How CRT TVs Disappeared Without You Realizing it | Mini Documentary

[@mymarci]

I remember how you could hear that high pitch noise from those tv's when you passed a house, especially on calm nights in the summer and the windows were open.

[@shaun5552]

Back when I was younger with perfect hearing and they were all CRT, I used to hear bank ATM's from quite some distance away due to the high pitch noise they emitted. Today not only are the machines quiet but I very rarely use one anyway.

[@Yubl10]

I don't think that I have ever been able to hear the noise from crt TVS that people talk about even as a young child. Maybe I did hear it, but I never thought anything of it i don't know. I own 3 crt TVS. My brother says that he can hear the noise, but I can't and don't think I ever have, but maybe I just forgot.

[@MetalTiger88]

the sad part is that many crt's got destroyed over the last two decades, but new ones aren't produced. so eventually this piece of technology will be forgotten...

[@mctv6486]

I'm a bit more worried about the technology going extinct.

[@mfbfreak]

Repair is possible. Currently it is not considered worth the money, but you can replace the electron gun assembly and re-vacuum the thing. This was done often in the 1950s and 1960s. After that. CRT production got cheap enough to not spend the labor on doing it. There was one french CRT repair place that only closed its doors in the late 2000s. As far as i know, the entire production line as well as all the documentation (super important) has been saved and is in the hands of a group of enthousiasts. It is very far from up and running, and afaik they only do black and white, but it's a start. There is a video about them on youtube.

[@bd048]

I'm 71. We will all be forgotten.

[@sma7530]

@@mfbfreak I'd like to find out more about this

[@sma7530]

@@bd048 so true

[@bennykrebschristensen5215]

I am watching this video on a CRT tv no joke.

[@julianstechsation]

I still have 4 plus one inside my Sony handycam

[@S.G.W.Verbeek]

I am watching this on my cathode rayed smartphone 😏

[@chop2093]

Hell yea. Keep fighting the good fight.

[@standley_steamers]

I have 40 CRTs and one HD CRTs

[@georgewills-ek1gg]

@@S.G.W.Verbeek how deep and heavy is your phone? LOL!

[@TheCleanersCupboard]

I’ve recently gone back to an early 2000’s CRT after getting absolutely sick to death of glitchy smart tv’s. I’ve missed it so much! 2007 was when I owned my last CRT. They just work.

[@MarkGovern]

A good quality smart TV won’t be glitchy.

[@furriesinouterspaceUnited]

​@@MarkGovern Cap

[@lukedavis436]

The digital Tv switchover is what i blame for deleting at least 65 percent of Britain's CRTs

[@souljastation5463]

That's true in Italy too, back when we switched, in 2007 (wow, that's almost 20 years) there's been a big push for LCDs in electronic stores, and my mother bought a Samsung LCD (which was a terrible, awful TV, inferior to our old CRT in any way possible) for our living room.

[@xaverlustig3581]

Why would that be? Digital TV and LCD screens are two separate developments totally independent from each other. There were flat screen LCD TVs with analogue only tuners, and you can watch digital television on a CRT TV using a set top box.

[@lukedavis436]

@xaverlustig3581 around 70% of people in the UK owned a CRT Television, I don't blame LCDs existing but many of the analogue sets were recycled or traded in for newer TVs

[@crpony]

CRT TV's tend to last longer. I have one that is 30 years old and the image quality is still good.

[@Warp2090]

This is true. I have many low end CRT's and even they still work great.

[@univon4892]

Some of those used vaccuum tubes, and the other used solid state like hard drives!

[@wheelieblind]

No kidding I got one that has out lasted an older 1080p TV that I got read of.

[@crpony]

I use a Dell (rebranded Mitsubishi) monitor from 1998 everyday as a second monitor for my desktop PC. Still going good.

[@CatOnVenus183]

I'm definetly lucky but I've yet to find a broken CRT. All the ones I got at swap meets as a kid worked, the 11 I have currently all work (despite being found on roads, in recycling centers, and in abandoned buildings). Actually crazy because every flatsceeen I've had died randomally from a power supply failure after 2-4 years

[@jsmacks11]

There was an order several years ago requiring you to get a converter box for your CRT TV for terrestrial channels. I'm guessing many people ditched them there. Also whenever that year was (about 10-15 years ago) CRT TVs were already outdated. They were bulky, heavy, not that great picture quality, and fairly expensive and small in viewing size compared to newer TVS. They failed almost every category so it was a no brainer for most to ditch their old tvs. Only situation where I think older Tvs might have been better was sound quality. My guess is the bulkier size probably meant higher quality speakers could get put in. Most new TVs speakers kind of suck, I knew very few people with hifi TV sound systems back in the day and very few people complained about sound. On new TVS, it is common to add a center channel at minimum as some TVS can be barely audible. I always remember even crappy old TVs getting fairly loud.

[@tomcarlson3913]

What really killed CRTs was the DTV transition. Most people weren't smart enough to understand that you could keep using them with a converter box (or they were but didn't want the hassle). When it happened CRTs were mostly gone from stores and there were few DTV capable CRT sets, and even fewer HD-CRTs available, so most consumers who wanted a H-DTV just grabbed an HD-LCD and a mass CRT E-Waste event ensued.

[@jamesslick4790]

Many cable boxes TO THIS DAY can be used with CRT TVs. (Most people don't know this) Also there WERE 16:9 ("HD Ready") CRT TVs, some with DTV tuners.

