... go figure. The @#$% thing is actually quite loud.

Also be aware that low refresh rates are bad for your eyes. use something above 75Hz

You should have put this in "General". Not in "Linux - General".


To answer your question, CRT's are worse for your eyes than flat panels. I usually keep any CRT that I view above 85Hz, as anything below 72 is bad for your eyes and will make your eyes tired fast.

After using a laptop at work and then putting a flat panel monitor in my house to replace my CRT, I noticed a big difference in how much better my eyes felt.

Peace,
Whitehat

is that due to that fact that flat panels use a digital signal whereas CRTs use an analog? its just a shame that a good LCD monitor casts above $1500. i will not buy one untill i can affordibly buy a LCD monitor @1600x1200@75Hz. that day may come within the next five years

Why wait, a 17" flat panel is as big as a 19" CRT and you should be able to get 1600x1200 out of a fairly good one. My laptop does 1400x1050. I consider it to be a good one.

refresh rate is not important with LCD. i think most if not all of them are 60Hz. what's important for LCD is response rate. anything above 25ms is not so good, imho. some are down to 16ms now, and LCDs will only get better as that number continues to fall.

a lot of 19" LCDs do 1600x1200. dell has a pretty good one, which might be a rebadged samsung or benq.

LCDs can be run in analog, too, though of course the image quality isn't nearly as good as when they're in digital mode.

like the others have mentioned, i've noticed a big difference in eye strain (less) since switching to LCD. for graphics CRTs rule, but for text and office work, web browsing, etc. LCDs can't be beat.

That's also not good for your eyes as the sunlight is coming directly into your eyes. Best thing is to put your desk so that the sunlight comes from your left or your right. This way the light rays won't blind you and you won't see reflections on your monitor.

CRTs strain your eyes because they need to be refreshed very fast. The phosphor in the monitor which is glowing lights down pretty fast which results in the flickering you notice with low refresh rates.

A TFT monitor however has very slow refresh rates because the transistors in the display are much much slower than the phosphor in the CRT monitors. Hence you speak of response time (ie. in which times the display can change its image).

A CRT also uses more power and even though today's monitors are shielded very well you still get hit by X-Rays which is bad for you. You won't have this effect with TFTs.

One big thing that is in common though is that your eyes still concentrate on one distance when you're working with a computer. This tires down your eyes and is not good in the long run because the eyes don't get trained. That's why you're supposed to look at other places every so often so that your eyes have to refocus in order to stay in shape

I guess if your window is facing the East or West that's probably a good idea.

LCD monitors only redraw the screen when something changes, not continuously like a CRT. So if you're viewing a static image, like a web page, it's not redrawing the screen at all. That's why there's no flicker even at at 60Hz. More precisely, the electrons that produce the image in a CRT start to fade immediately so they have to be constantly refreshed. The liquid cells in an LCD monitor don't fade, so they can maintain a constant image without being refreshed.

exept in affordibility. as a said. I am not going to make myself bankrupt for a Monitor that does the same thing that my monitor does, exept worse in some ways, better in others. LCDs are great for lan parties though... who wants to carry around a bulky CRT anyways? I dont understand the whole "Space Saving" thing. i mean, people bring thier LCDs to the front of the desk, leaving the back of the desk empty. so how does this Save space on the average desk?

yeah, if you leave the back of the desk empty, it kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

i have all kinds of stuff behind my LCD: CDs, a floppy disk case, router, speakers, notebooks, even a cool desk plant that according to NASA supposedly absorbs toxic fumes. the LCD gives me much more room than my CRT.

A CRT in your car is just way too bulky.

what about the flat screen monitors, not the flat panel monitors, but the flat screen (the ones that are still as fat as a CRT but have non curved screen surface)

how are those for your eyes, are they any better than a CRT?

(i ask this because as a student my price range is signifantly lower than LCD)

Same as a CRT.

They are still classified as a CRT.

They may look better but they are no better for your eyes

Peace,
Whitehat