CRT Fetish Thread

wingzrow

Galford's Armourer
Joined
Jan 20, 2006
Posts
466
You've been told some major bullshit. Only Mitsubishi made flat aperture grille tubes and only for PC/pro monitors ("M" tubes), not TVs ("A" tubes) which was the bulk of their production. Other manufacturers (which are very few anyway) sticked to what they were doing (shadow mask) because to make AG tubes they should have changed their factory lines completely and nobody could afford that or thought it was worth it. Building a CRT plant is bloody expensive. When Thomson expanded their business to the US they took over RCA tube facilities and when Matsushita (Panasonic) opened a CRT factory in Europe in 1994 they didn't build one from the scratch, they bought Nokia's old plant for the same reason, the costs to build a CRT factory are too high. And then you read these "CRT enthusiasts" born in 1993 that think it's feasible that small runs of CRTs will start being made again one day because of them. HA!
You mean they're NOT going to kickstart a CRT manufacturing plant?
 

Sega Rhea

n00b
Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Posts
35
I've had PVMs in the past, and while they're great, never liked the small screen (the larger PVMs are far too expensive). Plus, I don't know if this is the norm, but I've personally had major issues with my JVC, Sony and Panasonic PVMs in the past for one reason or another, and just got tired of the high prices and constant repair/replacement I had to go through. I attribute my issues primarily with the long hours those monitors were often used in production.

So now, I just have this 25" Sony Trinitron and love it. Found it on Craigslist before the site became a ghost town thanks to LetGo, listed as "Color TV", and got it for 10 bucks. Nary a single issue, looks great.
 

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MKL

Basara's Blade Keeper
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Do you happen to know the dot pitch (or AG pitch), or the TV Lines on the Sony FV310 series? That info doesn't seem to be anywhere and I always wondered...

The series doesn't matter. All Flat Trinitron 29"/27V sets have M68 tubes no matter if they're in US or Euro TVs. The pitch on a 68cm tube cannot be much finer than 0.8mm which is the standard for A tubes of that size. The Nanao MS9 manual has some info for a Matsushita M68 tube that is sometimes used as an alternative to the Toshiba/Hitachi A68 ones and the pitch is 0.72mm. I would expect Sony M68 tubes to be about the same.
 

xga

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Jul 25, 2014
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The Nanao MS9 manual has some info for a Matsushita M68 tube that is sometimes used as an alternative to the Toshiba/Hitachi A68 ones and the pitch is 0.72mm.

Do you actually have a copy of the MS9 service manual?? If so, is it a soft copy that you would be able to share, please?
 

Dochartaigh

Edo Express Delivery Guy
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Posts
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The series doesn't matter. All Flat Trinitron 29"/27V sets have M68 tubes no matter if they're in US or Euro TVs. The pitch on a 68cm tube cannot be much finer than 0.8mm which is the standard for A tubes of that size. The Nanao MS9 manual has some info for a Matsushita M68 tube that is sometimes used as an alternative to the Toshiba/Hitachi A68 ones and the pitch is 0.72mm. I would expect Sony M68 tubes to be about the same.

I always wished they would have released their dot pitch numbers (or AG pitch I guess for Sony's). That's how I judge all TV's. I know my PVM-3230 (32"), which uses an A tube, and has something huge like a 0.90mm AG pitch. Still kills my 27" KV-27FS310 consumer TV in nearly all categories though (where that probably has a finer AG pitch) - really need the 32" FV310 for a fair comparison though.
 

Tripredacus

Three 6 Mafia
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JVC wasn't a tube manufacturer. JVC on the tube label doesn't mean the tube is made by JVC but only that JVC wanted a label with their name on it. It was a common practice among TV/monitor manufacturers.

Same exists today for LCD/LED panels. Very few companies actually manufacture those, despite the fact there are many brands that have screens in them.
 

Tech&Music

Another Striker
Joined
May 14, 2016
Posts
325
Picked up a PVM today. While it's certainly not the "grail" amongst the PVMs, it's still a nice display (to me) that's just in need of some modding.
It's a PVM-20N5E. A 20", as the model number suggests, 500 TV line display. So no thick scanlines, but having grown up with displays that mostly lacked those (my Commodore monitor for example), the look of thin scanlines is what I've grown fond of. That might make a bit of a heretic amongst CRT fetishists though ;)
Got it from a store (well, mostly a warehouse full of vintage A/V equipment for sale online, with a lot of broadcast-grade stuff), for a lowly €35. It was untested, but I hooked up my PS1 to it and threw in a random game to give it a try.

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Crappy pics aside, it has some cosmetic damage (mostly scuffs and dents in the plastic and top metal cover, as well as a missing Sony badge), but does appear to work just fine, as the tube looks to be in great shape to my eyes, quite sharp even when just testing it with a composite video signal.

The only downside is that this model lacks RGB. The slightly higher end PVM-20N6A/U/E is pretty much the exact same model, except it has RGB inputs and a mode to switch between 4:3 and letterboxed 16:9 in the menu.
Someone on the Assembler Games forum has figured out that the pads for the RGB inputs and related components are still there, they just need to be populated and the holes drilled in the case for the jacks to fit through. Some wiring needs to be done as well, along with soldering in a resistor on the main board to trick the CRT into getting it to unlock the N6 RGB and 16:9 features, and a button for the RGB line needs to be fitted on the front. It's a little bit of work, but for the price I paid, it'll be a fun project resulting in a great bang for the buck monitor that I'll be able to enjoy some games on, maybe I'll even tackle fixing the cosmetic imperfections. I just need to get a good shelve to put it on, this is one heavy monitor, and I wouldn't be surprised if modern TV shelves just aren't made to hold these bulky tubes anymore :lolz:
 

3rdStrikeMike

Dodgeball Yakuza
10 Year Member
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Sep 16, 2013
Posts
638
Yeah man, glad i use a small hand cart to lug these bad boys around. 2 20" crts can get alittle heavy lol

That would make things a lot easier. I might have to invest in one. I'm always glad I drive a Jeep to haul my CRTs to any local stuff.
 

ChuChu Flamingo

We have purposely, trained him wrong, ...as a joke
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https://wausau.craigslist.org/vgm/d/panasonic-1080i-crt-for/6493026104.html

At those prices might as well spend a little more and get it shipped and save time. The guy said in the ad above he just got his GRAIL Mitsuibishi. I guess he needs more GRAILS.

I asked him about his PVM in the listing as he didn't list it yet and he stated to make a honest offer. I offered 150-175ish, potentially a little more since it isn't a good idea to start high when offering.Keep in mind he had no pictures and its a 3 1/2 hour drive one way.

Of course I got told they are going for more on feebay.On there they seem to be going for 250ish+shipping, sometimes being picked up. OEV is just a rebranded 20M2MDU afaik. Pretty cool tube that 37 NEC is, but I rather have a NEC XM29.
 
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KyaDash

Crazed MVS Addict
Joined
Apr 16, 2013
Posts
140
Mind you, those Mitsubishis are really nice for how much they actually support, but god are they a bitch to actually move and such. Pair it with a $15 HDMI->VGA converter and it's still serviceable to current gen stuff, or can go ahead and do 120hz if you're looking to connect a PC up to it.
 

ChuChu Flamingo

We have purposely, trained him wrong, ...as a joke
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If someone ever ports groovymame to the PI, that thing would be amazing.

I don't think it would be powerful enough even if someone did. Especially if you want to use the Frame Delay feature past 0.

A very convenient setup though DVDx2.
 
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