Is anyone else here stockpiling CRT televisions ?

[jupitersj]

I love my 30" Sony. There are 2 types of widescreen sony tubes though, just so you know. The best of the two has "Super Fine Pitch" stamped on the front of the chassis somewhere. These are usually a dark charcoal color and may be of the XBR line. Most of these don't have a digital tuner built in, so you'll need a converter box if you receive your programming from an antenna. These Super Fine Pitch sets come in 30 and 34 inch sizes only.

The last Sony SFP sets as far as I know were:

KD-34XBR960 (and kd-34xbr960n has extra screen shield making tube darker, 16:9 tube, 28ish" 4:3, 34" 16:9)

KD-36XS955 (naturally N style, 4:3 tube, 36" 4:3, 33" 16:9)


I personally own the KD-36XS955 as I got it on sale($999) for half the XBR(2k monies) at J&R and I was willing to give up PiP and firewire the XBR offered over the XS. I gain 8-9 inches on 4:3 content over the XBR and I only lose 1 inch on 16:9 content. I believe I purchased it right before the Xbox 360 launched in USA.

They are sister televisions of each other and both 1080i sets (1440 red to red if you want to get technical, a lot better than the 800 on similiar samsung sets at the time). It's an amazing CRT television and I hope it lasts me for a long long time. Infact I'm about to go use my SNES PowerPak on it ^__^

[Ed Oscuro]

That's pretty interesting, TDI. According to this it's actually around 5600, but yeah - very interesting. The main point of that page and this one is that florescent lights have an interrupted spectrum, i.e. it's not simply a single color. The spectrum is spread over a further range than with other sources of light (i.e. combustion of a single type of material). So lol, then you start talking about "color rendering index" or "apparent color temperature." Oh fun! So much for florescent - no wonder the film and photography industry has so much trouble with it.

The last Sony SFP sets as far as I know were:

KD-34XBR960 (and kd-34xbr960n has extra screen shield making tube darker, 16:9 tube, 28ish" 4:3, 34" 16:9)

There's one marked as a 34XBR970 on eBay for $200 right now. Still spendy for my tastes, considering that CRT won't be the last word in color reproduction at home forever, and the stuff I use 'em for gets by just as well (and even better) on smaller 4:3 tubes.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

That's pretty interesting, TDI. According to this it's actually around 5600, but yeah - very interesting. The main point of that page and this one is that florescent lights have an interrupted spectrum, i.e. it's not simply a single color. The spectrum is spread over a further range than with other sources of light (i.e. combustion of a single type of material). So lol, then you start talking about "color rendering index" or "apparent color temperature." Oh fun! So much for florescent - no wonder the film and photography industry has so much trouble with it.

That's why I said 5000k(ish), depending on which site you go to you'll get a slightly different answer. But yeah, while it may not be a "constant" light output, it's really really hard for a human eye to tell the difference. We even had to mix and match an incandescent and fluorescent in a fan recently, and you were hard press to tell the difference which was which.

And as far as film and video goes, it's not that big of a deal. A lot of times the biggest thing is maybe getting a flicker from a light, but that's usually adjusted by changing the shutter speed. I use video quite a bit, and it's never really that much of a problem. And if you white balance properly (usually) the color looks fine.

10 years ago when I was in film school, it was a little different though. There was a specific type of light called a KinoFlo, it was a flourescent and had a really greenish hue. It was only used in specific applications and we did have to watch our shutter speed when shooting 16mm or 35mm. In fact, here is a link to a student film I wrote(and helped design the set on) where you see these older style fluorescent lights and how they showed up on 16mm film. They're above the sinks and these particular lights are more blue. If you don't care to watch much of it you see them in a close up around the minute and twenty mark.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

The last Sony SFP sets as far as I know were:

KD-34XBR960 (and kd-34xbr960n has extra screen shield making tube darker, 16:9 tube, 28ish" 4:3, 34" 16:9)

KD-36XS955 (naturally N style, 4:3 tube, 36" 4:3, 33" 16:9)


I personally own the KD-36XS955 as I got it on sale($999) for half the XBR(2k monies) at J&R and I was willing to give up PiP and firewire the XBR offered over the XS. I gain 8-9 inches on 4:3 content over the XBR and I only lose 1 inch on 16:9 content. I believe I purchased it right before the Xbox 360 launched in USA.

