CRT Enjoyer Thread - CRTs >>>>> Everything else.

[David Nosenberg]

YouTuber Shank Mods has acquired one of the largest CRTs ever produced. The video is really pretty excellent from start to finish.

I thought my 28" tube was big. This beast absolutely dwarfs it. What a lucky man.

 

[Kalsarikännit]

Will be cool if he ends up putting it somewhere that people can visit and play on it.

 

[Cane Skretteburg]

Pertinent.

 

[Historical Strelkov]

Woah thanks for making me aware of this outdated consumer tech!

 

[FamicomGorby]

is it a sin if i:

1. Take a CRT monitor (broken or not)
2. hollow it out with a spoon and hammer
3. get all my pc parts in there
4. put some LED screen where the CRT glass is meant to be (once i scrub off the phosphorous coat)​

so i can have a CRT monitor that's actually a 2k gaming PC?

I guess you could do that, but even in a 27" tube there isn't really as much space in it as you might think. The tube tapers off to the neck pretty quick. Really you could just get a CRT tv and remove the tube, just put your monitor in the case. Or just find an empty case, they usually turn up from people who salvage the tubes for use in arcade monitors.

Be very careful with the high voltage. It's not just directly touching traces connected to capacitors that's the issue, look up a guide for a CRT like yours for the right order to short things in. I have a metal box with a few really big resistors in it hooked up in parallel because I don't like the idea of putting high amp loads on capacitors, but I don't think something like that is strictly required.

CRT's do have dangerous high voltages in em but I think the risks are extremely overstated by people on the internet. It takes two seconds to discharge a set and all you need is a screwdriver and some wire hooked up to the tube's ground. I work on on arcade monitors sometimes so I've just got an HV probe I use to discharge em. I'd say more people are at risk of necking their tubes from not paying attention and accidentally smacking the neck board than getting shocked.

 

[Smokingpoop]

I have a 1984 Sonty trinitron that is one of my prized possessions lol. Using a CRT monitor or TV is cathartic in a way that LED monitors can never be

 

[Sneed's Feed n Seed]

I would kill or pay very very good money for new tubes, why isn't anyone making them?

 

[Unicorn Fairie]

I would kill or pay very very good money for new tubes, why isn't anyone making them?

Because there's isn't a large enough consumer base for new ones. CRTs were bloody expensive to make and only became viable due to economies of scale. Besides, if Sony were to reenter the space, would people even buy them? They'd be more expensive than even 20" PMVs from the late 90s. They'd flop on the marketplace HARD.

 

[Sneed's Feed n Seed]

People will pay 3-4 figures for headphones, headphone amplifiers, DACs, etc. I can't help but wonder why audiophiles exist but CRT-o-philes do not.

 

[FedPostalService]

I’ve got a massive CRT just gathering dust. My idea was to turn it into an arcade machine along with a Raspberry Pi but my mate’s workshop closed so I’ve lost access to all the woodworking equipment I was going to use. I’m amazing with a bandsaw.

 

[FamicomGorby]

I would kill or pay very very good money for new tubes, why isn't anyone making them?

Cause making a color CRT tube requires a ton of specialty equipment and we still live in a world where even over paying you can get a high quality Trinitron for under $500. By comparison, making audio gear typically just consists of putting mostly off the shelf components into a fancy looking box.

Here's a how it's made of a monochrome tube being made

And a video of how Sony Trinitrons were made

I’ve got a massive CRT just gathering dust. My idea was to turn it into an arcade machine along with a Raspberry Pi but my mate’s workshop closed so I’ve lost access to all the woodworking equipment I was going to use. I’m amazing with a bandsaw.

I guess if you get back to it, assuming it's not a Trinitron, I'd say put the tube onto an arcade monitor frame and hook it up to a universal chassis.

 

[Oliver Onions]

People will pay 3-4 figures for headphones, headphone amplifiers, DACs, etc. I can't help but wonder why audiophiles exist but CRT-o-philes do not.

Probably because there are universal advantages to high-end audio equipment with no cons except for the price, whereas the benefits of CRTs only apply to a specific group of nerds who have a use for them and the con is you have a gigantic box TV taking up space and need to be Eddie Hall if you ever want to move it.

In short, everyone is happy if their music sounds better, but only a handful of people care about experiencing Crash Bandicoot the way God intended.

