Who's worried?

[ChuChu Flamingo]

I think custom chassis that can be used with various different tubes is probably the best bet in the future for replacements. I remember seeing someone make a custom chassis somewhere, it was pretty cool.

 

[Electric Grave]

You can get good results out of LCDs and emulation if you take the time to find a good resolution that doesn't get dithered. Some emulators can reproduce scanlines very well, personally I can do without scanlines, I could be happy with just that, my problem is trying to fit LCDs in cabs, you can do it with wood cabs easy enough, but candies? Were gonna need some crazy bezels to make it work.

Edit: There's also the scale issue, were gonna loose a lot of screen space going 16:9...even now is hard to find 4:3 ratio screens new, they're all made 16:9, 16:10, etc.

 

[theMot]

I think custom chassis that can be used with various different tubes is probably the best bet in the future for replacements. I remember seeing someone make a custom chassis somewhere, it was pretty cool.

Jomac

 

[wyo]

Possibly a bigger problem than scarce/dying tubes is there aren't enough people with the equipment/know-how to fix them. There's a real lack of old-fashioned TV repairmen around here. There were a few left when I moved here around 10 years ago but I can't find a single one today besides DIY fixers of dubious skill. Presumably this is a nationwide problem. There's no shortage of tubes right now but there will be if unfixed ones are junked en masse.

 

[sylvie]

all the tv repairmen went to prison for murder/rape in the 1990s. just watch Forensic Files and you'll see what I mean

 

[theMot]

Possibly a bigger problem than scarce/dying tubes is there aren't enough people with the equipment/know-how to fix them. There's a real lack of old-fashioned TV repairmen around here. There were a few left when I moved here around 10 years ago but I can't find a single one today besides DIY fixers of dubious skill. Presumably this is a nationwide problem. There's no shortage of tubes right now but there will be if unfixed ones are junked en masse.

Jomac

 

[SpamYouToDeath]

I visited Riot Games once. They have an arcade room with a bunch of classic cabinets - all running 16:9 LCDs in stretch mode.

Looks like an opportunity for a US company to spring up!
BB

Don't tempt me. CRTs have been around for a long time - it can't be that hard.

 

[Tripredacus]

Possibly a bigger problem than scarce/dying tubes is there aren't enough people with the equipment/know-how to fix them. There's a real lack of old-fashioned TV repairmen around here. There were a few left when I moved here around 10 years ago but I can't find a single one today besides DIY fixers of dubious skill. Presumably this is a nationwide problem. There's no shortage of tubes right now but there will be if unfixed ones are junked en masse.

There are only two people in my area that I know has the equipment that can repair a color CRT. I'm one of them and I don't even know how to use the thing.

The problem that I talked about earlier, of society just throwing things away, is also the reason why there is no demand for people to do electronics repair.

 

[Electric Grave]

Quan is local over here in MA, he fixed a monitor for me and for DZ, he has repaired stuff for RX as well. Apparently some folks have used him here as well, he works for New England Amusements. I'm about to bring in another project for him to work on. Before him there was another guy "Deporno", coincidentially e's Busted's friend but he's not doing it anymore.

A TV repair joint by my work used to fix CRTs, guy doesn't take them anymore, but he's more than willing to sell you some old tubes he repaired and has for sale, lol.