Let's open a brand-new monitor in the box! This is a ViewSonic Optiquest Q71 17 inch monitor from the year 2001...

with the features that I want.

1280x1024, 87 hertz refresh rate, .23 millimeter horizontal dot pitch.

ViewSonic 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 wanna try it out! [Grunt]

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...

[Box scraping noise]

You know, it's such a hard thing to find someone that's going to ship like a CRT properly.

And so, a new in box one is going to be packed properly. 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.

[Cutting sounds]

Mmm!

Starting here, we have the base. [Chuckles] 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 kinda 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

I am just sick and tired of, you know, ordering...

[Styrofoam falling noises]

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, in 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.

Okay, it looks like we have some stuff here. Oh! It has some software.

[Sniffs]

Nice fresh power cord, that smells perfect.

"ViewSonic 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 Optiquest line of ViewSonic monitors.

The parts, I believe, were all the same pretty much.

But uh, they were a budget release because they didn't include things like extended warranties and like ViewSonic Parts & Repair services.

Yeah, they cheaped out.

Monitors themselves, though... Well...

They're still a ViewSonic... Mmm!

Look at this beast! Ahh, it's wonderful! That's a sweet looking CRT!

[Sniffing noise] Mm, and again, that smells brand-new and beautiful.

Mmm... fresh VGA cable...

I'm all about that base, man!

Let's uh... ooh!

Wh- wh- 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.

*Clatter*

Okay, I guess that's what that thing comes off for because now it makes it... a little easier to get on there.

*Click*

Awesome!

Urgh...

Ugh.

This thing is like, 50 pounds or something.

Just checked, it's uh, 40 pounds/18 kilograms.

Ha ha ha, wow.

That's a 17 inch monitor, I'd love to get like a 21 inch. There's some amazing Sony Trinitrons...

[Sigh] 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.

*Click*

I've given up on finding... *sigh* 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.

Mmm!

Yeah... CRT sounds!

Nice!

"No signal! Course there's not!"

Might be able to not do anything until I plug anything in, but...

That's okay. *Click* Let's plug something in!

I'm going to plug in my somewhat... ngh, nasty looking these days, uh, Windows 98 capture machine here,

just generic beige thing that is very much 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...

*Thud*

Standard frickin' 2 button HP mouse.

*Thud*

Mm, some speakers because I like sound.

And you got the wonderful monitor... plugged in there.

*Click*

*Computer whirring noise*

Yeah, I actually wanna repaint this whole thing, like I just wanna paint this computer like, I dunno, green or something.

That is looking nice! Oh ho, man!

Yeah, I do have a nice, awesome Gateway CRT in there.

Um, it had a Sony Trinitron tube in it, which is also fantastic in a 17 inch.

Um, it's very similar to this, spec-wise.

You know, it's used, I don't know what kind of history it has, and...

Alright Windows, let's see what you get. Man, those scanlines are looking beautiful.

Maaan, that's looking goood!

At least it is to me! I dunno know how it's looking at the camera.

Or to the camera cause I'm not- not looking.

"Degauss it!"

"Yes, degauss!"

*Click*

Sweet!

Okay, so that shows resolution and uh... refresh rate.

So let's max that thing out to um...

[Laughter] Can it go 1600x1200? It didn't say it could.

*SFX* We'll try it!

*Computer whirring noise*

"Out of range," yeah, well, okay, that makes sense.

I think it said, what, 1280x1024? So let's try that.

*SFX*

*Computer whirring noise*

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,

Um, anyway, that refresh rate, what the heck is it?

Uh... that's 60, but... I would love to get up to 85, maybe 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 *insaaane*!"

Alright, let's try out that uh, that disk.

I wasn't gonna *snap* even mess with it, but...

maybe it'll be able to...

*Clattering & Disk insertion noises*

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- that's a little closer to what I'm actually seeing.

So okay, uh, InstallShield Wizard is complete!

There we go, Optiquest Q71-6.

*SFX*

Not sure why it's asking me for that *chuckles* location, it already had it in there, but there it is.

Alright, cool! So that's the monitor.

*Clicking noises*

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 should be able to get a higher refresh rate.

There we go! 75, that's not bad!

There we go! Oh, that looks much better already.

Whoa...

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, we're not going to be able to go any higher than 640x480 on this one but that is okay.

[♪ Game Music and SFX ♪]

Still looks lovely.

[♪ Game Music and SFX ♪]

Oh ho....

[♪ Game Music and SFX ♪]

That looks glorious!

[♪ Game Music and SFX ♪]

Man, that's some good color!

Ohhh...

*Chuckles*

CRTs make me happy, especially new old stock ones, man!

This is wonderful.

[♪ Game Music and SFX ♪]

I'd say... this is at least on par with that... uh...

Gateway in there with the Sony tube... if not a little 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.

[♪ Game Music and SFX ♪]

It's looking delightfully rich, although, of course, you're seeing it through a camera through a YouTube video,

so... it's not like-

*Chuckles*

Maybe it looks like garbage! I don't know.

My apologies for that 75 hertz headache-inducing footage from a moment ago.

It looks amazing in-person because, you know, higher framerates 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 anyway, thanks for watching this random ramble of me unboxing a random thing,

which is not that random because I chose it on purpose.

But if you enjoyed this, then I- you know, great, but-

*Chuckles*

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 normal LGR scheduled programming.

Friday, and then Monday, and then Friday, Monday, Friday, Monday, and then...

If I decide to do anything else like this, I guess I will.

Thanks for watching!