Unboxing a New 17" ViewSonic CRT Monitor

Greetings! Happy Wednesday, or at least it is when I’m gonna record this and stuff. Let’s open a brand-new monitor in the box!  This is a View Sonic Opt quest Q71 17 inch monitor from the year 2001...with the features that I want. 1280x1024, 87 hertz refresh rate,  .23 millimeter horizontal dot pitch. View Sonic makes pretty darn good tubes,  or at least I remember them being good. 

I haven’t actually used one in a long time. But- I want to try it out! And uh, use it for various projects.  Look at all these awards that it won. Designed for Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 98. Awesome! And yeah, I bought this new because...You know, it’s such a hard thing to find  someone that’s going to ship like a CRT properly.

And so, a fresh in container one goes to be packed well. I know that- and it’s one reason I am happy to pay a little bit more for this. This was $79. I think that’s too much, but I don’t really care.  Cause I’m gonna use it. Starting here, we have the base. That’s nice to have. 

I’ve actually come across a few like, used CRTs  of the era that just don’t have the base. I don’t know who would take it off. You kind of need it. Ah! See, nice form-fitting packaging. This is pretty much what you have to try to mimic  when you are shipping CRTs and a nice CRT and having it arrive completely busted,  which is very easy to do even if you’re very careful with packaging. You can see even this very sturdily-made bit of Styrofoam, within the packaging ... It broke, so it was smashed in the front of the box during shipment.

That would have not worked well with lesser packaging. Oh! It has some software. Nice fresh power cord, that smells perfect. View Sonic Monitor Installation Disk for 95, 98, ME, and 2000,  which is exactly the range of computers that I’m going to be using this with. And here’s the User Guide.  It’s just like... eh, you know, things you can do. It’s a very limited warranty with these.  This was the Opt quest line of View Sonic monitors. 

The parts, I believe, were all the same pretty much. But uh, they need been a price range release because they didn’t contain such things as extended warranties and like View Sonic Parts & Repair services. And like View Sonic Parts  Repair services. Yeah, they cheeped out. Monitors themselves, though... Well...They’re still a View Sonic.

Look at this beast! Ahh, its wonderful!  That’s a sweet looking CRT! and again, that smells brand-new and beautiful. fresh VGA cable...I’m all about that base, man!

Let’s uh... ooh! what does this do?

What a weird thing. That seems... utterly pointless, but maybe I’m just missing it. Sticker is about the only indication that this thing is over 16 years old. Not yellowed yet, which is nice!  The sticker is yellowing though. 

Okay, I guess that’s what that thing comes off for  because now it makes it... a little easier to get on there. This thing is like, 50 pounds or something. Just checked, its uh, 40 pounds/18 kilograms. That’s a 17 inch reveal, I ’d wish to get sort of a 21 inch.  There’s some amazing Sony Trinitrons...but man, those are really hard to find now!

I mean, you know, unless like... run across one at a thrift store,  but that’s just like... it’s pretty much never going to happen. I’ve given up on finding computer CRTs in local thrift stores.  I find them occasionally when I go to Greensboro.

There’s a Value Village that still takes them in,  but that’s like the only place in the state that I’ve come across. Oh man, let’s turn this beast on...  before I hook it up to anything. No signal! Course there’s not!

Might be able to not do anything until I plug anything in, but...That’s okay. Let’s plug something in!

I’m going to plug in my somewhat, nasty looking  these days, uh, Windows 98 capture machine here, Simply ordinary beige component that's very an excellent deal turning yellow.  I gotta do something about that. This thing is getting gross!

It used to be that color just a couple years ago.  It has really gotten yellow over the past few years. IBM Model M...Standard firkin 2 button HP mouse.

 Some speakers because I like sound. And you acquire the awesome monitor ... Plugged in there.... plugged in there. Yeah, I actually want to repaint this whole thing,  like I just want to paint this computer like, I don’t know, green or something. That is looking nice!   Yeah, I do have a pleasant, fantastic Gateway CRT in there. it had a Sony Trinitron tube in it, which is also fantastic in a 17 inch.  it’s very similar to this, spec-wise.

Alright Windows, let’s see what you get.  Man, those scan lines are looking beautiful. Main, that’s looking good!

At least it is to me!  I don’t know how it’s looking at the camera. Or to the camera cause I’m not- not looking. Okay, so that shows resolution and uh... refresh rate. So let’s max that thing out to um...Can it go 1600x1200? It didn’t say it could. Well try it!

I think it said, what, 1280x1024?  So let’s try that. Oh, yeah! Dude, that’s a sharp 1280 too!

Wow ooh, that looks funky, even to me!  I know it looks... probably weird on the camera, but,  anyway, that refresh rate, what the heck is it?

That’s 60, however ... I might wish to get up to 85, perhaps that’s what the disk is for. It’s looking good. There’s a bit of a weird looking artifact up there,  it’s like a little red streak...but yeah, that is wonderfully sharp. Man... I remember looking at these monitors  in Best Buy and Circuit City back in the day and just being like, Holy crap! The resolution is !

Alright, let’s try out that uh, that disk. I wasn’t gonna  even mess with it, but...maybe till be able to...give me more options as far as being able to adjust the refresh rate on the monitor  cause it just sees it as Plug N Play. Don’t mind me, just messing with the color temperature on my camera.  Ooh, that looks better. Yeah, that’s a little closer to what I’m actually seeing.

So okay, uh, Install Shield Wizard is complete! 

There we go, Opt quest Q71-6. Not sure why it’s asking me for that location,  it already had it in there, but there it is. Alright, cool! So that’s the monitor. Eh, well, okay, so we can only choose 60 hertz  on this uh, resolution, which makes sense. If I put it to something more sensible...like...1024x768...We have to be capable of get a better refresh charge. There we go! 75, that’s not bad!

There we go! Oh, that looks much better already. So much easier on the eyes.

Okay, I’m ready to try out a game on here and...Actually, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 might be interesting to see. So... yeah, were not going to be able to go any higher  than 640x480 on this one but that is okay. Still looks lovely.

That looks glorious!

Man, that’s some good color!

CRTs make me satisfied, mainly new old inventory ones, guy!

This is wonderful. I’d say... this is at least on par with that... uh...Gateway in there with the Sony tube ... If not a touch better!  I’m liking the colors by default a little better!

I haven’t adjusted the color at all, temperature or...  you know, brightness, contrast, or anything. It’s looking delightfully rich, although, of course,  so... it’s not like- Maybe it looks like garbage! I don’t know. My apologies for that 75 hertz headache-inducing photos from a second ago. It looks incredible in-person because,, better frame rates are nicer on the eyes, but, er... it looks like garbage on a camera and  that’s just how that works because of shutter speeds, so, whoops.

But besides, thanks for looking this random ramble of me unboxing a random element, which isn't that random thanks to the very fact I selected it intentionally.

But just in case you enjoyed this, then I- you understand, super, but- This is not what I typically do!

On the other hand, this is just something that I wanted to upload here,  outside of my normal upload schedule because it’s exciting to me! 

I love old monitors, especially when they’re new.  I don’t get too many chances to open brand-new computer monitors, so anyway, back to the traditional LGR scheduled programming.

Thanks for watching!