Can CRT televisions make a comeback in the future?
 

What do you all think are the chances of this ever happening?

Slim & none. We would have to convince marketing managers, accountants, etc, etc, to crank up the CRT making machinery & that would be a miracle on the order of the loaves & fishes...if, indeed, if said machinery hasn't been summarily disposed of by now...

I've said before, that most likely they will on the high-end. Just as today, they still produce turntables and vacuum tube audio gear............for a price. As Sandy says, most likely never for the common TV set. In fact, I don't think there will be TV sets as we know at all, nor computers nor phones. There will be some kind of a one-piece device to handle all communications from television to radio to the internet, and you'll just dock it to a projector or large screen of some sort, for watching movies & ball games at home.

Charles

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But flat--panel sets are SO unrelaible and fragile!! I just visited a place where they repair electronic stuff for Amazon and some warranty. There must be 5THOUSAND flat--panel sets there for repairs...and HALF of them had broken panels!! Panels are so expensive...most often a set gets parted out when that happens.

I personally think that CRT sets MAY come back--at least the CRT display--as it is MANY times more durable and relaible than plasma or LCD sets. With a decent flyback, caps, and soldering, a CRT set could be made to be VERY reliable--and we all know how hard a tube is to break..

(BTW--I may just take a job ar that place I spoke about. The pay (19/H) is not quite what I made at that TV shop before( to start there at first anyway..) , BUT it WOULD be steady work, WITH benefits, I would NOT have to deal with customers,. OR go into ANY homes, AND I would not even have to install most of my own PARTS!! An "installer" is there just for that purpose!! I am wanted for my "diagnostic skills..), (And sets are "pre--screened , for me--to weed out the broken panels and cabinets) AND I would STILL be able to work "on the side", maybe where I do now.

But 7AM starting time...after about 8 months of "working when I wanted to", (when there was work to do, anyway..) that will NOT be easy..but it WOULD be a "guaernteed paycheck" and NOT like now--where I might make 500-600 one decent week and 400 for the next THREE weeks total!!)

I still see a few smaller 13" crt sets with ATSC and QAM tuners for sale. So are they "new old stock" or using up the remaining supply of these tubes, *or* are crts still being manufactured somewhere?

jr

The next time I'm at walmart, I'll look to see if they have any CRT sets left. A few months ago, the only CRT on the floor was a 27" Sansui.

The major glass plants for CRTs are being shut down one by one. No glass, no CRTs, especially not the large ones.

I have a friend who worked at one time for Bendix, who make a LOT of the subassemblies for all things automotive-related-Brakes, electronics, this, that, & the other. He said that once demand for a BR-549 Ford whickerbill assembly dropped below "X" units, it would be discontinued, & often as not the tooling would be scrapped. He said that at some point in the future, a lot of otherwise serviceable cars could be sidelined because of the inavailability of these electronic gizmotrons. Could be fun for future generations of motorheads wanting to restore a 1994 Mustang in say, 2040...Which is about the same amount of elapsed time as us wanting to restore a '64 Stang today...

I don't think that CRT TV sets will ever make a comeback because of several reasons:

1. CRT sets are very heavy, bulky and take up a lot of room.
2. LCD sets are getting larger and cheaper.
3. LCD quality is getting better, especially with LED backlights.
4. OLED will eventually become mainstream and affordable.

Indeed, very heavy an bulky... As much as I would l like to have something like this 40 inch Trinitron, it just aint gona happen. A 325lb TV really is not very practical these days.

http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-40-FD-TRINI...item45f1483f2c

But I bet it displays a great picture!:yes:

not affiliated,
jr

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If people are not excited about $19/hr in Cincinnati then I know where I need to relocate to. I make little better than half that and the large criminal element of New Orleans has murdered two of us in the last two years. (No, I'm not a cop, I'm a service tech for an amusement company.)

CRTs are still widely used in some specialized applications, for example, most portable ultrasound scanners used by equine vets still have a small (about 6") hi-def B/W crt.

There are also a few LCD-based models but they seem to be far less successful than CRT ones, maybe because LCDs are less viewable in daylight, or maybe because LCDs are less tolerant of horse kicks and abuse.

Oh, don't worry. I AM taking that job, I am telling them Monday morning. The last check I got from the place I have been working for part-time, bounced today, messing up things for my finances again. This WILL be a guarnteed, good pay, EVERY week, no fear of bounced checks or having to beg for my pay, buy my own parts or put up with Bi-polar bosses(hopefully not, anyway.)

It is just going to be hard for me to "re-adjust" my life to getting up EVERY DAY before 6Am, when since last August, I had NO true time--frame to worry about, and only worked when there was "work to do"(which lately has NOT been very often). I have nearly drained my savings, and have NOT been able to do things like get my Trofeo painted, buy a new computer, or much else.

