Will CRT TVs Be Produced and Sold Again? #CUPodcast

Will CRT TVs ever be produced again on a massive scale?

[nathanmazz]

I got my crt from a guy that paid me to take it away

[tyrannus]

I actually think there could be a niche market for CRT's if we were willing to pay a premium price. After all, there is a market for expensive hi-fi equipment that 99.9% of people would never consider buying, but because a small number of people are willing to pay a premium price for these product they don't have to be mass produced to be profitable. Retro gaming is on the rise, and generations who grew up with gaming on CRT's are now reaching a stage of our lives where a lot of us would be willing to pay a good amount to be able to relive our gaming memories on a display that can do them justice.

[KaoruMzk]

CRTs last pretty fucking long, I have 4 of them, one is from the 80s and still works perfectly fine, an interesting contrast to my HDTV which I've had to replace twice this year due to malfunctions

[Segasocks]

I love to hear how people don't have room for CRTs!! I guess they went without until flat panels were invented!!

Buy as many CRTs as you can store because they are far to expensive in components to ever be manufactured again!!

[Swan-may]

Now normally I can resist being a dick, but...who honestly thought CRTs were gonna come back? They're big, they're heavy, they're super limited in application, we have a ton of them already, they're cheap-as-free, and non-retro gamers have screamed from the rooftops "GOOD RIDDANCE!" They're gone.

We just have to accept that our beloved-but-stupid glass boulders are gone, and maintain the ones we have. Same as retro consoles, actually.

[Misdefinitie]

CRT's are interesting for a broad target group. They are for everyone who take quality seriously. High contrast, perfect black, no input lag, motion resolution, sharp, no native resolution etc. With modern technology, we could make them better than they once were. Or we could produce SED/FED-tv's. All the techniques are here, today, but it is the will that is missing.

[gtdgamesandtechdeconstruct]

CRT's probably wont make a comeback... but they almost should... Again, almost certainly wont but they used to have some very high resolutions for their time (1600x1200 before 1080p was invented), there were higher, but that was the highest normal resolution.... Also the color, brightness, response time, and frame-rates are better than most monitors now. 85hz was pretty standard for CRT. If someone came out with the thin type (real thing google: Samsung Vixlim) digital 1080p CRT, and or a Standard type (because I am not sure with the resolution you could do a thin type) 4k CRT you could get some interest from informed gamers and possibly movie buffs.

Here is why,
Because consoles tend to run at a variety of resolutions and PC hardware isn't fast enough to run 4k all the time in newer titles (example: Witcher 3 still basically unplayable in 4k even with SLI Titans) and CRT scale very well when running non-native resolutions would be a great fit for people with multiple platforms... Movie buffs with DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4k streaming services would get a great experience in all resolutions. Gamers too whether they are running NES at 320x240 (if memory serves) or League of Legends in 4k at 85hz.

Once upon a time mechanical keyboards (which is a very old tech) was very looked down upon for a number of seemingly obvious drawbacks (price, complexity, sound) has made a huge comeback due to strengths. CRT is similarly disadvantaged in weight, power consumption, form factor, but could potentially make a come back due to flexibility, color, response time, frame rate.

[ORENGEcarot]

CRT tv's last long i have one since the late 90s it still works perfectly... LED/LSD tv's last like 5 years or so if you use them everyday they suck only good thing is that they are light and the quality is good but as i said they dont last much

[caleer]

No shortage of them at the thrift stores.

[robintst]

My best CRT is from 1984, it's an RCA Colortrak 2000 lyceum model. It was my grandmother's living room set in the 80s and 90s and I claimed it after she passed around 1996 when we had to clean out her house. Has really deep and rich stereo sound, it sounds better than any stock speakers in any of the LCD/LED TVs I have. Hell, it sounds better than any stereo I've ever owned. And the picture is actually still really good, the adjustment knobs are a little twitchy but that's expected with it's age. No inputs on it except coaxial and UHF so I keep a VCR plugged into it for anything needing composite.

[InazumaDash]

Find one or two and hold on to them. There's no way they are gonna be produced again.

[playstationgamerlife]

Old technology should not be forgotten. You never know when you might need it.

[Kmsur]

My 22 year-old Toshiba widescreen CRT is my baby and I love it, it's survived so long and is still going strong, but one day it will die on me and it'll be the saddest day of my life. Hoping that day never comes :(

[Jasonsadventures]

In the last 3 months I've driven 2000km to pickup about about 20 CRTs. My life and my sons life should be CRT safe now.

[mattorama]

There's just so much supply and they last so long there's no point. I have a Sony Wega 34 inch that I got for the cost of... being willing to remove it from a woman's house where I was doing some contracting work. And it took two people to get out. If somebody could make a CRT that doesn't weight 100-150 pounds for a decent size, then they might have something.

[Mugifi]

The CRT are used more commonly for competitive Melee than retrogaming in general. I don't see a market for these things when it's so easy to find one at the neareast pawn shop for $20.

[aznhmongleader]

Thanks Pat! Unfortunately, some people in the hobby tend to think everyone else is into the "old crap" we are into. The hobby is smaller than they think and they tend to hope that business' with business sense is going to produce "outdated" technology again because they delusionally think the market is big enough. Big LOL all the time when I hear that.

[Jallge]

One thing I'll add is that in the future we'll probably start to see people refurbishing CRT TVs. CRTs are fantastic, but the electron gun at the back of the tube gradually decreases its electron emissions, which means the picture gets darker with less contrast very slowly over time. So there is a need to replace the old worn out electron gun with a new one, which was done until very recently. Vintage and antique TV collectors are working on getting these places that replace electron guns functional again.

In addition to that, components such as capacitors and resistors degrade over time, because their core component is centred around organic materials. So those will all need to be replaced too.

Generally speaking, there are loads and loads of perfectly good CRT TVs that haven't been "recycled", so there's plenty left to use before we consider the above options in a practical sense.

CRT computer monitors on the other hand... those are starting to get a bit few and far between.

[sehnzeleid]

I have a couple in different rooms despite not being a gamer, despite their reputation as outdated landfill tech, quality CRTs can render a surprisingly nice picture once calibrated. I fire mine up for everyday viewing of TV, VHS, DVD, and even Blu-ray when I don't feel like going down to the home theater (projector). I'm biased though, I grew up with a father that was into home theater before HD was ever a "thing" and have had two very expensive flat panels die and a plasma with a dying screen sector. Screw paying all that cash for new sets that die in a few short years while my primary fourteen year old 32" Panasonic GAOO CRT picked up at a flea market for $8 keeps chugging along.

[Konacha]

The CRT I have hooked up to my room is from the late 80s. I remember my parents using this TV for the longest time and the only reason the buttons don't work on it is because I screwed it up when I was a kid. These things last (except the newer ones right before they discontinued them, I've noticed that they break down more than older ones). Heck, my great grandfather's old B&W CRT from the 60s still works. They are built to last.