Upgrading a CRT?

rabidz7

rabidz7

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 24, 2014
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Is it possible to upgrade the yokes of a CRT to support higher refresh rates and resolutions?
 
Why would you want to go through the effort? As far as I can determine, that is at least a 10 year old monitor.
 
Would be interesting to know, CRTs might be making a come back. LCDs have yet to make a panel that can get 0ms reponse time like CRTs, best is usually around 4.5ms and unless you pay $800+ the image on a 4.5ms is going to be crap compared to a CRT.

I know I played games better on a CRT than LCD, the repose and refresh rate just isn't there.
 
In theory you could build an entire new controller and coil driver board for an existing CRT tube and electron gun, and wind your own beam steering coils. It's not an easy task. But even with all that effort, you may start to hit issues with phosphor glow duration (dimming and flickering at very high scan rates), and with the EM fields required starting to distort the shadow mask/aperture grill.
 
Vinyl is coming back why not CRTs? And trust me vinyl is way bigger than an MP3.

I still have 3 CRTs, the problem is its just so damn hard to find ones that are good anymore.

There is one problem with the OP, he mentions cost, and right now good CRTs can get very expensive. Any sort of custom job is probably going to be very time consuming and expensive more so than just purchasing a better CRT if one exists.
 
SpiderWaffle said:
Would be interesting to know, CRTs might be making a come back.
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CRTs making a comeback! Yes! Just picture it: 400+ pound TV sets that give you a hernia when you try to slide it a bit so you can get your PS4 connected! Smart TVs big enough to have SLI 980s built right in, and entirely dependent on Vizio for driver updates! Huge, 4 foot deep entertainment consoles, reinforced with steel ("industrial design") and bolted to the wall! Forum goers arguing about concave versus convex screens, then Sony blowing everyone's mind with a Trinitron flat screen! High definition RF adapters! And all of those jobs it would create: home TV delivery would require triple the number of people to wheel one in to your living room!

rudy said:
Vinyl is coming back why not CRTs? And trust me vinyl is way bigger than an MP3.
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9.2 million vinyl records sold in 2014, of 257 million total albums in all formats. That's 3.5% of total. And it isn't even counting the digital singles - which were at nearly 600 million in the middle of the year.

Vinyl is a niche. I get that you like vinyl, hell, I like vinyl too, but don't even try to delude yourself or others by claiming it is "way bigger than MP3".

(although if that wasn't a typo, and you literally meant vinyl is bigger than an MP3, I suppose, yes, a record does take up more space than an MP3 on a USB flash drive, which would make it bigger).
 
Good luck. I believe that the manufacture and sale of CRTs effectively ended around 2007. The big advantages of LCD monitors is lower weight, lower power consumption, and less heat.
 
rudy said:
Vinyl is coming back why not CRTs? And trust me vinyl is way bigger than an MP3.

I still have 3 CRTs, the problem is its just so damn hard to find ones that are good anymore.

There is one problem with the OP, he mentions cost, and right now good CRTs can get very expensive. Any sort of custom job is probably going to be very time consuming and expensive more so than just purchasing a better CRT if one exists.
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http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2015/01/20/vinyl-comeback-really-looks-like
 
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deruberhanyok said:
Vinyl is a niche. I get that you like vinyl, hell, I like vinyl too, but don't even try to delude yourself or others by claiming it is "way bigger than MP3".

(although if that wasn't a typo, and you literally meant vinyl is bigger than an MP3, I suppose, yes, a record does take up more space than an MP3 on a USB flash drive, which would make it bigger).
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I thought he meant they were literally physically larger than mp3's :D
 
For me I liked my CRT better, If it's under 70lbs I can easily put it a deck once every 2-4 years, I don't play musical monitors anything like that but if do I guess that could be a problem for you. Space is hardly an issue, I've never been a place so cramped that I can't manage an extra 16" behind the monitor, we're talking less than 2 square feet, easy to spare that in any building I've been in in North American, maybe if you're in an 80 square foot studio you might need those extra 1.5 square feet.

What I do notice is that 5-10ms is greater than 0ms.
 
deruberhanyok said:
CRTs making a comeback! Yes! Just picture it: 400+ pound TV sets that give you a hernia when you try to slide it a bit so you can get your PS4 connected! Smart TVs big enough to have SLI 980s built right in, and entirely dependent on Vizio for driver updates! Huge, 4 foot deep entertainment consoles, reinforced with steel ("industrial design") and bolted to the wall! Forum goers arguing about concave versus convex screens, then Sony blowing everyone's mind with a Trinitron flat screen! High definition RF adapters! And all of those jobs it would create: home TV delivery would require triple the number of people to wheel one in to your living room!
Click to expand...