[@tomcarlson3913]

@@jamesslick4790 Yup! Ditched cable about 3 years ago and was watching it on 1950's TVs till the end. My main TV is a Sony KD-34XBR960 a 16x9 1080i native HD-CRT, with built-in ATSC tuner, HDMI input (not to mention every analog input you could want), and iLink to support a D-VHS HD VCR...Those things only record HD from iLink/firewire and only output HD through that same interface (unless you have a D-Theater deck then you get component video out, or the final 2 models made that they finally added HDMI output to). HD-CRTs seem to be fairly rare though...They exist but not in great quantity.

[@williamharris8367]

Sadly, my cable company depreciated SD cable boxes in Fall 2021. They did not even want the hardware returned; I was told to dispose of it myself. They ceased support for non-HDMI interfaces. As for the digital converter boxes, the _only_ model available at local retail was junk. I went through two; both bricked themselves within a few months. All the stores sold the same thing.

[@tomcarlson3913]

@@williamharris8367 Thrift store 2009 vintage Zenith DTT900, DTT901 and their LG and Insingia rebadges are good reliable boxes...Granted there is a single electrolytic capacitor in them that these days (15 years later) will cause them to play dead until a fresh cap is installed. You can get HDMI to AV adapters to use HDMI equipment with old CRT TVs....Quality varies among makers but they do exist.

[@savagesarethebest7251]

We still had to buy a box for our flatscreen TV in like 04/05 when the analog TV channels were shut down. I was about 14. I didn't even care about it that much at all because I didn't really watch TV, just DVD and later Blu-ray. I was thrilled to play Sokoban, Bejeveld, Tetris and other games on the box. They were actually good clones.

[@Sb129]

I have kept the families oldest working CRT, it's a Magnavox from 1983. I have had it in my possession since like 2015. I also have kept our original 55 inch Plasma! Now that is still a great picture. It also weighs like 250lbs Lol~

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

I still have my childhood Semp Toshiba TVC-102, and around mid pandemic, I got 3 others - 2x 10" Toshibas and 1x 5" portable TVs - from a neighbor across the street throwing old stuff out, and more recently my uncle gave me a vintage "Pong" console and another 5" portable TV alongside it. They all work.

[@williamfinch2777]

I fell back in love with CRTs a few years ago. Now own 20, some up to 34 inches for retro games, VHS, Laserdisc and DVDs. Which I admit is outrageous but I enjoy them and use them more than my modern 4K tv as most of my movie and game collection are standard definition.

[@user-jc1hm3pv6i]

Can u make a wall with them ?

[@pittyman]

The real production of CRT TVs stopped ain 2007-2008. I worked in the advertisement department of a supermarket and a colleague from the R&TV department gave me this info, that now all the CRTs are old stock, from the warehouse of the building factories. But, my grandmother still uses 2 CRTs - one 21" and one 14". And I still have 2 CRTs 21" for backup. 😎

[@brianalex8883]

CRTv lasted longer than these new tv now .

[@Tech_481]

I love my CRT. I just upgraded my parents CRT to an LCD last year and they appreciated it and I appreciated taking there Sony for myself hahw

[@GammaRayTech]

I see what you did there. You took out the trash and took the treasure :D

[@williamharris8367]

I have a CRT TV in my bedroom that my Parents bought new in August 1998. Granted, it is now relegated to playing video games (PS2 and Famiclone systems) and DVDs, but it still works fine, and I have no compelling reason to get rid of it. I did not actually own a flat screen TV until October 2021; my main CRT was just too large and heavy to move cross-country when I relocated. Some of us like to use what we own until it ceases to function entirely. (I am typing this comment on a 5 year old phone...)

[@MaxiDsn]

i dont would say that they "Disappeared Without Realizing it"... i definitely realized it; some people had LCD/plasma TVs, others had their CRT TV until LED TVs where introduced and even a bit longer... but i also remember that in supermarkets small CRTs where sold for ~50€ to get rid of them at all. idk about the situations in other contries, but in germany / mid europe it was like 10-15 years ago very "fragmented"; some people had LED/LCD/plasms, some not.

[@pancudowny]

The digital transition of the late-2000's is the main reason why CRTs got disused. They were built to only receive & translate analog signals, and though conversion boxes were made available for them, most people felt that going with a panel-style replacement--or subscribing to broadband cable of digital satellite services--was much easier. But once those who did so saw what HD broadcasts & PPV could offer, they began the same replacement process as well. I myself remember Goodwill becoming so overburdened with used CRTs, they actually set a general "no TVs" donation rule in place. Now, some of their locations won't even accept older panel-style sets because of it.

[@Steven-re7xt]

Mrs Clinton (wicked witch of the north)came to our factory waved her wand and spoke her magical curse""NAFTA" and mexico helped the Chinese haul away our factory.. 😢😢😢😢

[@crestofhonor2349]

Most sets from the late 90s to early 2000s fully supported digital signals including digital TV. Component became common on them by the early 2000s and HDMI was even available on the HD ones available at the time

[@johnnyteague3407]

I still have 2, 40 inch Sony CRT monitors from a television station in my storage unit with tons of 70s and 80s vintage hifi equipment, 1 inch beta units, commercial svhs units plus other goodies

[@Nicks66Service]

I have a 1992 RCA UVU TV I bought new- it has ears on either side that house the speakers, and have never seen another one, not even on a Google search. Must be rare indeed!

[@sunbrookheath]

Gave my last CRT, a 27 inch to an animal sanctuary. The folks who picked it up said the animals watched & reacted to images better on a CRT vs any flat screen they've tried.

