What are they?

CRT TVs, short for cathode ray tube televisions, work by firing electrons from an electron gun at a phosphorescent screen. Inside the tube, three electron beams (one each for red, green, and blue) are aimed at the screen's coating of phosphor dots. When these beams strike the screen, the phosphors light up, creating the images we see. The electron beams are controlled by magnetic fields which precisely steer them to hit the correct spots, thus forming pictures. The whole process happens incredibly fast, giving us the moving images that defined TV viewing for decades. (This explanation brought to you by chatgpt lol)

No one will ever have foreseen
The force of nature that you will be
When you look upon that TV screen...I said CRT!

Daniele63 has an amazing CRT simulator!

Shoutout to CRT Database. Incredible site with a wealth of info on most of the popular consumer sets.


Why do people like them in 2024?

First of all, shoutout to r/crtgaming. This sub randomly popped up in my feed one day and sent me down the rabbit hole. The beautiful pixel perfection, the sweet retro gaming setups, the nerding out over screen quality...it's a fun place. Be cautious if you're susceptible to silly new little hobbies, it's easy to get sucked in. You start with a random CRT and next thing you know, you got 4 in your house.

If you're at all tuned into the world, you should know that nostalgia is reall big right now. I mean, why wouldn't it be? In a world of political strife, global pandemics, ever increasing wealth inequality...ah, this isn't that sort of article. Well, let's just say that it's understandable that nostalgia is currently en vogue.

I believe that there are two primary groups of people that are currently after CRTs. Those who are in it for the nostalgia bait, and those who have always appreciated "retro" electronics. And in many cases, it's probably both. I know I fall into both of those camps. The technology is cool. They don't make them anymore. But there's still a valid reason - for me, a big one is watching older standard definition media (anime mostly) without any black bars like you'd get on a modern flat screen. I've always been bothered by letterboxing. Which seems like a silly thing to be bothered by, considering CRTs can be annoying in their own way.

Specifically, SD CRTs have that persistent high pitched whine since they run at 15 KHz. You can even see that noise on a spectrum analyzer. It can be loud! I'm in my 30s and I can still hear it really well. Some people compare it to tinnitus. Your brain tunes it out usually if you have audio playing, though. I took care of my hearing too much, I guess. It's not a deal breaker, though. If you have any childhood memories of being able to tell if the TV was turned on from rooms away, this is why.

Another reason people like CRTs is the incredible color! The blacks are deep, modern screens couldn't compare until recently with OLED technology. The colors also seem to be much better. Something about phosphors or electrons or something. Don't take my word for it, go get your own CRT and compare for yourself :)

Pics

Coming soon! My room is kinda messy right now.

I took some anime pictures on the Toshiba 27AF44 since I'm trying to sell it. Pics here! I'm pretty happy with these, it can be a bit tough to take pics of a CRT, you have to change a few settings like shutter speed to 1/60 (if NTSC) and ISO 100-400. On Android I have to go into pro mode to do that on the stock camera app.

Anime I have enjoyed on my CRT

Standard definition anime is the move on CRTs. It's honestly mind-blowing how much better it looks compared to a modern TV. No letterboxing and incredibly vibrant colors really breathes new life into the anime of yore.

I primarily watch shows and movies on my Sony Trinitron KV-27s42. Sony Trinitrons are very well regarded among the CRT fans. There's a whole part of this hobby that revolves around searching for specific models. Different inputs, styles, screen shapes, chassis brands, tube brands, screen sizes, service menu differences, moddability...there's a lot people take into consideration! If you want a well rounded TV, I recommend something with component inputs (the best quality SD cables). A curved screen is generally preferable over a flat one, as the flat screens have some funky geometry. Basically, they will look weird at the edges of the screen. Very noticeable in side scroller games. Both of my current CRTs are 27 inches. These are about the upper limit of what one person can reasonably carry on their own. These suckers are bulky. 27 inches tends to be around 100 pounds.

As for my particular TV, this is the first CRT I picked up. I use a Roku Express 3910 Plus to watch a lot of my shows. This is one of the few Roku models to still get the modern software updates while having composite cords. I find that Hulu has a lot of the classic anime in 4:3. I also have an old Sony DVD player. Surprisingly, there's some VHS enthusiasts among the CRT fans, but I am not one of them. Too bulky! Maybe I'd have some if I had a lot more space, but it's probably better that I don't. I saw a guy spend 600 bucks on a limited run anime OVA music video. More power to ya if ya got the disposable income.

  • Akira
    • Yeah, I had never seen this classic! Great friggin movie. So good on the CRT.
  • Dragonball Z Kai
    • Everybody loves DBZ!
  • Serial Experiments Lain
    • Great anime, only 13 episodes too.
  • Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
    • Pretty cool movie. I'm not a huge vampire fan overall but I enjoyed it. Recommended by my niece.
  • Yu Yu Hakusho
    • I missed this classic shonen when it aired. It's pretty short for a shonen - 112 episodes is very reasonable. I actually have it playing while I'm updating my site today! I love tournament arcs and Yu Yu Hakusho has 3 of 'em! I'm only on episode 14 right now, so just finished the first tournament. It's getting better and better. I actually switched to dub. My trainer pointed out that many of the dub voices were the same people from DBZ. So, the dub grew on me a lot and I decided to leave it there, making this one of very few shows I watch dubbed.
  • Monster
    • This one is kinda serious, so I haven't got very far on it. It usually does not match my mood when I'm watchin the CRT, but I know people like it a lot.
  • OG Naruto
    • Yep, original Naruto was broadcast in SD. That show went on quite a long time
  • Bleach
    • Another classic shonen I hadn't seen. I'm around 40 episodes in, it's alright. I like Chad.

