Was heading out to a friend's place when I spied a VERY large CRT TV from its backside on the curb, only a few streets away from my house. Stopped to take a look...Sony Trinitron KV-40XBR800, made the same year and month as mine! It had sat outside for a week because the trash men refused to lift it into their truck, said a neighbor. The cord was already gone, and the front bezel cracked around the bottom, no doubt from manhandling on its way to the street. The ONE part I REALLY needed for my own set, the swinging front panel door covering the controls and front input, was there, but had been broken in the process! Damn! I ended up scavenging everything from the set sans case and CRT as spare parts for my own set. I was left wondering why this one was trashed...God forbid it was a working set!! Maybe even had the same issue mine currently does with its MCZ ICs. At the very least, I now have spare speakers/subwoofer and boards. 'So Others May Live', as they say...

I often wonder just how many XBR800s Sony sold. I certainly didn't expect to find another only a few blocks from my house!

Sometimes it works that way. I looked forever for a pencil box for my CT-100, and ended up trash picking an RCA B/W set of the same era that had the correct pencil box (control door) a block from my house! I just had to drill an extra couple holes for the controls :)

Wish I still had my CT....

I have 3 Sony's from that era in my basement - a 30", a 32", and a 36". The 30" powers up and has weird video problems. The 32" is the newest with a built in digital tuner; but, has a bad vertical IC. The 36" is an HD XBR set that has an intermittent start-up issue. The reason I haven't fixed them is because they are too heavy to move by myself and I currently have no place to properly work on them, even if someone was here to help me move them. One day, I'll work on them on the floor.

There have, sadly, been several KV-40XBR800s on CL "free" in Ventura County in the past few months. Likely they wound up on the curb as well...

Charles

It was amazing how just how many people pushed their CRT sets to the curb here when that bullshit of "digital cable" was announced. Here it is years later and our cable still passes the same channels just as before. :no:

these things deliver great pictures especially for me who watches 90% 4.3 , I don't understand how people could invest so much money into one and just toss it especially when it is hd, we are such a wasteful people compared with years ago , that's part of the reason we are able to get the vintage sets.

I do find it interesting that it is 2002 and doesn't have the hdmi input like my 2004 kv-36hs420 however the sound on it is standard and flat as far as bass goes , doesn't matter I run the receiver for sound on dvd and blu ray, getting this set off the ground was unbelievable so I can imagine the 40" is an even bigger nightmare.
so these would need the cable that converts to hdmi cable which is ok with me.

There is one at a local thrift for a buck. I passed on it as it does not have the Super-Fine-Pitch CRT label on it, and I'm holding out until I can find a Super-Fine-Pitch Sony.

I have seen a few of these sets around, there is one at a local thrift store they want 75 bucks for a wide screen Sony CRT with DVI HD ect. There is one sitting by a dumpster at a 2nd thrift store, with the entire bottom (under the CRT) shattered, that left the CRT siting on the ground. It is sad I would love to have one that works.

There is one at a local thrift for a buck. I passed on it as it does not have the Super-Fine-Pitch CRT label on it, and I'm holding out until I can find a Super-Fine-Pitch Sony.

Wow, a buck?? I wanna visit your thrift store!

We have the 34" HD Sony in the 'wega' silver cabinet. It does not have HDMI input but does have DVI. The bottom of the pix has developed a slight flagging. I have ordered a copy of the service menu paramaters to see if it can be adjusted out via that route. If not, I suppose sonme of those picture ICs are going bad. If that's the case, it will get trashed.

This is semi-off-topic, but I was at a salvation army the other day, and they had two 32" (guessing) widescreen CRT TVs. One was a Samsung, the other a Panasonic. The Samsung said 1080i on the front. both very nice, and both only 14.99 each. My back was bothering me and I didn't feel like trying to turn them around to see the inputs. It was sooo crowded in there too, I couldn't stand it. There were over 50 people in line at the register! Then I got outside and saw the "half-off everything!" sign. I could have had those TVs for $7.50 each! Coulda, shoulda, woulda, etc. I had to keep telling myself "I don't need anymore crap!". Or was that my wife's voice...?

I do find it interesting that it is 2002 and doesn't have the hdmi input like my 2004 kv-36hs420 however the sound on it is standard and flat as far as bass goes , doesn't matter I run the receiver for sound on dvd and blu ray, getting this set off the ground was unbelievable so I can imagine the 40" is an even bigger nightmare.
so these would need the cable that converts to hdmi cable which is ok with me.

HDMI didn't appear on sets until 2004-05. Prior to our plasma purchase, we had a 5 year old 32" Panasonic Tau 4:3 flat CRT in the house, did 1080i. We landed up giving it to a friend of the family. Sadly a year later it just up and died on them.

The local thrift usually has CRT TVs for no more than $10. They must hate the things since nobody wants to lift them. I saw the 16:9 widescreen version of that Panasonic Tau CRT at a local thrift for $15! I guess the fact that it had HDMI and boosted "HDTV" on the front raised the price.

My shop got flooded with late-model CRT sets, two of them 32", one of which came in today. No one wants the darn things. I selected both of those and four other junk sets for disposal today. I reckon the sudden influx of these things is the result of people getting new sets for Christmas.

My shop got flooded with late-model CRT sets, two of them 32", one of which came in today. No one wants the darn things. I selected both of those and four other junk sets for disposal today. I reckon the sudden influx of these things is the result of people getting new sets for Christmas.

It always makes me sad to see good TVs thrown away around the holidays just because someone got a shiny new flat panel. I manage to rescue and rehome at least one set during Christmastime every year.

It always makes me sad to see good TVs thrown away around the holidays just because someone got a shiny new flat panel. I manage to rescue and rehome at least one set during Christmastime every year.
Yeah, one of the 32" sets was priced at $5.99 just to get rid of it, but still no takers. Unfortunately, the assistant manager at my store, not being aware of my collecting interests, turned down a set that someone wanted to donate because it was made in 1980. If the person who wanted to donate it brought it in instead of calling first, I probably would have gotten it. My 1978 RCA XL-100 was put out on the floor just because it was thought I would be interested.

I wish I could still go someplace to look at and buy TVs with knobs and tubes, that isn't eBay or a random yard sale.

If I were a thrift store owner, I wouldn't be turning away TVs just because they didn't have buttons or a remote! Anything that can connect to cable is fair game.

A good number of thrifts I recall going to in Fl back when I lived there EVEN before the DTV transition seemed to never have video related electronics...Or much of anything that did not relate to food preparation.

Up here there are anywhere from 1/2-3 dozen VCRs and at least two CRT tvs at any given thrift shop. This time of year they get a lot of TVs, and the price drops to .49-.99$ for most of them...Though I've seen them going for that price other times of the year in the last year or so, thus I see a trend forming.

I live in the 'radio belt' as fellow antique radio collectors call it, a place where historically the vast majority have had the funds to purchase electronics over the years...Even into today. This makes the acquisition of anything vintage and electronic practically a matter of looking. ...Heck tube radio consoles even show up at thrifts here on a semi-regular basis.

I'd say we lose more than we make on the darn things as we have to pay to have them hauled off. I groan inside whenever I see another one show up.