The largest CRT TV ever made was just rediscovered. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 04:33:20 pm
content: Stumbled across a fascinating YouTube video, just posted, chronicling an amazing journey to track down and acquire the largest CRT television ever made.I thought people here would appreciate knowing about it, and it's one of the coolest videos I've seen in a long time. The story is absolutely wild to the point that I don't want to even spoil too much in this forum post.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 05:12:06 pm
content: Mitsubishi had working 43" CRT TVs as well. I don't know if they were mass produced, but I saw one working in Hong Kong. Living in Hong Kong I used to see various things that looked liked mass produced products, but which were pilot production being test marketed. Things like enormous Samsung plasma TVs that never went into mass productions, 105" 4k LCD TVs years before they appeared in western markets, and so on.

author: SteveThackery
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 05:21:20 pm
content: Brilliant!

author: Zoli
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 05:25:37 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on December 22, 2024, 05:12:06 pmThey exist; I've seen the service manual. Standard(not flat or trinitron-style) CRT's.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 05:39:07 pm
content: The Mitsubishi AM4201R. A 43 inch multiscan computer monitor which could do 1280x1024 progressive as well as 800x600 at 120hz.https://www.docdroid.net/udRzslO/mitsubishi-am4201r-manual-pdfI purchased a used damaged one in the late 90s for 6K$ and re-furbed it myself.It was in use for 15 years with my Amigas and PC and had the best HDTV image before the flat screens came out and HDTV took a long time to come to Canada. Early cable modem with a lot of bittorrent .ts streams where I got access to the earliest HDTV sources one could find.Get this, I also owned a Mitsubishi AM3501R from the beginning of the 90s. Again, a multiscan computer monitor. In fact, its tube was so heavy, its case was made of wood! Inside, that wooden case was lined with a complete enclosure sheeting of copper shielding.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 05:50:58 pm
content: Quote from: BrianHG on December 22, 2024, 05:39:07 pm$6k in a damaged state? How much were they new? When Panasonic and Samsung were vying for the largest production plasma screens, and when Samsung made the first 105" LCDs, they went up to US$150k or more, but $6k for a broken 42" display seems a lot.

author: Zoli
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 06:00:23 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on December 22, 2024, 05:50:58 pmThe Sony in the OP was 40K in '89, according to the video.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 07:30:04 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on December 22, 2024, 05:12:06 pmI saw one of Panasonic’s 105” plasmas in a shopping center once. Very cool. I didn’t gave $75K laying around to buy one for at home, though. Nor the hundreds of thousands more to have a hole cut in the wall of my building (and patched up again) to get it into my apartment. :p

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 08:06:14 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on December 22, 2024, 05:50:58 pmNew, they were around >35k$ CDN.The damage was to the chassis, a bad transistor on the green gun drive and focus board and it needed re-alignment as it was a show rental display monitor. It also came in a huge custom shipping case on wheels specially designed to ship and move the monitor which also serverd as a the TV stand.43 inch 1280x1024 computer screens were really expensive back then.It didn't even have a tuner.But the horizontal and vertical size and offset controls were what you expect from a modern monitor plus it had a quick under-over scan button for video VS graphics presentations.Remember, we are talking about a time when my 21 inch studio screen was >5k$ and this one was 43 inches with slightly slower horizontal drive capabilities. And yet, the convergence on this monster was perfect corner to corner unlike the consumer grade tubes of the time. (Ok, the 21 inch could do a good 1600x1200, even 2048x1536 if you could stand the 60hz)

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 08:17:55 pm
content: How much did one of those beast weigh and did it use a switcher PSU or did have have a power xformer? At 48" you wouldn't have been able to get that through the door of most homes. I sold, removed, replaced and repaired a lot of 26" CRT TVs back in the day and it was all you could do to get them in and out of a home or up and down stairs. I sort of suspect that getting them in and out of homes is whateffectivelylimited home CRT TVs to 26 inch.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 08:25:01 pm
content: Quote from: Stray Electron on December 22, 2024, 08:17:55 pmThey were switchers.In fact, my AM3501R's switcher had a soft startup which begun at something like 1khz which instantly swept to 50khz at every powerup. It had a sound like, well, I don't have words for it. Something like an approaching missile going ultrasonic... Maybe like an old xenon camera flash charging at 10x speed and 10x volume.Note that the audio amp board had a small linear power supply.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 08:51:57 pm
content: Quote from: Zoli on December 22, 2024, 05:25:37 pmI've sat in front of one. A client had one in a wall cabinet in his office (don't know the make, but it was f-word huge). Never saw it working but I have no reason to think it didn't.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 08:54:11 pm
content: Quote from: Stray Electron on December 22, 2024, 08:17:55 pmDidn't almost all CRTs by the 80s already use switchers?Did you not watch the video? They said many times that it weighs about 200kg/440lbs. And it’s 45” diagonal (43” visible), not 48”.

author: Bicurico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 08:55:18 pm
content: That was a nice video.Thanks for sharing it, I really appreciated It.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 08:59:07 pm
content: Quote from: BrianHG on December 22, 2024, 05:39:07 pmWhile impressive resolution-wise, it’s decidedly smaller. From the model number, it’s surely 42”, not 43, and that’s the tube size, not the visible area, which is 40”. (Compared to this Sony’s 45” diagonal, 43” visible.)

