Who Still Watches a CRT Television?

[philcobendixduo]

Just curious to see how many AW members still use a CRT television as their "primary" set.

I am one of the "CRT fans" that watches a 1998 Mitsubishi 32" CRT console TV.
I would estimate that it's on about 7 hours a day so has about 50,000 hours on it.
It still works perfectly and has a good picture and excellent sound. Never been repaired.
I watch mainly old TV shows and movies on cable or DVD so it's perfect for what I watch.
I thought about getting a flat screen last year but couldn't bring myself to chuck out a perfectly good TV with a beautiful oak cabinet.
So, I will keep watching my CRT TV until the day it dies (or the day I day - which ever comes first!).

Any other CRT watchers out there -what brand and how old is your set?

 

[launderess]

We Still Have One

A JVC IIRC.

Keep it around because can longer find televisions with VCR connections any longer, and have an extensive collection of recordings.

When had cable also used to record shows for playback later. Have gone to OTA which is slightly less reliable in terms of reception so that is no longer possible.

 

[lordkenmore]

Well, until last night my one and only TV was a CRT set... But it's stopped working, as I mentioned in a thread I created here earlier. I have no idea what will happen next. CRT TVs are "good enough" for me, but a part of me does sort of like the idea of a flatscreen because there is less bulk. But, as I say, CRT is good enough--and potentially cheap used. If I can find one used, of course. I've noticed that my local Goodwill--which carried them--seems to have stopped carrying them. So, due to cost of replacement, I may just do without a TV for a while.

 

[DADoES]

 
It's not the primary but I have one in the bedroom.  27" Magnavox dated Oct 1987.  Has a Roku on it (which I seldom use), and I've been watching GH (via cable) on it for a couple months.

Also have a 20" RCA in another bedroom, dates to approx 1985.  The picture was bad, washed-out, last time I tried it.

Also have a 23" Emerson Sanyo dated Dec 2005 that hasn't been used since the grandmother died Dec 2013.

 

[launderess]

Many places no longer accept CRT television for donation

Since the market basically dried up after the digital broadcasting mandate became effective.

You see televisions of all sizes (including some TOL SONY, JVC and others) on curbs or whatever here in NYC left for rubbish.

That being said you can find plenty of used and even often NIB CRT televisions on fleaPay, CL and the other usual online sources. Some at reasonable to near give away prices.

What killed CRT televisions here in NYC was when local cable providers changed their systems and began requiring *everyone* get one of their boxes. This even when people already had newer televisions that already had built in digital converters.

Time Warner and others stated it was necessary because their boxes gave more options or whatever. What a load of flannel! They wanted to get people who were receiving service by merely connecting cable wire to television to pony up.

By the way proof how many are still watching tube televisions can be seen in prices paid for those digital converter boxes. You know, the ones that were given away free or whatever in advance of the USA moving over to digital broadcasting.

Get yourself one of those boxes, add a good antenna and you'll never need cable television.

 

[supersuds]

I'm still using a 1983 13" Sylvania in the kitchen, with rabbit ears and the converter box. The channel selector is getting "noisy" (don't know the exact term) and probably needs some contact cleaner, but I don't know enough about these things to start taking it apart. I know you can get a lethal jolt if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[wayupnorth]

I still have a 12" RCA click station tv in my bedroom that has not been turned on since this digital crap started. Got a 25" GE console color tv downstairs, which none work without a converter. Have a 34 or so" cheapie Emerson, somewhat smart tv that works fine and I can watch anywhere in the house.

 

[dartman]

I used to fix old sets and sell them. I started when tubes still dominated the market and hybrid and solid state sets were just becoming comon new. My first HDTV was a Toshiba cinema series 34hfx84 CRT set I paid 1225 cash for in 2005. 34" screen, 160 lbs, beautiful picture, looked way better then the LCD sets available then. I still have it working today and my sister uses it in her bedroom. I have many boxes of tubes back to the 20s from collecting them to fix the sets I got, a couple of Beltron CRT rejuvinaters, and some misc parts here and there.
I think the display technology has improved tremendously since the early flat screens and I now watch a new 55" Hisense 55H8C 4k HDR set. Awesome picture, lightweight, 4 year warranty. It even looks great playing upscaled 1080p stuff. I used a CRT computer monitor till probably about 2012 too, last one a Sony 21" that weighed close to 100 pounds.
OLED can show just as nice black levels and colors as the best CRT sets now, and well designed led/lcd sets can come pretty close and use a lot less power.
The thing about CRT sets is they had like 70 years to get it right so they were as good as it gets for a while, and CRT computer monitors can display almost any resolution completely perfectly, a lcd monitor only looks good at it's native resolution.
When I played computer games I would pick the display resolution that looked good and gave good frame rates. Now you have to run the native res or it looks like poo and that takes a fast card and cpu to do the job.
CRT tv's still look great playing old tapes and standard definition old school TV shows so if you're into those keeping a old good working set around will make you happy, and many of the last true hd CRT sets can still give you a great picture, they are just small and heavy. People used to try and find the last uber high end Sony hd crt wide-screen sets as they had such nice pictures. Now if I decide to get rid of my Toshiba I'll be lucky to get 75 bucks for it and probably would end up giving it away even though it was right up there with Sony in the day.

