I have a rather common idea: I would like to put a late 90s television inside of a hollow 70s television shell.

The idea is to have a very iconic 70s tv with tuning dials as the surface of the television, but I would like to have the functionality of a 90s television with a remote and composite inputs inside the tv.

It would be even better if the 70s TV was a black and white model with rabbit ears and all the cliches. I haven't considered the scale. Perhaps, 20 inch?

My concerns are the physical incompatibilities. I could easily cut an opening for the inputs and remote sensor. However, I want to know if the depth would be an issue. Could a 90s tv even fit? Also, I am concerned about the screen shape. Are the screens generally similar in convex shape? Or at least close enough to fit?

Does this sound like a do-able project? Are there any concerns or ideas to contribute?

yeah.....I hope a 70's set isn't giving it's life for this sort of lousy Frankenstein thing.

And now that I got my IMMEDIATE reaction out of the way (since I am hoping you are not actually gonna kill a set to do this)

I can SORTA see the point in a project like this, but immediately would see an issue with the CRT dimensions around the screen. Depth, not so much since newer sets appear to be shallower and higher deflection (shorter tube). The problem I DO see that might present itself (and be real obvious), Newer sets are "very" rectangular. If the masking won't be perfect....it'll just SCREAM "hack", but this is just my two cents. Try to avoid the "flat" CRTs because in my opinion, the round convex shape of the screen sorta HAS to be there to look right. You might have to put up with some bit of overscan in the corners since almost certainly the 70's set will be rectangular, but not perfect...and you'll lose the corners of a more square CRT to the masking.

The controls would likely be EASY, since you are most likely only dealing with an IR receiver and maybe some LEDs. Chassis.....probly also not too difficult since a little PC board is likely MUCH smaller (and lighter) than a full chassis. You'd have to figure out mounting this in such a way so it's not just a PC board banging around inside the cabinet. Speaker....no brainer really. Try not to use a stereo set so you can just literally use the existing 70's speaker...most likely 4-8 ohms as well. make sure you retain all the ground points...and any of the CRT safety stuff the newer set may be employing (shielding, etc).

It's the sort of thing I would only do if I could TOTALLY pull it off....and of course am NOT sacrificing a perfectly good or salvageable set (screw the '90's set....you can replace it for ten bucks).

I had a Sony 700U sitting around for like TWENTY years that I couldn't seem to get perfect...and thought for like ten minutes I was going to gut the thing and somehow shoehorn a MUCH more modern set inside, but I instead decided to get the SAMs for it and put in the time. Much prouder of that achievement...and that old Sony now runs like a champ, and I turn on the MODERN tv in the front room when I want to not screw with VHF tuners and aerials.

There isn't much functional difference between a 90's set and a 70's set in most cases, input jacks being the most obvious.

I'm not sure how many Iconic 70's sets there are other than the curved Zeniths and other Mod style sets, the Zeniths are probably far superior in build quality to most 90's stuff and they had a Remote in most cases.

As much as we don't like it, some sets CAN'T be saved. Repurposing them in this case, in their original intent and form, is a great thing.

Take this 1950 General Electric that I had. The chassis was badly rusted, and the picture tube was necked. It's neither rare nor valuable, and unrepairable in my estimation.

I removed and tossed the chassis, and cut apart the cabinet on a 1990s era GE color set, and even mounted the remote sensor in a spot that it could be used. I was darn proud of it, and it was a great and watchable conversation piece.

I sold it to a local '50s ice cream shop, and it's now in use playing 50s TV shows in their store :)

This is a pic after I got it done.....

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9/hondacuraworld/100_4807.jpg

This gives me a lot to think about. Of course, I wouldn't kill any TV I thought could be salvaged. I was thinking of already hollowed shells (screen smashed in, etc.). I would also use a convex screen; however, I am uncertain if the decades have compatible curves. I feel like screens were more convex in the 70s. Is that true?

It also seems like the screens are different in size. There were a bunch of 12 inch screens in the 70s, but the 13 inch screen is popular in the 90s. Similarly, the 19 inch became the 21 inch.

