They still have CRT monitors on the ship, lol...This was understandable in the first movie when LCDs were still in their infancy, but now you would expect to see more advanced technology in the future, somehow the characters don't even have smartphones, chat apps, social media, etc...
share"They still have CRT monitors on the ship, lol..."
CRTs are the best video display technology in terms of performance, and they are also very long lasting and relatively easy to work on. The one I'm using right now to read this forum has been on pretty much all day, every day, since it was made in 2004. I've had to replace the electrolytic capacitors and resolder some joints a few times over the years, but that's not hard to do.
"This was understandable in the first movie when LCDs were still in their infancy, but now you would expect to see more advanced technology in the future"
Why would they use glorified calculator screens when they can use real monitors? The advantages that LCDs have over CRTs (less power consumption, less weight and bulk for a given screen size, feasible to make in screen sizes bigger than ~40") aren't important when you need relatively small monitors (20" size range) on an interstellar spaceship. With the massive amounts of energy that an interstellar spaceship would be able to produce, the extra power consumption and weight of CRT monitors would be negligible; a spit in the ocean.
Lol, no one is making CRTs anymore, I doubt they will restart their production in the future.
shareIt doesn't matter what you doubt. CRTs are a better choice than LCDs for the application, so if they want better instead of cheaper, they'll make some.
shareThen why aren't they made anymore, if you think they're so great?
shareI don't merely "think" they're "so great," I know they are, which is why I'm still using one as my main PC monitor. When I first had to replace the electrolytic capacitors in this monitor several years ago it was out of commission for about a week while I waited for the new capacitors to arrive, and I bought a new LCD monitor to use during that time. I hated every minute of using it. I still have it in storage; it's only been used for a week.
The reason they aren't made anymore is obvious. Cheapness and the lowest common denominator always prevail in the consumer marketplace. From the perspective of the manufacturers, it costs them far less to make an LCD than a CRT, so that drastically increases their profits. From the lowest common denominator consumers' perspective, they aren't known for having a sense of, and/or placing much value on, performance, which is why Blu-rays have never outsold DVDs even though Blu-ray has been around for almost 19 years.
And there are some indisputable advantages of LCDs over CRTs, such as lower power consumption, being smaller/lighter for a given screen size, and being practical to make in very large screen sizes (the biggest CRT TV ever made was 43", and it weighed 450 pounds). Those things are irrelevant for computer monitors though, which don't need to be huge, and the extra power consumption (which is only about 100 watts) is negligible compared to the amount of power that an interstellar spaceship would have available.
I have an IBM 8512 color VGA I keep meaning to plug in. Asking $100-200 on Ebay!
I too have a nice 17" CRT monitor, which I put back in the box 10 years ago when I got my second LCD.
"I have an IBM 8512 color VGA I keep meaning to plug in."
I have one of those too, except mine is an 8513. Here it is sitting on an old 386 PC I put together several years ago from parts I had in storage (it's a 486 now):
https://i.imgur.com/REVXbXf.jpeg
"Asking $100-200 on Ebay!"
You should see what they're asking now for the Dell P1230 (made by Mitsubishi with their Diamondtron tube) that I've been using as my main PC monitor for the past 19 years:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/134551563985
I bought mine in 2006, second-hand (it was made in 2004), off eBay for around $80. In hindsight, I wish I'd several of them back then.
"I too have a nice 17" CRT monitor, which I put back in the box 10 years ago when I got my second LCD."
I have a few 17" ones, and a few that are smaller. I have a lot of CRTs, including TVs, arcade monitors, and PC monitors, at least 25 of them in total. The TV in my living room is a 32" RCA CRT that I bought new in 2005 specifically because I knew at the time that they wouldn't be making CRTs for much longer and I wanted to get a new one while I still could. It's perfect for classic video game consoles and old 4:3 TV shows on DVD.
god I hate gen z
shareguys no reason to rationalize this away. it makes sense. no CRTs. in the 1970s all furutistic sci fi in TV/film continued to have CRTs in their display in all their fantasy futures. possibly for logistical reasons. it's the only way they could get real computer graphics to whizz around on camera since that's all they had to display it with. so they put it in Alien. and now they're stuck with it if they're going to have people find that old ship and board it to poke around, in Romulus. no reasoning here, it just is
shareActually, 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 had flat screens that were embedded in walls and desks, so it wasn't quite clear if they were CRT or some other futuristic display technology, that was a very clever approach.
shareinteresting. didnt know that. they had to come up with lots of tricks back then. i remember seeing how they explained the beginning of Barbarella where Jane Fonda is floating around naked, they had her roll around on flat glass. all the matte paintings and camera tricks.. looks like Alien they just went with a plain approach. regardless I've liked watching a lot of 70s sci-fi, and you see all the silly looking ships and giant computers, and CRTs everywhere 😄
shareYou can't do interstellar travel without powerful computers.
Robots for maintenance, digital libraries, sex bots.
Reason Star Trek TOS is sooo dated. Dune is Fantasy, just like Star Wars.