[@KittyTheCat_]

I remember getting rid of my previous CRT, probably only because my dad dropped it on his toes 💀

[@bsanchez3563]

Oh damn that could depending assuming it is over a good decebt high weight but also of over 13 inches or a flat faced screen.,

[@S.G.W.Verbeek]

Good Lord, I hope he is okay 😅

[@FreddyKruegerRealEstate]

I'm pre component, s-video, even composite and scart. I remember when TVs only had UHF inputs, and later coaxial. I still remember playing Atari and NES with the a secondary UHF pronongs adapter (two screws on the back of the TV) from radio shack. Most those TVs where black and white.

[@DavidPaulMorgan]

me too. scart/s-connector/RGB analogue - all in a box in the garage. (UK)

[@darthimmitis]

I have a 1984 Commodore 1702 I restored, recapped, and recalibrated that I use at least 1-2hrs an every single day. It’s literally perfect. Perfect geometry, perfect convergence, and perfect colors 🙂

[@SmiteKhepri]

I always kept around my old CRT for my retro games but over time it started to have some issues so I would browse Facebook marketplace every once in a while. And sure enough one day about 3 years ago when searching for Sony Trinitrons (regarded as the holy grail for retro gaming) I finally found a 32inch Trinitron listed by an old couple for FREE! Never replied to a listing so fast lol cause those babies often sell for $200+ I can confirm for retro gaming they absolutely live up to the hype

[@bungalowlogic7676]

Tucked way back in a closet is a 19inch screen Sanyo which i bought used in the mid 90s and served me well until 2015. Suppose its a dinosaur, but in case it becomes a sought out retro item, may as well leave it where it is.

[@andrewmorrison6067]

Back in the day I couldn't wait to get an HD flat screen, but now I feel nostalgic for a really good quality CRT TV with the quality sound, the responsiveness of button presses, and lack of bloatware / freezing / restarts / updates... in some ways, watching things 'imperfectly' particularly old content is purer, a bit like vinyl but for moving pictures.

[@betfoyet]

I have 4 CRTs. My neighbors decided to place them on the curve and I rescued them.

[@nachonachitoelcadete]

I'm glad of having 4 CRTs in my house. I'll take care of them and I'll keep them for the rest of my life

[@mrmaxaxl]

I have 2 and ❤ them! My wife tells me to at least throw away one of them. Noo way!! I have 1 for my Snes console and 1 for my Sega Geneses console 📺 🕹📺 🎮 🥰

[@senorpepper3405]

Modern tvs are cheap

[@RPKGameVids]

@@senorpepper3405 But crap when it comes to SD.

[@senorpepper3405]

@@RPKGameVids I don't usually watch standard

[@brandonlee7382]

Flatscreens being bigger size and lighter made them super appealing. CRT TVs looked so outdated in comparison. Wish we would of kept them for retro gaming

[@UnIimited_Power]

Without realizing it? What utter drivel.

[@davidebacchi9030]

I do remember: I changed my one in 2013 (my new lcd was gifted me for the graduation and my old synudine died few months before), the kitchen one was the last one in daily use being replaced, the old Grundig lasted from the mid 90s to at least 2019. The only thing I really miss is the audio quality: a 17” average set with just a mono speaker surpass all flat panels we have today.

[@crestofhonor2349]

It is false that LCDs had better image quality than CRTs. CRTs actually had significantly better image quality thanks to much better colors in both accuracy and color volume, infinite viewing angles, much better contrast, and motion clarity. Early LCDs, the ones that replaced CRTs, simply had pretty terrible image quality. HD CRTs especially showed this as well and didn't have the whine of the old SD CRTs. Once you paired up a CRT with RGB, Component, or even the rare HDMI equipped CRT, it was clear that CRTs had far better image quality. In fact I heard a lot of people did complain that their old DVDs and VHS looked terrible on their shiny new LCDs of the time compared to their old TVs The reality is that people just wanted thin and lighter displays and that trumped image quality for most consumers. Personally I hate old LCDs for these very reasons even though I was a kid by the time CRTs were being replaced in the mid 2000s. In my house we never really got rid of the CRTs, we just put most them into storage in the house and used one HD CRT as our main set up until 2019. It did and still does look fantastic for both image quality and it was replaced with a 4K Sony TV. Other than that I am just used to using CRTs so not having one, even now in 2024, would be very weird to me.

[@Shadaole]

I'm a photographer and still using CRT as my secondary monitor for color grading.

[@MmntechCa]

HDTV was the big push. You could get HD CRTs, but they tended to be expensive, often accepted only a 1080i signal, and didn't usually come with HDMI. My parents had a bulky 42'' rear projection CRT they only got rid of a couple years ago. Thing was so heavy, they had to hire a couple guys to lift it out of the basement. IDK how it even got down there to begin with.

