A Tiny, Unlikely Full-Color CRT

[@12voltvids]

The reason pro cameras used black and white viewfinders was sharpness. Camera operator is focusing, and wants a very sharp picture for fine focus.

[@Colaholiker]

That's what I've learned about it. Camera operators in professional production don't bother much aout color, as that's pretty stable in studio conditions and can be fixed in post. But a blurry image can't be fixed in post production, so they need to focus (pun intended) on that, and a sharp black and white image is just better for that.

[@12voltvids]

@@Colaholiker Auto white balance is pretty good. A cameraman's job is framing and focus. Sports is where color viewfinder helps.

[@stickytapenrust6869]

@@Colaholiker The camera operator’s job hasn’t really changed since the days of b/w. The job of colour rendition is the job of the makeup artist, costume designer, lighting director and vision engineer.

[@hbp_]

Professional viewfinders still often have B&W mode :) Also one reason why we were stuck with CRTs for so long was that they were pretty much instant where as LCDs used to have some delay. In fact, I believe most modern pro viewfinders are OLED.

[@12voltvids]

@@hbp_ that's correct I have two professional cameras and the eyepiece on them is OLED. You can't beat it for color accuracy. They both have flip out LCD screens for a framing but for focus work and for checking exposure etc I use the OLED viewfinder exclusively.

[@courierstudio]

The expensive camera’s CRT was B&W because they are much sharper, and focus is more important than color accuracy. Color can be changed in post, focus can’t.

[@bobbobskin]

One of the reasons a well set up 3 gun crt projector like an old barco gives such a good picture by comparison to led projectors even now.

[@chickenfizz]

I came here to say this! It's more that colour CRT and LCDs actually make worse view finders.

[@thewindows95guy]

Also battery life would be better with a Black and White CRT opposed to a Color one I think.

[@spikester]

@@bobbobskin DLP was the best of all worlds, but the good kind that used 3 DMD's one for each RGB channel & recombined in a prism; no color wheels.

[@spikester]

Err, is? Seems its still widely used even with discrete laser light sources, cool!

[@kennylauderdale_en]

What they could do with old technology always impresses me more than any modern display. It could be an 8K monitor & it wouldn't be as interesting as this for some reason.

[@jeanhaley3051]

Wait until someone starts breaking down 8k monitors as retro tech in 30 years.

[@anzer789]

Not as interesting as something heading towards the _f E r r y b o a t_

[@kyanhluong]

Because beside it clever someone have to break it down ?

[@slowanddeliberate6893]

This older tech is more clever. Nowadays, everything is regulated by microprocessors.

[@maboesanman]

I think this is generally down to the much higher complexity of modern cutting edge technology. You can’t really explain the truly clever parts of modern microprocessors in a 30 minute video. Things like branch prediction in modern processors are absurdly clever and complex, but they’re also less accessible for a video format.

[@GeoffreyGore]

Yeah, I'm also here from Technology Connections. You're doing great work, and I'm subbed!

[@TonyLambregts]

Me too. I am impressed. Liked and subbed

[@SeanGarcia0411]

Same. Thanks TC for showing me yet another awesome channel. Subbed.

[@sonarun]

I was randomly given this video by the YT gods, perhaps because I like TC. Clearly, they knew me better than myself.

[@emagotis]

He just explained the degauss button as it was a child's play.

[@Beardwhip]

Same! Subbed! Eager to see what else he has in store

[@CaptainCiph3r]

>click on vid >some dude just talking about something he's interested in, no fancy edits and its completely niche and barely related to my interests >Instantly subscribe Very good, time for another tech youtube binge

[@MrBratkenSolov]

no no, you have a point. Really underrated channel

[@dragosmoldovan990]

This guy's definition of a "really cool party trick" makes me wanna hang out with him

[@TheHitmanAgent]

Adevarat, sunt de acord! Dar banuiesc, esti constient ca prin aceasta suntem catalogati niste ciudati (nerds) 😂

[@dragosmoldovan990]

@@TheHitmanAgent Imi asum aceasta eticheta :)

[@boowiebear]

Agreed!

[@bombardierulbombardier2561]

Dorian popa este popo!