You prefer a table model? I think all of your real challenges will be with making the screen look right, as you have figured. There won't be much wiggle room in those cabinets for the newer crt. The newer tube, no matter what it is, will be more flat. You are going to have to design custom mounts in the corners. This might be easier on a console since you can typically unscrew those masks from the cabinet, making it easier to experiment.

If it were me, I'd just find a clean mid-70s Zenith or RCA and rig up a good quality converter box inside the cabinet.

Great example, Kamakiri.

Bryan, good idea. My objectives are modern AV inputs and a decent remote. I guess I don't really have to replace the screen if I could hack those things into an older working TV. I was just hesitant to butcher a working set.

I haven't seen many converter boxes, but I assumed they only had composite out. I guess I don't really need composite inputs if I have a good RF switch box. Again, I'm thinking of 20 inch, black and white televisions from the 70s with tuners. Do you think I could somehow hack a converter box to control the power on the tv set via remote?

Never seen a convertor box with a powered outlet......but I think most cable boxes I've ever had did have a powered outlet. The newer ones can apparently even be programmed to come on with the cable box or "hot all the time"

Would have been a neat option on a DTV converter, especially since you are usually using an older set with one. I have a couple DTV boxes I got way back in the "coupon" days.....but I don't even know which I had bought. Only opened one "for fun" once...and they don't have a powered outlet (because they are powered by what looks like 12V wall warts)

Don't overthink this :)

In my case, the conversion was easy. The screen curvature wasn't a 100% match, but I'd give it a good 80%, and even if you were hyper-picky, you'd never even notice. I did have to take a cutoff wheel to the plastic cabinet to allow the set to fit inside, while keeping the picture tube effectively cradled in place. It was a LOT of VERY careful cutting.....but it worked. The box on top of the set is an RF modulator for the DVD player, which gives you the modern style inputs.

I doubt a flat panel would work for this, but since the set I had to work with had a glass bezel and mask, mating everything was simplicity itself. God knows there is no shortage of early 90s CRT sets that can be had for under $10 or even free.....

There are a lot of 90's era color sets with really spherical CRT's, there are also some that are only slightly spherical and some totally flat ones.

I think you would have better luck mating a modern CRT with a mid 50's console since they tend to be spherical also.

I modded an empty 48 Admiral by removing the CRT mask and installing a Flat 14" CRT set inside, I made a chassis out of plywood and the tube fits perfectly against the inside of the cabinet, I made zero mods to the cabinet other than painting it because it was in bad shape.

The modern set was a 2002 Samsung but I may change it to a 2002 Sony I recently found that has Component Inputs and a much better picture than the Sammy.

There's a thread on it here: http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=252042

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=171481&d=1315095393

You shoulda put the pic of it's final white form. The red's... uhhh.....

Nice, Eric. But I'm not sure I would recognize your tv as vintage or a contemporary reproduction. I like it though.

This brings a new question: How are screen sizes measured? I always assumed it was viewable area, but can I also expect the CRTs to be around the same size based oon measurements from different time periods?

I think I remember that the OLDER tubes (and sets) would say "19 inch" but they were measured on the diagonal of the actual CRT...and tended to be 18" or so "viewable".

I know that was an issue with old CRT vga monitors for years....and the term "viewable" started to show up.

Pretty sure CRTs always remained the "outside" diagonal measured of the WHOLE face.

LCD now of course almost ALWAYS described as "class" and then shows "viewable" as an actual diagonal measure of the picture. I see Fry's ads that always say "65 inch class" and will show something saying "64.2 viewable" or something. Not sure they were doing this for CRTs though.

BTW....just LOVE that little red set up there. I would also not know how to classify it, but it certainly would be a fun daily driver!

So, my whole project may be lost. Black and white TVs I've seen tend to be either 12 or 19 inches. The 90's TVs don't seem to use those dimensions often; there either 13 or 21 inches. I've only come across a few 19 inches from the 90s, but they tend to be really cheap with overscan issues.