[@bitbang3r]

In the US, CRTs that could do 1080i60 (with aspect ratio that was taller than it should have been, but wider than 4:3) were fairly common in the early 2000s... but finding a big CRT (or *any* CRT that wasn't sold as a computer monitor) that could do 720p60 was basically IMPOSSIBLE. They flat-out didn't EXIST in the US. As I understand it, American HD CRT TVs had flyback coils that were optimized for NEITHER 480p60 NOR 1080i60... but instead, were designed to fall halfway between 480p60 and 540p60, using the equivalent of the old "vert hold" potentiometer to make 480p60 and 540p60/1080i60 (from the CRT's perspective, 540p60 and 1080i60 are just slight variants of the same thing). They were able to subsequently kludge 480i into working (very sub-optimally) with the same flyback coil, but implementing 720p60 would have required massive upgrades to all the TV's internals since 720p60 required ~45MHz of bandwidth, compared to 1080i60's ~38MHz (give or take). In any case, 32-35" CRTs made for the American market that could do "1080I60" were fairly common among the higher end up of the TV market around 2000-2004, but their "real" horizontal resolution was nowhere CLOSE to 1440 pixels, let alone 1920. Basically, the TV took 1920x540 analog input (remember, to a CRT, 1080i is just 540p with alternating frames shifted a half-scanline down), and smeared it into approximately 900x480 "real" resolution (going by dot-pitch, actual visible scanlines, and relative lack of horizontal bandwidth). At one point around 2005, I actually got to compare my parents' 35" Trinitron (which officially had component inputs and supported 1080i60) side by side to a 27" TV with s-video input... feeding both from the same cable box, tuned to a HD channel. The actual *resolution* difference was... almost none. The S-video CRT TV cut off more of the top and sides, but in terms of actual RESOLUTION, both were basically equal (in the sense that a particular string of on-screen text or detail was equally blurry on both). By the same token, smart people in the early 2000s got the cable/satellite company to give them HD boxes, even for their NON-HD TVs... because HD channels output via s-video to a decent older CRT looked 95% as good as HD channels output via YPbPr component to an officially-HD CRT TV. Comparing the S-video output of a HD-box tuned to a HD channel to the same nominal channel from an officially non-HD box (but also via S-video) was NIGHT AND DAY. It was like comparing DVD to VHS (but with ugly macroblocking, instead of smearing). The sad thing is, no matter how hard I evangelized it to friends and family members, and even when I demonstrated the difference to them IN PERSON, I just couldn't get people like my parents to get "HD" cable/satellite boxes for their NON-HD TVs, too. It's like old people were convinced it was somehow illegal or dangerous, and they'd get in trouble for doing it (or break their TVs). Sigh.

[@RPKGameVids]

I still use a CRT for my standard def games. It's a cheap looking 14" Mastsui TV, looks like it's from the late 90's. I bought it around 11 years ago for just £5, and it's the best £5 I've ever spent as it still works perfectly now and I've had a lot of use out of it. Not only do SD games look best on CRT's, but using the CRT adds greatly to the nostalgia for me. It's an experience in itself, feels like a novelty now, feels like something special. I've also got a brand new unused CRT as a back up from 2008, still boxed.

[@DavidPaulMorgan]

UK Here. We'd had digital TV (UHF & DTH Satellite/Cable) & DVD since the later 90s. I was driving my big sufrround-sound Toshiba TV. However, the end of the line for my big Toshiba (in a small lounge...) was the acquisition of the Sony PS3 (with HD Blu-Ray). So, I "needed" a 16:9 HD TV - so I bought a wall-mounted Panasonic TV (with UHF & Satellite tuner) and a sound bar. The satellite uhf & cable sources soon became HD. Now I've replaced with an LG 4k + Sony multi-region UHD/4k player and the rest of the TV comes from the interwebs. getting rid of the Toshiba gained me a square metre of floorspace.

[@circleinforthecube5170]

it gives floorspace but imo a big flatscreen is uglier than a CRT with furniture designed specifically for it

[@MrSlipstreem]

I missed them terribly when they went away. Nothing else came even remotely close to a good CRT TV for static contrast ratio apart from plasma TVs until OLED TVs became semi-affordable. I've hated every LCD (illegally sold as "LED") TV I've ever owned mostly for that reason. I went for a 55" LG CX OLED TV in the sales in 2021 and it still blows me away to this day.

[@crestofhonor2349]

LED was just LCDs but with a LED backlight. It was a selling point back in the early 2010s but today its pointless as all LCDs are LED backlit. Older sets from the 2000s often used much less energy efficient and much larger CCFLs to backlight their TVs. The switch to LEDs also made the LCD TVs thinner and lighter too

[@mascan7905]

I dumped my CRT around 2004, when the color bloom on the edge (caused by crappy stereo speakers) finally got too much to ignore.

[@cs8712]

probably coulda degaussed it with a coil

[@jclosed2516]

@@cs8712 Normally a degauss coil is fitted in a CRT to take care of that nuisance. My guess is that the degauss PTC was not working very well, or at all, in that set. Very often these PTC resistor combo packages go faulty after long use. Replacing that part (costing around a Euro or something) would have solved that discoloration problem.

[@JimProfit357]

One thing that wasn't touched upon is motion clarity. LCD and OLED, at 60hz, have a very blurry picture whenever even moderately fast movement occurs on screen. When CRTs were replaced by these crappy low contrast LCD, people should have been screaming bloody murder. I didn't notice it that much because I went from a 15khz consumer CRT in RGB, to a 1080p late-model Pioneer Kuro plasma TV, which has near-OLED contrast and motion clarity that, while far removed from CRT perfection, still stand head and shoulder above any LCD/OLED (lest those use some pretty extreme strobing/black frame insertion to increase motion clarity, sacrificing brightness in the process. It always brings me joy to see interest in CRT PC Monitors though. While consumer CRT TVs are only really worth it for old consoles, PC CRTs are the only way to have perfect motion, great contrast, and high resolution. They're tiny and not very bright and obviously no HDR, but there is simply no alternative today that has all the aforementioned qualities.

