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Why are there no tube televisions anymore?

It’s funny when you come to think of it and compare video with audio. How come in the audio world discussions sometimes become intense, while there seem to be far less intense discussions in the TV & video realm?

With TV’s there’s no talk on tubes, transistors, analog, digital, vinyl, cables, power cords, heck we can even get ’audio’ fuses and -USB cables.

No one has a tube TV (while they really have a ’warmer’ image :) and very few people use a $400 power cord with their TV set. And while there are expensive HDMI cables on the market, the vast majority uses one below $50. And no one spends money on floor spacers to avoid cable vibrations.

Our eyes may even be far more sensitive than our ears ... yet discussions are far less intense. How come?


rudyb
rixthetrick's avatar
rixthetrick
1,060 posts
 
Well, it's just a matter of time, as technology progresses.
For example Alienware 27 Gaming Monitor (AW2721D)
a 27' 2560x1440 IPS gaming monitor with... oh yeah, this is impressive
240Hz.


tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 
Remember the Quasar, "works in a drawer" TV's?  They had a literal slide out cabinet with the circuit boards in a row like files.  I recall reliability was poor due to the bad connectors at the base of the boards.  So ironically, easy to work on which was good since they needed servicing often.  The good old days- AM tube radios, car tires that lasted 5000 miles, oil changes every 1500-3000 miles, carburetors (good luck starting on cold mornings) but also we had soda fountains, juke boxes and roller skating rinks.  Real movie theaters...
tim_p's avatar
tim_p
361 posts
 
I had one of the last widescreen 16:9 tube tv’s back in 2001, the Toshiba 34HF81, beautiful TV, even supported a Klipsch KLFC7 centre on top. Along with those huge projector box tv’s, and the lcd/plasma. That was my last tube TV, the next plunge was probably the best, in the Pioneer Kuro plasma at that time, blacks were a "true" black. Now using the last of the plasmas made in the Panasonic 65VT60 and still love it.
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,724 posts
 
The most entertaining thing to do with an old CRT was to toss it off a bridge.....sans chassis, of course.

Best variant of that was the Ant Farm car crashing into a wall of CRTs', but I'm just languishing in an old fit of Creative Destruction.

Progress on many levels is a Good Thing, to paraphrase The Martha....a CRT VR headset would not only be heavy, hot, wayyyy too much voltage wayyy too close to ones' face....and look like an alien mind control experiment done 'retro-punk' by Spock in a drunken state....
larsman's avatar
larsman
2,008 posts
 
@tim_p - I had one of those Pioneer Kuro plasmas, too; it was wonderful and yes, those were about as 'true' blacks as you could get at that time... Now I use TOTL Sony OLED, and yeah, it's even blacker! 
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