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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
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! 
clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 
Rudy, technology dies when it is ousted by better technology.
viz horse and cart vs car
     CRT vs flat screen
     VCR vs DVD
     bow and arrow vs rapid fire automatic rifle
     etc.

Valves and vinyl have not been driven from the market because there are no newer technologies that are clearly better.

See also:  oil painting on canvas, the violin, most other musical instruments.  After all the electric violin was consigned to Desolation Row.


tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 
Sound is created through mechanical actions, ie. vibrations. Audio begins with the microphone and ends with the speaker. Everything in between matters but is not seen. Same with video: it begins with light and ends with light. Everything in between matters but is unseen. Wow! Must have been that cheesecake last night.
tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 
My point is no matter the technological advances audio will always begin and end with electromechanical interfaces and video with electro optical. 
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