How many of you are actually still using CRT TVs?

[Anapan]

The 32" weighs a lot, that's for sure. Because of that, the metal structure around it is great for mounting on a 2x4 frame. The main problem we had was the size of the control panel. It's fine to move around in a room after mounting it, but the bezel with the controls no-longer fits easily through a door frame. Because of that, we had to make the top removable, so it can be moved separately. Luckily, all the controls are USB, so securing and housing them in the top worked out just fine. It's definitely a lot easier to move with the weight more evenly distributed, and proper arcade cabinet hand-holds, even with a full tower computer housed inside it.
Having such a big screen as a table is pretty cool tho. Multiplayer games don't feel cramped even when playing horizontal games side-by-side.

When my brother and I are working on CRTs, we just keep well away from the high-energy area of the screens. They're isolated on the motherboard - usually with cut-out slots.
Of course we should have a cantenna to draw the charge out, or just do the screwdriver trick with some insulated gloves, but our new method of RGB modding the jungle-chips requires the TV be on while finding the RGB lines.

[Nemoide]

I just picked up a 27" Trinitron yesterday! ($25 on Craigslist) I forget how ridiculously heavy those tube TVs are until I try to move one... I definitely won't want one that's even a little bigger!

I have it 90% under my retro-computer table which isn't ideal, but it's GOOD ENOUGH, and it works for me! I'm really glad I get to once again experience SCANLINES and LIGHTGUNS and the Sega Master System's 3D GLASSES! It doesn't have component jacks, but aside from that, it's pretty perfect.

Now that I have a TRUE SD CRT, I feel like I'm free to get rid of my HD CRT and replace it with a modern TV. It's not something I'm planning on doing soon, but I'm OPEN TO IT.

[Ziggy587]

Congrats! Is it a flat screen Wega? Or an old bubble screen Trinitron?

I find the Sony CRTs heavier than other brands, for whatever reason. I have a 27" Samsung and a 27" Wega that are about the same age and the Wega is noticeably heavier!

[samsonlonghair]

Congrats! Is it a flat screen Wega? Or an old bubble screen Trinitron?

I find the Sony CRTs heavier than other brands, for whatever reason. I have a 27" Samsung and a 27" Wega that are about the same age and the Wega is noticeably heavier!

I think it was SONY's comb filter that made the Trinitrons heavier than their contemporaries.

[Nemoide]

It's a curved screen model! The folks who sold it to me still had the instruction manual, so I can see that it was from 1997 and so it has that great 90s aesthetic.

Playing around with it has been a treat. While there are still things I still prefer the pixel-perfect image of component cables on my HD CRT, there are just some things a true SD CRT can handle better. Playing around with the 3D Master System games is one of those things! I don't want to seriously try to tackle it now but Maze Hunter 3D seems especially good.
AND with S-video, I think the N64's graphics look about as good as they're ever going to without modding the console. IMO it's a nicer aesthetic than on my HD unit.

This also reduces the grief my not-outputting-RGB Japanese Mega Drive has bee giving me. Composite graphics are okay if I'm playing on one of these old things!

[Ziggy587]

Nice! I've also been diggin the curved screens as oppose to flat screen CRTs. Fun fact, Trinitron screens only curve in one direction. Ordinary shadow mask CRTs are a true bubble in that they curve in both the X and Y axis.

A few videos explain CRT tech from one of my favorite YouTube channels: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy0tKL ... ?query=crt

[Anapan]

Congrats! That's an awesome TV!

I was just yesterday starting a play through of BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets on my 60" plasma tv, and tweaking the settings in my OSSC to adjust the scanlines - I found that using 8:7 aspect in 2x mode with 4:3 output and letting my screen scale to 16x9 makes for a softer horizontal scaling with my RGB modded 1-chip SNES mini. My brother came over and said what are you doing? Why not just play the game? It looks like old CRTs looked.
I booted it up in the arcade test cabinet where we test and tweak our other setups being made for-sale on a 32" CRT.
"OHH! That looks a lot better!"
I've now bought a large pile of scalers and transcoders that might improve my image on an HD screen (Framemeister, XRGB3, Various Startech & Altoma, Behas Bros, Cypress, Arcade Forge, Gombez) and tweaked them all, upgraded the firmware etc. So much expense when I should've just kept my SD content plugged into CRT screens. None of that tech can make as good a visual for 240P SD content as a CRT.
I don't have a 4K screen, so with the right algorithms someone might make a filter that can almost do the stuff - I've looked at the multitude of shaders and filters where everyone tries to make a 4K screen approximate the weird glow through 2 layers of dust that a low-DPI-CRT once made in the 80s... but why bother None of them have 0 lag?
I still only test and play important games on standard low-end CRTs modified for RGB, and they come free or under $50(cad) whenever I need another.
I do love the output from CRT VGA monitors, and have a couple of low-end PVMs, but whenever I see a PVM of any appreciable size, I again see the sharp edges/cutoffs that look unnatural for the games I want to display.

I think the optimum size is between 16" and 27" for RGB input in a CRT, and the DPI is optimum to the age of the game being played (before prince of persia, even old VGA monitors didn't really show scanlines ot 400p in consumer monitors) and PAC-MAN never had prominent scanlines (tho I wish he did - looks so good).
Someone on Vogons made a great comparison of DPI in an older 14" VGA CRT, and a 17" from a few years later. Both of these are superior to the consumer CRTs of the time, and the scanlines on higher end larger mid 90s SD tvs are way more pronounced as those are even more advanced. Since I grew up on those tvs, I have an affinity for the higher end CRTs my friend's parents were on the cutting edge of. I love Sony's 3D comb filter.

I've been reposting this pic for a couple of years now (sorry, no source link - google reverse image search it to Vogons forum). Does anyone have more like this amazing macro CRT photography?

[IMJ]

What a great thread. I still have three CRTV's lingering around the house, but I haven't turned them on in years. One is built into a cherry wood cabinet and would be amazing as a retro gaming station, and the other two are your standard, maybe 32" T.V.s for a bedroom - one is a Phillips and the other I think is a Sony.

Often I'd like to set them up, but I've been torn of late between doing something like that or just buying one of those HDMI upscaling cables that I've seen on the Limited Run Games website. I used to have this PS2 upscaler disc called the Xploder. It worked pretty well, but the new cables seem like a good save from having to go back to the CRTV.

But now that I've seen this discussion, I've got to say that my gears are really turning on the bigger T.V. with the build cabinet and storage. It'd probably be worth a lot to a hardcore gamer too, but I'd have no idea how to transport it if i were to sell it. Guess that leaves me with using it... HA!

[Blu]

New decade, I'm curious if anyone is able to find CRT TVs, let alone a PVM. I really don't know where to begin to search for PVM's in Dallas, but I'd love to have a 13-20 inch Sony. Has anyone had any success?

[Anapan]

CRT TVs are still over 1/4 of the classifieds here in BC, Canada for Televisions under 40". I can always find any SD CRT size I want, usually with a selection of FD Trinitron or curved screen and always under $50. I've never seen a PVM for sale, but I don't look often. a lot of the CRTs are listed free if someone is willing to pick one up. Last time I looked I could also find VGA compatible CRTs, tho they're less common.
With one of the many line doublers available, a VGA CRT (depending on the dot pitch) can look a lot like a PVM and still have 0 lag - scanlines and all. Many of the tubes, even in chassis built by other manufacturers were made by Sony. Most have the added benefit of also doing HD well unlike most consumer HD-CRT televisions.