[@mikkowilson]

Great video on an amazing piece of technology. One reason that professional TV cameras had monochrome viewfinders until very recently is based on the needs of videographers, and a little bit on technology... There are 4 basic things a videographer is worried about: 1) Composition, how the shot is framed. This isn't hampered by screen technology. 2) Focus. This is the important one. If it's out of focus, it's useless. So a professional TV camera, which (almost) always use manual focus, must have as sharp a screen as possible to help the camera operator judge their focus. So if you are going to add color to a viewfinder, you have to be able to do it in a way that doesn't compromise resolution at all. Add to that the human eye sees much finer detail in monocrome, and there isn't any real need for color to focus a camera. 3) Exposure. Again, it's the brightness of the image that really matters. A profesional TV camera has a large iris control right there at the operator's fingertips (except in a studio/multi-camera environment where a "Shader" is remotely adjusting exposure & color on all cameras so they match.) Again, it's easier to see brightness in monocrome, and you certainly couldn't compromise the dynamic range for the benefit of color. 4) Color. Obviously good color is important when producing color TV. In a professional environment you need really good color rendition to monitor color, or it's not worth doing it. So when you factor all those things in together, until you could get a viewfinder that could produce images as bright, sharp, & accurate as a full size video monitor, adding color to the mix was more of a hindrance than a help. It's not that it couldn't be done, but it was very very difficult to do well enough, so monocrome actually worked better for professional applications. Color was (and to a degree still is) something handled by someone with a high quality color monitor somewhere, in a control room or edit bay. I have worked in control rooms making color TV where the only color monitor was the 1 for the "Shader" at the engineering position, and the entire rest of the wall was black & white monitors, even to make a color TV program.

[@CathodeRayDude]

That all makes a ton of sense! Like, imagine if *THIS* thing had wound up in a pro camera - they would have sold flat out *zero* units. The color just isn't important beyond white balance, which can always be done in post, compared to a clear and distinct image - focusing with THIS viewfinder is impossible, you just can't do it, but I've hand focused that Panasonic, on my shoulder, while panning, with no external display, and nailed it. I didn't have a chance to demonstrate the difference between the consumer and pro B&W finders as clearly as I would have liked, because I forgot to bring home an 80s camera with a *working* viewfinder (e.g. with eyepiece) but the quality of the viewfinder image in those was *markedly* inferior to the Panasonic. Looking through the VF on the studio camera you quickly forget it's not in color, even as a layperson. I had a few other drafts where I made this point better, but the last take of this video popped a lot better than any of those so I went with it even though I skimmed over this point. Anyway, thanks for watching!

[@Andrew_Sparrow]

Saved me from typing almost the same ;) - Thanks

[@alex.thedeadite]

So that's one way how colour mismatch continuity breaks can happen, sometimes only the colour correctors know the right colours so others can't point it out if they miss something unless they are in view of the set.

[@dh2032]

as you said auto focus, was rubbish back then, if it mattered you would not trust it at all, it would just start focusing on the wrong object in view all the time.

[@everlastingphelps]

Came here to say nearly the same thing. You even see the B&W option today on pro cameras like the EOS C100 now, along side the other focus helpers like edge zebras and the 4x zoom in the corner.

[@thisguy2958]

Props to Technology Connections for bringing me to this channel. Surprised I've never seen you before. Hopefully you get more attention. You're already a good personality on camera, more support will be great for you. Good luck 👍

[@Jademalo]

Solid filming with great audio, simple and concise explanations with great examples, the clear knowledge to back it all up, the works. Quickest sub in a long time!

[@thisguy2958]

@@Jademalo Difficult to argue with accuracy. The explanations are well thought out for people who may not understand what they're looking at.

[@joannaatkins822]

This was genuinely fascinating and very very well presented and edited. You've earned a sub, I'm glad technology connections put us on to you!

[@CathodeRayDude]

Thank you so much! Yeah, I'm pretty indebted to him, haha.

[@joannaatkins822]

@@CathodeRayDude I wouldn't say that, he just saw your excellent, interesting content and wonderful delivery and gave you a little boost. You would have been recognised for your hard work sooner or later if you'd kept the quality to this quality level. Keep on Grinding!

[@thedave7760]

@@CathodeRayDude One of the reasons was for image sharpness, if you make a colour CRT VF then you couldn't have hi resolution in such a small form factor. I would rather have a sharp image so I can check for focus and trust that my white balance is working properly.

[@matthewf1979]

I never get tired of your technical story telling. The 80’s and 90’s went through tech faster than the 1800’s to 1979. What a time to be alive!

[@f.k.burnham8491]

You did an extremely good presentation. This is coming from a TV tech for 50+ years.

[@Stoney3K]

Those monochrome CRTs were used in pro (even digital high-def) cameras for a long time for the simple reason that they could produce a VERY sharp image on a tiny surface, which allowed the camera operator to preview the image and adjust things like iris or focus without having to use a large outboard monitor. Colour CRTs always have some degree of image granularity because of their shadow mask, while monochrome CRTs could in theory have a 'resolution' of single electron hitting their screen.

