My first job in IT 20-some years ago began swapping their CRTs for LCDs and I got to take home a Dell rebadge of a 19” Trinitron. It did 1600x1200 at 75hz. It had a fantastic picture for gaming. I can’t for the life of me remember what happened to it.
I love getting my eyes bombarded with the occasional ionization electron beam fired from the electron gun that make it past the phosphorescent screen.
I do not envy some of the ocular conditions some of the old long-time programmers in the industry had, although this is from personal experience. All CRTs generate Xrays, even if later on regulation would attempt to minimize the amount generated. and using them should still mean keeping your distance. The effects it has on your eyes are not instant, specially if you don’t use them as part of your job.
A lot of the excessive warning from screens came from this era, where there was an actual risk. Unfortunately, there are planty of antivax-like CRT-radiation deniers, but fortunately, it’s no longer a problem.
Sounds like CRTs do produce some radiation but the amount it produces is marginal. Modern CRTs should have leaded glass which should substantially reduce the amount of X-rays you would receive.
The above article says 0.3 microS/hour which is less than one tenth of the radiation you get from an hour of flight, or about 10 hours of sun exposure.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight-time_equivalent_dose#Radiological_exposures_and_limits
So it looks like you will get radiation exposure from CRTs but it is not much higher than background radiation. Bring sedentary for hours in front of a CRT TV is probably worse for you than the radiation you would get from the CRT.
Now consider your typical 40 hour week, for 52 weeks, for several decades. It is higher than background radiation, objectively so. You get 10 hours of sun exposure, you risk sunburn and higher skin cancer rates as it adds up. There have to be dose limits for pilots, 100 hours of flight time per 28 days. For people who were stuck in front of a CRT display, most of the radiation was also focused on their eyes. You got the numbers, now actually think about them.
Sure, but I doubt very many people will get occupational exposure to CRTs these days. The days there might be a tiny CRT on an old oscilloscope, and some retro gaming/computing enthusiasts might have an old CRT but for most people it’s likely not a concern.
I see your point that it was more of a concern in the past though.
Radiation builds character!
Kids these days…
This is insane and awesome!
Totally random… but I just found a CRT Trinitron with original rabbit ears and I shit you not, the original Trinitron sticker on the front of the glass :o
400+ pound television? My spine spontaneously slipped three disks just by watching this video
My brain buzzed a bit when it was turned on too. That’s normal, right?
Fucking Sony Trinitron man. Heaviest damn monitor I’ve ever had to deal with.
Felt like the glass was between 3-5” thick on those damn things. It was the closest to being stuck in a stairway I’ve ever been. Like call the fire department stuck.
They were so good though.
Noodle Restaurant Demolition Death is a great band name.
“Yeah man, I’m going to the N.R.D.D. show tonight, you?”
I can’t make it tonight. I’m going to the Shabby and Chamois show over at Murph’n’Gurp’s.
pronounced “nerd”
But only to the newbs. The REAL (gatekeeper) Noodle Deathers make sure to use the FULL NAME. :)
Seems realistic anyhow lol
The real OGs know that “N.R.D.D. sucks!” I’m assuming the full name is Les Claypool’s Noodle Restaurant Demolition Death.
This was pretty fun to watch. But also kinda hearbreaking. That thing isn’t going to last forever. The longer this goes the less excited I am about someone figuring out how to make CRTs as a boutique thing for nerds, but it’s also a thing that should happen, even if I’m past my personal vinyl moment where I would overspend like crazy for it.
CRTs have so many advantages!
…ish
Like yeah, a CRT suddenly makes it so all of the fancy filters you have configured on retroarch are no longer necessary, and neither is frame advance for input latency if you’re using native hardware or a mistr.
But is it worth it?
…gonna be that guy and say no, for me.
I mean… Depends on goals.
If you want to prevent your TV from getting stolen just get a Trinitron, it’s heavy as fuck and old enough where no thief would take thier time to steal it. Mine’s 109lbs
I genuinely had to leave a Sony Wega behind when I last moved. It was my landlord’s and I would have bought it off of him, but it was just not possible to move it. It was there when I moved in, it stayed there when I moved out. You could make an olive orbit around that gravity well.