SO, I will be willing to make that sacrifice, of my "free time" to KNOW that EVERY week, I WILL get a good paycheck, that will meet my expenses.But it WILL be a "difficult adjustment" at first. But probably well worth it!!

I hear you - I made the same adjustment taking this job - after being laid off in 2008 I worked side jobs for over a year and set my own schedule. That regular paycheck and insurance sure makes a difference though!

The sad part about CRT's going away is more than just the tooling. The vendors that supply the materials (and those materials themselves) will go away too.

Just like current tube production overseas will never match the NOS types. I recall on one of our threads where the mica for 6550 GE tubes was supplied by Texas Instruments and I'm not sure when but they are no longer in the mica business(?). What happens to the formulas that were created when something goes out of production? It (I believe) goes away too..never to come back.

Just look at an old RCA tube manual and look at all the chemicals/materials that were used in the manufacture of receiving tubes.

Yeah, that's kinda the point I was trying to make in that long, tedious windy post I made...Its like the nursery rhyme-"All the king's horses & all the king's men/Couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty together again..." People retire/die, the knowlege base becomes dissipated, never to be really reclaimed. I'll about guarantee that all the 55-60 year old guys who ran the glass machine that blew the CRTs, every one of 'em had some little kink he did that he never recorded, that made the operation go smoother...And difficult or well-nigh impossible without it.

Glad to hear you got another job. I know I was rescheduled myself to cover for someone injured where I work at. I used to work late morning to early evenings although I have earlier hours now. It's a little tough for be since I have to get up earlier, I'm not a morning person, if I could mainline caffeine I'd do it, but as the saying goes, it is a paycheck and in this economy, if you have any job, you're lucky. Man, talk about a run-on. :D Seriously, I wish you all the luck, it has to be better than the last place you were at.

Flat panels, especially LCD computer monitors crap out quite frequently, the last month I fixed 9 LCD monitors, all the same crap. Bad chinese power supply caps, no cooling kills these puppies. Also excessive heat at the top of the screen unbonds the fine ribbon cable causing lines and streaks of colors to vertically fill the screen. Seems to me the early LCD's are doing this. That and the Electroluminescent lamp that spans accross the bottom of the LCD gets weak after a bit of use causing a pinkish raster with a substantial loss of brightness.

This, I believe is the LCD's version of "bad guns". Virtualy unreparable. I have done a few but it's almost not worth the hassle.

CRT's, like Kiwick stated, are just workhoses, and LCD's are finicky and cannot take a bump the the screen.

3 to 4 years is all I see LCD's around here lasting.

Yeah, you probably read about the 37" Sanyo LCD with a bad inverter board that I just picked up. And, I've got a 19" Emerson with the streaks and lines that you speak of. It's since been in an accident and now has a busted screen; but, I'm keeping it for the boards. I also have a 42" Viewsonic with a damaged screen and bad PS and a 32" Sylvania (dump find) with a busted screen (looks like it fell off the wall). I'm not impressed at all and the only motivation I have for fixing a flat panel set is to finance my vintage collecting habits.

Lol, I feel your pain.

Bumping up an old thread. I sure wish CRTs would return, it's sad not seeing new ones around anywhere. Consumers deserve a real choice, there's still a large niche market that want CRT TVs and the superior picture quality that goes with it.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/3104...crt-television

This is interesting but only in Korea:(

Have you seen all the retro-look tabletop radios that are around now, the "Crosleys," etc.
I wouldn't be surprised to see CRT TV sets make a comeback, at least in a small way.

The public had a wide variety of choices a few years ago, even when flat-panel TVs cost much more than they do today, and consumers made their choices then. CRT TVs do have a couple of picture-quality advantages in general, but overall they are very impractical and inefficient (with space) when compared to flat panel displays. Since CRTs and their support components require a very different set of materials, I doubt they will come back any more than horses have returned to city streets.

I do not believe CRTs will return any time soon, except as noted (for 3D and other specialized applications) -- but not for television sets marketed for home use. The Korean CRT set mentioned a few posts ago is probably a limited edition, not intended for export to the US or anywhere else.

I intend to keep my two CRT sets, out of date though they are, as long as they work. I have nothing against flat panels except that they are very light weight, and are all too easily knocked off a stand, causing irreparable damage to the screen in most cases -- unless the owner is very lucky. These sets are also very intolerant of lightning strikes; one good one, a direct hit on or near a power line, will destroy the set in the blink of an eye, whereas many CRTs will ignore most strikes. Even surge protectors aren't enough to save a FP set from damage by power surges from a very severe electrical storm. There are cases on record where lightning surges have destroyed the surge protector circuitry or even jumped it altogether, thereby going directly into the TV and making it instant junk. :no: :eek:

I can think of a reason CRTs won't come back anytime soon.

Lead.