[@jimhutton2390]

CRTs do not loose resolution with motion, very annoying with football games. Probably more importantly CRTs work over a very wide temperature range unlike LCDs. Color CRTs generally have an electron beam size that covers about 5 holes in the shadow mask. Especially small size monochrome CRTs can have very small spot sizes if the high voltage is high enough.

[@RobLion]

I've gotta say, I think you pulled off the clearest explanation of how a CRT works I've ever encountered. Great little animations, too. Love it. Fantastic video!

[@CathodeRayDude]

IT'S BECAUSE I WAS RACING AS FAST AS I COULD thanks!! The animations are so so so much work to make but man they sure help

[@sab0004]

@@CathodeRayDude those were amazing

[@musicalcacti]

@@CathodeRayDude just a suggestion but try to look a little more directly at your camera, it can be a little distracting when it seems like you are looking at somebody behind me. I know you might be using a teleprompter which can be complicated, but maybe just work on some different shooting angles and see how they work.

[@plateshutoverlock]

Years ago I knew someone who put a bar magnet near a CRT and was thrilled by the effect it produced. When she pulled it away, the funky colors ramained and no amount of degauzzing would fix it. So it was possible to not only magnitize the shadow mask, but to physically distort it thus damaging the CRT and have it always display the wrong colors.

[@andreasklindt7144]

In my opinion, KZbinrs like you are so important! KZbinrs who specialize in old technology and explaining it in details that were even hidden to the majority of people of that era. You document and preserve pieces of history and present it in an easily accessible way. Thank you! The physics and engineering skills of old technology is amazing. You deserve at least as much subscribers as my other favourite retro tech channels, Techmoan, The 8-Bit Guy and LGR.

[@ARavingLobster]

Your channel is about to explode, and after watching this video you honestly deserve it. You're incredibly well spoken and so informative and well researched it's unreal. I've never seen one of your videos before but I'm 5 mins into this one and have already subscribed. I can't wait to see more videos like this in the future.

[@CathodeRayDude]

Thank you so much!! I work so hard on these and I always feel like I'm underdoing it - everyone is saying I made a lot of sense but to me I'm like "no!! i went twice as fast as I should have! i didn't pause to let people digest the info!!!" but apparently i'm doing fine?? everyone says i am??? it's so hard to believe!

[@danwoodward23]

@@CathodeRayDude I like your fast pace. It kept me watching right to the end. I understood every word and it was overall very entertaining. Best of luck my friend

[@awesomeferret]

No, you're doing it perfectly. Don't change!

[@andriypredmyrskyy7791]

Damn cool man. I'm a systems engineer, and can confirm that with this kind of feedback it'd be really easy to make a system that gets the beam gun changing the signal at the right rate. Hell you could probably pull it off with just the uv strip, and if you were really good you might be able to cut down the total number of uv strips. But having two strips is a good safe way of doing it.

[@joshuascholar3220]

And the problem with having a green strip is that he means that you can't set a totally visible green color all the way to black. That might be why the display "sucks" - ie. has low contrast and faded color.

[@playgroundchooser]

Tech Connections brought me here... And he pulls out the 2001 camera I used to use shooting College Football games! Awesome! The B&W was fine for that purpose, because you just wanted crisp focus.

[@mmmhorsesteaks]

You owe technology connections a beer ;-)

[@CathodeRayDude]

YOU'RE TELLING ME GOSH GOLLY

[@NonCompete]

I went to film/broadcasting school from 2002-2006 and my professors told me a black and white viewfinder was preferable. We were told black and white was better for seeing contrast and exposure and especially focus, and that viewfinder color wasn't trustworthy anyway, we were told to use scopes and field monitors for checking color. I don't know if it's rose colored glasses looking back, but I do remember b&w viewfinders pretty comfy for composition and checking exposure and such. But I'm definitely glad to have the tech we have today lol

[@litarea]

You're an incredible presenter, 5 min in and I've already learned so much. easy sub

[@rcdarkangel]

I dont know how I have not seen this channel before. Its exceptional. This is the third video I have seen of yours and each one is amazing. You have a real voice and flare for presenting information.

[@CathodeRayDude]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@solidSchmaltz]

I love how fast you go. Great explanations. Well done!

[@bennimkin7981]

The reason the 2001 cam had a CRT was because it was better for focusing. LCDs weren’t sharp enough to get really precise focus (called ‘critical focus’)

[@F-Man]

Welp, this channel is about to take off in a big way - Technology Collections gave ya a shout, dude! Love your style and your apparently great knowledge - new subscriber for sure!

