The end of the CRT era...

It depends on what you consider "commercially feasible." The 55" LG B6 is going for under $2K on Amazon right now:

Amazon.com: LG Electronics OLED55B6P Flat 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV (2016 Model): Electronics

I'm probably going to drop the hammer on a B7 by summer, because it's actually good enough to use as a grading display (when it's calibrated). I spent a lot more money than that on 32" Sony consumer CRT displays in the 1980s, and they weren't even half the size of this one. The OLED monitors can be really, really good.

 

Well since I am not unduly bothered by CRT's flaws, commercially feasible prices for "regular sized" OLED would be $500- 1000. The sizes would go down to 20" suitable for computer monitors. Off brand stuff would be of interest if it were $200, not $2000 but that is just me. I see various explanations for the lack of smaller sizes than 55" but they seemed to involve issues like "burn in" which were solved years ago elsewhere. It is curious that OLED seems to have problems with "regular sizes" more than large or very small.

 

I don't think there are any 'problems' as such with smaller sizes, it's just that the tech is still relatively expensive and so making small screens would still be expensive, but the costs would be more acceptable for larger sizes. And in any case, the market wants larger sizes too - 65" models these days are becoming more mainstream. No one wants to look at a small tv screen.

Computer monitors are a different matter, but still related to high costs, and burn-in issues would be magnified on computer monitors as they tend to display a lot of static images (windows) over extended periods of time.

 

Thanks for your reply and info.

 

God bless you.... I trust ya still have them....... I love CRTs,the most beautiful sets ever made

 

My CRT era ended yesterday. There was an electronics recycling event and since I'd bought an OLED my big projection TV was just sitting there taking up space so off it went.

 

I disagree, and I stare at pictures on monitors for a living. All I see with CRTs are the flaws, especially in 2018. OLED is a helluva lot better. And they're very affordable these days.

 

I couldn't stand the flicker of CRTs but I live on a PAL country where scanning frequency is 50 Hz, that's the main reason I got a multistandard (NTSC/PAL) Laser Disc player back in 1995 and a plain Pioneer region 1 DVD player back in 1998, to get rid of that dreadful 50 Hz PAL flicker.
Despite of scanning frequency I much prefer the picture of a good LCD/LED or an OLED, I don't miss CRTs at all.

 

I upgraded years ago, but since my old CRT still works, I've kept it in storage in case my other TV dies and happen to be short on money. Was just thinking this past weekend about finally tossing it sometime this month.

 

Much to my surprise my 2007 Samsung 30” widescreen HD slimfast tube TV is still going strong. It has a 1080i picture and as would be expected from a tube set, deep, rich blacks. When I first bought it it was revelatory, I recall tuning into The Tonight Show and being dazzled by the detail.

After months away on a job I was recently home again and watching the Samsung. For the first time ever I found myself noticing a softness in the picture, the 32” LG LCD I watch while away is so much sharper and detailed, it’s become my new normal. I’m sure we’ll be keeping the Samsung until it quits though.

 

I've got a working one set up but I haven't had it on in quite a while. If the cable was in that room I might use it more. I can't bring myself to toss out a perfectly good tv. Bought it in the early 90's. It's an RCA. Can't remember the size right now.

 

I still have a CRT for my standard definition capture system, a Sony broadcast monitor. Haven't fired it up in a few years, but I have no doubt it will work - Sony Broadcast was good stuff.

One other is a Electrohome monitor with long persistence phosphors for my Amiga 1000. I really need to pull out the floppies, start it up and make a few YouTube demo videos. I think the kids might dig some of the crazy stuff we did on such primitive equipment back in the Eighties.

 

Yes, still using my 20 inch Sony from early 2000s.

 

I haven't read this whole thread yet but did anybody bring up the anti-vibration wires in Sony Trinitron tubes?

It's one of those things like a cigarette burn/reel markers on 35 millimeter film prints - once you see them you can never unsee them.