[@athraxblackspire8437]

Ohh, I certainly realized. The writing was on the wall in the early 2000s when LCD computer monitors became a thing. Sporting a tiny 14" and sometimes 17" screenwidth at 4:3 aspect ratio and compared to CRTs pretty bad color reproduction, they did cost twice as much was a CRT, but heralded the start of a new era. As time passed, prices came down, finally undercutting the price of CRTs, and CRTs went the way of the dodo. Personally I do appreciate the deskspace gained by flat TFT/LCD screens, but do miss the relatively clunkiness of the old-time technology. For retrocomputing I'm still keeping around a 19" Dell CRT that's only seen a couple hundred hours of runtime by now. Good old times.

[@circleinforthecube5170]

also smart tv's always come with garbage operating systems and stability

[@jsmacks11]

I remember in college in the early 2000s helping my roommate get his high quality TV up a flight of stairs. I'm lucky to be alive. It was like moving a Fridge, probably worse because the TV was wider and harder to maneuver up the steps. A TV with a even bigger viewing size today can be easily moved by one person.

[@DoctorVision]

We had a widescreen CRT until at least 2006 if not a year or two more before we finally upgraded to LCD. I had a little 14" one in my room for a decade until about 2014/2015 when I was given an unwanted LCD TV from a family member. True technology has moved on but CRT is very nostalgic. Good memories of a more innocent era.

[@GammaRayTech]

I'm the CRT Life again. I got Two CRT Monitors on my PC, the two 4Ks are above and only used for KZbin and google, My 2K OLED is to my direct left, my two CRT Monitors 1 right in front of me and 1 to my right. I also got 4 CRT Tvs in my room too (all being used for some purpose). One of them I even have as another monitor, but took it off as I dont have an analog input for it currently to get the correct 240P lol. Monitors are - 17 Inch and 19 Inch. TVs - 13, 12, 20, 32. Once I went back to CRTs I absolutely hate even my OLED, its garbage. I only use it cause of how much money I spent on it.

[@skywalkerhunter95]

i still keep my old CRT from 2005, simply because i still have many tape recordings, VCDs, and VHS that will only look excellent and pristine on a CRT display. no matter how i readjust my 4K TV, old media will never look as good as on a CRT. i also like CRTs simplicity, no smart programming or apps. just a TV. plus no need any DNR or smart adjustment to enjoy 240p VCD/VHS video quality 😂

[@chargermopar]

I still have my working CRT Tv's!

[@CoasterMan13Official]

My family used CRTs all the way up until 2016. The last CRT I had was a Curtis Mathes one that I believe was made in 1999. It was replaced with a 32 inch Sanyo flatscreen that I still have to this day.

[@jamesslick4790]

I still have a CRT TV, (Sony KV-36XBR450) It's a BEAST, Will outlive ME and weighs as much as a Buick, And NO, It's NOT for sale!

[@andrewcorner2971]

I didn't ever see people using lcd screen until you could get HD screens for less than £500. The early standard definition LCDs didn't offer much over a CRT both quality and through input latency. When video quality became noticeably better, that changed the game. Now with high refresh displays and upscalers there is less of a reason to own one days.

[@geetarzan69]

I 100% realized it! Back in 2009 I was working at a Future Shop (electronics store in Canada) and an older woman walked in and went straight for the TV aisle, and I approached her. She asked where all the big TVs are. I then started to point her in the direction of our largest TVs until she stopped me and said "no I mean the big TVs with the big backing on them" and I had to inform her those were now obsolete, and she got rather upset and walked out muttering to herself. I hope she found what she was looking for. CRT is long gone!

[@Derpy1969]

One could say that the vacuum tube was the first electronic device. The CRT was one of the last. I watched it happen live and knew it was going to happen as it did. I sold my last CRT for $99 in 2007.

[@MikinessAnalog]

The resistor was the first passive electronic device and the vacuum tube was the first active device..

[@circleinforthecube5170]

CRT'S still kick ass, smart tv's wont be remembered nearly as fondly

[@Warp2090]

@@circleinforthecube5170 Smart TV's will be remembered for being extremely awful.

[@westelaudio943]

​@@MikinessAnalog The capacitor was invented in the 1600s, I don't think resistance was a concept that was (well) understood back then. To be fair, 'resistors' occur in nature too, like a tree stuck by lightning, and every conductor kind of is a resistor, too.

[@FBAV]

I think the telegraph was the first electronic device

[@richardestes6499]

The transition from NTSC to ATSC broadcast signals in 2009 was a major deciding factor for this in the USA. I've seen KZbinrs with HDMI equipped CRT TVs, but they're usually the exception, not the rule.

[@lovemadeinjapan]

And even if a TV had early HDMI, it was only working with obscure resolutions/framerates and often interlaced as well, so you basically can't do anything with it. Those "KZbinrs" often have a FW900, which is a computer monitor with multi-scan VGA, which is way more versatile.

[@goddessstarla]

Good video! My family had a CRT even when I moved out in 2011, though not sure when they switched to flat screen. I know personally I only got a flat screen TV in late 2011 because of a third roommate who lived in the living room and was noisy. Later on, when he moved out in late 2012, I had my flat screen replace it in the living room. Then it was in storage and sometime after gave it away but forgot who xD

[@FBAV]

My dad still watches a little CRT TV I bought him 15 years ago at a dump store. I've been trying to convince him to buy a flatscreen tv, even if a small one at the dump store... But he prefers to keep using the tiny CRT thing as long as it works... And it keeps working. Receiving HD TV actually but put to lowest quality by using the receivers analogue AV output.

