CRT vs. LCD

[Rickysa]

I'm looking at Furuno sounders and wondered which would be better sunlight- viewable...CRT or LCD. Everything I've had previously was LCD, but with more space now, I can fit a CRT.

Rick

 

[rmaher]

By no means am I an expert, but I have done some research on this for my own needs. Regardless of the screen type, you will want something with a high 'nit' count. Apparently this is the industry standard for monitor brightness. Early LCD's were known to be only 150 nits when a minimum of 400 nits or more is probably required for daylight viewing. Here's a link to a website with a decent article describing this: http://www.sailnet.com/collections/...at=Navigation&Coll_name=Electronic Navigation

Hope it works out!

 

[Nonchalant1]

In the last 12 months they have introduced some excellent sunlight readable LCD screens. The ones that are "TFT" technology and stated as "sunlght viewable" are really excellent. They also draw much less power. I'd go with a TFT LCD. In fact, I just did. I got a Standard Horizon GPS with TFT LCD to replace an old technology, hard to view screen. It's excellent for viewability. Go see them at a BoatUS to compare.

Doug

 

[MikeP]

LCDs will be better viewable in bright light, use less power, are smaller and lighter for the same screen size. But they have lower resolution and are not viewable off-angle. CRTs have much better resolution and are easily viewable off-angle but are hard to see in bright light and are heavy, large and use a lot of power.

If I was buying a new radar for the lower helm in our 53, it would be a CRT unit. If I was buying one for use only on the flybridge, it would be an LCD. If I had to buy ONE to move to both positions, I'd personally buy the CRT. I operate from below in bad weather and at night the CRTwould work fine on the FB.

 

[Rickysa]

Thanks for the responses folks...I'll be using it on the flybridge, and the older (3 years) LCDs I have used (Furuno 1650, Northstar, Raytheon radar) were good, but hard to read when the sun is behind you....I wasn't sure if CRTs would alleviate this problem or make it worse.

Seems that all the ads say "sunlight viewable"...but until you've used one, I'm not sure.

 

[Genesis]

Be aware that many LCDs can't be dimmed enough at night, and will DESTROY your night vision.

Raytheon's LCD radar displays (possibly exclusing the new C-series - haven't tested them yet) are notorious for this - and of course, nighttime is when radar is at its best in terms of utility!

 

[Capt K]

This year I replaced two older radar units with a new Furuno 1942MK II CRT. It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles of some of the other units out there, but how many of those do you really use after you've played with the new toy for a while? The 1942 is a great 64 nm unit that can use a 4' or 6' array. As with all crt's it's a little difficult in direct sun but I have a hardtop on the bridge so I can angle away in most cases.

It's a great unit for basic nav, avoidance, and nite running without spending a years dockage. You can also add a slave monitor to get two stations. Of course it interfaces with the gps.

Technology is moving at such a fast pace, sometimes it's hard to make a decision.

K

 

[skindr]

The answer depends on many factors, not just the brightness issue. I often fish the Bahamas, using electric reels,extremely bright sunlightand depths down to 2500'. One of the issues is what transducer to use? I use a 200khz, 2kw and it worked great on my previous CRT ;machine, a fununo 192 model and on my new boat an LCD model fcv 1100. The resolution at deep water is equivilant but the older 292 was able to read even deeper waters and give me a picture at cruising speeds which the 1100 could not read. All in all, if space isn't an issue the Furuno 292 was the better machine. If you have the bucks you could get the dual frequency (50&200) ducer, 2kw with a fairing block at around $1300 plus installation and have the best of all worlds. As for reading shallow water, the LCD machine is better ,even accurate at 3-4' which the CRT machine couldn't read.