 

Okay, I am still using my 1995 JVC 35 inch set and I also recently took in a nice 32 inch TV. I am not switched over any time soon, if ever. The reasons are simple. 98% of what I watch are old TV shows and sports from my collection. They are from various sources. Commercially released DVDs of course but also tens of thousands of off-air recordings, 16mm film transfers, 3/4 inch tape transfers, old Betamax tapes, even EIAJ recordings. Yes, remastered and color corrected material as well as current programs look great but anything less than pristine looks like you know what stepped on. A second generation VHS dub looks like a 6th generation dub on a high def set. Plus the black bars on the corners look stupid. TV was meant to be seen in 4x3 and it was produced that way for 60 years. Tell me I'm wrong.

 

If you insist...

 

And every TV is capable of producing a picture in those dimensions.

 

We bought an LG 65" OLED late last year and one of the first things I watched in full after painstakingly setting it up was an old VHS of Billy Joel's "Live from Long Island" show, shot in 1983 on video.

I popped it in just to see how unbearable a VHS would look, and it wasn't bad. In many ways it was a better experience than watching on any small CRT screen from the past. Yeah the flaws are all there, but it's still bigger and you can sit comfortably further away. You'll have to manually set the proper aspect ratio, of course.

I somewhat recently popped in my Live Aid DVDs and enjoyed that experience as well.

I have quite a few pre-HD things that I'll still watch on occasion, and I can't imagine watching them on some aging old CRT monitor. I understand nostalgia, but this pining for old TVs is really confusing me.

dan c

 

I keep an old 32" LCD set for watching SD material. When displaying 4:3 stuff, the picture is about 25" diagonal, which is about all SD is good for. And it looks good, not fuzzy and washed out.

 

I certainly understand anyone preferring LCD over CRT but there are significant flaws with LCD as with CRT. OLED is a different matter since it can actually produce true black.

The problem I have had with LCD vs CRT besides the black were the motion artifacts. My CRT monitor has rock stable images when scrolling and I never get tired with it as I do with LCD monitors. Of course there are people who are not bothered by motion artifacts in LCD but are bothered by flicker or lower resolution of detail.

I would happily buy an OLED monitor but they don't make them so I am stuck for the while with CRT.

 

There are ways to improve display of older SD sources on a high-definition digital display. I have a computer with an analog video input card coupled was a piece of software called dscaler. It can scale a 480i input to 1080P or even higher, and the only thing I've seen do a better job is a Terranex processor.

I use it for all of the ancient sources I have - VHS, beta, LaserDisc, PAL and SECAM VHS, Hi8, 3/4" U-Matic.

One of the sad truths of video is that when higher-quality formats become the standard, the support for the previous format becomes worse and worse. I can assure you that the composite video input on a high-definition current monitor is going to be worse than the composite input on an older standard-definition monitor.

 

Our bedroom color TV is a CRT from JVC that I bought in the mid80s when I needed a small TV in my studio to work on stuff for Turner Broadcasting System, storyboards and such.

Its gotten darker over the years but it just wont die. An amazing piece of old technology. gets used at least once a day.

That JVC stuff was pretty good, I've also got a CD player from them, not as old as the TV, but still pretty old, and never a single hiccup from it.

 

I just moved the top-of-the-line $2000+ Panasonic 36" TV out of its perch downstairs and replaced it with a TCL 4K 43" LCD TV that cost a whopping $225.

The new TV is better in every way except sound quality, and about 135 pounds lighter.

The Panasonic still works. Sadly, I'll probably have to pay the city to haul it away, as I doubt anyone would take it, even for free.

All the other CRT TVs have been disposed of--although there's still a CRT monitor not being used in a room in the attic.

 

I used to have the giant Sony 40" KV-40XBR700 WEGA and a 36" widescreen one too. God, that thing was a hassle to move around, it weighed close to 300 lbs. Whenever I re-arranged the living room, I'd sit on the carpet and slowly, delicately have to push it at the base with my feet like I was doing leg presses to move it. It was still working fine when I finally upgraded to a Plasma in 2012-ish and when I was moving it out to the garage on a big flat dolly, the stand collapsed and it crashed face-first to the ground cracking the screen and nearly breaking one of my legs.




Buy-bye, 36" incher. This one actually crapped out around 2013, the dreaded "flashing red light of death" typical of this model.....