 

[Bucky]

I'm glad to see thing's happening in this thread, I've lurked for a while and I think it's worth posting my collection just so people know that there are others working to preserve them (I have the Marge Simpson approach and just think they're neat but I rescue them from yard sales whenever possible)

I also specifically collect miniature CRT's (keeps it from taking over my house / sucker for miniatures), this photo is the majority of my collection, a Mega Watchman, an IMA Little Pyramid, and a Watchman.

If anybody has any info about the IMA Pyramid I am curious, I can find next to nothing online about them, though I swear at one point I had read about them?

(And don't tempt me with those old production videos, I've seen people replicate the effect with a laser using a galvanometer and glow in the dark paint, the process could probably be refined for better results but I will always dream of commissioning a glass blower to make a custom tube)

 

[Vibe_Guy]

YouTuber Shank Mods has acquired one of the largest CRTs ever produced. The video is really pretty excellent from start to finish.

I had this exact television when I was a kid. By the time I was 12-14 the TV was at its death bed. When you turn it on you hear this night vision turning on high pitched sound with audio, but the screen had to warm up. So if you wanted to watch cartoon network or whatever, there was a 20 minute period of a picture slowly forming from pitch blackness. We never turned it off due to this reason, ironically causing it to die.

RIP you glorious peace of junk, alot of fond memories.

 

[Baraka Obama]

I don't get the complaints about how heavy CRTs are, you don't have to buy a retarded 27 inch tube.

A simple 13 inch CRT can sit on top of a desk and is a surprisingly comfortable size, its not like a 13inch widescreen laptop at all. And they are not heavy at all, they don't take much space, they don't get hot really (I checked mine and it uses about 60W when on).

 

[LEGOsneed]

Controversial opinion: Diamondtrons are better than Trinitrons

 

[CaptainAutism69]

You guys are making me miss my 32 inch nicam stereo tv now

 

[Oliver Onions]

I don't get the complaints about how heavy CRTs are, you don't have to buy a retarded 27 inch tube.

I think it's more in comparison to modern flatscreens. I have a 60-inch flatscreen now and, (while I wouldn't recommend it,) I can pick it up and move it around by myself. With my old CRT that was half the size it was impossible to move without at least one other person and usually some straps or a sheet to sit it on.

 

[Dawdler]

I don't know if it was this thread or some other, when someone was mentioning only 30.000 hour life of crt.
The tube itself will most likely outlast the electronics.
There was a time long ago, where tv tubes were being reconditioned and even guns were replaced.
There are a lot of options if you want to recondition a tube and crts are in a way - easy to maintain since they are very analogue devices.
If you turn brightness down you will also extend the life of thing. I had a 19" philips for almost 10 years of daily use and it still works. It was 700USD worth new, one of the best purchases of the time. It itself heating the whole room in winter is not worth it tho and it is heavy enough it caved in the desk it sat on.
The closest part to an old crt is a modern plasma tv. Without any of the drawbacks. However, processing is digital and probably not fit for old analog consoles.

 

[AmpleApricots]

This thread actually reminded me I still have a Braun TV3


(all pictures for illustration purposes from google, not mine)

That thing is like 26" if I recall correctly, and if I had to guess, about 40 kg. Can't even imagine double the size. It's gimmick was is that you could press the button you see to the right at the front and angle the tube up and down while holding the button. It was a fully mechanical mechanism. The idea behind that was to get rid of reflections from light sources IIRC. It came with a HiFi system it was supposed to be on top of, I still have that one too + the VCR of that system.



It all had tons of little green lights and big green segment displays so you knew it's the future. the controls you would press and they slowly would slide out to the position you can see on the second thing which I think is the amplifier?! (I didn't see mine in decades and genuinely don't remember, it's somewhere in the attic) Very la-di-da. The remote control was the queerest thing I ever saw:

It already looked odd like that; the special gimmick it had was that it would control everything, not just the tv:


it had a little sliding mechanism at the top where you would set what you wanted to control:



and that would flip a specific card with the descriptions of the buttons over the buttons which you could then see when you pressed the open button (you could only set the system when it was closed, of course) it would also set a little slider to the right you can see in this picture, so the remote knew which system to address:


All fully mechanical, no electronics involved. (besides the remote itself of course) Very fancy, about forty years ago. Godamn, I'm old. I think it was wildly unsuccessful. Used it way into the 90s. I think there was something wrong with the antenna modulator. All Made in W. Germany.