The end of the CRT era...

If you play any vintage games you need a CRT. You can get great late model units for literally nothing these days-and if you never got the chance to see a high end later model display VHS, LD or even component DVD you're in for a surprise. CRTs may have their drawbacks but they can hide many flaws-particularly in SD broadcast.

The Sony HD flagship sets are something to behold-where they started to leave visible scanlines behind.
I just found the old CAV Singin' in the Rain MGM CAV Laserdisc not too long ago and decided to see what it looked like on the 36xs955 HDCRT...it's a tad soft but the image literally leapt off the screen-and it becomes obvious that they did indeed transfer a dye transfer element as credited.

 

Go watch the Blu-ray restoration on Singin' in the Rain, which I believe was done with three different sets of separation negatives in 4K over a period of 8 or 9 months. The same technicians at Warner Bros. MPI did the old 1990s transfer and then completely redid everything in the 2000s in 4K. The pictures are stunning. You are wrong if you believe 20-year-old work can't be improved today.

We haven't used CRTs for mastering since about 2008-2009, roughly a decade. All the tubes get soft and go bad, and since they stopped making them, the entire industry has switched to OLED. Trying to watch a CRT after you've seen a 4K OLED is like looking at the world through the bottom of a Coke bottle.

BTW, I used the Sony BVM-32E for about ten years (1998-2008) for mastering, and it was a great screen for its time. But it's a junk heap today. And that was about $35,000 and weighed 350 pounds. I've had them catch fire on me twice -- it made a smell I would not like to smell twice in my life.

 

I have two big Sylvanias and one other CRT in the garage that were left here by room mates who moved out. As far as I know, they all still work (they were working when last plugged it) and are pretty huge. They are late 1980s/early 1990s so they don't have that vintage look with the big wood cabinets and so forth. If I did have a big old Zenith or Magnavox color TV with the wood I would definitely be using it. I could even put a big flatscreen on top of it!

My grandparents had an awesome huge TV that even had a record player and radio tuner in it. I was told by family members it was still around so when I bought their house and moved in, I planned to hook it up. No luck finding it though, so it must have gotten tossed years ago. Too bad because that TV was great, a real big piece of furniture that played music!

 

Yeah, I had one of those. Very low hours, still great picture. When I moved about 9 years ago, my plan was to take it to the new place. But when a friend of mine and I could barely get that thing on a dolly and up a ramp into the back of his truck, we realized we would NEVER be able to get it up to the second floor where I'd intended to put it.

So we moved it to his garage, and I sold it on CraigsList for about $150. And I was happy to be done with it.

 

This is a very revealing statement inasmuch as CRT was replaced in many places by LCD well before 2008-9. I agree that OLED is an actual upgrade to CRT rather than exchanging pluses and minuses. Let me know when the OLED monitor arrives.

 

Don't miss crt technology at all. Way too heavy for a decent sized tv and with an overly soft image. In fact, one of the most painful injuries of my life was from carrying one up a flight of stairs with help several years ago; it took a few years for my back to fully recover.

 

I'm on my third OLED display. What do you need to know? All of them still work and are being used all the time.

 

I wonder if by "OLED monitor" he meant an OLED computer monitor? These are still pretty much non-existent (I'd be interested in one). I think that's the case due to two main reasons - high cost (for a relatively small market compared to TVs) and burn-in issues (which are more severe compared with TVs due to types of typical use). Might have to wait for inorganic microLEDs...

 

I'm waiting for OLED computer monitors. Burn in would almost certainly be an issue, although I wonder if modern displays have reached the point where they could potentially detect that and take steps to prevent it.

 

I don't think so, not for desktop use at least. OLED TVs already employ pixel shifting to minimize the effect, but that wouldn't work on the desktop where you could be displaying multiple windows of flat and mostly unchanging color for 8+ hours a day, every day. That sort of 'abuse' even causes issues with LCDs (over the years).

Having said that, here's one:
https://www.monitornerds.com/asus-pq22uc-preview/

 

Not a lot of OLED computer displays yet, but they're coming. They're mostly just for video at the moment... but because of Samsung's overproduction, they're getting widely adapted for smartphone use (as with iPhone X).

 

I guess if the price drops enough nobody will care about burn-in...

 

I'm really enjoying my 43'' LG 4K UHD HDR Smart LED TV I recently bought for my travel trailer. Much clearer picture than any LED TV's I've owned, Nice Blacks for a back-lit TV. While I wouldn't risk buying an OLED for a Travel Trailer, I would consider an OLED for the home once prices come down. Is there really that big of a huge difference in picture quality between my new LG TV and a OLED TV, or is it just maybe 10-20 percent better?

 

I'm still waiting to tell me how I can view a 2nd or 3rd generation recording on a hi-def set and it not look considerably worse than on a tube set.

 

That would be good news if OLED computer monitors are in fact on the horizon. Deesky was correct in assuming that was what I was referring to. I will look for their arrival.