 

[sudsmaster]

I still have my big Sony 30" Trinitron. It resides in a big cabinet in the guest room. Was in the living room until around 2004, when I got a 42" Visio LCD for the living room. Then it moved to the family room/office, and was able to receive digital broadcasts via a Panasonic DVD recorder that could do such a conversion. Finally got a 32" flat panel for the family room. The DVD recorder stayed (and is still in use today recording selected programs) but the Sony CRT moved to its retirement location.

For a while I had a Toshiba 21" set on a high shelf in the wardrobe in the master bedroom; that got replaced by a 21" Samsung flat panel, which I rarely watch any more anyway. It was still working when I donated it to Goodwill (where it probably got crushed and sent to Asia to recycle the components). And so it goes. Oh, and I still have a little 13" B&W GE set; still works but is kind of a hassle to hook up to anything. That one was my main set in the '70's.

 

[maytag85]

I have a flat screen tv, but I do like CRT tv's better than flat screen tv's. One VERY RARE tv that would be cool to have would be a 1954 RCA CT-100 tv.

 

[speedqueen]

I collect a few vintage sets and the daily watcher in the living room is a 1965 RCA CTC-17XE color console in danish modern cabinet, all tube. Beautiful picture, accurate color, does need a sound alignment performed, audio is rather weak. When I finally repair it, the RCA will trade places for a while with a Zenith 25MC33 round screen color set. When working it has a better color than I have ever seen on ANY set including all the modern televisions. NTSC scan lines are the limiting factor on these older sets though, phosphor based color still cannot be surpassed though.

 

[askolover]

I still have a 1989 Magnavox 20" in my sleep room that I bought new when I moved to my first apartment, but I think the tuner just went out on it.  I guess it's time to find a smallish LCD television to go in its place. 

 

[thomasortega]

What is a CRT television?

(I'm just kidding, but it also answers the thread question.)

 

[foraloysius]

I have two Samsung flatscreens, in the livingroom and in the bedroom. The 21 inch Sony tube TV that was in the livingroom before, is now in the kitchen. I still use that TV a lot.

 

[DADoES]

 
My Panasonic plasma unit is modification of CRT technology, yes?  Each display cell is a kind of mini CRT, yes?

 

[rolls_rapide]

No, Plasma is not a modification of cathode ray tube technology.

Plasma screens use discrete envelopes of gas. A voltage is applied and the gas fluoresces, a bit like a neon sign, or a fluorescent tube. Pixels are individually addressed, or addressed in groups.

CRT technology involves a creating a vacuum in a glass tube. The faceplate has a metal shadowmask built in. Three phosphors (red, green and blue) are applied to the screen. The electron guns are aligned to only see their corresponding phosphors. A heater heats the cathode and high voltage up to 30,000 volts is applied to the electron gun cathode. A stream of electrons zooms towards the final anode near the shadowmask. Electromagnetic scanning coils sweep the beam across the screen, and down the screen.

The CRT phosphors retain the illumination for a significant period of time. This, coupled with the persistence of human vision image retention, fools us into thinking the image is smooth.

 

[askolover]

I know when a CRT breaks it sounds like a bomb going off.  When I worked at Goldstar in Huntsville, AL, occasionally we would hear a loud BOOM and everyone would take off running toward the sound to make sure no one was hurt by the implosion.

 

[speedqueen]

When did you work at Gold Star? I own a 1981 Gold Star color table top set.

 

[brucelucenta]

I got rid of my last one about 4 years ago. They were just too big and heavy and took up too much space. The flat screen tvs I have now go on each of the fireplace mantles and fit perfectly. They are huge in comparison to the old 37" tube tv too and have a much better picture. I was surprised how much space the old tv and stand ate up. I nearly got a hernia getting the old one up the stairs to get rid of it too!