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 09:05:39 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on December 22, 2024, 08:59:07 pm42 inch diagonal visible. The tube is a little bigger diagonal if you remove the case.and 35inch diagonal for the AM3501R.These were not considered TVs and you couldn't buy them except through special commercial equipment distributors.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 09:07:24 pm
content: On large TVs, there are some historically interesting plasma panels.Panasonic made a 152" plasma TV, it had 4K resolution (one of the few plasmas to have higher resolution than 1080p) and pulled 3700W from the 240V ac input. It was so large, it was only to be transported by air inside the nose of a cargo 747, at least according to Panasonic, and it weighed 570 kg (1200 lbs).I have no idea how many were produced, but internally it was essentially constructed from multiple 50" sets, featuring 10 x conventional power supply units from their smaller TVs connected in parallel. The sustain boards were probably custom, as were the scan drivers. Even the panel itself was the same larger panel that was used to make 9 x 50" 720p PDPs, just not cut up into the 9 smaller panels: those were 1366 x 768 pixels resulting in a 4098 x 2304 resolution, with a small undriven area resulting in a final resolution of 4096 x 2160p.A more common plasma to find is the TH-103PF12U, which was produced in larger quantities. It's only 1080p, and pulled a mere 1400W, weighing in at 200kg (440 lbs) with a 103" diagonal.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 09:08:39 pm
content: Quote from: BrianHG on December 22, 2024, 09:05:39 pmNope. I have the manual (which you linked!) open in front of me. It says 40” visible, both on the front page and on the specs on page 42. (The manual does not state the tube diagonal, but it is reasonable to infer it to be 42” both from the model number and the fact that for nearly all CRTs, the visible diagonal is 2” less than the tube diagonal, giving a 1” diagonal border all around.)

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 09:56:28 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on December 22, 2024, 09:07:24 pmSamsung demonstrated plasma screens about that size in a mall in Hong Kong. They had several hanging above the crowd, suspended by thin wires, in an atrium for a couple of weeks, as part of a display of their latest technologies. I don't know what the resolution was, or whether they were actually marketed.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2024, 10:07:43 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on December 22, 2024, 09:08:39 pmI stand corrected. Sorry. I'm not sure how I measured it previously as it was done back in the late 90s. I got it after it was in use for ~1.5 years.

author: MathWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2024, 11:30:29 am
content: Quote from: BrianHG on December 22, 2024, 08:06:14 pmInteresting. I was trying to find the "Mitsubishi AM4201R" picture on DuckDuckgo images, and all I get is an acrade machine, and tons of vehicles.I bet it weighted a lot, I wonder how Scooter bike weights compare to it, or even small motorbikes.

author: MathWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2024, 11:38:40 am
content: Quote from: BrianHG on December 22, 2024, 09:05:39 pmSo what were they considered, and who/what did they make them for ? Like airport displays or big events like concerts/etc ??

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2024, 03:07:31 pm
content: Quote from: MathWizard on December 23, 2024, 11:38:40 amBoard rooms/conference rooms where you would show excel sheets or do presentations.Trade shows/display floors.3D displays (though the damn slow phosphor did bleed the 2 images together.)Arcade displays which needed above the old 15khz 240p video. (Though, a company called Monivision began selling open frame large tube VGA screens dirt cheap, then the plasmas took over...)TV walls.Anywhere you needed a PC display larger than 15inches where a dim 3-CRT video projector would not do.

author: lokin4areason
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2024, 03:46:07 pm
content: talk about awesome . . . esp playing old school gaming on itnot to mention , you ll have to hit the gym for a few month(s) before man handling this in the place at where you want to binge watch it . . . or have an engine hoist at hand . . .

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2024, 03:50:58 pm
content: Quotelarge screens at gigs pre led, also known as jumbotrons, were made from some of the smallest crt screens, just lots of em.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2024, 04:08:43 pm
content: Quote from: themadhippy on December 23, 2024, 03:50:58 pmSooooorta.Jumbotrons (until they migrated to LED) used flood-beam CRTs, that is, they didn’t have a beam that scanned. Each tube had a few cells (24 typically), each cell being a subpixel of sorts, with four sets of 3 color triads being grouped to be addressed as a single pixel. So yes, they were CRTs strictly speaking, but they bore little resemblance to the scanned-beam CRTs used as normal size color displays. (And amusingly, because their technology is much closer to a VFD than a Trinitron, Sony didn’t bother making them itself, but instead had them made by Futaba, the company famous for VFDs.)See e.g.http://lampes-et-tubes.info/cd/cd059.php?l=https://lampes-et-tubes.info/cd/cd083.php?l=http://lampes-et-tubes.info/cd/cd050.php?l=https://www.industrialalchemy.org/tubepage.php?item=9&user=0https://forum.retrotechnique.org/t/afficheurs-du-sony-jumbotron-curiosite-technique/102452