Smallest Color Crt,disassembled,working.
 

There was a topic awhile back on the smallest Trinitron, which I think was decided at 2 inches, which led to the smallest color crt. About 3 years ago I saw an auction for a Panasonic 1984 CT-101 color travelvision. These had been going for about 300 to 400 dollars. This one said it had a crack in the case but was working. For a hack I bid $200 on it and went to bed. My first clue should have been only one picture of it in the auction, the second was I won it for less than $100.00. When it arrived and I opened the box there was not one piece of the case that was not cracked, broken or missing. That explains the one angle picture in the ad. So as far as I know, this is the smallest color crt tv ever produced. The passive LCD's that came out after this one can not hold a candle to a real CRT power use or length be damned!
So, is this the smallest color crt made? or was the Sony smaller?

very kool looking tv

afaik that is the smallest color crt based tv made.
the sony is 4"

These little guys aren't much to watch, even tho they DO have brilliant "lollipop" color, but they sure are fun to just have, & watch people's reactions to 'em.-Sandy

Hello MarkdI, The picture
 

on the CRT is really much better than the one shown in the post. Between the lamp I use to light up my work bench and the flash washed it out.
Richard.

Yes; the Panasonic 1.5" has a magnificent picture! But I just pity the guy who had to sit there at the plant and try to get convergence on it :no:

The Sony KV-4000, in my opinion, suffers from too coarse of pixels. I have owned a half dozen of them including two industrial versions with that same 3.7" Trinitron CRT. It isn't NEAR as bad as a PortaColor, but somehow I think they should have done a better job on that tube. If you sit watching it from a comfortable distance; say 2 feet, you see the pixels. But the Panasonic looks great with no visible pixels even with your nose against the magnifier (need to be that close to watch it)...

One last word on the tiny color CRT situation: I proclaim that the early 5" Sony Trinitron CRT (KV-5000, 5100, 5200 and 5300) is the smallest truly functional color CRT TV. Any smaller, and you get a headache while watching an hour program. And the newer 80s cheaper 5" color sets (including the KV-5XB5 or whatever Sony called their Korean-CRT color set in the early 90s) just don't look as good as the early ones.

Charles

i have a 5200 here i got at a yardsale with a bad tube.
get this.k-k leakage!
found a guy that did broadcast monitor service that gave me 6 new crt's when he saw it on the shelf.
there is no set this size today that will outperform this set with a fresh crt.
i spent a bit of time with the purity and convergence and got it perfect.

WOW That is some fantastic news. 6 NOS CRTs Why dosen't stuff like that ever happen to me? I have been trying to find ANY plastic part for one of my Panasonic CT-101 color 1.5 inch sets for almost 3 years with no luck. At any rate CONGRATULATIONS! you are set for CRTs for the next several generations.
Best Regards,
Richard.

To be a portable set, & therefore prolly subject to being "knocked about", the CT-101 certainly is VERY flimsy. The plastic case is VERY thin, & easily broken. Mine is intact but I've been VERY careful w/it. The B/W versions seem to be a little more robust. None of 'em are as tough as the good ol' Sony 5-303 series. Those guys are steel, & built like little tanks.-Sandy G.

Hi Sandy, This is the same one I had when I first met you
 

A good friend of mine looked at my poor CT-101 and gave me a working 101 with only a few repaired cracks. But he did not have the battery holder for it do you have any idea where I can get an extra battery holder? If not Sandy Anybody?
Many Thanks,
Richard.

...

The battery cover seems to be flimsiest of all. There is a little tit that holds it in place, & it'll break if you look at it wrong. It really doesn't fit all that well to begin with. Panasonic spent megabux to develop this l'il guy, looks like they'd spent another yen or 3 to have made it more robust...-Sandy G.

...

I'm gonna guess that it will still be a lot easier and less expensive to find a nonworking set with a good case and marry it to your innards than to find a working set with a good case at a good price! I wouldn't want to have to work on the circuitry in that one :no:.

YES! And I kick myself often for not grabbing it. It was on a huge old RCA or Hitachi camCorder that I declared nonfixable due to droppage. The viewfinder was OK though. To me, it looked like a CT-101 chassis with no tuner or audio. I bet that's what it was, because why would they spend all that money to design a different chassis?

Charles