Ikegami TM24-17

Andy King
December 30, 2024, 1:57 am
January 11, 2025, 7:50 pm

Summary

Standard definition widescreen monitor from Ikegami. Supports 240p/480i only. Has modes for 16:9 full and 4:3 letterbox. Primary use case is to display anamorphic 16:9 content. Tube is made by Toshiba and has the hallmark purplish-hue of Microfilter.

You can find a list of games that support anamorphic 16:9 here.

Manuals

Toshiba Microfilter Technology

This CRT uses Microfilter, a technology innovation by Toshiba that aimed to optimize both brightness and contrast without darkening the glass with tint.

Conventionally, most tubes have a dark tint layer in the glass to reduce the amount of light reflection or absorption of the glass, thereby increasing contrast performance - a trade that costs an average 30% loss of overall brightness in all ambient light conditions (including near-darkness). In comparison, clear glass on a tube has the advantage of maximum brightness emission - but at a huge loss of contrast in normal ambient light conditions due to increased reflection. Typically you'll only find clear glass on professional broadcast monitors (aka BVM) that are intended to be used in near-darkness where ambient light is not an concern.

Microfilter aimed to be the best of both worlds by achieving the necessary amount of ambient light filtering at a per-phosphor (micro) level without sacrificing brightness, while still providing the vivid contrast you could typically only expect from a dark-tinted lower-brightness tube. On a Microfilter tube, the glass itself remains clear for maximum light transmission, while still taking a darkened grey-purple appearance from a combination of both the AR coatings and Microfilter over the phosphors.

You can learn more about Microfilter in our full article.

Gallery

Ikegami TM24-17 Ikegami TM24-17 Ikegami TM24-17