Hi Everyone!
I searched for this, but was not able to find this topic here. But I guess it’s a relevant question for many with limited experience/technical knowledge:
I’m looking for a good CRT to capture from (using my camera) and I’m on a (tight) budget. To make it even more difficult, I’m in PAL land. So something switchable would be ideal.
I have looked at TVs that are used for exhibitions, but they usually don’t Start under 300 bucks used. Thats deffinitely Out of my range.
howdy hintt
the reason that there isn’t any much info on this topic is that because there is only a negligible number of new crt’s being manufactored, the market is pretty much all over the place. there isnt’ really going to be anything like “pick up a JVC BVM 1120-64345 13inch, you can always find it for around 75usd” because that just doesn’t exist. Sometimes you can find like 4 pvms for free but you have to drive 200 miles to pick them up yourself. sometimes you can find the same thing with an asking price of like 1500usd. probably the best advice is just avoid online marketplaces, auction sites, or anything else that requires mailing stuff bc even if the CRT was free, shipping costs would be silly.
if you want to find something cheap (or free) try
free listings on facebook/craigslis/etc. many places make you pay to dispose of crts nowadays and lots of people just don’t want to have to lug them around or whatever
electroscrappers, electronics recycling joints, incinerators: ask the folks running these spots, often times they’ll have some kind of cheap store/yard sale days or just let you pick stuff up so they don’t have to deal with it.
schools, colleges, hospitals, local govt offices etc: these places would have had stuff around both for security systems and for profesional uses, maybe they still have a basement room filled with crap that they just want to forget about.
in terms of What Is Useful for capturing: try not to get too hung up on this before you literally have anything at all. being able to dial down brightness and saturation is pretty nice, but pretty much any crt made after 1990 would at the very least have that in a digital menu so that isn’t really like difficult to find. beyond that, we are talking about analog circuitry from 20-40 years ago, everything degrades differently, and at this point unless you find something vaccuum sealed mint in box, never powered on, its all gonna be unique snowflakes.
Thank you so much for the advice and taking the time! Since the prices are all over the place, are there maybe any models that can be generally recommended? For example I think there were a handful of models that were like the ‘standard’ for displaying video in museums and gallerys.
Hey! Yes, we met at Teepeeland a few years ago, remember? i checked Kleinanzeigen and will work with what I can find there. I Had just hoped to get some models that I could explicitly search for.
I’ll just chime in to second Andrei and say that even if you track down the “best” models (say a PVM or BVM of some certain size/brand) that doesn’t mean that the actual set you found will be any good. I have acquired 3 different PVM/BVMs in my time tracking down CRTs, and due to unknowable things in their past (like maybe they were on for 8 hours a day for months in a museum), they all have worse pictures than the cheaper consumer models that I have. The best budget CRT is the one that fits your budget and looks good to you!
…in case you‘re still looking for ‚makes‘: i like the Sony Trinitron ones, but they are usually pricey…
…the Trinitron tubes have been used by a couple of makers and in southern Germany you can always find a couple of CRTs for the price of ‚pickup‘ - usually huge thingies that two persons can barely lift, 6th floor without elevator…
I’ll share a protip (possibly against my better judgement and/or gatekeeping self-interest) that’s led me to a couple bargains while looking online:
Search for old security monitors. They’re usually always small, typically have two channels with ins and outs, color/contrast/brightness knobs on the front, and I’ve noticed many sets have S-Video connections and higher-res screens relative to what you’d normally find amongst an assortment of regular CRTs.
Pros:
Good ones are functionally PVMs without the gamer tax tacked on at the search box
Usually better build quality and more serviceable designs than regular consumer TVs. Being security monitors, many were designed to stay powered on for extended periods and easier to disassemble for maintenance.
Sellers are more likely to have more than one (or other rackmount/multi-display units) for sale, since many come from working environments that are clearing out all their ancient A/V gear
Cons:
In almost all cases, these tubes will probably have a lot of mileage. Some may already be dead. Many have burned-in images on the display from their days staring at the same corner of a room for who-knows-how-long. Keep a keen eye to avoid those, and examine photos/descriptions closely
Probably more B/W units on the market than color ones, just keep an eye out for what you want.
Good ones will probably shoot up in price once the gamer scourge finds out about them
i checked Kleinanzeigen and will work with what I can find there. I Had just hoped to get some models that I could explicitly search for.