Old Trinitrons

[domfjbrown]

I can clearly remember a UK magazine ad for Sony tellies in the late 80s - it had a picture of a sphere with an image on (a "normal" CRT), and a cylindar with an image on (Sony Trinitron).

The slogan said "Why buy a football you can watch TV on when you can have a TV you can watch football on?". Class.

My neighbours got a 21 incher in 1986 and from there on in I was hooked.

I've had Sony Trinitrons since 1992, and am currently using a 1995 KVM-25F2U. I got it ex-demo in 1997 (so that's around 18 months' hard labour on a shopfloor), and it DID need a new motherboard as the original one had flakey firmware - a known issue. That got fixed 3 weeks after I bought it, and it's never EVER put a foot wrong since. 8 years' good service and an excellent bright sharp image off of DVD/cable.

I prefer Trinitrons to everything else because blacks are REALLY black on these. The current range of Panasonic T'Au aren't far behind, but the Sonys still look better to me.

I saw a 1971 14inch Sony once in a motel in Kingsbridge, Devon, UK. This would have been around 1994. Although it went a bit "wibbly" after an hour or so of being on, the image was still typical Trinitron - bright and sharp - 23 years on, even though the motel was by an estuary (nice damp!).

[axel]

Originally Posted by domfjbrown

The slogan said "Why buy a football you can watch TV on when you can have a TV you can watch football on?".

Typical Sony ad-copy but this one has class indeed! thanks domfjbrown for bringing it out of the past!

From the early 60s onward, Sony advertised almost always with a certain off-handed-ness I find quite refreshing - no matter what product, there's always some fun to be poked at
That ad slant unfortunately didn't survive the 80s... which were supposed to be "fun" - paradox.

[Telecolor 3007]

Here is an "Sony" tv (I don't know if it's <<Trinitron>>) with a "Sony" VTR

[vintagecollect]

keep that trinitron telecolor!!! One of the first!! 1968 OR 1969, very old. I collect many sonys , my little one likes lively & brilliant NTSC color --- small trinitron produces when watching movies when we road travel in motorcar!! CRTs still have much better contrast & sharper , brighter color that mediocre LCD screens.

[Urizen]

My first Trinitron I bought new in 1986. Model KV-2080R. The remote got smashed during a move years ago. Wish I cound find another! This set has performed flawlessly for 20 years. My main TV is a Sony Trinitron model KV-32522 which I bought as a floor model around 1998. Great picture.

[nasadowsk]

yeah, those early trinis pop up a LOT around here at thrift places. they were built like tanks and they last forever.

The GE 'POF' (?) CRT of the 50's reminds me a lot of the trini - I wonder if Sony licensed or got the idea from there. IIRC, there were a few patents they licensed for the trini anyway.

Still a really neat CRT design....

[vintagecollect]

Trinitron CRT is related or based on 50's experimental--Chromatron color CRT, single gun crt , no convergence as single gun?? should know, but never popped cover on one of my 7 trinitrons I own and don't have to since they just keep on working.

[old_tv_nut]

The trinitrons and the chromatron both use a grill of vertical wires to select the phosphors, but teh resmblance stops there. The Chromatron switched the wire voltages to deflect the single beam rapidly to the different phosphors. The trinitrons use the wires as a verical-slot shadow mask for three beams. The trinitron gun also was billed as a "single gun" since most of the electrodes are common to all three beams.

[Telecolor 3007]

@vintagecollector: that "Sony" ain't mine My "Sony" <<Trinitron>> is from the year 2000 and arleady haves problems...

[domfjbrown]

Further to my old thread, my 25F2U is now in my mate's system in Reading, and I have a KVM-FX68U widescreen one (bought off another mate).

Hmm - the image is nice and bright and sharp, but my eyes still aren't used to 100HZ. I'm hypersensitive to flicker, and can usually clearly see 85Hz non-interlaced flicker on computer monitors. This 100Hz set is weird. it doesn't have motion blurring per se, but I can clearly see each individual frame - it's like a weird NTSC->PAL standards conversion kind of picture. Once I've been using the TV for a while I get used to it, but after this weekend (at my sister's, using a 14 inch Sony portable) while flicker isn't an issue, that "blurring" is.

Oh well - just my weird eyes I guess.

And yeah, I see this on LCD and Plasma TVs all the time too, so it must be modern processing

Can anyone date the Trinitron KV 1215 I picked up last week at a thrift. It was sitting there clean as a whistle, not a mark, and the picture and color is still outstanding. All that for $7

[Jeffhs]

Hmmm. I'm not sure, but I think the KV-1215 might be from the late '60s or very early '70s.

BTW, it never ceases to amaze me how much really good equipment gets sent to thrift stores, Goodwill, etc.--still works and not a scratch, but the owner just doesn't want or need it anymore. Your Sony is a bargain at $7, especially if it works well. I find excellent bargains like that on ebay from time to time; I have several vintage and antique Zenith radios I won in ebay auctions, which all work very well and were very reasonably priced.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Urizen

My first Trinitron I bought new in 1986. Model KV-2080R. The remote got smashed during a move years ago. Wish I cound find another! This set has performed flawlessly for 20 years. My main TV is a Sony Trinitron model KV-32522 which I bought as a floor model around 1998. Great picture.

Have you tried using a universal remote? Most can be programmed for Sony, and work very well. I use an All For One universal with my entertainment system (RCA CTC185 19" TV, digital cable box and service from Comcast, CyberHome DVD player, Panasonic VCR) and it works great with everything but the DVD. I still have to use the DVD's own remote to control the player. For some strange reason, CyberHome DVD players will not work with universal remotes--only their own. This is pointed out at some length on CyberHome's web site, in the FAQ section. Don't get me wrong; the DVD player works great with my TV and I like it a lot, but I wish it would work with my universal remote as well. Can't figure out for the life of me why CyberHome refuses to design its DVD players to work with universal remotes. Oh well...

[domfjbrown]

Pioneer Laserdisc player remote codes don't work on universal remotes either - you can't even teach the remote the codes in "learn" mode Hence why I gave up on a learning remote and sold it...

[dr.ido]

Strange, I've used a cheapo universal remote on several Pioneer LD players. It covered all the basic functions (play, stop, pause, forward, backward, etc), but not some others (audio track select, karaoke functions on some players).

On the other hand I have never been able to get a universal remote to work on any DVD player I've owned, or on the Jerrold 550 series analog cable boxes that were in use here until recently (the digital service had been introduced, but the analog system is still running for the moment).