[@QuickTimeVelocity]

That's awesome for him! You think it's his appreciation of your gift that keeps him using it? I wonder if he'd appreciate a little 4K OLED set from you as well...!

[@FBAV]

@franklinbrooksstoppedcomme3267 I've suggested it but to him it just makes no sense; the less digital the better and anyway he has no complaints about this old little CRT. A 4K Oled set? He doesn't even want me to spend that much money on a TV... Honestly probably can't afford it either.

[@JTLAMF]

@@QuickTimeVelocity Yeah, I'm sure he'll be thrilled when he wants to watch a TV show but has to wait for the thing to update, or when it glitches constantly or even worse bricks because of a forced update.

[@integerofdoom69]

I realize it every day. I miss the superior technology. I hate LCD with every fibre of existence.

[@nothingelse1520]

I got a QD-OLED in February and it is the true successor to CRT. For the first time since I got rid of my last CRT I have real black levels. Its amazing. If you haven't played games on OLED you really should

[@lovemadeinjapan]

@@nothingelse1520 It is still sample-and-hold. Which is weird, as it should not have to be like that. With all the computing power, you could drive OLED exactly like an electron gun passing by, yet this is not done yet.

[@crestofhonor2349]

@@lovemadeinjapan Part of the reason for sample and hold is to reduce flicker

[@lovemadeinjapan]

Off course, but the input signal is still scanning lines, and it would be cool if screens would allow the pixels to hook to that pixel stream directly and give the option to have it fade away slowly. Give you a choice in 0-lag with slightl artificial flicker, or boring dead-steady for computer use.

[@sma7530]

@@nothingelse1520 What about low rez games. Surely they need to be upscaled ?

[@NewGabeOrder]

I only bought them past their prime for the VCR functionality alone. TV/VCR combos are perfect for flawless video capture for any place and situation. There are retro games with widescreen modes, so I use a lag-free widescreen TV when possible. I got into beatmania IIDX, which relied on widescreen displays since the series' inception.

[@imissmypencils]

Bro your voice reminded me of Mike Damone from Fast Times At Ridgdmont High. That’s awesome! - and cool video. Amazing presentation and visuals

[@1899Dan]

I still have 3 crt tvs, and about 100 crt tubes in my house. Though I do realize I'm an exception to all logical norms. I am a little sad that the flat screen crt was never put in production and was only even a prototype

[@1899Dan]

I did have that one moment of confusion and realization when the crt in my room died many years ago and I went to a store looking to buy a new TV. I stood in the TV section confused why they had so many computer monitors and no tvs. Of course I was the fool who was out of the loop and didn't realize crts had been replaced by flat screen tvs. Lol

[@precisionxt]

I am having a hard time replacing the 32 inch HDTV CRT in my living room, despite the increased screen size and lower power consumption with new LED screens. I know it’s pretty much a one-way street as these become harder to acquire. My LaserDisc and VHS look horrid on an LCD/LED screen, so I just reserve flat panels for other rooms in the house. Edit: also forgot to mention the DTV tuners in early analog/DTV hybrid TV’s (before the transition) were very strong. I can pick up more OTA channels with this TV than anything else I’ve ever owned.

[@dkannegi]

I remember my mother's Hitachi console TV burning out 3 CRT tubes over the years (I had a Sony 52" Bravia flat panel outlast that Hatachi for service life without a single component swap). Once the repair shops closed up that spelled the end for a huge amount of CRTs.

[@BryanDW]

you've got a great voice by the way

[@skeelo69]

Iv'e abandoned OLED TV as well...gone 100% HD projector...plus the short throw projectors take up little space 😊

[@FoIlowTheLeader]

Thanks to a FB photo I can tell you I got rid of my CRT on May 21, 2012 when I posted a photo of Halo 4 on a flat screen but now this year I'm back to having over 10 CRTs LOL.

[@adamgh0]

NES Zapper guns don't work on LED/LCD TV's. There are "mods" but they use roms instead of original hardware.

[@JohnSmith-sk7cg]

It's important to note for anyone that's looking to get a CRT in the US: You need to plan ahead of time for how you will eventually dispose of it when it no longer functions. Legally disposing CRTs can be very challenging these days. It's illegal to throw them out due to the high levels of hazardous material and many recycling centers no longer accept them as they no longer maintain the specialty tooling to dispose of them safely.

[@mattcintosh2]

Early lcd tvs had terrible picture quality, viewing angle and blacks that were gray in a dark room. I never switched. I got a used 37" high end HD CRT monitor in 2008 and still use that. LCDs have gotten better, but when i have to upgrade, it will be oled. As for power comsumption, its around 200 watts. Figuring in 10 hours a week, it costs me around 80 cents a month to run... pocket change

[@DelinquentSquirrel]

Here in Europe we did actually get a number of CRT sets with built-in DVB (European digital TV). The last CRT I bought was a Panasonic 32" widescreen model which only had analogue TV - I didn't get the digital model as I had digital satellite TV. The digital model was £700, the analogue-only TV (identical apart from the lack of DVB) was originally £600 but was reduced to £400 on clearance. It lasted me for years, even after I got a plasma for the living room (I moved the CRT to the bedroom and used it for several years before replacing it with a Sony Bravia LCD). Where CRT sets really scored over smaller screen flat panel sets was audio. Because you had a decent size cabinet, the sound you got from a CRT wasn't bad. Whereas small-screen flat panel sets give a really tinny and scratchy sound. Enter the sound bar, a device created to solve a problem that never existed before flat panel TVs. My Bravia TV in the bedroom is linked to a Yamaha 5.1 surround system. The 65" OLED downstairs is linked to an Arcam / Monitor Audio 7.1 setup. Neither TV would sound acceptable through its internal speakers, even the OLED (which claims to do Dolby Atmos). My old Panasonic CRT had 2-way speakers mounted either side of the screen, so the sound was more than reasonable. Not a patch on a proper home cinema of course, but the baseline audio quality was far higher. In the end I gave away the Panasonic CRT to a retro-computing museum, who apparently have made great use of it.