Funny you mention this. A friend of mine told me that there was some report that more kids (probably really little ones) are injuring themselves (and possibly killing themselves?) by rocking a television and tipping it over onto themselves. That usually wasn't a problem with the old big CRT's because of their massive weight. It's far easier for a kid to knock over an LCD screen than it is for him to knock over a 235 lb CRT.
 
rabidz7 said:
Is it possible to upgrade the yokes of a CRT to support higher refresh rates and resolutions?
Click to expand...

Short answer is yes, but you're going to need to do a ton of other things to the monitor to even support it.

I know you're able to push it to the horizontal scanning limit, but I seriously doubt your firmware in that thing is even "aware" of a deflection yoke's limits. I'm VERY VERY sure that the firmware is hard-coded for 121 khz (is that what the limit is on that thing?). Plus your guns would have to support that refresh rate too, etc.

So I think that you could theoretically do it, but in practice - nope.
 
SpiderWaffle said:
For me I liked my CRT better, If it's under 70lbs I can easily put it a deck once every 2-4 years, I don't play musical monitors anything like that but if do I guess that could be a problem for you. Space is hardly an issue, I've never been a place so cramped that I can't manage an extra 16" behind the monitor, we're talking less than 2 square feet, easy to spare that in any building I've been in in North American, maybe if you're in an 80 square foot studio you might need those extra 1.5 square feet.

What I do notice is that 5-10ms is greater than 0ms.
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To me, CRT will always be better. I can deal with the imperfect geometry and the weight. But damn - that organic picture just looks far more natural than any LCD. Add a good calibration on top of that, and we're in business. For its many imperfections, I find its advantages outweigh an LCD.

Don't get me wrong - LCD has its place. I really love LCD for coding and I love my panel on my laptop. But for media and games, a CRT is the only way for me.

EDIT: And to date, I have never met someone who's come over to my place for some gaming (I have a bunch of CRT's - see sig) and not enjoy it. Only thing that they remark on in the negative is that only one of them is widescreen, and that they don't have enough room for one.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Funny you mention this. A friend of mine told me that there was some report that more kids (probably really little ones) are injuring themselves (and possibly killing themselves?) by rocking a television and tipping it over onto themselves. That usually wasn't a problem with the old big CRT's because of their massive weight. It's far easier for a kid to knock over an LCD screen than it is for him to knock over a 235 lb CRT.
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Ha, I know we're way off topic now, but I remember seeing an article that said something similar a couple years back. As I recall at the time it was from TVs that were sitting on random pieces of furniture, because people apparently have giant LCD TVs all over their houses these days.

All of the larger sets I've seen include a stand that can be bolted down to an entertainment center, and even include the bolt needed to do it. If you have a big TV and it's not bolted down, it probably should be, even if you don't have kids. Like, what if you're moving cables around, not paying attention, and it tilts over? That's no good.

That said, you're right, kids could easily pull on an LCD and knock it over. So teach your kids that TV is dangerous and they shouldn't watch from so damn close, because it'll ruin their eyes. :)
 
All this LCD vs CRT talk it's no wonder Plasma's have been recently abandoned by manufactures, not enough people realized just how much closer to CRT image quality they are vs LCD (black levels / motion handling / viewing angels). I bought a Kuro plasma 7 years ago and it has been an amazing TV for console gaming & movies, Still using it today.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Funny you mention this. A friend of mine told me that there was some report that more kids (probably really little ones) are injuring themselves (and possibly killing themselves?) by rocking a television and tipping it over onto themselves. That usually wasn't a problem with the old big CRT's because of their massive weight. It's far easier for a kid to knock over an LCD screen than it is for him to knock over a 235 lb CRT.
Click to expand...

back in 1984, during the olympics, I remember we had just moved to a new place and were renting a furnished apartment. My parents were out for dinner and had left me and my sisters at home. There was a big TV sitting in the recess of a cabinet, a few feet off ground. I'm pretty sure it was a CRT, given the year.

I remember trying to adjust something on the TV and it fell right ontop of my fucking chest. I was seven years old! Luckily I wasn't injured but I think the TV was toast. I remember my parents being unhappy at the situation when they came home- I don't think they even asked if I was ok - maybe they didn't realize what had actually happened. Reading your post reminded me of this incident for the first time in over two decades. I'm gonna ask them if they remember :p
 
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I'm with you on the Plasma. I have a Panasonic one as the only TV in the house, and the picture is gorgeous.
 
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