let's discuss CRT TV ownership

yes, but it’s not what I’m going for. I want the space between pixels to be resolved as well as the pixel themselves. I want them to be isolated and with out context. I can do that zoomed in but compression crushes too much detail on youtube or twitch. I’m just going to have to wait until compression gets better or do it through my PC where I’m running the games in smaller windows and then zoom in on it.

I bought a Commodore 1702 off a lady on Facebook!

I’m still waiting on an adapter to plug s-video into the chroma/luma ports in the back, but I was immediately kind of shocked at how clean composite looks

Possibly TOO clean? The Genesis core on the MiSTer looks a little dogshit.

I know the Genesis core specifically doesn’t output composite video totally accurately and the image has that kinda ghosting going on, is it that there’s not enough blurriness to disguise that? Or is this maybe a symptom of something going on with my screen that I should get looked at? I need to see if there’s anyone in Anchorage who services CRTs

EDIT: I was misremembering some talk about the image quality of the Genesis YC Core in the MiSTer thread, apparently the Genesis’ composite output just sucks and always has, lol. Just gonna avoid Genesis until that adapter gets here

9 Likes

So for me it was in like 2008 or 2009 when I picked up a 13" crt off the street in front of where I was living at the time. I used it to play pc engine games while whoever else was using the HDTV for whatever. At that point it just felt like I should have one.

Then a friend found a production studio giving away pvms so he gave me one. Then I found my current jvc D-series around the corner on the curb so frank and rolled it over to my place. That was maybe 2011. Once I started watching vhs tapes on it I really realized what I had been missing before - you’ve got to match the media the medium.

Since then I’ve gotten anothdr 13" with a built in vcr because it came with a vhs tape lot I wanted, and then I got a 16:9 Philips because I’ve got problems in my brain.

Tomorrow I’m picking up a 25-ish inch trinitron for @pattheflip to keep at his place for fighting game stuff. 30 bucks!

I try not to get more tvs but I can’t help myself if I see one that needs a home.

10 Likes

For me, it was the availability of free component ready consumer CRTs.

I jumped from crummy 13 inch composite to an early cheap flat screen in I want to say 2007. In about 2016 or so I acquired my first Toshiba 20AF44 and that was it. While I had the Framemeister (2 degrees in video so I will always jump on tech), Xbox, PS2, Wii, GC all looked correct on a CRT in component. It was also the era where 240p systems were getting component options. And once the Mister hit with component, I knew I would hold my 5 cost me nothing Toshibas until they croak.

I will snag a composite only CRT just to save it, but most of them have bad caps by now if they were made post 2000 (cheaply). But only to pass on to another enjoyer. SD content looks wrong to me in composite or lower. I need that vibrancy. Even watching SD video, I have done a lot of work to get it output via component. For some people the grunginess is the point of analog video, but not for me. I suppose I might enjoy a PVM, but I have never had the chance to grab a decent size one so yeah consumer component 240p and 480i for me.

3 Likes

Oh hey! I just saw this, but yeah, Pat worked on my old BVM-20E1U before it finally bit the dust. I’ve got two local people I use for CRT maintenance in Seattle now, but when I had professional monitors I would send individual cards out to Pat to get recapped, etc.

Highly recommend him, he’s maybe the only person left for that sort of thing.

1 Like

@andrewelmore who do you use in Seattle? I took a set to RetroPerception and he fixed it but it died again after minimal use :-/

1 Like

Nice!! I love gifting CRTs to good, loving homes lol.

I’ll try to recount my journey here…

So I started with a Sony KV-24FV300 that I got for five bucks on OfferUp in ~2016/16, which was one hell of a tube. Had some pretty bad geometry problems, but that’s the TV that began to host what would become my little retro, uh, setup. A few months later I got a PVM-8041Q from OfferUp, and had my setup such that everything was being run into that and then out into the FV300, so that I could use both at once for no other reason than “it’s technically possible.”

Later on (time starts to get slippery here, I apologize!) I emailed the production department at one of the major local news stations downtown, asking if they had any old monitors or analog broadcast equipment that they weren’t using. They emailed me back and said “well there’s a big Sony box we were gonna toss, but I guess you can have it.” So I went and picked it up. It was that BVM-20E1U. After a few weeks with it, I gave the FV300 to some guy from /r/CRTgaming that lived in Tacoma near me. Again, just happy it went to a good home. Now back to the BVM… Ugh, I loved it so, so much. I’ll miss it forever. One day I was playing Ristar and the tube began to click. I’ll spare the long boring details but basically Pat recapped every BKM card in the machine but something else was fried and even though the image was fantastic when it was working, it finally popped and died completely. I parted it out and sold it piece by piece to other BVM enthusiasts that needed to replace different parts of their machines, so it lives on, in a way!

Okay, so when the BVM died, I had to get creative. I went back to OfferUp, found a Sony KV-32FS320 for free. It was a long drive and I had to borrow an SUV, but I got it home! I used that for a few years, it was fantastic (and huge!). Later, I was scrolling through OfferUp looking for CRTs again, when I found the exact same TV, but 4" bigger.

