Them TRINITRONS!

[weirdlookinguy]

I found this little gem on the sidewalk a few days ago:



1992 20" Trinitron

The "Timer" LED would light upon plugging it in, but that was it. It needed resoldering of the Flyback and the entire Horizontal section and a 22uf 250v cap in the power supply replaced (before replacing the cap, the TV would buzz like crazy and refuse to turn on).



This thing has a BANGIN picture! Shiiit!!! It kicks the shit out of my old JVC TV. I've also had yet to find a CRT TV that didn't lose detail in the darker areas of the picture... except for this little Trinitron.



CRT at its best IMO.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

Haven't found a broken CRT I couldn't save yet. Except for an RCA 36" beast I had to junk it and didn't fix it because it was just too dang big to move.

Every room of my house has one a TV as a result though .

I love how people junk their CRTs for flat panels that will just die in 3 years because of bad caps .

[PlainBill]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

Haven't found a broken CRT I couldn't save yet. Except for an RCA 36" beast I had to junk it and didn't fix it because it was just too dang big to move.

Every room of my house has one a TV as a result though .

I love how people junk their CRTs for flat panels that will just die in 3 years because of bad caps .

Yeah, but you can fix the flat panel in half an hour for $10 worth of GOOD caps.

PlainBill

[kc8adu]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

just fixed a 7" sony from the 70's.runs from 12vdc.
10 minutes with a can of deoxit.crt still like new.you can crank it up till it hurts your eyes to look at it and its still sharp.
makes my neighbors new funai look like the pile of shit it is!

[Wizard]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

Eventually CRT gets you in the end thanks to Sony's design of automatic Kine adjustment is destructive to gun assembly life. We lost our 27" Sony to this just normal run of mill KV-27Sxx or something similar in late 1990's. Even I had it adjusted lower setting did not save it.

I see similar issues in other sets as well that implements automatic kine adjustment, most ESPECIALLY with too high brightness/contrast by default.

Cheers, Wizard

[370forlife]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

Wonder why my 1998 phillips/magnavox has a better picture and gets stronger signals than our 2005 sony.

Are phillips/magnavox's good? For a 1998 27" it sure has a sharp picture and even good sound. Other channels that come in fuzzy on any other tv come in fine on mine, and the cable jack from the wall is all jacked up too.

[Wizard]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

Sony's tuners excellent at pulling in faint signals and clean up noise (analog way) far better.

Cheers, Wizard

[370forlife]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

Kind of seems its the opposite way for me. If the sony is on tv/video mode and pulling the satellite through the wall, its fuzzy. Switch to video 1 (directly from satellite box through RCA cables,) and it looks fine. All other tv's in the house on satellite pulling though the house is also fuzzy except mine. All the other tv's are newer sony's.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

I had a 27" Magnavox up until 2003 when the vertical deflection went out my family junked it. Back then I thought it was the tube and agreed to junk it. I can't believe I thought something so stupid.

It was a nice set it was purchased from the short lived Incredible Universe in 97 or 98 can't remember.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

+1 for Sony's tuners. On my JVC CRT that I had before I found this Sony, the picture was kinda grainy (cable quality in my room sucks), on my new Trinitron it looks a lot less grainy.

Man they don't make them like they used to. The picture tube was made in USA on my Trinitron, probably either at their Pennsylvania plant or at the San Diego plant 25 minutes from my house (which closed in 2006). Sad to think all this stuff is mass manufactured by faceless companies churning out shit by the shipping container in China now.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

I have so many splits in my house I need cable amplifiers on both floors no grainy analog signals on my TVs. Not to mention my digital box couldn't take the splits either.

The Electroline Dropamps (one 4 port model on each floor) are the best out there IMO. Fully waterproof so they can be put outside with coax feeding the power into them. They're not cheap but worth it. I took some pics inside for another forum. You can definitely see alot of planning went into these.

[kc8adu]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

a poorly performing sony tuner likely has bad board grounds and other bad soldering issues.same with the i.f block.

[Wizard]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

Done many of those Sony tuning issues repairs.

IF box went away around 1994 or so. Now just one long tuner with so many pins than typical tuners out there.

PS: watch out for solder joints in the horizontal section (base transformer driver solder joints is first to go) and vertical section, also vertical pump capacitor.
Once that happens, and if right conditions, this will take out the SMPS.

Cheers, Wizard

[momaka]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

I love how people junk their CRTs for flat panels that will just die in 3 years because of bad caps .

That would be my parents - they just got a new LCD TV "because it's so much better". The only thing I can see that is better is that the picture is big. Other than that, not much. It's one of the more expensive Sony models, so let's hope it will make it well past its 3 year warranty (ironic Sony gave it 3 years, isn't it... probably just enough before the caps roast).
We still haven't hooked it up to an HD signal so I can't say how sharp the picture is. But honestly, though, I think the colors are nowhere near as good as CRT. The old 27"(?) Panasonic CRT we had has much better colors (speaking of which, they want me to get rid of that old TV. Anyone interested in a 27" Panasonic CRT? Not sure what year, but it's either late 90's or early 00's).

As for Trinitrons, I really like their older computer monitors. I have a Dell re-branded Trinitron. Picture and colors are amazing, even though that monitor is from 1997. If it wasn't for the slow warm up time and high-pitched noises at anything over 60Hz, I'd use it as my main monitor.
My SyncMaster 955DF on the other hand, has pretty crappy colors for a CRT. Almost comparable to LCD.

[Maxxarcade]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

I love the older Sony's, but I started running into too many weak CRT's in the late 90's, especially the 32" and 35" sets. They have a great picture when the CRT is good though. In fact, I used only Sony monitors for years until I got a 24" LCD. Ironically I'm already tired of the LCD after a year, and want to upgrade to a 30" S-IPS panel.

[i4004]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

>I see similar issues in other sets as well that implements automatic kine adjustment, most ESPECIALLY with too high brightness/contrast by default.

tube quality deteriorated rapidly in last decade...
coupled with those high contrast presets etc. it made crts don't last long.

also cheap chinese tvs don't even adjust white and black points in the factotry, and that makes user go overboard with bright./contrast and only makes things worse(ie shorter living crts)

>I've also had yet to find a CRT TV that didn't lose detail in the darker areas of the picture...

crts don't really have that problem if properly adjusted.
(people tend do increase contrast too much and that pushes near-black to become full-black)
many lcds do have that issue and it's can't really be adjusted...

[seanc]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

Our 6 year old 32" Sony is starting to get fuzzy in the top right and bottom left corner.
Bottom left has a slightly discolored patch caused by a speaker.

Our old 21" Sony lasted about 13 years, it too got fuzzy in the corners, then the flyback transformer stopped working.

What do you think, indicative of failure soon?

[i4004]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

it's always harder to get focus on the edges(esp. with big tubes), and worn electron guns don't help.

but that fuziness doesn't need to indicate anything: i have sony tv it's been partially blurred(yes, esp. on edges) for past few years, still works.
http://picasaweb.google.hr/i4004b3/S...isConvergence#

if i was to put new flyback, it wouldn't help it, because new flyback won't help the old guns.

[kc8adu]

Re: Them TRINITRONS!

or the df is not working.