Should I pick up this Sony Trinitron?

[Black Tiger]

Looks like the set that I use. Playing 16-bit games on it looks and feels like a deluxe arcade cabinet.

You'll have to be strong and have someone else strong to help and plan out every maneuver beforehand, in order to get it into your place and to its resting spot. I wound up damaging the corner of the base by not setting it down perfectly. It'll also require a heavy duty TV stand made for crts.

Mine was free on the condition that I also take the matching stand.

If I knew beforehand how great it is, I'd gladly pay a lot for one.

[TheClash603]

I have my giant Trinitron on a plastic and plywood stand which is rated for 1/5 the weight of the set.  Underneath it I have the incredibly heavy Laseractive.  I sort of do it because I am curious if the LA will be able to handle the weight of the TV smashing through the stand, which it inevitably will.

As long as my arm isn't down there or I don't have 3D Virtual Australia in the LA when it happens, I welcome the excitement in my life.

[roflmao]

Lol @ Clash! It's too bad he never responded to you, mitsuman, but you should definitely keep an eye out for a CRT. Sonys are often considered the best (and they are definitely great CRTs!) but I also have JVC and Toshiba CRTs that I think look just as good as either of the WEGAs I've owned.

Keep an eye on the "Free" section of Craigslist - I'm sure you'll find one nearby soon. I gave away my 36" Sony WEGA before a move because it was so friggin' heavy, and I spent about a grand on it when I bought it new.

[crazydean]

As a piece of buying advice, I would recommend the 27" or 32" Trinitron over the 36". I made the mistake of getting a 36", and unless you want to have wireless controllers for your systems or controller extenders, you have to sit too close to the TV.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Some people need to overcompensate for their small penis with a large TV, I guess.

[Gypsy]

Lol @ Clash! It's too bad he never responded to you, mitsuman, but you should definitely keep an eye out for a CRT. Sonys are often considered the best (and they are definitely great CRTs!) but I also have JVC and Toshiba CRTs that I think look just as good as either of the WEGAs I've owned.

Keep an eye on the "Free" section of Craigslist - I'm sure you'll find one nearby soon. I gave away my 36" Sony WEGA before a move because it was so friggin' heavy, and I spent about a grand on it when I bought it new.

This is exactly how I got the main one I'm using now. Sony KV-XBR800. Of course it's and HD set, and extremely heavy. I picked up a 960 awhile back but mump me if I want to swap them out when the 800 is totally fine and the 960 is kinda meh on the geometry (can never be unseen).

If it's an RCA, sure. But I'd gladly pay for certain CRTs. No f*cking question. The good ones aren't always free and they aren't making any more of these. %90 of CRTs were shit just like %90 of LCDs are today. Quality varies greatly.

Lol RCA. I grew up with a shitty RCA set. It actually fell off of where it was sitting one time and hit me on the head, probably why I'm such a dumbass now LOL. Also thankfully it was an RCA piece of shit so it really wasn't all that heavy.

Anyway yeah, I'd pay for the right CRT as well. At this point though, I've been donating a lot of them (including some pretty good Sony sets) to the two thrifts here that will take them. I want to get down to just to two HD sets I mentioned earlier and the SD Sony set I have a bunch of stuff hooked up to and perhaps one SD back-up. Trying to find somewhere to take this other HD set might be tough.

[majors]

As a piece of buying advice, I would recommend the 27" or 32" Trinitron over the 36". I made the mistake of getting a 36"...

Plus the fact of moving it takes two ppl when you go above 32". I picked up a "free" 35" (KV-35S65) and if there is a house fire, it's gonna stay inside to melt...no way I can move that shit by myself. 13" and 20"s can be saved tho

[jperryss]

As a piece of buying advice, I would recommend the 27" or 32" Trinitron over the 36". I made the mistake of getting a 36"...

Plus the fact of moving it takes two ppl when you go above 32". I picked up a "free" 35" (KV-35S65) and if there is a house fire, it's gonna stay inside to melt...no way I can move that shit by myself. 13" and 20"s can be saved tho

Even a 32" Trinitron weighs 150+ lbs and can be dangerous to handle alone.