[@CathodeRayDude]

Thank you so much! Yeah, I owe him a beer or fifty, hahaha.

[@awesomeferret]

I'm surprised he isn't at 50+k by now, he's so much better than many 100+k channels. Sorta makes peu wonder if he got erroneously whacked by some KZbin blacklist somehow.

[@doug834]

I'm here from Technology Connections and I must say I am very glad I found your channel. Great work and you've got a new subscriber!

[@lrochfort]

Great stuff. A really good high speed overview of CRTs, too

[@frankpitochelli6786]

Having been in the TV Repair bizz for almost 40 yrs myself, you are very knowledgeable and well spoken with your explanations....well done young man..!! Great channel also.!

[@MRonge]

I can hear the distinctive sound of the CRT while watching this video.

[@ZGryphon]

The thing about degaussing color CRTs reminded me of something we used to do long ago in college. In the early '90s, I went to a tech school that had a computer center full of DECstations, with huge (for the time) CRT monitors. A bunch of us discovered that if you flicked the degauss button on those monitors really lightly with a fingernail, the screen would do about half of the usual "rainbow pulse" thing and then stay that way until the button was pressed properly, at which point it would go back to normal. Then you could wait for someone who didn't know the trick to come along and be like, "Oh no, something's wrong with this one," and you could walk up and "fix" it and look like a wizard. We were easily amused in those days. :)

[@IncroyablesExperiences]

Soo interesting!

[@jeremycodes6670]

Hey, je regardais vous vidéos depuis 2012, ça a alimenté ma passion pour l'électronique, merci

[@piefadase]

Hey, haven't seen you in years!

[@atmel9077]

Ça fait plaisir de vous retrouver ! Incroyable comme le monde est petit.

[@briangoldberg4439]

The indextron tubes are super dark. I think it has to do with the need to put black spaces between the vertical lines, greatly reducing the phosphor light output. I'm sure they would have improved if it made sense to go down that road, but LCDs were already taking over, and there obviously wasn't room for beam index in the marketplace.

[@vincerequoi5494]

Wow you weren’t kidding. That was quick. Great video. Love the “it’s interesting but totally useless now” genre of topics. Every time you say eyecup I just remember “say ICUP out loud”

[@CathodeRayDude]

I was actually MORTIFIED that I kept saying eye cup. It's accurate, but NOT the phrase I wanted to use on camera! I kept trying to say "eyepiece" which sounds a little less... weird, imo, to the uninitiated? But eyecup just kept coming out and I threw up my hands and just went with it because the rest of the shoot was going so well. Thanks for watching!

[@tashtari]

I've never seen a more concise and coherent explanation of how a color CRT works - I now actually understand what a shadow mask is and why it exists. Excellent animated diagrams, too. Well done.

[@yecti]

Love it. Here from TC as well. You’re a great presenter!

[@redhotbbqfries4L]

Great video, what's crazy is I could hear the high pitched CRT sound in my headphones from this video

[@julz1278]

I honestly just thought this was the Technology Connections guy but 5 years ago

[@AZREDFERN]

When I shoot photos in RAW, I have the preview after I take a photo set to B&W. The reason being is it’s far easier to comprehend contrast and exposure with B&W. Color makes it harder to differentiate contrast between colors. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was partially part of the reason they didn’t bother with color. It’s not important until the end product.

[@LudwigVon]

I may start doing this... Sharpness too. It's really hard to judge subtle focus on those tiny displays sometimes

[@mrThurmenMurmen]

The KZbin algorithm is starting to shine on this man

[@TheAechBomb]

nope, just Technology Connections :P

[@robertcasey2490]

A big problem with Indextron and such color display tubes was when the image scan was in a black area. You wouldn't get a UV or green flash in black areas, and when you'd get into a non black part of the image, you'd have lost track of what color stripe you were going to hit. So you'd have to have some brightness in black areas, which made the image look washed out. Not good.

[@RetroTechUSA]

Hey, a fellow CRT afficiando! Great video. I had no idea about a color CRT viewfinder.

[@mikeh4840]

Just a few corrections, one is that the shadow mask doesn't block the individual beams from hitting incorrect colors. The beam indexing tube also shows that the beam can be modulated fast enough. Beam indexing was not able to be used, primarily because of electronics of the day. It had much higher brightness and resolution than any shadow mask. Sincerely, A still employed cathode ray tube engineer, 40yrs. Any questions about CRTs, feel free to ask.

