Not in a long time, I used to find all sorts of stuff in the 2000s but it dried up, especially since 2017.
I feel like we’re getting close to the point where between the size and cost, old hardware won’t be as practical as new in a couple years, especially with more people getting in to it and modular/semimodular options that are more attainably priced than the LZX stuff becoming more available.
That’s kind of the vibe I am getting. Struggle to see the point in picking up a 4 channel mixer when I could get a Chromagnon for ~the same price. Luckily, there is a bounty of DIY stuff and software that I still need to dive into, which seems quite attainable given how cheaply raspberry pis/laptops/midi controllers can be attained. Thanks for your help!
Maybe instead of buying older hardware, get some parts and an affordable temperature controlled soldering station and try making this:
That plus an inexpensive capture device and software could go a long way, especially if you have a computer with a VGA output (or a Raspberry Pi with composite out) so you could get a simple hybrid setup going where you could feed the output of that VGA converter loop into your software but also feed the output of the software back into the VGA converter loop.
Looks like a great project to get into DIY with. Thanks!
I feel like that, a dirty mixer and one of those cheap composite video distribution amps you can still get new for about $15 on eBay would actually give you quite a few feedback options, especially combined with software.
Part of the idea behind my RGB Matrix was to start duplicating (and extending) the functionality from vintage prosumer mixers in eurorack. Just add a couple of Bastien’s component in/out modules and you’re most of the way there!
Dedicated, modern video gear for creative uses is generally expensive but old video mixers, camcorders/TVCCs, image/color processors, VHS units and accessories like cables, video splitters, converters can be found in thrift stores or eBay. TV sets can be found in the trash.
I think that depends a lot on location. We have pretty solid TV recycling programs in my part of the USA and as a result I haven’t seen a single functional CRT TV set or monitor in the trash or a thrift shop in almost a decade.
Consumer video gear is definitely cheap but even low end prosumer stuff like Vidionics switchers is getting up near the $200 range if you have to get it online (and that stuff never turned up locally for me even when nobody wanted it), but again there might bemore stuff floating around in other places still. New England has been dry for a long time (I worked at a thrift shop in Boston around 2006 and they already wouldn’t even accept donated CRTs way back then).
I think the best bet is to find the nearest electronics salvage/recycling company and get in touch with them, actually. Community colleges or even high schools in upper-middle class suburbs might be good, too.
If you keep your eyes open the Good Will sells a lot of stuff online and their prices are usually good but they also have a bigger online footprint now (they even use Discogs) so it’s probably not as easy as it was even a couple years ago to get really low prices there. Still worth checking their site directly, though:
It seems like the Seattle Good Will usually has all the best stuff, but there’s not a ton there right now and most of it is also listed on eBay.
I guess part of my point is that if you get a big video mixer chances are you’re going to only use a handful of its features, and as the price creeps up it gets less and less reasonable to spend a couple hundred dollars on a big, old piece of gear compared to building a few modules, which wouldn’t save much/any money in the beginning if you’re just starting with DIY but in the long run it could be a better choice.
Also really don’t overlook how much mileage you can get out of camera feedback even if you aren’t using a nice CRT TV set or something. A cheap CCD security camera, composite to VGA converted and old LCD monitor would get you going for under $50 (probably well under, since LCD monitors are really easy to find for next to nothing).
It all depends on the kind of look you’re going for, too, of course. If you like a more lo-fi, gritty, 1990s public access station after hours tinkering kind of aesthetic like I do then some simple DIY projects and cheap consumer equipment can go a long way, but if you want everything to be clean and sharp and high definition then it might not be the best path.
i got started (back in the day!) with random camcorders and crts i found just … around. a lot of people have old camcorders that they bought for making home movies and such and those end up in thrift stores. after playing with feedback and messing around in the circuitry of broken camcorders for a while (and learning editing in final cut early on luckily), i eventually started playing with circuit bent archers. it took me a long time to learn how to go back and forth between digital and analog, but i learned a lot in the process. wasnt aware of it as a community until i had already been messing around with it on my own for a while. bit of a tangent but i guess that’s to say that you can get a lot of mileage out of just a camera + screen + any sort of simple video processor. i am more in the misuse-old-gear school rather than the build-modules school, but there are advantages to both sides, i think it just depends on what the individual is more drawn to over time.
Sony WEGA KV-32HS420 worthwhile? Or are these not the desirable ones?
wegas are great because the flat screen is great for reacanning, so i think it is good to have if you are collecting tubes. that one is absolutely huge and weighs more than i do i think lol.
but it has 420 in the name and that alone is the selling point
Thank you! Yea hoping to track down a 27” one, those seem somewhat more reasonable space-wise for my apartment. If tachyons+ swears by them I can’t deny that, even though I’m new to the hobby.
A friend of mine got a 30-something inch 16:9 flatscreen HDTV CRT (either a Sony or a JVC, I forget) for around $50 from Craigslist years ago and has half-seriously offered it to me, but the problem is it weighs almost 300 pounds and it’s about 3’ deep so it’s completely impossible for me to actually take it. Maybe some day.
Unrelated to anything, just dreaming of a CRT better than my old 14" Commodore monitor with a purple spot near one corner.
i have used skateboards to move big tvs before, not 300lbs. but some boards my be able to handle that. it was super useful when i would find tons of sidewalk monitors. i pulled my 20” wega out of a dumpster, and another non wega 20” flat screen. i payed for 3 of the broadcast monitors i have, and was gifted 3 more from people who saw them going to be discarded. so i have had lots of luck in my acquisition of monitors.
but whatever, skateboards are pretty decent way to move crts
Handy video tool:
https://www.harborfreight.com/18-in-x-12-in-1000-lb-capacity-hardwood-dolly-63098.html
Yeah this broadcast monitor rabbit hole is deep haha. Gamers have taken over the space haha!
One potentially nice thing about HD CRT regarding the vintage gamers is that they upscale SD inputs and that adds a little latency, so it kind of defeats the purpose of using a CRT, or at least one of the purposes.
I live in a third floor apartment with spiral stairs and my friend lived on the third floor until recently No thank you. I moved a Hammond M1 organ once, and that TV is smaller but at least as heavy. I know how bad it is. Plus it would take up a big chunk of the living room.
If I were a homeowner I’d take it in a second but some day I’ll have to move again and I’ve already got too much heavy old gear as it is.
One time years ago I played a last minute noise show a few blocks from my house. I had scored a 70s Ampeg fliptop amp for $30 (no t kidding) recently but it was missing the wheels and weighed 130 pounds. Since neither I nor the guy I was playing with had cars we thought we’d have to lug it there but at the last minute I found a stolen shopping cart abandoned near my place so we loaded all our gear in the shopping cart, rolled it down to the venue, rolled it into the venue, rolled it onto the stage, and left the amp and as much gear as we could inside the cart while we played.
I just found this:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002050499123.html
Looks like someone is blowing out a ton of NOS Sony Watchman guts. I just ordered two (in case one breaks on the way or something). should be able to make a super compact X/Y display pretty easily, and integrate that into the video rig. If it works it’ll be even more manageable than the one I’m working on now.
Weird geometry though, looks like it’s something like a 3:1 aspect ratio or something, with the vertical really squashed and a curved reflector for viewing that distorts the reflection of the actual CRT back to normal 4:3