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Selling retro rigs?

Crts are mostly built much better than modern flat panels. I feel you can keep them working far longer than any modern lcd screen. I love working on old crts. But I get it they take up alot of space and are a back injury waiting to happen.
 
VERAULT said:
I love working on old crts.
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Key here for me is old. Single resolution or monochrome monitors with single sided PCBs are so easy to work on; of course on the flip side, later PC monitors or PVM's with umpteen sub-boards are a different story.

I don't see myself doing much work to save flat panel displays themselves at any point in the near future.
 
CRTs are infamous for their longevity. There's a whole conspiracy that part of the move to flat panels was was spurned on by the panels dieing faster and thus getting to sell more.
 
VERAULT said:
Sure monochrome monitors are by far easier to work on. I mean dealing with Convergence on Color monitors is a nightmare.. But I still do it.
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Definitely... Convergence aside, I mainly mean PCB complexity. Compare a 15K color run of the mill Wells Gardner monitor to a VGA PC multi-sync and you'll get what I mean.

hunterjwizzard said:
CRTs are infamous for their longevity. There's a whole conspiracy that part of the move to flat panels was was spurned on by the panels dieing faster and thus getting to sell more.
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I can't speak to this one, but when I worked in the skateboard industry I was told by more than one shop owner (and witnessed) that any innovation which made skateboards more durable would get shot down by every manufacturer, because they 100% relied on their boards being breakable/consumable to maintain their margins.
 
skate323k137 said:
I can't speak to this one, but when I worked in the skateboard industry I was told by more than one shop owner (and witnessed) that any innovation which made skateboards more durable would get shot down by every manufacturer, because they 100% relied on their boards being breakable/consumable to maintain their margins.
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Look up the Phoebus cartel. There is actual documented evidence that manufacturers colluded with each other to keep the lifespan of incandescent light bulbs in order to sell more. Its no coincidence that LCDs started to enter the main stream right at the same time "planned obsolescence" became a buzz-word.

Its all just a conspiracy theory about the LCDs of course. I've still got stacks of working Dell monitors from the early 2000s. My only real problem is you flat out cannot GET 4:3 screens above a certain size.
 
hunterjwizzard said:
Look up the Phoebus cartel. There is actual documented evidence that manufacturers colluded with each other to keep the lifespan of incandescent light bulbs
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Yep I watched the Technology connections episode about that same thing. Very interesting.... And way back in the 1930s too.
 
hunterjwizzard said:
CRTs are infamous for their longevity. There's a whole conspiracy that part of the move to flat panels was was spurned on by the panels dieing faster and thus getting to sell more.
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I've seen quite a few Trinitrons that have either faded or contrast looks washed out. I'm not familiar with the innards of CRT's and would be curious as to why the displays have faded.
 
Moondog said:
I've seen quite a few Trinitrons that have either faded or contrast looks washed out. I'm not familiar with the innards of CRT's and would be curious as to why the displays have faded.
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Well if they are TV sets you could imagine they probably saw ALOT of use. By the way I saw two very unique Trinitron TV sets at the swapmeet. I dont collect TV sets but for some gamer they would make a nice piece.
 
Moondog said:
I've seen quite a few Trinitrons that have either faded or contrast looks washed out. I'm not familiar with the innards of CRT's and would be curious as to why the displays have faded.
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Usually its actually the electronic components converting the wall power to the actual components. A few off-the-shelf part replacements and it'll be good as new. CRT monitors aren't that different from CRT televisions, and there's a whole hobbiest community out there restoring them.
 
VERAULT said:
Well if they are TV sets you could imagine they probably saw ALOT of use. By the way I saw two very unique Trinitron TV sets at the swapmeet. I dont collect TV sets but for some gamer they would make a nice piece.
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Trinitron CRT's. They were Dell branded, if that makes a difference.
 
I always wanted a CRT that had both VGA and component inputs. I don't know why. Way back in highschool(early 2000s) the school got these big 32"(possibly 40") CRTs in every classroom. Could do 1024x768, had VGA, maybe even DVI inputs. I still to this day want one, but have no idea how to even look for such a thing. That was the largest 4:3 monitor I ever saw.
 
Are you sure it wasnt 34"? That was a much more common Large CRT Size. I had a 34" CRT TV at home as my primary living room TV set until 2005 or 2006. 40" CRT in a school seems really excessive. It would cost far more than any schools budget would have let alone in every classroom. You have to remember its not like it is today 4:3 CRT televisions were not as large as todays. We had a large TV at home in the early 80's.. It was a 22".
 
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VERAULT said:
Oh sure I remember those. Those were good monitors. I might even still have one in my crawlspace. They sold those until 2003 I think.
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I have one too, not letting it go.

I saw one sell on ebay for a few hundred last year though, if you stumble across it lol

hunterjwizzard said:
Usually its actually the electronic components converting the wall power to the actual components. A few off-the-shelf part replacements and it'll be good as new. CRT monitors aren't that different from CRT televisions, and there's a whole hobbiest community out there restoring them.
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Under-rated advice for sure. I have seen better picture improvement in some arcade cabinets from replacing the cabinets switching PSU than from recapping the CRT. Both help, but it's magic what a clean power source can do for the whole shebang.
 
VERAULT said:
Are you sure it wasnt 34"? That was a much more common Large CRT Size. I had a 34" CRT TV at home until 2005 or 2006. 40" CRT in a school seems really excessive. It would cost far more than any schools budget would have let alone in every classroom. You have to remember its not like it is today 4:3 CRT televisions were not as large as todays. We had a large TV at home in the early 80's.. It was a 22".
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I'll be perfectly honest, I never had an actual measurement for these devices. I remember they looked "a little bigger" than the 32" CRT TV I bought on clearance a few years later. If I ever happened to see one I'd know instantly what I was looking at. Those displays are my white whale.
 
My uncle had a 35" CRT TV around 20-25 years ago. It was a heavy beast, and required at least two people to carry it.

On the corporate IT side we didn't see many CRT's over 21 inches. If anyone needed a larger display, like for a meeting room, we'd install a projector. They were way cheaper than the early LCD/plasma displays. The first 50" plasma we received was an NEC that cost $15,000. The users that received it complained it was much smaller than the projector display they previously had, then it was replaced with a 60" plasma NEC. It was about a year after the 50" was installed, and funny thing was it cost the same at $15,000.
 
Yeah I'm shocked anyone installed a 50" plasma screen for 15 grand when projectors were a thing. I recall back in the day one of my friends who's dad was a cinephile/audiophile had a projector for movies in-home. He was not rich or anything, it did cost more than the biggest bigscreen TVs on the market, but not an insane amount more.
 
The brightness/ contrast was better on the plasma display than it was on a projector. The war room would operate with all the lights on, and the previous projector display wasn't sharp and bright enough. People would like to stand in front of the screen and point at things on screen, and I recall they didn't like the image being obstructed by people standing in front of it.
 
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