[@circleinforthecube5170]

this is what people need to do instead of trashing them

[@ashthewolfdog1380]

I used to have a old Panasonic CRT TV sitting in my bedroom at my grandparents up until 2021. I don't know where my grandparents moved that old TV. They got me a new TV for my bedroom there, even though I told them I loved my old CRT, and since it worked and did everything I wanted, even letting me utilize a converter cable to stream my computer to the TV and watch youtube on it.. they still got rid of it. I liked it for the sounds it would make, the sheer quality and bass of the speakers, that strange sound it made when it turned on, the sheer brightness of the image... yeah it had a garbage image quality but I could still use it, and it did the job. Same with my beat up old bike, it gets me around, sure its not the prettiest of bikes, and it's got rust problems and such, but.. like I said it gets me around. One of my biggest things is "if it isn't broken, don't fix or replace it".

[@QuickTimeVelocity]

I too live by and love that philosophy, as well as cherish my Trinitron (especially due to losing a couple from moving out of Texas). Also, if your bike chain is getting rust problems, you could try some liquid wrench or blaster rust repellant. It got a Mongoose bike riding well again, so it worked for me! :)

[@ashthewolfdog1380]

@QuickTimeVelocity I don't have rust problems with the chain. it's just generic body rust, from it being outside.

[@MitchellAzevedo]

In my game room I have 7 CRTs from 20" to 36" set up and running 27 different OEM retro game systems. Long Live the CRT!

[@edj8671]

Great video!

[@pluggy86]

I'm a nostalgic guy. It broke my heart to throw away a Sony Trinatron from 1981 that still worked well. I have one that I rarely use and one in the attic. It got so thrift stores wouldn't take them as they had started refusing console TVs some time earlier. Lot's of great memories, but I don't see that they do anything as well as a modern TV. it's like they say, the Model T was a great car, but you might not want to drive one to Florida.

[@mpoulin]

One problem with 1st gen LCDs where the look angles. You had to be sitting directly in front of the LCD TV or the image was terrible.

[@jimbotron70]

CRTs will be back with a vengeance.

[@QuickTimeVelocity]

Pfft, yeah, when Anna Kendrick is Attorney General.

[@mattwolf7698]

Why? They use more power, weigh a ton, take up too much space, are smaller and unless they are upgraded to 16:9 and 4K the general public wouldn't want them. The retro game enthusiasts wouldn't be big enough to make it a sustainable business. Oh and I forgot to add, more expensive to manufacture, there's literally no advantage to them unless you want to do retro gaming.

[@jimbotron70]

@@mattwolf7698 They shouldn't necessarily being remade in the old form and weight. It would be possible to use SED technology or simulating them with OLED dot masks.

[@JustMe-tx3nm]

I have an early 80's JC Penny 13 inch for my older consoles It just feels natural to play my older games this way.

[@KikuVasNormandy]

Watching this in my second monitor... a CRT LG.

[@demisemedia]

My grandma had all of the latest & greatest tvs. In the early 1990s she had a few gigantic projection screen behemoths. Those things always had problems and needed to be fixed. My mom had an old 1970s Zenith tv in her upstairs bedroom. Around the mid 2000’s is when we started to replace most crt’s with lcd’s. I was still using an old Sharp Crt tv all the way up until 2015 when my grandma sold her house. At the time, it was just a bulky hunk of junk I didn’t want to haul around to my new destination. Now, I regret throwing it away 🥲 As of the last few months I went Cathode Ray Tube crazy and ended up buying 6 in total! 5 Sony Trinitron’s and 1 tiny Panasonic Roadshow tv/vcr combo! To me.. there’s nothing better than watching a classic horror film or playing snes on a trusty ole crt tv 📺

[@wmalden]

My daily driver is a 1998 Mitsubishi 32” CRT. It’s housed in a beautiful oak cabinet. I watch DVDs on it. Old shows and movies made for a square screen.📺

[@Averagegunenthusiast]

I realized they vanished, I lived over half my life with them. I was born in the 80s grew up in the 90s and was a young adult in the 2000s. I didn’t get a flat screen lcd until 2012, I had a very expensive for 2006 flat screen crt 32 inch screen. It was heavy and a pain to move. Eventually one of the electron guns went out, for those who don’t know there are 3 electron guns red, green, and blue. When that happened I bought a new lcd and never looked back. I have 1 crt in my house and it is for the original Nintendo Duck hunt, the gun will only work on a crt. Generally I don’t miss them, they were heavy and awkward. I have even seen black and white crt TVs, I had one in my room when I was a kid. They were already outdated and you couldn’t give them away so if you are poor and want an extra tv you could snag one up. The same happened with crt TVs, you couldn’t give them away, I kept mine until it broke, there wasn’t much reason to spend money on a new tv when the old one still works fine.

