Will FLAT screen TV's spell the end for consul TV's?

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

Just as the color TV ended black and white TV's and remote controlled tv ended the dial for all time...is it possible that consul tv's with the huge picture tube in the back will cease to be produced?

FWIW I hope to have a flat screen TV someday too when the prices come down.

 

[Squiggy]

I didn't know they still were being produced.

 

[TerriO]

I'm sure they're like VCRs, you can still find them, but it takes some serious looking.

 

[Johnny Rico]

Mutara Nebula 1967 said:
Just as the color TV ended black and white TV's and remote controlled tv ended the dial for all time...is it possible that consul tv's with the huge picture tube in the back will cease to be produced?

FWIW I hope to have a flat screen TV someday too when the prices come down.

The prices have come down. Just pick one particular model...any one you like...and follow its price over a particular period of time. Even for just 6 months, or so...you'll be surprised how how fast the prices drop.

But you have to take these prices into context. Gone are the days where you can buy a "top of the line" TV of any given size for a couple hundred dollars. With the HDTV technology that is constantly changing and improving, you're always looking at roughly $1000 for a TV now...give or take a couple hundred or so.


But to answer your main question, YES, because as the prices do come down, more and more people can afford a flat PANEL TV. The terms flat screen and flat panel mean entirely two different things. Flat screen just means that the picture tube is flat on the front, instead of being rounded like the old TVs used to be.. Flat panel means that the screen has no picture tube behind the front screen.

Now then, as I was saying...more and more people are being able to buy one, mainly duer to the fact that it seems that stores aren't even stocking normal CRT-type TVs anymore. Why? Because in just 14 months, the FCC is requiring all TV stations to switch to all digital broadcasts, and for the most part CRTs aren't equiped with an ATSC tuner.

 

[Deleted 2]

Does anyone remember dot matrix printers? The ones that made a hellish racket to print low-res pictures on chain paper?

You can still buy them new, with prices starting from $500, because they do have some advantages over newer inkjet and laser printers, for some purposes.

CRTs also have advantages over flat panel tvs. Color quality is infinitely better, display resolution is much, much higher. So I'm sure they'll continue to be produced for industries that need to have the best picture quality.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Squiggyfm said:
I didn't know they still were being produced.

I don't know about that, but nobody is actually *selling* them anymore. Every store in my city has abandoned CRT TVs completely in favor of flatscreen models.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

There are still some CRT based TVs being produced, but the flow is slowing as LCD and Plasma display production cost continues to drop.

In addition to better resolution (cheap TV CRTs generally can't do much more that 480 horizontal lines, HD goes up to 1080), there's also much less power used as the CRT is a vacuum tube that requires a pretty hefty electric heater (the filament.. anyone else rember waiting for TVs to warm up when all the internals were tubes??) to let those electrons fly.

Dot matrix printer technology is still around also for multi-part forms and the like. If you want loud though, try a daisy wheel. LOL

 

[Deleted 2]

Alpha_Geek said:
In addition to better resolution (cheap TV CRTs generally can't do much more that 480 horizontal lines, HD goes up to 1080),

Of course, that's not a limitation of the technology. If I were to make an LCD screen with only 480 horizontal lines, it would be limited in the same way.

In fact, CRTs can display far, far higher resolutions on far smaller screens than LCD can.

 

[Arrqh]

Zero Hour said:
In fact, CRTs can display far, far higher resolutions on far smaller screens than LCD can.

Not to mention that CRTs are much better at displaying multiple resolutions without the need to upscale an image.

 

[Johnny Rico]

Zero Hour said:

Alpha_Geek said:
In addition to better resolution (cheap TV CRTs generally can't do much more that 480 horizontal lines, HD goes up to 1080),

Of course, that's not a limitation of the technology. If I were to make an LCD screen with only 480 horizontal lines, it would be limited in the same way.

In fact, CRTs can display far, far higher resolutions on far smaller screens than LCD can.

Are we talkin' computer monitors or TVs here?

Because, yes...a computer monitor is capable of displaying many different and high resolutions, but I'm afraid a regular TV is only capable of displaying 480i. Yes, you can pipe a higher-res PC output to it via composite connections, but all you're getting is its interpretation of that high-res signal in 480i.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

I meant that HD signals go up to 1080. We're talkin' TV.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Johnny Rico said:

Zero Hour said:

Alpha_Geek said:
In addition to better resolution (cheap TV CRTs generally can't do much more that 480 horizontal lines, HD goes up to 1080),

Of course, that's not a limitation of the technology. If I were to make an LCD screen with only 480 horizontal lines, it would be limited in the same way.

