CRT's on eBay [another ukvac mini rant warning] - is it just me?

[Max...]

Or is it flipping nuts!?!

I'm sure many here will remember BITD the budget lines at Dixons, Currys, Argos etc - the Bush, Alba, Matsui, Goodmans, Saisho etc.

These were cheap Sh1t, cr@ppy boxes that looked and performed awful, is there some great organisation scooping them all up and trying to get £100, £150 for them? Even those rubbish little Radioshack/Tandy portable ones or similar are at silly money.

Is anyone buying these? Hipster millennials just to stick in a corner?

 

[chubsta]

Rarity I guess - it’s awful that every time I go to the dump the container has got at least one crt that is dumped and yet I haven’t seen one in a charity shop for years.

 

[HDemon]

Or is it flipping nuts!?!

I'm sure many here will remember BITD the budget lines at Dixons, Currys, Argos etc - the Bush, Alba, Matsui, Goodmans, Saisho etc.

These were cheap Sh1t, cr@ppy boxes that looked and performed awful, is there some great organisation scooping them all up and trying to get £100, £150 for them? Even those rubbish little Radioshack/Tandy portable ones or similar are at silly money.

IIs anyone buying these - hipster millennials just to stick in a corner?

I have BUSH and I'm verry happy of its quality

 

[big10p]

Rarity I guess - it’s awful that every time I go to the dump the container has got at least one crt that is dumped and yet I haven’t seen one in a charity shop for years.

A lot of charity shops don't accept electrical goods anymore, sadly.

 

[LHantz]

Still use my CRT, 36" Philips had it for 22 years, Caps beginning to go a bit, OK once it's warmed up. At 79KG, gonna be a b*tch to get back down stairs!

 

[Bods]

Unless the cheapo brands got better later on I don't know as I'd never buy them but I remember ones I did see in Friends houses looked bad

Mate bought cheap make for his bedroom, when he compared to a Sony I gave him he soon got rid of it as the picture was rubbish, wouldn't notice it so much on 14" but I'd still buy decent make ones if I was getting CRT now like Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba.. Philips/Pye were usually good picture wise and remotes worked pointing anywhere but could be pain to repair at times and tended to blow up seriously bad in storms

I've still got few in the loft, 2 I got from tip as they have very similar flatter tubes as they used in my Ninja Warriors which seem to be quite hard to find Hantarex 14" ones with Philips tubes I think, also Sony 14" with built in VHS from other half.

I've never really bothered with Consoles so I didn't hang on to CRT TV just Monitors for C64 and Amiga

My Nephew seen someone playing streetfighter 2 on one of the Philips Space Helmet TVs and sent me video as he thought the TV was cool. That's trouble these days people are easily influenced (always happened) but on a bigger scale due to Internet/Social media, old days it was mates got this toy or game or computer and you wanted one but now "its trending" so everyone wants one

Anyway, nephew ended up buying a 14" CRT, cheap make one and when he put that in his room he said his Alexa stopped working I was going to ask if anyone else has had this issue, personally I would have just put the Alexa in the bin but I thought it was odd, now I did wonder if he had bought say a Sony, the earlier ones had metal shield around back of tube, would that have done the same and it was funny because at the time he said about this I then find these Panasonic Inverter Microwaves I have, when your using it, it knocks out the wi-fi and even if I put phone in hall closer to the router and the Microwave is other end of house it still keeps loosing signal, never noticed it do that with older type panasonic with transformer powered magnetron

 

[Max...]

My super faithful Panasonic 21" CRT finally died a few years back - it gave sterling service for over thirty years. I still remember taking my US SNES with the then just out imported SFII to our local specialist indie TV shop to try out four big brand TV's with it plugged into the Scart at 60hz.

It's still in the loft and I plan to try getting it going again - may have to seek expert help on that via a new topic, I've modded lots of stuff for decades but CRTs still (rightly I guess!) scare me a little and it's something I've never delved into before...

 

[ZeroSum]

WTF happened to my Sony Trinitron 21"Flat Screen.

I have no memory of selling or dumping it!
Quite the mystery...

 

[Max...]

Naturally, when I tested the TVs in the shop as above circa '92 I tried the then current Sony Trinitron screen but I immediately saw the two horizontal lines (as here: https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...ne-horizontal-lines-across-my-display.347239/ ) especially obvious on pastel screens like SMW and I could never un-see them after that...