[@theallknowingsause8940]

woah this video is way too under rated, awesome video!

[@JerryFlowersIII]

Under rated? It looks like you caught the video only about an hour after it premiered. It's POPPIN' now.

[@concr3t3]

and now I understand how CRTs work so much better than I ever did, thanks as usual for presenting interesting topics and being a very engaging teacher!

[@compressorhead02]

Great content I wish you luck on your journey on KZbin brother I'm gonna be a long time subscriber excited to see where your channel goes!

[@gblargg]

I think one of the biggest reasons they kept black and white displays in professional cameras was their very high resolution. The color stripes greatly reduce resolution. This is the first video I've seen of yours. Great in-depth explanations and background. You kept even this very technical person satisfied with details. And thanks for not trying to put lots of dumb humor in, it would be distracting. Great coverage of an odd technology like this.

[@codematrix_yt]

Subbed from Technology Connections, hello!

[@Purple431]

Me too ❤️

[@djalasdair4984]

That was a very enjoyable video. Top tip - if you filter the higher audio frequencies out you can get rid of the high pitched scream from the screens.

[@dtraindaimyo3377]

Dude, you're a legend, this was really interesting!

[@KayleeCee]

I'm so happy that Alec from Technology Connections linked to this video in one of his posts. This is good stuff that deserves more eyes on it.

[@postrodent]

"i have an ebay saved search for every single indextron ever made" gravis-like typing detected XD

[@CathodeRayDude]

Do Not Own Me

[@scottpeterson8591]

Appreciate you being succinct. Good format. Good audio (important). Good framing. Enjoy the ambient thing spread.

[@CathodeRayDude]

haha, ambient thing spread?

[@brunovazquez1]

“Before flat screens came down in price”, yep he’s right about that one. I remember people wouldn’t shut up about “plasma”.

[@kur0nek0g4ming]

Oh damn! Nearly forgot about these.

[@rokenwolf]

Thank you for this wonderful video! It’s great to see you gush passionately about something even as you say it’s pointless in a way. Wrapping it up into a message about researching the seemingly mundane is exactly the kind of thing I appreciate about you and your keen perspective! Also: again, thanks for the captions. :>

[@EposVox]

Fascinating! Subbed

[@1Rab]

I heard CRT whine throughout the entire video. That took me back

[@12voltvids]

Go find yourself a Sony Videomagic. Beam index (single gun) color tube projector.

[@vitajazz]

Professional cameras used a black and white viewfinder because it gave a better idea of scene composition, what would show in black and white, and allowed for precise focus plus overlay patterns. Also it was required for registration, a precise single point on the display would give the most accurate results to see if two beams were properly registered and cancelled out. The cameraman could after all simply look at the scene target to see what the colours were. Even procams with colour viewfinders could switch to monochrome.

[@AverageThinking]

Basically a more personable Technology Connections

[@ds-il7ik]

How dare you

[@Left-Earth]

*"Don't judge or compare people to your expectations, please."* LoL 😂

[@IrenMasot]

The diagram at 4:00 set your channel far and away ahead of most content providers on KZbin. Just that little bit of extra effort is more than most people are willing to put in, and I really appreciate it from you.

[@alinayossimouse]

I imagine one problem building larger televisions with it may also be that you need to find a spot to put the two sensors for the pulses where they won't get thrown off by light pollution. In the viewfinder they're nicely confined in a mostly dark place

[@clivebradley2633]

What a wondefully succinct description. So nice to see a techie who can describe things properly. Duely impressed, thanks!

[@johnfoggitt2444]

Nicely presented, clearly spoken and easy to understand by anyone interested in CRTs.

[@CullenCraft]

Dude this amazing info. I wish more people appreciated this kind of old display tech. Your presentation style is so clear and precise. Amazing total package video.

[@CathodeRayDude]

Thank you so much! It physically hurts me to explain something partially so I just try to get the WHOLE STORY into one go.

[@CullenCraft]

@@CathodeRayDude you did very well. One suggestion, the 15.7khz crt whine is slightly audible in this video. You probably know about it, but I wanted to let you know in case you didn't. It's easy to pull out with an equalizer in post production, but it might add to the style of your channel. Can't wait for the next video!

[@rdutrabh]

Great video! So, two main reasons for B&W viewfinders way into the 2000's are: 1. B&W images are better for you to see focus and brightness differences really quick, which is key to operate such cameras, specially in a professional environment. Even bigger viewfinders (the ones mounted on top of the cameras) are B&W. 2. A color image so close to your eye makes your eye tired A LOT faster. If you had to stay behind a viewfinder for hours, a color image would make you go a bit dizzy in less than an hour.

