CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Heywood Jablome · Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 1548

I've long had a CRT monitor as a second screen in my HT wiring closet, to be used during the endless source shuffle... Now that I'm HDMI to the PJ (1080p from blu-ray to my new 9500LC, finally!) I'm thinking I'll upgrade to a 4x2 HDMI switcher and look at true 1080p LCDs to fill this role.
Question is, is it worth the 300 odd dollars needed (including cables and switcher?) My source selection is stabilizing, I hope, with a Comcast SA3250 STB, Sammy BD-P2550, Tosh HD-A30. The only near-future changes I can predict are FiOS and/or a scaler to de-interlace 1080i cable and HD-DVD.

Heywood Jablome · Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 1548

This is very much what I was thinking:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009157

Mark_A_W · Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2008 12:09 pm Post subject:

I still use my 24" CRT 16:10 monitor because an LCD almost certainly will not sync to my custom 1080i 96hz res, and if it did it would butcher it by converting to 60hz (ick).

Are you trying to fix something that aint broke?

What you are suggesting will only work if you run a standard 1080p 60hz timing....and to me half the point of CRT is they are multisync and you can AVOID 60hz for films.

Heywood Jablome · Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 1548

Not fixing what is not broken... It's just handy to have a local monitor to diagnose sync or settings problems OR to use while playing with sources. For example, I'm beginning to set up my Crestron control system and rather than consume all that time with the PJ on I'd just as soon look at a local (small) screen.

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

KrisRoberts · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 115 Location: San Diego

Several weeks ago I got a Dell 2408wfp monitor. It has more inputs than you can shake a stick at, and over the holiday I've finally gotten most of the cables run through the conduit and stuff to integrate it into my studio.

So there are now three displays: G90 with Moome Full-HD IFB, Panasonic AX200 and now the 2408wfp.

The input devices I'm using are: PC, PS3, Xbox360 and an Oppo DVD player.

I've been using one of the monoprice 4x2 HDMI matrix switches for a while and in spite of the occasional handshaking issues (you sometimes have to power things up in the right order) its been pretty satisfactory. The new thing that I threw into the mix is an HDMI 1x4 splitter on one of the outputs. The way its setup, the G90 and the 2408wfp share one of the matrix outputs and the AX200 is on the other one. That way I can have the LCD projector and the LCD panel independently driven by any of the inputs when I'm working on PC stuff or playing games. And if we are watching a movie the only thing running is the G90 anyway and the splitter doesnt seem like its introduced any sparkles or problems.

I like being able to have flexibility on what shows up on which display and am way happier now with the HDMI matrix/splitter combo than I was back in the day when everything was RGB-HV and there were issues with ringing and ground loops. But I have given up on trying to do other refresh rates and everything is running at 60hz.