In fact, CRTs can display far, far higher resolutions on far smaller screens than LCD can.

Are we talkin' computer monitors or TVs here?

Because, yes...a computer monitor is capable of displaying many different and high resolutions, but I'm afraid a regular TV is only capable of displaying 480i. Yes, you can pipe a higher-res PC output to it via composite connections, but all you're getting is its interpretation of that high-res signal in 480i.

You're both right. There's no technical difference between a computer CRT and a TV CRT, other than it's ability to accept a particular type of (analog) signal. TV's only accept 480 because they are designed that way, but it's not a limitation of being CRT.

Standard Definition signals were a fixed and convenient standard for years, and TV's were built to that standard. CRT TV's could have built larger and built to accept something resembling HD, but there was no call for it, a 40" CRT wouldn't fit well in most homes so there was no call for a higher definition signal.

 

[Bellerophon]

Don't think that there aren't HD CRT televsion sets out there. They're rare, but they've been on the market.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Bellerophon said:
Don't think that there aren't HD CRT televsion sets out there. They're rare, but they've been on the market.

And they're about the size of Sherman tanks, to boot.

 

[Mike Farley]

Where do you people live that you can't find CRT TVs? They're still available pretty much everywhere that sells TVs, Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Walmart, ect...

At Best Buy they've been shifted off to the side because they're trying to sell the more expensive home theater stuff, but there are still quite a few.

At "normal" stores like Target and Walmart the CRTs still outnumber the flatscreens.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Mike Farley,

Sure they're still around, but the bulk of manufacturing is sliding towards LCD and Plasma technology.

With both HD signals and LCD/Plasma tech, we're about the same place we were when color TV was in its infancy and preparing to come of age. Color sets were quite expensive initially, because there were so few being manufactured. As industry ramped up, price dropped, consumers wanted it even more as it became affordable, and it snowballed.

Sure CRTs will be around for a bit longer, but in 5 years from now (maybe less, depends on how many CRT manufacturers still want to play after feb 2009), they'll be about as easy to find as a 19" black and white TV is today.

This is in the US, anyway... dunno what other countries plans for digital or HD service is since I don't work for a TV station anyplace else.

AG

 

[Deleted 2]

Babaganoosh said:

Bellerophon said:
Don't think that there aren't HD CRT televsion sets out there. They're rare, but they've been on the market.

And they're about the size of Sherman tanks, to boot.

Actually, that's the great thing about CRTs; they don't need to be. It's LCD and Plasma that can only achieve a rather limited pixel density.

 

[Johnny Rico]

Well, I'll relate my next opinion with a little story.

My dad has this long-time friend who used to be his boss back in the '70s, and their old TV konked out recently. So of course they were looking for a replacement. Now also keep in mind that he's in his 70s, but with a live-in daughter who's in her 40s who works for the same agency that both her dad and my dad did.

So since I and my aunt/uncle both have HDTVs, me with a SHARP AQUOS as my aunt/uncle with a Sony SXRD, they were asking me what they should get. So of course I recommended one like mine, which now sells for about $1300, and I tell them that they'll need HDMI cables and the like.

So they go out shopping for a TV. Apparently the daughter found one similar to mine. But in a twist of fate, the father went against the daughter and the wife and bought a regular SD CRT TV for $300. My dad thinks he didn't wanna pay extra for the HD service from D*. Of course the wife and daughter were pissed. I guess I should have told them that that anything less than a HD set by Feb. '09 would be more or less obsolete.

So they do still sell CRTs, but I wouldn't buy one today for any reason. At least not a SD version. A small HD version might work.

 

[Deleted 2]

Johnny Rico said:
I guess I should have told them that that anything less than a HD set by Feb. '09 would be more or less obsolete.

Eh, surely there'll be set-top boxes to decode and downsample the digital signal. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Mike Farley said:
Where do you people live that you can't find CRT TVs? They're still available pretty much everywhere that sells TVs, Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Walmart, ect...

None of those places sell CRT anything, in this area. It's all flatscreen.