Dealing with CRT's beyond 2020

[voltz]

I made a prediction that by this point crt's are going to become so scarce that it'll be insanely difficult to find a working display in good quality.  Sellers and dealers will no doubt be price gouging knowing what they're valued for, but also for those who can't afford them may lead to having a negative impact on their hobby.  I'm wondering what you guys think of this situation and do you believe retro gaming will be capable of surviving the outcome?

[vwalbridge]

We are already living this problem right now....let alone the year 2020. The lack of CRTs is one of the main reasons arcade cost have been driven up lately. Simple "supply vs demand" model.

One thing is for certain, nobody is going to ever start making CRTs again. Even if they could get past the environmental red tape, they could never turn a profit on something so heavy to ship. To a niche market no less.

Damn near everything on an average arcade machine can be reproduced to some satisfactory extent...except the CRT. (One could also argue the PCB itself)

Prices can only go so high before most average Joes just say "F it"...the price ain't worth it anymore.

The hobby will no doubt live on...just without CRT and hopefully really, really, good HLSL/emulation as a substitute.

[harveybirdman]

Hoard now, laugh later.

[Thenasty]

Maybe it's time to let this go 

so who wants to give $500.00 ea of my WG 7200 CRT monitors  (I have 2 hardly used, looks spanking new).


PS.. in 2020, price will be a bit higher 

[CheffoJeffo]

Not much of a prediction. 

I haven't seen new 19" arcade monitors for sale in many years. Then the 25" (and 24.8") dropped off. I have a stack of old 19" in vary stages of functioning and made sure that I picked up a tube rejuvenator when I had the chance. If I come across a deal for a nice low-burn tube or monitor, I grab it and put it on the pile.

But ... there comes a point where it just isn't worth the trouble. I recently pulled a flaky WG4900 from my MultiWilliams to work on it. After a bit of troubleshooting, I was at an impasse. Pulled a spare VGA LCD out, wired a VGA plug to the MW board and everything works. It's a little strange looking in the midst of all of the CRTs, but took less than 10 minutes and nobody other than me cares.

As far as the PCBs go ... not such an issue and for more popular options, there are accurate replacements (e.g. jrok's MW board).

[voltz]

The hobby will no doubt live on...just without CRT and hopefully really, really, good HLSL/emulation as a substitute.

HLSL.....

So for those who stick to original hardware,  how are we supposed to manage on that end exactly?

Plus theres something else I've been worried about when it comes to how we need inputs that accept 15khz as I think that is on the way out as well.  My guess for those without the direct RGB, we're going to need some type of 15-31khz converter per display, so this steps even further away from what was intended originally.

[CheffoJeffo]

So for those who stick to original hardware,  How are we supposed to manage on that end?

Steal CRTs from old school MAMErs.

[Token]

One thing is for certain, nobody is going to ever start making CRTs again. Even if they could get past the environmental red tape, they could never turn a profit on something so heavy to ship. To a niche market no less.

I know we are talking about CRT monitors here, but CRT TVs are still being made and sold to the billion-strong tin-shack market.

[Howard_Casto]

It's not as strong a market as you think.  It's getting to the point to where a largish lcd can be sold cheaper than a crt tv and crts these days cost practically nothing. 

I think the main thing to understand is that other than the purists, which is a very small group, nobody really cares that crts are going away.  With a simple converter box you can run arcade pcbs on a lcd and while they don't look the same, it's still a good picture.  Right now you can make impressive post-processing effects on the same converter box....eventually there is going to be a converter that emulates the look of a crt so well you won't be able to tell the difference. 

If you are looking to keep using crts though, my suggestion is this...... start buying used ones now.  The tubes on these monitors are incredibly resilient.... we've got 35-40 year old games running on the original tube.  The only thing that goes bad are the caps and that's an easy fix. 

TVs are the things that I worry about.  Lightguns don't work without them and without expensive converters 240p (which was a popular gaming resolution) has various issues with modern displays.  The lightgun issue is NEVER going to be fixed.  The thing is though, right now people just want to get rid of the 'junk' crts.  I'm holding out for a nice broadcast monitor with all the fancy rgb hookups.  Eventually those are going to be given away for virtually nothing.

[vwalbridge]

One thing is for certain, nobody is going to ever start making CRTs again. Even if they could get past the environmental red tape, they could never turn a profit on something so heavy to ship. To a niche market no less.

I know we are talking about CRT monitors here, but CRT TVs are still being made and sold to the billion-strong tin-shack market.

Cool, I only need to contact the supplier and place a minimum order of 600!

[harveybirdman]

Dude GROUP BUY!!!!

lolz

[voltz]

Wow.

Someone actually managed to be worse then HAPP in this regard.