27" is fine unless you're sitting 10' away.

[gex]

As a piece of buying advice, I would recommend the 27" or 32" Trinitron over the 36". I made the mistake of getting a 36"

Interesting.. So you're recommending a smaller TV, because with the larger TV's you have to sit too far back for a clean picture?
Somehow i've never thought of that before being an issue. But now that you mention it, it completely make sense

[xelement5x]

As a piece of buying advice, I would recommend the 27" or 32" Trinitron over the 36". I made the mistake of getting a 36"...

Plus the fact of moving it takes two ppl when you go above 32". I picked up a "free" 35" (KV-35S65) and if there is a house fire, it's gonna stay inside to melt...no way I can move that shit by myself. 13" and 20"s can be saved tho

Even a 32" Trinitron weighs 150+ lbs and can be dangerous to handle alone.

27" is fine unless you're sitting 10' away.

Yeah, I have to agree there.  I was using a 27" Trinitron before I switched to the a professional display that's about the same size and anything larger than that would be hard to deal with personally.  For where I sit the 27-29" is the sweet spot.

[johnnykonami]

Seems like the Toshiba CRT I bought a few months ago is going up already, it's spitting out weird pink and yellow discolorations now.  To make matters worse, I found a month old listing on Craigslist for a 20" Sony PVM (which is only the 2nd pvm I've seen listed in my area ever), so I e-mailed the guy with hopes he might still have it.  Of course, I missed the boat.  So I guess it's back to the grind on finding a working display to play games on.

I wanted to go to some retro game cons soon anyway, but maybe I'll have to find a PVM seller there.  If only there were more events happening around Baltimore!

[SignOfZeta]

I think you're about a million times more likely to find a good deal on a PVM in Baltimore in general than you would be at some con.

Do remember that these were not designed for gaming, they were expensive pro gear. The bigger your city the better your odds at getting one. Rual America is Poor America. Maybe a Christian TV station, that's about. In the city you have duplication houses, network affiliates, production, FX, etc.

Also, these things sat around for a decade or two before you started looking for them. Don't get discouraged just because nothing turned up in the extremely brief span of time you've been looking.

Btw, I got a free 20" Toshiba today. Flat tube. It even has more than one component in. This should do until I get my JVC pro monitor back up and running.

[Gypsy]

Btw, I got a free 20" Toshiba today. Flat tube. It even has more than one component in. This should do until I get my JVC pro monitor back up and running.

Nice.

Oh and yeah it's easy to miss shit on CL. You can go months without finding anything interesting and then something pops up and you miss it. There was an ad for a sale near me with a bunch of old professional equipment, I got lazy so I ended up missing it. Not that I really NEED any of the shit listed.

There is actually an HD broadcast monitor up on my CL right now asking $300. Not anything I'm particularly looking for but it was cool to see.

[Winniez]

I don't know about the US but in Europe I think 90% of the time you are better off buying a good CRT TV than a PVM. CRT on average has way more life left in it (atleast without adjustements/repairs), supports 60hz, RGB, SCART, S-video, multiple inputs, is bigger, has integrated speakers etc. In my experience Sony Trinitrons and Panasonics are the best bet. For me the sweet spot is mid to late 90s, before the flatscreen and widescreen. And screen size between 25-28 inches.

[SignOfZeta]

This depends entirely on the owner. PVMs are rated for thousands of hours of use, many have hour counters. If it was a 24/7 live TV station then they probably wear the things out a lot. If it was used for other things, medical stuff, running the DVD recorder, etc it may have almost no time on it.

Similarly, lots of people buy a TV, set it to Fox News, and put it to the road 6 years later when it blows up, never once giving it a break.

[Gypsy]

It's also possible that a pvm has had things replaced/serviced, with a note on the last time it happened. Seen that before. If it was fully serviced and then not used a ton after, it would be good to go you'd figure.

Also yeah I took a free SD CRT awhile back and the volume had been jacked to max and the setting were shit. Had been running probably just about nonstop if I had to guess. I ended up donating it.