[@josephlucas502]

I played with a camcorder with that kind of color screen way back in the day. I thought it was neat that the color would go away when you covered the sensors, but never delved any deeper. I had no idea how fascinating the tech was. Thanks for expanding my knowledge on this!

[@12voltvids]

Hey! Where is my credit for MY Panasonic CT101 you used! Yes that is my set, and my bench and that is Jean Michael Jarre playing on the tube.

[@BlakeNaftel]

Great video! When RCA released that particular video camera in or around 1985/86 it boosted the price quite substantially. Two models, the CC017 and the CC021, were nearly identical, the later with a color VF. Most gravitated towards the B&W VF as color was a luxury at the time, nor did enough market demand exist -- along with allowing the user to create better focus as previous comments have mentioned.

[@wolfrobots118]

I think your on screen presences is really really good...its why I watch. And your show are always very interesting and fascinating.

[@zaprodk]

It was still a monochrome CRT in 2001 since resolution is way more important than color. The first "prosumer" camcorders with color LCD (e.g. Sony VX1000) had TERRIBLE resolution in the viewfinder. I preferred the old monochrome over color any day.

[@luppano]

That is so cool. So specific and so cool. Thanks for doing that video. I didn't came from Technology Connections but you showed up on my homepage, probably cause I'm a TC subscriber and they all suddenly watched your videos.

[@CathodeRayDude]

People keep telling me The Algorithm is Blessing me, and I guess it's true! Thanks for watching!

[@edgeeffect]

I love anything with a CRT in it... so wished I found your channel a lot sooner... BUT I'M HERE NOW!

[@simonmikkelsen]

The level of detail in both research and presentation is awesome. I am looking forward to watching many more of your videos. You are truly fantastic. Also here from TC and I have subscribed.

[@CathodeRayDude]

thank you so much! it hurts me physically to say things that either aren't complete ideas or feel like they aren't totally correct so I can't help but research as hard as I can to try to be as right as possible.

[@McFlyOrPie]

It turns out our boy at Technology Connections threw you a bone. I live for this kinda stuff. Keep 'em coming my man.

[@donaldklopper]

Your voice has a very rich calm and clear quality to it. You should do voice over and radio and movie work dude. Subbed. I also came from Technology Connections

[@SithVicious]

God... it took me a few days to watch this, but .... for a guy with only a few thousand subs this is great! Energetic, knowledgeable, a bit fun. Love it! I’m a subscriber now

[@themeantuber]

You just made me remember something from the CRT era I had completely forgotten about. Because of the same magnetization effect you just demonstrated and because of Earth's magnetic field, every time you'd move a crt color tube around the room, from one place to another, usually a pink color mark would appear on screen somewhere around the corners. To get rid of it you'd have to switch off the TV from it's main switch to degauss it. At least that was my experience here in the pal region. Whether or not the NTSC units were prone to that defect too and whether or not they had a separate degauss button, I don't know. The first time I've ever seen a separate degauss button was on a CRT computer monitor. But, if that was an inherent defect to all color tubes, that would've made it impossible for regular color CRTs to work as viewfinders, as color artifacts would appear as you move.

[@Lilithe]

Black and white CRTs in camcorders also were a lot finer since you didn't have a grille limiting your resolution. This made it way easier to determine focus than if you were using a low-res colour CRT. This is super neat! Thanks for the explanation!

[@DarkWiNKenzo]

Good job with that vid man, Technology Connection gave you a pretty epic shout out, You’ve got a certain way to make viewers be interested in what you show them!

[@StevenBradford]

The reason why they kept using monochrome crts for viewfinders in very expensive broadcast cameras is resolution for focusing. I owned a few and i can tell you no cameraman wanted a tiny shadowmask color crt that would have severely degraded resolution compared to a high quality monochrome tube. You need to nail the focus and with monochrome crts you can do that. Additionally the viewfinder was not fed a standard NTSC color signals the way monochrome monitors normally are. The NTSC encoding also reduces resolution. Instead the RGB signals are combined into one signal with no color encoding. The result is a correctly shaded b&w picture in a tiny tube that still has 900 lines horizontal resolution. Thats why all the pro HDTV cameras still had monochrome viewfinders well into the 2000s. Anyways this is really cool . I’d heard of Indextron crts but didn’t realize it had been used in this many consumer products.

[@marcelofrau8818]

Wow that is a really neat display.. And you seem to have a lot of interesting devices and CRTs that you can show more to us and explain more like this one.. great video!