Thank you for leading me down this rabbit hole of looking up Wega, which was a German manufacturer of hifi equipment bought by Sony. They apparently made tapedecks for the Sony Elcaset format, which became an even deeper rabbit hole… TIL!
“Oooh, so that’s what happened to aiwa.”
Is THAT what happened to Aiwa? I had never made the connection.
I didn’t even know Wega was in reference to a company they bought. I always thought it referred to their flatscreen trinitons and nothing else.
That thing struggled to keep geometry, but come on, it was a humongous widescreen CRT with stereo speakers that could replicate the Tunguska crater. You gotta love it.
😂 thanks, that’s the best reply so far
Displaying basically anything that isn’t text.
They don’t have to figure it out. It’s well documented.
The technology is no secret but making them somewhat affordable and profitable is the issue. The Verge made a video about portable cassette players recently which talks about this challenge.
My understanding is there are no new tubes/screens being produced anywhere. The figure out part is the industrial production, not the technology. But hey, if there are any production lines still in operation I’d be very curious to learn about them.
The same was the case with nixie tubes, until a guy in Czechia started artisanally hand-making them for deep-pocketed connoisseurs. Eventually, someone will undoubtedly try doing that with CRTs, though the question is how expensive each one will be and will they be able to match the quality of, say, a mass-produced Trinitron.
Yeah, the problem is you can’t exactly learn to artisanally blow cathode ray tubes in your garage. Damn things are industrial by definition. You need someone to ramp up (or maintain, as someone above mentions) a big industrial facility to be able to reliably make an electron gun attached to an oversized vacuum tube that wants nothing more than to implode and throw shards of glass inside somebody’s eyeballs.
Just like floppy disks and VHS tapes. Every 3.5" floppy that will ever be made has already been made.
I thought there was like one place making them, but maybe they’re only packaging and shipping old ones?
But yeah, man, it’s weird that we resurrected vinyl but those things are just lapsing despite retro tech fans having become a fairly large group. I suppose it’s easier to manufacture replacements out of new tech than it is to build the legacy stuff, so it’s all Goteks and memory card adaptors for a lot of that stuff.
Maybe it’s the matter of vinyl consumers being a larger group than floppy disk consumers?
I enjoy going to music concerts, and in the case of smaller scenes/bands i always buy a vinyl (and most of times a t-shirt) to support the band directly. I don’t even have a vinyl player at the moment - long story - but I have a collection of 300+ records.
If I recall correctly it is also very cheap to produce in terms of tools and machines needed, the pipeline being all analogue and mechanical?
I am also a retrocomputer nerd, but I guess the number of indie game developers that target floppy disks as the distribution medium for their next game are fewer by number compared to the musicians distributing on vinyl?
Yeah, that’s the thing. Pressing a piece of plastic with some sharp grooves in it is one thing, but once you get into TVs or magnetic storage things get hard pretty fast.
And since most of that is digital anyway you can instead make a cheap adaptor to use a modern solid state device that will do the same job objectively better. There’s just no upside to it beyond nostalgia.
I remember seeing the news, the last consumer CRT production facility stopped producing around a decade ago, but I’m having trouble finding the article. They’re still being produced for commercial uses though (Boeing 747 cockpits use them for example).
I think those are being built out of existing tube stock, I don’t know that anybody is making new tubes. But yeah, basically.
Man, that gives one hope. But also, the “we’re not going anywhere” general tone really paints a picture :D
I wonder how long until it makes sense for someone like that to start making absurdly expensive consumer displays as a side gig.
There’s probably some military shadow contractor in a clandestine factory somewhere…
Love shank and his videos, and this one was phenomenl. Truly showcases his passion and dedication for something few people would see worthy of saving.
I had one of those.
Edit: Y’all have exactly zero sense of humor. ZERO!
You had a TV that cost $40,000 ($100,000 adusted for inflation) and only a dozen or so were ever made?
You had a TV that cost $40,000 ($100,000 adusted for inflation) and only a dozen or so were ever made?
I had a TV that weighed 400 lbs. Probably more.
