How many of you are actually still using CRT TVs?

[CRTGAMER]

Someone is giving away a Sony Trinitron 32" flatscreen in my area. I'm gonna get in touch with them tonight, and I see from this thread that Trinitron is a good brand. Are there any that are bad? Anything I should look out for? Unfortunately there wasn't a model number listed, so I'm not sure how far it can be narrowed down just based on the size/flatscreen. My old CRT I had for years died last year and I've been using a junky spare one my parents had at their house.

See my Link right above your post, go to the first page in that link, you might have been able to repair the other TV!

My CRT count currently at the following, enough radiation in my house!

Two - 32" WEGA HD 1080i Flat CRTs

One - 27" JVC iArt Pro HD 1080i Flat CRT

One - 27" Trinitron SD with 1080i Flat CRT (no kidding see my threads)

One - 20" Samsung SD 480i Flat CRT

One - 14" Apex with DVD 480i CRT

One - 13" RCA Color Track SD 480i CRT (RF only with very clear picture)

Two - 14" CRT PVMs (500 and 600 line screens)

Two - 13" Commodore (JVC) 1701 and Commodore 1802A (600 line screens)

Four - iMac (14") - Educator 64 (12" Green) - SX64 (4" Color) - Apple II+ Monitor

Two - VGA CRTs (Dreamcast Lightgun works!)

My latest PVM acquirement for only $20 locally on Craigslist, they work and will shine after a polish!

One - Four pack 4" PVMs (525 line screens)

After all this, still on a hunt for yet another 14" PVM and a 20" PVM; CRTs of course!

[ZBomber]

Someone is giving away a Sony Trinitron 32" flatscreen in my area. I'm gonna get in touch with them tonight, and I see from this thread that Trinitron is a good brand. Are there any that are bad? Anything I should look out for? Unfortunately there wasn't a model number listed, so I'm not sure how far it can be narrowed down just based on the size/flatscreen. My old CRT I had for years died last year and I've been using a junky spare one my parents had at their house.

See my Link right above your post, go to the first page in that link, you might have been able to repair the other TV!

I do still have the TV hanging around, but I'm weary to mess around with it too much. I've read that trying to fix CRTs can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, and even with a guide I'm not comfortable enough with electronics unfortunately. It's not a Sony, but it powers on and then randomly shuts off after a few seconds-minutes. I'm assuming that's a power supply issue? I did bring it to a professional shop about 10 years back to have it fixed, but at this point I think it might just be on its last leg.

At any rate I contacted the guy getting rid of the Trinitron and before I could even say my name or why I was calling, he told me to "fuck off", so... there goes that dream.

[fastbilly1]

My latest PVM acquirement for only $20 locally on Craigslist, they work and will shine after a polish!

I have to ask, why did you buy a 411? Even though it was at a really good price, 4x 4inch black and white monitors have little use outside of CCTV or Video production.

[Ziggy]

Speaking of B&W, my first TV that was my very own was a 13" B&W. Gaming on it was pretty lame, but I use to watch a lot of TV on it!

[CRTGAMER]

My latest PVM acquirement for only $20 locally on Craigslist, they work and will shine after a polish!

I have to ask, why did you buy a 411? Even though it was at a really good price, 4x 4inch black and white monitors have little use outside of CCTV or Video production.

Had to snag it at that price, so cool. Though no sound they do have some unusual possibilities.

My annual Halloween display of House Of The Dead. Adding in the four monitors on top of a larger color PVM or two each of the 4" screens with a different PlugNPlay giving an arcade palace of sorts appearance. The smaller screen can be selected to the larger screen since they all have output ports.

MPV Van Of The Dead - http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 03#p681603

Link/Lan games
The smaller monitors can add a preview cheat screen so each player can see what the others are viewing on their own larger color screen. Of course the large color screens can be seen, but not if each is turned away. Games such as two PS1 consoles linked for the game Assault Rigs, the 4" screens in the middle as if looking in the "mirror" view of the tanks. A simple y cable hookup of the Composite output.

The multi player Gamecube games that add the GBA smaller screen could have different gameplay possibilities tied thru a separate GC with GB Player. Would be neat if a way to tie each screen for just one ghost and Pacman player, though this is not coded in the game.

[ZBomber]

MPV Van Of The Dead - http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 03#p681603

That looks awesome!

[nightrnr]

I've got a question for you guys:

Is there a simple way of connecting both an S-video AND Composite in the same input port (via A/V selector)?

Reason:
I have a couple TV's that have the port for either or, but not both. It's not a huge deal, but it does get annoying switching the 2 in the back every time I change systems. Case in point, I can't stand playing X-box with anything less than S-video, but when I want to play Genesis, for example, I can't just use my A/V switch box to quickly change inputs. If my TV's have an S-video cable plugged in at all (even if nothing is using it), it ignores the yellow video plug.

It's not the A/V selector either. I could have an S-video cable connected to the TV but nothing on the other end and it still defaults to S-video (I have to unplug it to get my regular video).

I think I even tried using a composite to S-video adapter (to connect the yellow plug to S-video input) once, but it made the video quality really weird (lines and washed out colors).

Any suggestions, or is that just the way it works?

[Ziggy]

If it were me, my first choice would be to upgrade anything using composite.

Your TV has a switch inside that works very much like the headphones jack on most PCs and PC speakers. If you plug in headphones, it automatically mutes the audio output jack. There's not much you can do about that aside from modifying the TV itself.

[nightrnr]

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for the analogy.

Upgrading, it may come to that. I have one Genesis system that has particularly bad video that would be a good candidate for a video encoder swap and S-video and/or component mod. But standard composite is still more convenient for most of my 90's game collection.

Might just have to get some more S-video cables for the systems that can use them.
(Wishes the racketboy store was still active; it is really tricky finding quality S-vid cables).

[Ziggy]

I've given up trying to find quality cables in most cases. I opt to make my own most of the time.

As for the Genesis, you might not have to mod the console. There's a component cable coming soon. It takes the RGB output from the console and transcodes it to component. It does it all in the cable, so it's plug and play, you don't have to mod the console.