 

[Bods]

Naturally, when I tested the TVs in the shop as above circa '92 I tried the then current Sony Trinitron screen but I immediately saw the two horizontal lines (as here: https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...ne-horizontal-lines-across-my-display.347239/ ) especially obvious on pastel screens like SMW and I could never un-see them after that...

My super faithful Panasonic 21" CRT finally died a few years back - it gave sterling service for over thirty years. I still remember taking my US SNES with the then just out imported SFII to our local specialist indie TV shop to try out four big brand TV's with it plugged into the Scart at 60hz.

It's still in the loft and I plan to try getting it going again - may have to seek expert help on that via a new topic, I've modded lots of stuff for decades but CRTs still (rightly I guess!) scare me a little and it's something I've never delved into before...

Got sent to a Customers once because he was complaining about 2 faint lines on his Sony 20" PC Monitor, thats when I found out about them and nothing you could do as it's part of the design, guy wasn't happy, To be honest I've got less fussy in my later years and not even noticed them on my current 20" Sony monitor
It's like when I had Fords with heated front screens, you don't notice the wavy lines all over the screen to start but when you do it's like flippin eck but when your distracted by driving they disappear again

I have some Panasonic/Technics books so if you know the model number of TV I can look up common issues, sometimes helps fix them quicker

 

[Max...]

Got sent to a Customers once because he was complaining about 2 faint lines on his Sony 20" PC Monitor, thats when I found out about them and nothing you could do as it's part of the design, guy wasn't happy, To be honest I've got less fussy in my later years and not even noticed them on my current 20" Sony monitor
It's like when I had Fords with heated front screens, you don't notice the wavy lines all over the screen to start but when you do it's like flippin eck but when your distracted by driving they disappear again

I have some Panasonic/Technics books so if you know the model number of TV I can look up common issues, sometimes helps fix them quicker

Thanks Bods, I would love to take you up on your offer - I need to get it down from the loft (which will have done it no favours for a few years) and I'll post up a new topic. Cannot remember the full # but perhaps TX21 - was a Nicam new model then and superb pic.

 

[Spanky]

Got sent to a Customers once because he was complaining about 2 faint lines on his Sony 20" PC Monitor, thats when I found out about them and nothing you could do as it's part of the design, guy wasn't happy

Those are shadows from the aperture grill springs, all you have to do is stick with it and your brain will ignore them. It's actually the sign of a good monitor.

 

[kingtreelo]

i have a bunch of CRTs, i think 5, but the trend of them being sold for ridiculous prices is amazing, i thnk the most i have paid for any of mine has been £60 for a 23 inch trinitron a few years back, reduced from 100 quid.

i also have a few portables that have seen better days that i may just give away shortly due to them sat there collecting dust, used them with my famicom once upon a time until i got my Sony

 

[Max...]

I have some Panasonic/Technics books so if you know the model number of TV I can look up common issues, sometimes helps fix them quicker

Great and very surprising result to say the least - just switched on the old Panny after 24 hrs down from the loft and it fired up perfectly this time - appears to be working perfectly - forgotten how nice the pic was on this (for a consumer CRT) and the stereo sound is awesome.

It's a TX21V2. As I mentioned earlier it definitely did not fire up or produce a picture last time I tried a few years ago.

Any ideas Bods, for anything I can do without killing myself to see if something is amiss in the power side perhaps or should I just leave it well
alone?!

Also do you know if there is a service menu reachable from the remote that I could see?

FWIW ChatGPT gave me:

• ✅ Made in Japan, with Panasonic’s own “Quintrix” CRT tube — great colour reproduction even today.
• ⚙️ SCART input (and usually composite video/audio jacks) — perfect for VHS, DVD, or retro gaming systems.
• 🔌 Power supply and flyback transformer are robust, but the solder joints around the line output transformer can develop hairline cracks after decades; if you ever lose power suddenly, that’s the first area to inspect.
• 🧹 Dust cleanup: if you ever open it (unplugged, of course), gentle compressed air and a soft brush on the boards will reduce heat buildup.

 

[Stokers]

I went through a CRT phase - I have a couple of JVC PVMs at the moment.

Overall the best balance of practicality, picture and sound quality was Sony Trinitron 21X5U from about 2000. However it does pain me to see one particular eBay seller list them for £400 - £500.

 

[CMYKhazi-Dan]

Can’t remember if it was on here or arcade projects, I did a comparison and concluded that my Toshiba was preferable to my Sony Trinitron consumer CRT and PVM

Any excuse for this ad…

😆