They are sister televisions of each other and both 1080i sets (1440 red to red if you want to get technical, a lot better than the 800 on similiar samsung sets at the time). It's an amazing CRT television and I hope it lasts me for a long long time. Infact I'm about to go use my SNES PowerPak on it ^__^

Yeah, I believe they discontinued the 30 inch widescreen version late in the SFP incarnation. But they did make a 30. Looks like there were 2. Here's the chart detailing the models with Super Fine Pitch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FD_Trinitron/WEGA


I worked at Circuit City during this time, but we never got any of the SPF 4:3 sets in, so I never got a chance to play around with them. I would guess for gaming a 4:3 would work best for a lot of games. But some of the newer stuff you may want to pick up a 16:9 (again only in a 30 and 34).

And as always children you need to remember Light Guns will not work on any of these CRT HD sets. No matter how hard you try.

[jupitersj]

There's one marked as a 34XBR970 on eBay for $200 right now. Still spendy for my tastes, considering that CRT won't be the last word in color reproduction at home forever, and the stuff I use 'em for gets by just as well (and even better) on smaller 4:3 tubes.

The 970 was a marketing ploy by Sony to get people to spend more on an inferior tube using the XBR line's "prestige" success. It's not a true XBR or SFP. It is actually a replacement for the HS420 and has neither a SFP or memstick reader. It was really an underhanded move...

Yeah, I believe they discontinued the 30 inch widescreen version late in the SFP incarnation. But they did make a 30. Here's the chart detailing the models. Looks like there were 2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FD_Trinitron/WEGA


I worked at Circuit City during this time, but we never got any of the SPF 4:3 sets in, so I never got a chance to play around with them. I would guess for gaming a 4:3 would work best for a lot of games. But some of the newer stuff you may want to pick up a 16:9 (again only in a 30 and 34).

And as always children you need to remember Light Guns will not work on any of these CRT HD sets. No matter how hard you try.

Even though mine is 4:3 it's still a 1080i tube so you just get black bars on the top and bottom with highdef...works out to be 33" during widescreen content. Yeah, unfortunately gun games will not work on these SFP crt hdtv's because even though a tube is analog it is digital processing hardware.

[stargate]

On a related note, does anyone know what may be causing a problem on one of my Sony Trinitrons?

It looks fantastic except that the picture sort of droops down on the upper left corner. The is more noticeable with games that have horizontal lines in the background. Not sure if it is something that can be adjusted or if it is unrepairable.

[robotriot]

Could be a problem with magnetic fields (maybe there's a source of disturbance near that corner) or the magnets need to be properly degaussed (although I have no idea how this can be done with a TV, PC monitors always did that when they were turned on).

[Raedon]

On a related note, does anyone know what may be causing a problem on one of my Sony Trinitrons?

It looks fantastic except that the picture sort of droops down on the upper left corner. The is more noticeable with games that have horizontal lines in the background. Not sure if it is something that can be adjusted or if it is unrepairable.

Might have a speaker near that corner. Could also be a damaged aperture grille.

[heybtbm]

On a related note, does anyone know what may be causing a problem on one of my Sony Trinitrons?

It looks fantastic except that the picture sort of droops down on the upper left corner. The is more noticeable with games that have horizontal lines in the background. Not sure if it is something that can be adjusted or if it is unrepairable.

I have the exact same problem (even the same location) with my 32" Sony Trinitron Wega. It's not too noticeable, but my eye catches it from time to time. I don't have any speakers or magnets near the set. The TV was bought brand new by my mom, who took excellent care of the set. The monster was only moved once (from her house to my house). Total mystery.

[stargate]

I have the exact same problem (even the same location) with my 32" Sony Trinitron Wega. It's not too noticeable, but my eye catches it from time to time. I don't have any speakers or magnets near the set. The TV was bought brand new by my mom, who took excellent care of the set. The monster was only moved once (from her house to my house). Total mystery.

weird.

you can make it out in the pics from my auction (link below). check the upper left corner.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sega-Saturn-syst...item3358e40484

[jperryss]

And as always children you need to remember Light Guns will not work on any of these CRT HD sets. No matter how hard you try.

Is this the case for all of the flatscreen Trinitrons, or just the HD ones?

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Is this the case for all of the flatscreen Trinitrons, or just the HD ones?

Just the HD ones.

[jdc]

I use a 27" Sharp Aquos in the gaming room for my 360......a 27" RCA CRT for "bring a console into the living room" sessions.....a 13" Toshiba CRT (amazing) in the office for the Cube and an Xbox.....a 13" Sanyo CRT in the bedroom for "bring a console into the bedroom" sessions. Now all I need to score is a used 27" flatscreen CRT for the older consoles in the gaming room. I've resigned myself to the fact that anything other than a 360 or PS3 on an LCD looks like you're "settling", regardless of what cables you use.