I bought a Trinitron tv a little later. It was an amazing display, and the weird thing was that I bought it (at a good discount) from the UK firm "Boots the Chemist" which used to sell all sorts of hardware. Alas, it has gone through a few owners since, and now only sells perfumes and drugs.
Stunning machine - was shocked that in 1980 30 inches was the largest CRT - but that makes sense I suppose - we really are spoilt with screen sizes (and costs) now.
The largest ever Trinitron CRT was the 45 inch (!!) KX-45ED1. Here's a fascinating account of an enthusiast uncovering (and recovering) one of these behemoths in Japan:
Mid 1980s, I worked at an record store that was also heavy into stereos and other audio / visual equipment. We were fortunate enough to have not only a huge 40" Sony set (which weighed about 300lbs) but also a 36" Fisher console set that I think weighed close to 400lbs. So, so much heavy glass.
There were lots of reasons why you wouldn't want to buy one of these behemoths at the time (cost, weight, heat) but maybe the most significant was how bad NTSC video looked when you spread it across a 40" screen. I recently pulled out an old laserdisc player and connected it to a 65" OLED set and it looks absolutely terrible.
One does not do it like that. There needs to be a hardware video signal upscaler in between. Of which many different versions at different capability and price points exist.
When my dad's old Sony KV-25XBR bit the dust, he replaced it with a 32" Toshiba flat-screen CRT. That thing was a chunk indeed.
In my opinion, even though it was really quite a good set, you're absolutely right about NTSC looking horrible on big screens. From day one I noticed that the scan lines very much made it look like watching through very fine Venetian blinds.
Upscaling NTSC and putting it on a big flat panel isn't really so great either.
I've wanted to bring back the console electronics. To that end I have built a few things along similar lines for myself.
A couple of thinner "speaker tables" with a small subwoofer + plate amplifier built in and a pair of full-range drivers. Not really a full console but does keep the wires to a minimum [1]. Just add an amp and sound source. (Sub is down-firing and underneath — so not visible.)
I built a taller version with storage for albums underneath (now we're getting closer to a console stereo [2]. (Sub is also down-firing.)
Additionally I built one for the TV that has a mid (full range) driver as well. With the integrated sub it's fully 3.1 with no external wires [3]. (Like previous, sub is also down-firing.)
FWIW, the "cavities" allowed for the drivers within the body of the furniture were designed to match the drivers in terms of volume (usually sized for a bass port as well). So there was a little more thought than to just slap speakers on a box.
Tried to find a build photo — this is the taller stereo version being built. Full-range drivers on each end, dual subs left-center, bass port in center, plate amplifier (for sub only) right-center: https://imgur.com/ZZtP2qp
That is excellent! I followed more of the 'just slap speakers in it' method - I have an old 50s record player that I got as a teenager (in the 90s) the bass on it was stunning, so I played it to death until the values blew.
I then emptied out the insides as with the lid it made a nice box to keep stuff in. A few years later I worked a 2.1 computer speaker amp and drivers in there (sadly I'd used the original speakers for a project), and added a Bluetooth receiver, an ipod touch and an additional aux cable - then mounted the whole thing on hair pin legs.
It is now a cute coffee table, chest and basic speaker system - but no where near as polished as yours!
The lower frequencies can, yeah. Some turntables are better than others though. It does make sense for turntables though to have a separate sub on the floor — the full-range drivers are not a problem for the turntable at least.
Candescent? A friend of mine worked there. The technology looked amazing. I wonder what modern laptops would look like if they had made it to mass production.
I will always remember when my Dad bought a vertically flat, 27in Trinitron back around 1998. I miss those buttery-smooth pans. Probably my biggest gripe with any modern television is how awful panning or tracking shots look. Similarly, I enjoyed this quest to obtain a (the?) 43in Trinitron: https://youtu.be/JfZxOuc9Qwk?si=9XcP5-4lwzrvpvpF
look at that "remote commander" at around 6min45, beautiful!
I would love to have such a console instead of the current remote control sticks we have with modern tv's. maybe could be a nice project do build...
Was working a Samsung exhibit where they were showing off their latest TV, some quarter million dollar beast. Part of the price tag was delivery and installation, as there was just no way a mere mortal could install this.
The problem wasn't that it was heavy -- it wasn't. Just fragile. The TV was made up of an array of much smaller borderless panels.
Think they sold a few to a coupla professional football players.
My dad was a big fan of Trinitrons. Both our first TV bought in the mid '80s, and the second one bought in the early 2000s after the first one died, were Trinitrons, as was our 17” PC monitor.
Last year I got bitten by the retrogaming bug and ended up getting now one, but two 17” Trinitrons, one for a MAME machine in our office's cantine, and one for my retro PC. Even after 25 years those beasts look gorgeous, old games really look great on them.
As a kid, I had a Sony 20" Trintron KV-20EXR20 with the weird PiP feature. That was right about the era of the change from OTA NTSC to cable TV.
On the PC side, I had a Sony CPD-1304 Trinitron monitor, and later an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 17 (with a Mitsubishi Diamondtron tube) which was possibly the finest CRT monitor ever made.
CRTs are literally particle accelerators smashing electrons into phosphors with high enough accuracy to make human recognizable images. And this was not just at some university science lab. We mass produced this crazy shit and put it in most homes on planet earth as new campfire our families would gather around, replacing primitive transistor radios.