[@MancaveEffects]

Having a black and white viewfinder on pro cameras actually has multiple purposes. The picture was sharper and made it easier to focus, in studio applications at least for me b&w seems to be easier to keep beeing focussed over a longer time, imagining staring at the viewfinder for several hours. Even today i often prefer to turn down saturation when standing behind ths camera over hours. As every pro camera showed the whitebalance value on screen there was no need to have a color viewfinder though... today the new sonys have 3 color displays and journalists love to stand next to you watching what you are doing... it always freeks me out ;)

[@bluescreenoftom]

Hey man, loving your videos. Not sure if you're still checking comments on ones this old, but wanted to give you a heads up that you can hear the high pitched "squeal" of the CRTs you've got going while you're recording. I remember a while back, LGR did a video about how he was able to apply some kind of filter or something in Premiere that removes the sound. No big deal either way, just thought I'd throw that out there. Keep up the great content!

[@HeilKromdor]

Your speaking and writing is really clear and concise. Thanks for the video, look forward to the next one.

[@CathodeRayDude]

Thank you! I always feel like I'm rushing and skipping so much but everyone seems to think it's okay, so I guess it is!

[@HeilKromdor]

@@CathodeRayDude I am a chemistry teacher and your description of electrons and their movement was obviously well thought out. It is always great to learn more about CRTs, one of the ways electrons were studied in the first place. I think you do go quickly, but it doesn’t detract from the quality. Remember, people can slow down videos if they really need to :)

[@KevDoy]

You have an incredible speaking voice! Love the editing. This is the first video I watched of yours. Looking forward to more.

[@CathodeRayDude]

thank you so much - you can't imagine how frustrating trying to get the words to come out right is, but apparently I get it right in the end

[@etmax1]

I'm not sure the reasoning for not doing this earlier is quite correct, because a large format colour tube of delta persuasion needed a lot of additional circuitry in the way of convergence and purity adjustments, all of which added both considerable parts cost and alignment (in the factory) so although I don't have a guaranteed correct correct answer, I can say that I read somewhere back in the 70's or 80's when Panasonic brought out a smallish maybe 6 or 8 inch TV using this technology, that said it was difficult to get the timing circuitry right back in the valve days. Maybe there were just too many screen artefacts in bigger screens.

[@stephenwilliams5201]

Worked for Sylvania tv for 30 years. 73 to 03. Your on that tv ( spoter) monitor. Even made me a verry portable Atari monitor. About "1'x1" my kid loved it. Good show. Thanks.

[@jimhutton2390]

I worked for GTE Sylvania in Batavia engineering 77-01

[@stephenwilliams5201]

@@jimhutton2390 I took the money and ran. Wasnt going to give it to the fortune "500" crowd. To let them gobble/ use, and not fold and exit. 63,000$ got my bills paid and start a clean Brest. Thanks

[@jimhutton2390]

OOPs 81 not 01

[@Games-tx1zc]

Super happy I got lead down this rabbit hole. Super interesting to learn about tech I had no idea I even wanted to learn about. Good niche!

[@gustavlicht9620]

The input from the photodiodes goes to a phase locked loop, which locks the beam scanning to the signal rate.

[@CathodeRayDude]

ah, is that a fact? I was thinking it might be a PLL but I tried working it into the script and I kept flubbing the read. PLL makes sense though - I figure each pulse basically resets the phase?

[@bartiz12]

I know that having CRTs on during video are for that scenery effect, but their high pitched noises make my ears and head hurt. Only a minute in and I already consider subscribing! Great, laid back approach, nice intriguing intro with audience interaction and general 'knows his stuff' feeling! Edit: I heard so many explanations on how CRTs worked and had general idea but yours in under 5 minutes made me fully comprehend how it operates. Subscribed!

[@CathodeRayDude]

Sorry about the CRT whine, I thought I'd filtered it out and couldn't hear it myself. Glad you enjoyed!!

[@bartiz12]

@@CathodeRayDude I realize I am kind of in minority who hear high pitched noises. I got used to it after a couple of minutes, so no worries :) Still... to think that back in 2000s such noises were common, it's kind of hard going back it it >.> Looking forward to checking out the rest of your channel!

[@nabeelbox7397]

Yeah it's the same for me, i can't watch the video due to the crt noise.