I disagree with those who say that CRTs disappeared because people didn't want them. In my opinion, it had more to do with the major manufacturers choosing not to make them anymore and, instead, force plasmas and LCDs onto everybody. It got to the point where there were fewer and fewer CRTs for sale until, finally, there were none available at all. Regarding the issue of space, large 16:9 flatscreens, while weighing less, actually take up more space than traditional 4:3 CRT televisions.

Shipping costs killed it for my company. Maintained a fleet of over 250 amusement machines with over half using wells Gardner DI-9200.
I went through over 300 2200 mf caps a year on those. I had to convert
over to Neiman monitors for a while and the freight from Canada was killing us.
Eventually, Neiman transitioned to replacing 29 and 27 inch monitors with
27 inch flat panels (600 bucks plus shipping) each. Company is near out of business now...from amusements to internet service and internet kiosks.
Must have dummstered a couple hundred CRTs with boards when they were phazed out. Most gun games were not working well with flat panels:-(

Let's face it, the last generation of CRT sets built in the noughties were nothing worth bothering with... i actually prefer LCD or plasma sets to them...

Many of you complained about the quality of Chinese CRT sets in the past but maybe you don't have the ultra cheap Turkish made sets we're flooded with here in Europe... these are definitely worse than Chinese sets, their ugly plain cabinets are made of thin crappy plastic with a loosely attached separate base panel and are too weak to support the CRT securely when the back is removed, the chassis is the worst piece of junk you can think about with undersized parts and real poor soldering, the speakers sound like crap, and the CRTs are often from Lithuania or the Czech republic and are usually failing after a few years...

Also the Indian made sets are crappy but they are still better than the Turkish junk...

CRT tubes require very specialized manufacturing. Other retro products that are still around like record turntables do not require such specialized manufacturing processes, being basically mechanical, hence their survival on a much smaller market is more assured.

The picture quality and price drop is very good now for these flat screens. I'm going to get a daily watcher sometime in future w/ extended warranty to avoid any durability issues. A good size set could be bought for several hundred dollars. CRT sets aren't feasible at this point unless $50 to 150$. Of course flat screens don't have nearly the 180 viewing angle of a crt. You can only save money by waiting for price drop, better quality.

The remaining classic sets should be cherished as Americana, but remember, even early semiconductors are being out phased quickly.

I gave up on a project a while ago where parts were a hassle. The ONLY remaining supplier absolutely sheisted for parts, the quality of parts was poor as these refurbished units weren't powered up in years. Future parts may have to come from donor sets.

I suspect 20-30 yrs from now old well made CRT sets with nice heavy chassis and quality wood cabinets will be highly sought after, IMHO. After watching a video of what it take to make a CRT I seriously doubt they will ever come back, just too much of an investment in equipment for what 99.99% of the consumers "think" is inferior quality.

I am sitting here watching a 32" philips that was given to me as part of an "upgrade". the convergence is perfect the screen is bright with deep rich colors, great yellows and even has a tuner that picks up digital signals.

Frankly the pic is so good I really can't see how it could be all that much better, and the idea of dropping hunders or dollars on flat screen which I question the durability of, keeps me happy to stay stuck in the past.

Frankly I don't miss CRT sets for one reason - scanning. LCD sets paint a picture without any flicker at all, and while plamsa sets do flicker (since a phosphor can only be on or of, so it's the length of TIME it's on that controls brightness) there is no line crawl or false motion as you move your eyes across the screen.

Lest we forget, the principle behind plasma displays predates scanning beams. It's the oldest technology. The earliest laptop displays were plasma. Other than differences in HOW the phosphors are excited, CRTs are still with us in the form of Plasma displays.

OLED, the best display technology, is already here, but it's very expensive right now.

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I agree completely. I never did like how CRT TVs flickered unless I looked straight at them. When I visited the UK and Ireland, it was even worse with the 50 Hz refresh rate-those sets flickered constantly for me.

There were two Sony Trinitron CRT computer monitors that could display a full 1920x1080 (actually, up to 1920x1200) resolution, and I connected mine to an HDTV tuner once and the picture was really nice (though not very bright compared to a regular TV set). The model numbers were GDM-W900 and GDM-FW900. Dell, Sun, and Silicon Graphics had their own rebranded versions of at least the GDM-W900.

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Some patriotic American tycoon (I know that sounds like an oxymoron) needs to buy the rights to the Zenith name and resume CRT manufacturing in the United States. This can be done only by concentrating on the very low end of the TV price range, and the smallest sized TVs - sets that are 9 inches and 13 inches with a 4:3 display. Build them in a low-tax, low-regulation state like Texas with a MSRP in the $90-$100 range. These sets would have an increasing amount of appeal to the American consumer, especially as the economy continues to get worse and retro styles become more popular. On the sets that are 13 inches, emulate the style of the Korean LG retro CRT that came out last year.