I have read that CRTs have about a three year life. I have a Sony Artisan which will be three years old this October. What type of detrioration are we taking about?. Is this going to be like night and day or very subtle. I have a pioneer elite crt rear projection tv that is almost 7 years old and I haven't noticed any considerable detrioration of picture quality.

This important to me as I will probably be looking to buying an LCD next time but hate the idea of giving up my artisan.

Param.

If the Artisan calibrates to the target values, you're fine so don't worry.

Also examine the RGB bias/gain numbers in the software. The farther they are from 255, the better (once they hit 255, the luminance will have to be reduced to hit the target values).

I have an Artisan that's well over 3 years and going strong. Of course I don't use it 7 days a week. If you used your Artisan 4 hours a day instead of 8, that three years might stretch to 6 years.

Still, I'm comforted by the fact I have a brand spankin new Artisan in the box as a spare...

YOu mean when I calibrate my artisan and it says calibrated to the proper colorspace that means it is working right. How do i measure the rgb gain/bias. I leave my crt on all the time does that make a difference.

Param.

Those numbers are seen in the main screen.

Don't have it running if you're not using it.

I set power management to turn it off after one hour, screen saver to blank screen after twenty minutes. I would set it shorter but this allows me to kick the mouse and let it warm up unattended before use. My six year old trini is still almost like new with only a few evenings a week use.

- DL