[@bartiz12]

@@nabeelbox7397 Welcome to oversensitive High pitched Noise club! My coworkers would make fun of me since I could hear coil whine in laptops even if nobody around me did! Even now, from my Asus G14 there is slight noise coming, though not painful :)

[@iainchristie313]

3:20 Bear in mind that viewfinder wasn't cheap and likely cost over $2000 new. The biggest reason pro cameras had black and white viewfinders was already mentioned in passing in the video. There is no higher contrast than the difference between black and white and it can much better highlight any critical focus, especially on CRT devices where resolution isn't always the highest. Many professionals prefer it and even the newest HDR OLED viewfinders will often have a B&W option assigned, by default to a user button for that reason.

[@tetsujin_144]

Apart from the fact that indextron tubes' color isn't distorted by magnets, I think they have a real inherent benefit in that they should, in principle at least, never suffer from color purity or convergence issues... At least, as long as the photosensor and timing system continues to work properly. On shadow mask CRTs and aperture grille CRTs you have three electron beams that need to be adjusted (mostly via placement of a bunch of permanent magnets at the back of the tube) to hit the correct phosphors *and* all converge at the same location on-screen. With just one electron beam, that's not an issue. It's a fascinating technology...

[@mal2ksc]

I know that the big theater at the front of a cruise ship used CRTs like this near high powered lighting gear, because the lighting gear would induce color shifts in normal CRTs that became impossible to degauss away within a matter of months. This would have been about 1995. The CRTs in question were about 13 or 14 inches and came in a downright blocky housing that I had always assumed was ruggedized for marine use. Now I am guessing that's where they hid the sensors.

[@SCAPE0GOAT]

This is fantastic. What a great video you've made cathode ray dude. The de-gauss explanation was great. Always wondered what it actually did, I knew it was magnetic, but what did it do ??. I had a huge Sony PC monitor in the 90's and the de-gauss function made a hell of a " boink " whenever it was activated. Now I know why. Your videos are superb buddy. You're a great presenter too. Hats off to you.

[@themaritimegirl]

In the broadcast industry, monochrome viewfinders were preferred not because of cost or ease of manufacture, but because it's easier to focus the camera. A monochrome CRT has a much finer resolution than a color one, and the lack of color makes it easier on the eye to focus.

[@danielreed5199]

The passion of this guy is amazing, you can tell he truly loves what he does!

[@DacodaNelson]

I’ll look it up when I have more time, but it sounds like the complicated green pixel might rely on second-harmonic generation. Basically it’s a neat way to bump infrared light up to the frequency of green. Given that resonance is involved, this might be the case.

[@LP-fy8wr]

Well done sir!!! This was the most complete and concise explanation of CRT operation that I personally have ever heard. Karl Ferdinand Braun would be proud

[@Zenodilodon]

That is totally awesome! That's quite a clever way of aligning the color with feedback. i have been trying to find a color CRT view finder and that does explain why it's so hard to find them.

[@videolabguy]

Your coverage of the subject was spot on. Great job! The viewfinders on cameras remained monochrome for most of the CRT history for their sharpness. The color viewfinders, CRT or LCD, were of such low resolution, the operator could be shooting out of focus and not even realize it. Really good high end BW viewfinders have what is called a "peaking" switch which exaggerates the detail to assist the operator in focusing the camera. The beam index CRT in the viewfinder has only 88 triads of stripes. Very low resolution indeed. I always found the gap produced by the UV index stripe to be distracting as well. The second short coming of the beam index CRT is that it can NOT produce true black. The brightness level must always be held high enough for the index stripes to produce pulses in the photosensors. If the light output drops too low, the tube loses color sync. In the Sony indextron projectors, Sony solved two problems at once. One, the tube is large enough to have a decent number of phosphor triads and produce a nice high resolution image. Two, being a projector, perceived black on the screen was not true black on the CRT and there was plenty of energy left for the indexing photosensors. In fact, Sony wanted to market the projection indextron tube as a direct view monitor, but it was too bright! The first version of an indexed type tube was indeed from the early 1960s and was called the "apple" tube. No relation to the computer company. It was called that because of the shape of the prototype tube. The apple tube was an evolutionary step away from the chromatron tube which used a fine grid of wires to attempt to steer the single electron beam to the correct phosphor stripes - which were oriented horizontally! It sort of worked. But, the steering signal was derived from the NTSC color subcarrier frequency of 3.579545MHz and applied to the screen at several watts of power. This made a great shortwave transmitter right smack dab in the middle of the 80 meter ham radio band! Dude. If you like CRT history, look up and study the Geer Tube. You will like that one a lot. In conclusion, every innovation step in television evolution, always seemed to create two new problems and three new opportunities for "inventors". The early history of television is one of my passions and my obsession. I just found your channel and love it.