I have lots more anime on my list, including but not limited to the below. If you think of any other ones I might enjoy, let me know! Specifically, looking for anything originally made or broadcasted in standard definition.

  • Ninja Scroll
  • Initial D
  • Berserk
  • Ruroni Kenshin
  • Inuyasha
  • Escaflowne
  • Cowbou Bebop
  • Gurren Lagan
  • Slayers
  • Trigun
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena
  • Outlaw Star
  • Great Teacher Onizuka
  • Cardcaptor Sakura
  • Sailor Moon
  • Ghost in the Shell
  • Record of Lodoss War
  • Magic Knight Rayearth
  • Bastard!!
  • Early Pokemon
  • Early Digimon
  • Early Yugioh
  • Ranma

Other shows I like on the CRT

There are many other classic shows besides anime! I picked up a bunch from my childhood. Mostly been on anime so far since I'm lazy and don't feel like switching discs, but I'll get around eventually. Though, some of these are on streaming

  • Spongebob (obvi)
  • Hey Arnold!
  • Ed, Edd, n Eddy
  • Samurai Jack
  • Courage the Cowardly Dog
  • Digimon: The Movie (and other Digimon, but esp the movie)
  • Dexter' Lab
  • Johnny Bravo
  • Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
  • Teen Titans (basically an anime tho
Retro gaming on the CRT

Retro gaming is obviously another huge draw with CRT tvs. Original hardware on a CRT is peak nostalgia! As for my set-up, I have 3 consoles in rotation.

I have my N64 plugged into the aforementioned Trinitron via S-video. That particular CRT is an older one and does not have component inputs. This is fine for the N64 which did not natively output component (I'm sure there's some aftermarket cables that do it). S-video is just fine for the N64. If we're being honest, this is mainly hooked up for Ogre Battle 64.

My other CRT tv is a Philips 27PT54-3S37A. This one has all of the inputs and excellent picture quality. I've tried around 7-8 different CRTs including 2 different Philips tvs, and both of them were the best for gaming. I actually just sold my other Philips because I needed the space. I feel these are a little bit slept on compared to the Sony Trinitrons that everyone wants, so they tend to be cheaper when you can find them with comparable quality. Highly recommend snagging one if you see it!

I have 2 consoles currently plugged into the Philips. The first is a fat PS2 that has been soft modded to run games off of a external hard drive. The PS2 has a huge library so there's no shortage of games to play with this alone. It's pretty easy to do if you have even a modicum of technical knowledge. Plenty of Youtube videos on modding it.

The other console is, believe it or not, a Wii. Would you believe if I told you this thing is an emulation beast? With the Wii, you get an easily modded system that can run the excellent Gamecube library, the smaller number of good Wii games, and you can actually load a ton of other emulators, too! The Wii can output native 240p, so anything from the 8 bit or 16 bit era work great. SNES runs like a dream, and GBA works well too. Need help emulating? Reach out to me! Maybe at some point I'll have a page with emulation guides.

I'll come back and do a list of games later. Mostly I've been playing the Dynasty Warriors games, specifically the 3-5 era (aka the best era) and Warriors Orochi 1 and 2. Also played an English translation of this really cool Japanese Wii game called Blades of Reginleiv. This game is made by the same studio as Earth Defense Force. Basically, it's fantasy styled EDF and it's fuckin' sick. You probably have caught on to the fact that I'm a huge fantasy fan by now. Discovering and playing this game as a result of my silly little CRT hobby honestly made it all worth it.

I've been playing Drakengard on PS2 and that game is actually amazing.

CRTs I've owned

Sony KV-27s42. The oldest set I've had, from the late 90s. Great picture though. Since it's missing component inputs, this is my normal Roku TV.

Philips 27PT54-3S37A. My current main gaming set. Beautiful picture, nicely curved screen. Phillips is king dude. If you see a Philips CRT on marketplace, grab that shit fast.

Toshiba 27AF44. I like Toshibas because you can figure out how many hours they've been on. This one had about 15k hours which is pretty good, you can get up to 30k. Sold and traded for a 14AF42.

Panasonic CT-27SL13MG. Not the exact linked model, but very close. I didn't care for this one even though it worked well.

Samsung TX20N. Picked this one up for free up in Greenville. It didn't even have full composite, only yellow and white inputs. I gave it away for free on FB marketplace.

RCA 27V530T. Found this one at a church sale. I like to test my CRTs against each other and this one was solid, but ultimately lost out to the Phillips. Was not able to find too much online about this model either.

Philips 27PT9015D/37. Another great set that ultimately was sitting in the closet unused. I just like the curved sets better than the flats. The way CRTs work just make the curved screens the preferable option for my eyes. Still my 3rd favorite set and whoever I sold it to got a great price. Half of what I paid for it lol. I like to pass it along. Sometimes I overpay, sometimes I get really good deals, so I like to pay it forward by offering good deals too. It went really fast, too. Sold same day!

Toshiba 14AF42. Acquired in a trade with the same guy who bought my flat Philips. He bought my 27AF44 and I bought this one from him. Over 32k hours on it but still very vibrant. Has all the inputs too which is super rare for a 14 inch. Has slight burn in but I think this will only gain value over time.