Can CRT televisions make a comeback in the future?

[AUdubon5425]

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!

[marty59]

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.

[Sandy G]

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.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by rca2000

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!!

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. Seriously, I wish you all the luck, it has to be better than the last place you were at.

[freakaftr8]

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.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by freakaftr8

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.

[freakaftr8]

Lol, I feel your pain.

[classictv80s]

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.

[mstaton]

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

This is interesting but only in Korea

[radiodayz]

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.

[ChrisW6ATV]

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.

[Jeffhs]

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.

[OvenMaster]

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

Lead.

[classictv80s]

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.

[parvo]

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:-(