[@bokm9606]

Phillips CRT 34" wide-screen crt ..weighed a ton but looked so much better than today's TVd

[@puffthecatpuff8931]

If movies still had a "fullscreen releases", they may have lasted a bit longer

[@williamhaynes7089]

Duck Hunt on Nintendo with light gun wont work on LCD

[@veilmontTV]

Uploading this in 4:3 would have been the ultimate move

[@kylebarton6498]

I still have a (32”?) in storage as well as a 13” tv vcr.. I imagine there’s people who’d like to have it for games like Tetris especially.. like to see a video that doesn’t have like 70000 views in the first day! Amazing I ran across it lol

[@cheetopendejo6660]

i kept our 36in toshiba crt after upgrading to lcd. everyone tried to get me to sell it or throw it away for almost 15 years and i thought about it because it was an eyesore but never did. i had no idea they would make a comeback i just wasn't willing to throw away a perfectly good tv. a couple years back i got an NES and genesis/cd/32x tower and now i'm set up like a james bond villain.

[@outaspaceman]

Hee, Hee, I’ve got 10 hidden in my studio..😂

[@Bboyman1150]

We used our CRT until it died in the middle 2010s

[@chrisholdread174]

I just purchased a PS1 that was in amazing condition. I plugged it in to test it and I could imminently tell how wrong it looked on my flat screen. Yes a PS1 is very low res by today's standards and my flat screen screams it

[@NuGanjaTron]

CRTs were fixable. LCD shit goes straight to the dumpster. So much for sustainability.

[@sunnohh]

LCDs are easily fixed, if you can fix a crt you can easily fix most every lcd failure often easier and more safely than any crt…

[@trevorcurrie4774]

Uh im only 22 and i definitely noticed. Was very hype for a plasma tv

[@Quest4GloryGamer]

I think you need to make a follow up video. Another reason why CRT TVS were being replaced is because of plasma TV's were becoming their true replacement. Also being "Self-Amissive" displays and, getting just as black. They were almost on par but, motion was still better on a CRT tv.

[@maxwellsmith5627]

I have gotten three free crt's. One through a family member, another through a person near me and the last on Facebook marketplace. I also can feel the input lag on upscalers and even native hdmi devices on an lcd or oled.

[@stevenpike7857]

Wow, your silky smooth deep voice.... 🥰

[@mexdrago3009]

HD crts have 24hz mode. No stutter!

[@lovemadeinjapan]

HD CRTs? I've never seen these. You either had 50Hz doubled to 100Hz or 60Hz doubled to 120Hz through interpolation. There also was no HD material. Blu Ray was the first to do HD 24Hz right, and in 2005 CRTs were already being phased out. So even if you have a HD CRT, it has such a obscure input resolution/connector/protocol, there is 0 content for it. And if you play DVD, which is a format rotten by its 16kHz CRT TV focussed design, you won't get a great experience either.

[@mexdrago3009]

@lovemadeinjapan Some hd crt were 60hz and had an option to convert 24 to 30. Some sort of interpolation, but it looks great. They do 540p and 1080i. I hooked up my xbox 360 on it, and it also looks great in 1080i. American football is still broadcast in 1080i on cbs and nbc.

[@casualcadaver]

⁠​⁠@@lovemadeinjapanI had one. My dad bought one in 2001. It was an Ultravision. Also my original Xbox could play HD , we had a 70 dollar Monster cable with like 5 plugs in it and some games ran at 720p which was HD back then, your probably thinking of what they called Full HD which was 1080p then yeah there was virtually zero content to watch it on.

[@bsacco64]

It still baffles me how CRT was invented before LED panels. Like they could figure out how to beam electrons before they could figure out how to make a pixel?

[@crestofhonor2349]

CRTs are very old technology and LCDs are relatively more complex. The first CRTs date back to the 1930s I believe. They are also purely analog technology and use magnets to direct the beam to the right area. LCDs I think date back to the 70s but even then had a lot of stuff working against them. Pixels are extremely small and thus require quite the precise manufacturing so they would have been much harder to make

[@Rollthered]

People just stopped wanting a phosphor bomb in their house i guess lol.

[@circleinforthecube5170]

bro when has that ever happened, a smart tv with shitty OS is worse than a tv that will hardly ever break

[@Warp2090]

@@circleinforthecube5170 For real.

[@mattwolf7698]

​@@circleinforthecube5170I had a 15 year old CRT break on its own in 2011 and it stunk up the room. It wasn't burning, I think the tube had a seal break somewhere. I replaced it with a Toshiba flat screen which is still going strong.

[@SuperCartoonist]

CRT projectors are also cool.

[@sunbrookheath]

Props for showing Alec Watson from Technology Connections!

[@ruben_balea]

If CRTs hadn't existed some 30 years ago the most important videogame magazines could have received a Play Station prototype before the project was cancelled and buried like the Atari ET cartridges 😆

[@nothingelse1520]

I remember when LCD monitors took off. The blacks looked HORRIBLE. Games like Doom 3 which are pitch black looked especially bad. I got a QD-OLED earlier this year and for the first time since I got rid of my CRT Doom 3 looks correct. QD-OLED is amazing.

[@MrDdefos]

My 25 year old co-workers have no idea what a CRT is. I feel so old.

[@MovieMaster2008]

I have a rear projection television HDTV/Analog, known for the three-color split Red Green, and Blue, I repaired the one I had picture and sound are perfect, and the wood it's assembled inside of, I call it "Pinball wood" Another good thing about these televisions is they produced heat on all sides so if you live in Florida a cold air front comes in that would warm you no need for the heat to turned on, anywhere it's cold not Alaska cold. You see some bloggers' power on these working televisions and then destroy them for views, the televisions are worth something.