Hi Guys,
I know old Sony Trinitron HR monitors are ancient technology, but I was reading that some of them can handle 1080i (displaying 800 of the those lines) via component inputs. Is this true?
I was considering getting one to compare to an IPS LCD.
Cheers.

If you can get hold of a good and I stress good Sony BVM-24E they were almost a defacto standard reference monitor for high end TV and film production. They have RGB and HDSDI capability and reproduce in full glorious 4:4:4 mode up to 1000 TVL. They were the 'ant’s pants' of reference monitors.

They can handle everything from 1080/24P through to 1080/50i, 60i, 50P, 60P and 720. They also have a unique flicker refresh mode for 24P to refresh at 48 or 72Hz to emulate how 24P would look in the cinema when projected at those Hz. Equivalent to a twin or triple blade shutter projector.

A post facility where I have been working on a doco has one of these and three of the new Trimaster OLED reference monitors. All of us found the CRT to be our favourite. In my own suite I run a grade 2 reference CRT and find it far better than any of the flat panels to do my final grades on. But there again I'm just old fashioned and love the finite image response of analogue light from reference prospers. Shame they had to stop making them on environmental grounds. At home I still have as my home reference a Sony KVHR36-M31 which was Sony's pinnacle of HD CRT TVs going back a few years. It still produces amazing 1080 images and can handle interlace or progressive and even has a mode up to 1250 Hz progressive for still image viewing. There is a certain 'look' a certain 'something' about a very high quality CRT that LCD, LED and Plasma can't quite touch in my opinion. Others will beg to differ though I have no doubt about that.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney