Pleas Bring Back CRT TV

Looks like you'll never buy a new TV then.

I agree, my HD CRT sets are awesome!

I have two 32" and a 27" that look better than most LCDs or Plasmas. These CRTs have no lag or blur that you will still get even on a 120hz LCD. My friends are amazed how clear sporting events are on a HD Tube TV with just a roof antenna. I have HD Comcast too, but the free OTA just blows people away.

Another plus is these CRTs are bullet proof. You don't hear about bad capacitors or failing power supplies on a CRT like you do for LCDs. Tubes last a long time, that's why manufacturers want to sell you a Plasma or LCD that lasts only 2 years.

You don't, but those of us who've spent years repairing these things have.

Yeah they both use capacitors and power supplies but I don't know the differences. Based on your experience would you say that flat panels are less reliable thus far? (not as much history to go on)

Hold up, what? I've "heard about" capacitors and other parts going bad on CRT televisions for years. It's hard to think anybody ever hasn't heard of that happening, come to think of it.

LCD televisions are not exactly "less reliable" but in my experience and observation, they certainly do tend to die sooner for the simple matter that they are more delicate. The backlight is just a tiny little CFL, it may only be on the order of some few cm, just moving locations can cause those things to break if they come loose. The plastic panels themselves are also obviously more easily breakable than a glass CRT. Honestly, neither kind of set should die just from simple use or moving around, but you easily see either die for just those reasons. If there is anything good about LCD as they stand, it's that they're so cheap they are easily replaceable. This is a double-edged sword though and as technology has changed so much in the past 8 or 10 years, people have dumped their older LCDs for the nicer points of newer screens.

True. But the difference is that in your average CRT caps fail every 5-10 years, you replace them and they last another 5-10 years. In LCDs on the other hand... it's not uncommon to see capacitor failures after just an year or two.

I recently found a 28" Philips (standard def) on the 2nd floor of my apartment building, it had the power cord cut off but no other parts removed (i guess whoever dumped it didn't have a Torx screwdriver on him ). Taking it apart revealed about 10 years worth of dust, a cracked capacitor from HOT collector to emitter, and obviously a shorted HOT because of that capacitor failure. It so happened that i had both parts on hand and the TV fired up. Some slight ripple at the top of the picture traced back to a couple dried 'lytics. Fixed that and some cracked joints on the TV tuner, and it's as good as new. The picture is nothing short of stunning for a 20 year old set, there is no color shift, brightness and contrast are adequate. I'd say the tube has at least 5 years of life left in it. It has SCART input with RGB so console games look great.

Unfortunately HD CRT TVs are a rarity in my country. I'm actively looking for a GDM-FW900 24" widescreen CRT monitor, but people who have one of those don't want to part with it.

Were a lot of new FW900s sold in Europe?


(By the way, I almost completely agree with the original poster.)

Now I feel bad for cannabilizing and placing in delivery que two broken RCA 31" Home Theatre CRTs . I picked up the second one free several years ago for parts to repair 'my baby' but procastination took hold and I felt it was pointless now with so many free or cheap sets of much newer vintage available here.

I'm guessing like most things caps aren't the quality they used to be. The fish oil, etc. in 'lytics probably isn't as 'fresh' and the rare earth materials in some others are getting rarer. Then there's shrinkage (heat dissipation). Of course with CRTs having gone the way of the dodo it makes it harder to make a more up-to-date comparison.

I wish Toshiba could've followed through on that flat-panel tube techno they were pushing a few years back...

Well, It's not like you're forced to run those old 4:3 gaming systems in widescreen mode on an HDTV, They can be played with black bars on the sides for proper aspect ratio and you can get a much larger screen with LCD/Plasma (pretty cheap nowadays as well)

Don't get me wrong my Sony 34XBR960 CRT has a phenomenal picture but everyone still prefers gaming on our 50" Pioneer Kuro plasma.

If you want the closest PQ to a CRT then stick with Plasma, even Wii looks good on the Kuro but of course 480i/480p scaling quality will depend on the brand / model so be sure to research any potential purchase.

Ok, first of all yes a Tube CRT is a MUST for any retro game console like the NES, SNES, Genesis, Atari 2600 just to name a few. because playing these consoles on an HDTV results in a nasty dithering effect whenever the screen starts scrolling....plus lcd's fare a lot worse in the motion handeling department.

But watching movies on your 4:3 RCA 28" TV must be kind of....well, not too exciting, at least in comparison to what you COULD have. a 56" 1080p PLASMA(NOT LCD or LED, as they're just awful for movies.....Why? Well, the motion handeling is just unecceptable, There's possible screen clouding, back light bleeding, typical weak contrast/black levels and because this is crystal display technology you get more of an artifical picture with pronounced artifiacts resulting in one annoying-ass picture based on what i've experienced with several models. PLASMA's are a MUST for film and that's that, they're pretty much like a flat panel CRT with 'slightly' weaker motion + dithering and that's it! :P

However, what i love about LCD's are the amazing brightness capabilities, pure whites and cleaner crisper image for gaming....Those colorful titles such as Mario galaxy, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Zelda SkyWord sword look JAW DROPPING on a properly set LCD/LED. While on a CRT, they look rather dull in comparison.

Anyways, I love me some CRT! take me back to the 80's baby or early 90's. I've still got my 20" CRT from 92' which i use for my NES & SNES, aside from owning a Plasma(which i use for movies and certain Wii games) and an LCD(which i use for most Wii games and as a cartoony colorful screensaver).

I was thinking of going for a 25" Sony Tube to replace my 20"
That's if i can find one! They're cheap as hell which is always nice and a 25-27" won't be a pain in the ass to lug home....In comparison to a 32" for example! Dinasaur heavy bud!

Not a chance dude! Your best bet is to hit up Electronic Pawn shops, or Craigs list. I'm sure you'll easily stumble across something you like and size' wise. I'm going to have to. I want a 23-25" Sony CRT Tube from the early 90's to replace my curren 20"...Which has no remote, and because of that i can't access the picture controls since i want to pump up the color and contrast. Sigh* Unless i can get some sort of universal remote that's compatible.

And there's no need to really make newer smaller sized CRT's. Plasma is basically so bloody close to the tech itself. The only difference is all HDTV's have some for of lag, while Plasma's have slightly weaker motion + a dithering effect in comparison to CRT. But the smallest plasma's they make are 42" Anyways, Pawn Shops...Start looking.lol

And I WISH somebody would develop a device that would eliminate input lag all together!

Plenty on Craigslist anywhere from free to very cheap; of course the freebies go fast unless you can catch someone posting one in the for sale section (vs. the free section), less free-vulchers watching there. I got lucky on a free 27" RCA HD w/HD tuner and a 20" Sony WEGA, both from the same folks; was in the free section but the first biters didn't show up. Yeah 27" was just at my limit for lifting although the RCA was 100 lbs. vs. my old GE 27" at 70 lbs. (heavier tube/mask material for HD CRTs?).

Watching movies on a tiny little 56" screen is rather boring if it's more than 6' away (like the footboard on your bed).

You COULD have a 9" CRT front projector which does a fine jobs on screens suitable for living room scale (ex - 11' seating distance, 100" 16:9 diagonal), has no visible pixel structure, and resolves 1080p.


I bought a plasma for our bedroom. The picture structure and black levels are crap compared to my CRT projector and the screen has 1/4 the area.

I need one to play Duck Hunt. The flash does not work on an LCD...I love that game.

Rather boring if you're more than 6 feet away? Man, if i had my living room set up with a 56" plasma with it being 6 feet away that would basically morph down the size of my living room into a little bedroom Besides, you're talking about 'optimal' viewing distance for 1080p. When the content i'll be viewing will be a straight up mix of 480p, 720p and 1080p. I'd say 10-11 feet away eye distance wise would be a much nicer and more open viewing distance. to each their own though, i would NOT want to sit 6 feet away from a 56", that's wayyy too close and akward for my liking. Hell i won't even sit that close to my current 42" Right now I'm at around 9-10 feet.

And what plasma did you end up getting. My LG Plasma(which I'm replacing with a Panasonic X3) is gorgeous for film....the motion is CRT-like, the brightness is just as good, the colors are fantastic and the benifit of having progressivescan, HDMI, a large sized screen and HD is absolutely fantastic....If anything the black levels could be better. Personally i don't need super perfect blacks, as long as they're pretty good then I'm good to go.
I also don't really care for having 1080p either. My 720p Plasma smokes my 1080p LCD....And at 9-10 feet away from a 42" i can't even notice a difference in resolution. All i can notice from the LCD is horrible motion handeling, weaker black levels/contrast, clouding, light bleeding and pronounced crispy artifcats in the skin and everything else. lol But yu a 100" would be killer....But i doubt you'd get anything nice unless you spent the major bucks on a good Projecter....It's out of the question, a 56" is perfect for my needs and space.'

Then again, i take that back a 100" would be amazing.lol But i doubt for the money that i'm looking to spend i'd even get a good picture.....LCD projecters? No thanks..DLP seems to be the only other option i'm guessing.

I wonder if he meant to type 28"? Go back and look at the post/reply.

You might wanta hit craigslist and stock up on them I bought a Sony Hs -420 32" not too long ago. The mid and high end models off pretty all brands are going for next to nothing. If you look hard enough they're are even some freebies.

One thing that i find annoying is that practicallly of the last CRT's that were released by Sony were Silver instead of black....They look like massive piece of Alien Space ship junk if you ask me.

Sign of the times. My Sony blu-ray player and Motorola HD tuner from around that time are big, now that stuff is much smaller. I don't think it was due to changes in tech so much as their insides have lots of dead space, I think folks just wanted 'more' for their money back then; plus the big entertainment centers whereas now it's all shrunken down or mounted on a wall.

The last Sony 16:9 CRT's had black fronts though but I don't know about the 4:3 sets. Conforming to the movie theater experience rqt. I hate the reflection off a silver edge especially with the later CRT's being so bright.

What was annoying for me is that almost every Sony CRT I bought quit working within 5 years lol, The older (1980's & 90's) standard definition Sony TV's lasted forever.

But at least my Sony 34XBR960N still works (bought in 2005), It's the only CRT left in our house.

It seems to me the FD Trinitron WEGAs with the wide side-mounted speakers (such as the KD-36XS955) generally have more of the reflection issue and look cheaper/gaudier overall than the "narrower" ones and speakers on the bottom. Those look more like the Panasonic Tau -- mine has almost no glare despite its silver bezel face.

The charcoal and black bezel Trinitrons look the best in my opinion, though the silver and black ones such as the KV-40XBR's and KD-34XBR's look great too and don't really have the reflection issue.

I like my Tau too (CT-34WX50) but the reflection that bothers me on it is the thin inside edge perpendicular to the screen; this I'm referring more to a reflection generated by the CRT emission rather than room reflection. I may buy a black Sharpie and 'paint' the edge as it's no more than a quarter inch wide (other suggestions are welcome).

Hmmm, maybe they used different silver finish. I have a Sony 20" (something FS120) with the side speakers but it has so many holes on the sides (I know the speakers aren't that big! ) I don't notice the reflection as much.

Good Job!!!!!


I have a newbie,

I have boost by your post!!!!!!

I have a 32 inch silver RCA CRT bought brand new in 2003 if anyone might be interested in it. I suppose you would have to live in Wisconsin somewhere though...

Two general things to look for in a Sony set on Craigs list when no model number is given. Darker charcoal or black case, and two "feet" instead of one big snail foot in the front. Should be a higher quality set with more inputs.

I find this Sony WEGA (flatscreen CRT) Wiki link useful when perusing Craigslist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FD_Trinitron/WEGA

Of course most of the time I have to try and get the folks to reply with a model number.

Yes, always try to get a model number out of them first. You would be surprised how many people have 1080i CRT TVs thinking they are 480i TVs and their post will say it's not high-definition capable -- and vice versa, people who (for example) assume that all CRT TVs with component video input are capable of high def.

Once I saw a post on Craigslist for a "really big" Sony CRT monitor, they said it looked like the one in the photo they posted (which was a stock photo of a FW900), and I asked seller if they knew the model number; the seller did not, so I got there just to be slightly disappointed to see that it was just a 17" Vaio-style Trinitron monitor.