Later that day, a man was delivering his KV-36FS320 to my home. The thing he didn’t tell me, though, was that he was using it as his only television until like 2021. So it looked like absolute dog water. I ended up hiring a local CRT tech (who by happenstance used to be the guy who serviced my BVM when it was in use at the news station), paid him a few hundred bucks for a few hours of work, and he worked a miracle. It’s not perfect by any means, and it’s not as bright as it could be, but it’s recapped and recalibrated and looking about as good as it can. This has been my main CRT ever since. I sit right in front of it like a big dumb idiot because that 36" screen feels like a mile at 4:3 lol. I gave the 32" one to Zoe Wolfe, a friend of mine who does all kinds of awesome glitch art using CRTs and broadcast equipment. I gave her some scan converters and stuff I had lying around too.

I don’t know where to start with CRT PC monitors, but I’ve got a few of those. A Commodore 1702, a Trinitron with a model number I don’t remember, another one in the garage that was I think an eMachines?, then a ViewSonic G90f that I use in my office pretty regularly. Before OLED PC monitors became a feasible thing, I was using that ViewSonic and before that the Trinitron to do color checks for print work at my job lol.

Somewhere along the way I’ve gathered a small VCR/CRT combo that lives in the kids’ bedroom where they also have a spare PS2 hooked up to it. We’ve got an old black plastic Trinitron from I think 1987 in the garage as well that has seen a lot of use over the years. I’ve got a new in box KV9-PT50 that I bought from a friend a few years back. I think that’s everything? I think I’ve given away everything else I’ve found. I didn’t intend to go on such a Sony-specific Aperture Grille journey but I guess that’s how it shook out. OH and a Macintosh 512k, I guess that’s got a tube in it.

If and when I ever need to replace my main CRT though, I’m never getting a flatscreen CRT again. The geometry problems are such a persistent plague, the deflection angles are barely possible, there’s SO MUCH GLASS in the front of those things to warp the lens on the inside to make those deflection angles work. The glass by itself in my main Trini is like 40lbs. I just want a normal, rounded tube lol.

3 Likes

Oh no!! Did you message him and let him know? He’s pretty good about following through on stuff in my experience. But yeah he’s the tech I was talking about. I use him and Christa Lee, depending on the job!

1 Like

Some dude on the internet started talking smack so I had to unearth these photos from around 2016 when I had a big backyard in Whittier and was acquiring CRTs en masse while my CRT collection/business peaked.



Now I’m moving into an apartment with my partner in rural washington, I already got her a 14" last year, I’m bringing in my baby-- the only CRT in my van-- JVC 17" broadcast monitor, but, you know I need something bigger for the apartment. So I’m on the hunt for a 20-32" tube in rural washington when I get there! That’ll be fun!

16 Likes

@treefroggy If you’re willing to drive up to sequim you can have my dad’s old TV. It’s real nice but it is an absolute monster. My stepmother will be happy to be rid of it, and I don’t have the room. I think it’s 32" but it feels even bigger somehow. It is an absolute monster and you will need another strong person (not my stepmother).

I THINK it might be a Panasonic CT-32D32.

(I am 100% serious about this btw - you could take the vcr too)

9 Likes

Wait did you dad retire to sequim or food you grow up there? My ex’s first job out of vet school was there. We lived in sequim for a few years.

Update on getting my image quality as grotty at possible

2 Likes

Sold!
Well, I’ll let you know next time I’m over there exploring the area.

2 Likes

I am absolutely jonsing for a 70’s or 80’s crt. The kind with the kachunk style dials and the two screws int he back for VHF hook up. They’re getting rare. There are a couple on marketplace in chicago but I don’t want to drive 6 hours round trip to get one. A friend is moving there in the middle of this month and I can stay with her and have some fun adventures rather than just driving to pick up a TV.

2 Likes

It sucks that we have such an intense “throw out/destroy all your old stuff all the time” culture. So many things like this become nearly extinct before they get the chance to live a second life.

2 Likes

Yeah and they get donated to places like the goodwill and they don’t even get out on the shelves but immediately sent to e-waste

1 Like

im sure many of you feel the same way but an HD CRT is my personal holy grail and im heartbroken i found this beauty for $24 but do NOT have the space

hopefully a friend will help store it till I get my own place this spring


i did grab a 21" cctv monitor with some burn in for $20 this last week from facebook marketplace and it fits on a shelf nice and easy but i had enough trouble getting it downstairs that i dont wanna do it again for a bigger set

8 Likes

this is funny cause a couple of weeks ago I also a saw a cheap hd crt on fb marketplace and was like idk if I’m gonna have the space once I get my own place later this year.

2 Likes

ill MAKE the space regardless of how small my place will inevitabily be

4 Likes

I’d say the same but I already have 3 crts lol

(20 inch main, 17 inch PC crt and 7 inch baby)

2 Likes

yeah anytime someone says they don’t have room for a CRT in their home i’m just like, nah, you just have different priorities. who needs a bed or a chair? That’s valuable CRT space!

7 Likes