12/28/2023 0 Comments Cathode ray tube tv![]() ![]() Vintage Electronics and Vintage Automobile collections and museums many parallels. My late wife had a deep appreciation of the antique radios I had collected as a hobby since childhood, and combining that with my familiarity with the inner workings of these technological milestones when we decided it was time for a career change toward small business ownership was how Amptech Systems was conceived. ![]() That ’39 RCA and the 9″ and 5″ models below the 12″ top-of-the-line model routinely sell at Antiques auctions for three or four times the advertised price of those new car-motorcycle hybrid vehicles that have gone viral as blog topics on social media on those rare occasions when another surviving example is found in the attic of the great-grandparents of some millenial. They aren’t *all* as valuable as the RCA TRK-12 of 1939 World’s Fair fame, but that $500 figure from the article is actually at the *low* end of the Vintage Television value scale. More than just the CRT that displays the picture itself, the ones worthy of museum exhibit or family heirloom efforts toward Restoration are the ones with a dozen (or more) smaller glowing glass vacuum tubes plugged into an array of sockets on one or more metal chassis assemblies inside their wooden cabinets. ![]() We’re *not* talking about boring 80’s era black plastic box models imported from Japan or Korea, but the CRT TV counterparts to what the Ford Model T, ’57 Chevy Bel Air, and classic late 60’s & early 70’s Muscle Car models mean to Vintage Automobile enthusiasts. When asked what she thinks the next trend will be, Connie is unsure.Īs much as the article was clearly intended as satire, there actually *is* a market for surviving examples of ^very early* television technology. “These things are worth their weight in gold – well not really, because that would be a huge amount of gold, but they’re worth a lot.” She advises anyone lucky enough to be in possession of a CRT set to take good care of it. “People are not robots – their tastes don’t proceed according to some algorithm.” Whereas functional devices such as laptop computers evolve with predictable increasing technical specifications, the same is rarely true for devices that are more personal – like televisions. Technology expert Connie Kulp says we shouldn’t be so surprised. But the customer is always right, I guess.”Īcross the country, retired solid-state engineers are making a killing selling homemade digital to analog converters while the corporate players struggle to catch up. “It’s slightly annoying, given the huge effort and expense we’ve put into developing high definition television content, that people now want to view it at 480i on 20+ year old analog technology. TV producers are somewhat frustrated by this turn of events but have to acknowledge the wishes of the market. You simply haven’t seen ‘Friends’ as it was meant to be enjoyed until you’ve seen it on a 13 inch Panasonic CRT TV/VCR combo.” Enthusiasts see an analogy with many audiophiles’ argument that vinyl just sounds better and is more ‘real’ that digital formats. They are currently limited to one set per customer or family unit. Initial demand was met by scouring Pennysaver ads and estate sales, though Best Buy has since jumped on the new trend and is already stocking limited supplies of refurbished models sourced from Indonesia. Though no sales figures are available yet, as production facilities are still being ramped up to accommodate the new demand for analog sets, industry experts estimate that the number is around 10% of all sets in use, and skyrocketing upwards. Cathode ray tube television sets are making a roaring comeback as the preferred viewing device of millennials sick of high definition images with artistic color grading worthy of the most expensive Hollywood feature film. First it was vinyl that came back from the dead after seemingly disappearing for good, and now it’s television’s turn to have one of it’s former technologies find a whole new lease on life. ![]()
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