And now people just leave these displays of humanities wildest engineering capabilities... on the side of the road. There is not a factory left on the planet with the experience or equipment to make them anymore, and these tubes have a limited lifespan.
I recently setup 30+ game consoles in my garage, along with a modular a/v synth and switchboard equipment and 30+ CRT TVs of every size ever mass produced in a big amorphous blob floor to ceiling. No one else wants these beautiful things? MORE FOR ME :D
It is glorious, and as a security engineer it is how I detox and remember that I actually do enjoy playing with technology when it does not require user tracking or the internet to function.
To drive home how luxurious this was, 1981 was the start of a recession that lead to 10% unemployment, the highest since the end of World War II, and here are people buying a TV that would be $35,000 in today's money.
We now have 240Hz OLED panels; has anyone tried emulating a CRT on them by drawing 1/4 of a field per frame, leaving the rest of it black? If you could do this with less than 4ms of latency, NES light-gun games might even work on such a thing.
Remember when products came with service manuals and schematics? I miss those times. Today you're just supposed to throw your electronics into the ocean instead of replacing its battery. In some important ways, environmentalism has regressed. But apple.com/environment has pictures of lush forests and windmills so I guess we're fine.
Edit: I'm picking on Apple because they're so sanctimonious about it, but of course it's not an issue unique to them.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 57.3 ms ] threadhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfZxOuc9Qwk
There were lots of reasons why you wouldn't want to buy one of these behemoths at the time (cost, weight, heat) but maybe the most significant was how bad NTSC video looked when you spread it across a 40" screen. I recently pulled out an old laserdisc player and connected it to a 65" OLED set and it looks absolutely terrible.
Short intro here https://www.retrorgb.com/upscalers.html , be prepared for endless ramblings of what is best why for what in countless other places.
In my opinion, even though it was really quite a good set, you're absolutely right about NTSC looking horrible on big screens. From day one I noticed that the scan lines very much made it look like watching through very fine Venetian blinds.
Upscaling NTSC and putting it on a big flat panel isn't really so great either.
A couple of thinner "speaker tables" with a small subwoofer + plate amplifier built in and a pair of full-range drivers. Not really a full console but does keep the wires to a minimum [1]. Just add an amp and sound source. (Sub is down-firing and underneath — so not visible.)
I built a taller version with storage for albums underneath (now we're getting closer to a console stereo [2]. (Sub is also down-firing.)
Additionally I built one for the TV that has a mid (full range) driver as well. With the integrated sub it's fully 3.1 with no external wires [3]. (Like previous, sub is also down-firing.)
FWIW, the "cavities" allowed for the drivers within the body of the furniture were designed to match the drivers in terms of volume (usually sized for a bass port as well). So there was a little more thought than to just slap speakers on a box.
[1] https://imgur.com/nqTy6Bi
[2] https://imgur.com/RIVRfea
[3] https://imgur.com/a1tbhB1
Tried to find a build photo — this is the taller stereo version being built. Full-range drivers on each end, dual subs left-center, bass port in center, plate amplifier (for sub only) right-center: https://imgur.com/ZZtP2qp
I then emptied out the insides as with the lid it made a nice box to keep stuff in. A few years later I worked a 2.1 computer speaker amp and drivers in there (sadly I'd used the original speakers for a project), and added a Bluetooth receiver, an ipod touch and an additional aux cable - then mounted the whole thing on hair pin legs.
It is now a cute coffee table, chest and basic speaker system - but no where near as polished as yours!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-conduction_electron-em...
Was working a Samsung exhibit where they were showing off their latest TV, some quarter million dollar beast. Part of the price tag was delivery and installation, as there was just no way a mere mortal could install this.
The problem wasn't that it was heavy -- it wasn't. Just fragile. The TV was made up of an array of much smaller borderless panels.
Think they sold a few to a coupla professional football players.
Last year I got bitten by the retrogaming bug and ended up getting now one, but two 17” Trinitrons, one for a MAME machine in our office's cantine, and one for my retro PC. Even after 25 years those beasts look gorgeous, old games really look great on them.
I really wish I had the space for another CRT. One day I hope to have a second for two player time crisis.
On the PC side, I had a Sony CPD-1304 Trinitron monitor, and later an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 17 (with a Mitsubishi Diamondtron tube) which was possibly the finest CRT monitor ever made.
And now people just leave these displays of humanities wildest engineering capabilities... on the side of the road. There is not a factory left on the planet with the experience or equipment to make them anymore, and these tubes have a limited lifespan.
I recently setup 30+ game consoles in my garage, along with a modular a/v synth and switchboard equipment and 30+ CRT TVs of every size ever mass produced in a big amorphous blob floor to ceiling. No one else wants these beautiful things? MORE FOR ME :D
It is glorious, and as a security engineer it is how I detox and remember that I actually do enjoy playing with technology when it does not require user tracking or the internet to function.
Photos of it plus Trinitrons in my CRT buying guide: https://opticalgarbage.com/wiki/index.php/Gaming/CRTBuyingGu...
Edit: I'm picking on Apple because they're so sanctimonious about it, but of course it's not an issue unique to them.