Are CRTs even manufactured anymore? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Ben321
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2021, 08:28:05 am
content: CRTs are old tech, and almost any device that used CRTs in the past now uses LCD screens instead. Anything from TVs and PC monitors, to oscilloscopes, used to use CRTs but now use LCDs instead. However, a few devices like oscilloscopes are still manufactured with CRTs (often times a scope manufacturer will manufacture both versions of the scope, selling both digital LCD scopes and analog CRT scopes, as purely analog scopes have some advantages I thing). However are these analog scopes simply using a slowly depleting supply of CRTs out of their inventory? Or are new oscilloscope CRTs still being manufactured? What about TV and monitor CRTs? While CRT monitors are no longer made, many still exist, and eventually the cathode filament in the back of the tube will burn out just like a lightbulb, meaning that to continue using such a display unit, the CRT must be replaced. Are there companies manufacturing CRTs for consumer equipment, for the sole purpose of refurbishing used video displays where the CRT's filament has burned out?

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2021, 08:44:50 am
content: Tangentially related... older tech can get an extended life in the "institutional use" marketTechmoan's "Prison Tech" video:https://youtu.be/O3PfsndsihYFirst sections talk about cassettes, tape players and radios. Skip to 12:27 for the section on CRT TV's.

author: WattsThat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2021, 03:17:16 pm
content: There was one domestic manufacturer of tubes for studio monitors still operating a few years ago, cannot find them now online. Maybe someone here knows.Back in the day, they used to rebuild color tv picture tubes. They would cut the entire electron gun assembly off the neck of the tube and weld a new gun in place. Heat the glass to red hot, and spin them together. Of course there was a lot more to the process but that’s the general idea.That stopped in perhaps the late eighties, early nineties as crt’s hit their peak of use and they got to be so cheap it didn’t pay to rebuild, you just replaced the entire tv. This also correlated to the demise of the “console” tv’s, the floor models were the cabinet work was beginning to cost as much as the electronics. Once the table top tv was standard in 19-27 inch models, crt’s became so reliable with 10-20,000 hour life it was a non-issue.Other than some very specialized stuff left in avionics, which is being phased out as fast as is practical, crt’s are all but gone. Part of the reason for the phase out is cost. An instrument rebuild for older Airbus and Boeing aircraft can run $20-30k with new crt’s.

author: JohnnyMalaria
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2021, 04:35:28 pm
content: Yup -https://www.thomaselectronics.com/faq/

author: drussell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2021, 05:01:54 pm
content: Quote from: WattsThat on March 20, 2021, 03:17:16 pmThe last picture tube rebuilder (for consumer-type tubes) in the USA (Scotty at Hawkeye) closed down in 2010, and the last rebuilder in Europe (RACS in France) closed down in 2013. They were still rebuilding vintage tubes for the collector market but the main bread and butter of the rebuilders (things like airport departure/arrival displays, bowling alley scoring displays, arcade machine displays, etc.) were simply drying up and the last few remaining guys basically just simply wanted to retire.Companies like Clinton and Thomas still rebuild expensive, high-tech, specialized displays where the high cost warrants but are impractically priced for most "consumer" units.The ETF purchased (or were mostly donated?) the equipment from both Hawkeye and RACS and have been in an ongoing process of setting up rebuilding facilities at the ETF museum and have actually managed to get to the point of performing a few rebuilds successfully. The main issue is essentially manpower to actually do it on a regular basis. A couple other guys have their own private picture tube rebuilding apparatus but don't offer their services publicly. (yet)QuoteVideo by Bob Galanter, documenting the basics of the process at Hawkeye before Scotty shut down:http://www.antiquetvguy.com/WebPages/CrtRebuilding/HawkeyeMoviePage.htmlEdit:also available athttps://youtu.be/PFnWYe5MzrYVideo by Nick Williams, who travelled to France to document the processes used at RACS prior to their shutdown and sending the equipment to the ETF museum:https://youtu.be/byCeMKzPJgMMore info and links at the ETF rebuilding section of the website:https://www.earlytelevision.org/crt_rebuild.html

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 01:06:09 am
content: CRTs have a number of advantages over flat screen digital diplays, one is the colors ae truer to real life, another is the fact that flat screen displays are slower so some technologies like LCD stereo glasses dont work as well with them. Another is that flat screen monitors have quite noticeable banding and this means that similar colors get effectively merged into the same color. If you are a web developer you'll notice this with sharp edged vector graphics. Sometimes entire parts of images can literally vanish - This is particularly important to avoid with text. Calibrating your monitor's gamma properly makes it much rarer.Quote from: WattsThat on March 20, 2021, 03:17:16 pmI really miss my old Sony G400 monitor. The colors, particularly the reds, were much better than the monitors I use now. We still have a working, monster G500, which must weigh at least 100lbs. It was their biggest computer monitor. But as happens when they get old, its blurry and the brilliance has faded away, making it semi useless.

author: NCG
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 04, 2021, 04:10:47 pm
content: Quote from: cdev on March 22, 2021, 01:06:09 amFor non-daylight or indoor situations OLED has just now reached similar practical quality - 48" LG CX does 4k resolution and 120Hz, FINALLY. And yes, I have still the 3 Sony CRT-s, G520 included.