How can I tell the difference between an Omni viii and an unfilmed white phosphor? (not looking through the two in comparison).

Im gonna go out on a limb here and say the color. One is green one is blueish

If you can't look through, what exactly can you look at? If a powered off unit that for some reason you cannot power on, peeking into the eyepiece at an angle gives you view to the tube labels / markings on the outside rim (outside of the screen area). Take pics / write on paper and post here or under the "How to tell what type of tube you have" topic. If you can't do that yourself, then whoever is in possession of the unit(s) could take photos with flashlight. Adjusting the diopter can make reading the markings easier.

Other than that, I don't know, perhaps someone knows if the FO window looks any different in GP or WP tubes.

If you can take off the eyepiece then it's one step easier.

I can look through it just fine - what I mean is that I cant look through both models to compare.

Im trying to figure out which one I have.

Is it green or blue?

Like murtis stated, look into the eye piece of whatever unit you have at your disposal and post here or better yet, turn it on and look through it.

I guess what other posters are assuming is that you are interested in buying a set of NODS and figuring out what you're getting. Otherwise, if you actually own a set of PVS14's, how did the picture look like when you looked through it?



By the way, PVS14 refers to the housing itself. A variety of tubes can be installed in said-housing.

Gotcha, like said by others, I also assumed you are thinking of purchasing a unit you may not have direct access to.

Is it green or blue? Either way, that tells you only the phosphor used, but will not give you any more details about what the tube actually is. Even to the point that if it's made by a US company or EU / Russia.

If you want to know more details you need to peek at the tube outer rim labels / markings. Easy peasy just look into the eyepiece in an angle, or take photos assisted with a flashlight to get proper focus. Then post the info, whatever it may be, gravings, labels, color of the tube, etc, and surely people will be able to assist. In some cases you can tell much about the tube - in some cases not that much.

Ahhh.

..Dim lightbulb goes on over my head..

Sorry for my misunderstanding. Thanks for all the help everyone. I'll look through the tube and see.