The lone conventional television set at Anderson's TV store sat along a side wall like a castoff. Its screen was dark as dozens of other gleaming flat-panel and big-screen models flashed nearby with vivid color images.
The staff at the Redwood City store hadn't even bothered to turn on the cathode-ray tube TV until a reporter asked to see it on a recent afternoon.
The obvious neglect reflected the wallflower status of today's CRT TVs, as well as the mature technology's doomed future. Experts say the old-fashioned boob tube that catered to generations of Americans will soon be all but extinct.
"It's already dead, but it doesn't know it yet," said Jon Paul Belstler, an audio/video consultant at Anderson's. "It's just trying to hang on."
Across stores and in homes, sleek LCD and plasma televisions are taking over.
In North America, sales of the bulky traditional TVs are in steep decline.
Retailers expect little to no demand for CRTs by 2009, partly because of a government-imposed deadline requiring television broadcasts nationwide to switch to all-digital by February of that year.
Industry observers predict many consumers will have purchased a digital TV by then.
Digital CRT sets sold today are capable of handling high-definition TV, and video experts say CRT technology still represents the gold standard in picture quality with the deepest blacks and best color accuracy.
But the performance of LCD and plasma displays have improved dramatically in just the past two years, making the differences in picture quality insignificant to all but discerning videophiles.
Major TV makers like Sony Corp and LG Electronics Co. have been steadily reducing their CRT shipments to focus on what will soon be the larger flat-panel TV market.
LG, in fact, had followed Samsung in creating slimmer versions of CRTs two years ago but is no longer pushing the technology. Only two CRT models remain in LG's lineup of 50 televisions this year, spokesman John Taylor said.
"We saw the writing on the wall years ago, and flat panels have taken off much faster than a lot of people have expected," Taylor said.
Circuit City Stores Inc., the nation's second-largest electronics retailer, plans to have very few CRT models in its stores by the end of 2007.
No. 1 electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. hasn't declared a blackout on CRTs but is steadily devoting less retail space because more consumers are looking for flat panels.
"The CRT has served us well for many many years — since the early 1930s into the golden age of television and the advent of color in the 60s," said LG's Taylor. "The longevity of that technology is probably second to none in our industry, but time marches on, and flat panels have really captured the enthusiasm of the American public."
I've got a 32" Sony Trinitron. It weighs 145 lbs. I hate moving that heavy sumbitch. I'll use it for another year or two (maybe), and then replace it with an LCD. They aren't going to do anything but get better and cheaper.
One advantage of LCDs that nobody mentions is the lack of the high voltage CRT power supply. Every so often, I still hear about fires caused by televisions. LCDs won't have that problem. Not sure about Plasma.
I like my 36' Wega, but don't like how frickkin' HEAVY it is.
Dude I have 40' wega and i live up one flight of stair then put it in my bed room up one more flight of stairs. I know full well how extra heavy wegas are.
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04:14 PM
tutnkmn Member
Posts: 3426 From: York, England, U.K. Living in Ohio Registered: May 2006
A friend of mine needed a cheap monitor the other day. We went to Wal-Mart and they only sold ONE monitor in CRT, a 17 inch KDS for $72.00 (this was of course after telling the clerk what CRT meant). The clerk said it was the only CRT monitor they now sold, everything else was flat screen stuff.
Bye bye CRT.
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04:22 PM
Patrick Member
Posts: 38691 From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Registered: Apr 99
I got a beautiful 17" Viewsonic PS775 CRT monitor at Value Village (thriftstore) for $9.99 recently to replace my old, failing monitor. I'm delighted that people are getting rid of their perfectly good CRT monitors to jump on the LCD bandwagon.
My '87 RCA 26" , '90 RCA 20" , and my '97 IBM 16" CRT are doing just fine Although is the digital signal thing the reason I can't read some small text on certain channels?
I am one of the few people in my area who is still qualified to adjust the geometry and convergence on crt displays. While in some ways the good ol crt is still superior to the newer formats, I like the rapidity that the solid state displays can be installed and adjusted. Having to realign a crt projector every 6 to 12 months gets old really fast.
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05:14 PM
ig88vsbobafett Member
Posts: 3446 From: Cheyenne Wyoming Registered: Oct 2001
We have about 90 (no exageration) old 15 inch CRT monitors in the basement bought from eBay about three years ago for $35.00. We will be selling most of them at a charity auction in the spring.
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06:32 PM
cccharlie Member
Posts: 2006 From: North Smithfield, RI Registered: Jan 2003
I love my LCD monitor because it takes up less space on my desk.
I am perfectly happy with my 27" CRT television however. I have no plans to replace it anytime soon. Its no thicker than the entertainment center it sits in, so a replacement wouldnt save any significant space.
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07:47 PM
Jax184 Member
Posts: 3524 From: Vancouver, Canada Registered: Jun 2005
I'm kinda looking for a new computer monitor, so I'm all too aware of how hard it is to get a CRT. I really hate the look of an LCD. The lack of resolution flexability is a pain when I work with older equipment, etc. Anyone know of a professional quality CRT on the market instead of a value heap?
I'm reading this on one LCD while watching TV on the other LCD connected to my computer. I hardly ever turn on the TV any more.
CRT is dead for several reasons. Besides the obvious bulk of them, they use a huge amount of power and only eat more as they get bigger. While that is true of LCD and others, they start off and stay much lower and get lower all the time.
Even backlight failure with LCD and related is going to get lower and lower soon as they change from gas tubes to LED backlights. Then there are OLEDs in the work that have no backlight...
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurasic Park)
My 19" widescreen LCD monitor uses half as much power as the 19" CRT that it replaced... and weighs about 1/4 as much.
Imagine how much less fuel is being used (by the power companies) with the widespread use of LCD screens. Not only that, but since the LCD monitors are less bulky, it takes less raw material to build them.
I'm glad the CRTs are dying off. Sure I like how I could hit resolutions of 1600x1200 and higher, but the damned CRTs are so heavy and inefficient. Plus, my ancient 19" Dell Trinitron never got the colors right. When I got my 19" LCD I noticed that no matter what I did, the colors on my CRT were yellow-tinged. The LCD has true color to it, and it always adjusts itself correctly. Not to mention its also much easier looking at the flat thing when I walk around my desk.
CRTs have better picture quality than LCDs or Plasmas? I don't think so. It may be because all our CRTs here were made in the 90's or earlier (and the LCDs are new), but the CRTs do not have the right colors, as good sharpness, or anything else when compared with the LCDs.
That said, our current TV's are from the 80's. We have some ancient Sony 25" thing in the kitchen that doesn't even tune in channels (gotta use a VCR to tune channels) that was made in like 1988, and a Mitsubishi 32" in the living room that was made in 1985. Rather than play PS2 or Xbox on them (you can't see worth **** on those TVs, they're not that sharp), I got a little box that allows me to play xbox and ps2 on my LCD at my computer desk. The experience is SO much better.
I have no plans to upgrade it or my TV.
