"Philips/Valvo". I heard that the '70's one lasted 20-30 yrs.
I heared that "Sony" <<Trinitron>> picture tubes had problems in the '80's. But in the '90's they where good. I've seen some 1990-1994 "Sony" tv's still in use.
I think "Hitachi" made good pictures tube too. I have an "Hitachi" tv made in september of 1988, the picture tube is weak, but still working.

That the tube was simple to converge would make sense, since they probably cherry picked the best of the best tubes to meet whatever specs that the military set for these.

Most of the setup procedures and issues with color tubes is based on manufacturing tolerances. If it were only possible to re-jig these once they were under vacuum.

CRT screen was made by Mitsubishi also. Mitsubishi made everything. Mitsubishi was the most reliable TV brand during the early 80s, according to the vintage Consumer Reports. It stopped becoming #1 beginning in 1986, and the new #1 was awarded to Panasonic, which it retained its #1, most reliable rating for 15 consecutive years, until it was dethroned by Sanyo beginning in 2001.

For modern, new sets, the best picture would be the Sony KD-34XBR960. It's HD and the last Sony set with its super fine pitch tube.

The Philips 20AX Inline CRT made from 1974 to about 1980 is one of the best color CRTs ever made,

I once had some old scrapped railway station monitors fitted with 20AX CRTs, they worked 24/7 for 25+ years, the screens were horribly burnt by the static characters yet the guns still had plenty of emissions left.

Trinitrons CRTs are rarely durable, i've seen many weak trinitrons from any decade, the only ones that seems to hold up pretty good are the small early 70s ones.

Early 80s Hitachis were the worst crap of their days IMHO!!

i failed the mention the silvertone tube from the late 60s early 70s.they had a nice look to them.maybe rcs clones but something was different.i also like the philco hybrid crts.certain admirals looked nice too.in the mid to late 90s i saw some daewoo sets that had a fine picture.but my favorite will always be the sylvania 25vdmp22 and the 25vamp22

Who remembers the Sharp Linytron? I recall first seeing them branded as a Sears model. They were Sharp's response to the Trinitron as they both featured vertical RGB lines in lieu of triads.

Actually, I was just given a '90 BPC 13" Sharp Linytron. I think the Sharp Linytron came out ni the mid '70's and some of those sets carried the Truetone (Western Auto) and Airline (Wards) brand names. To me, the '70's and early '80's Sharps had the best picture. I remember seeing some 25" and 27" Sharp TV's from the late '80's-early '90's that looked horrible, even when they were fairly new. I don't think the Linytron tube was anything special since they appear to be the same as any other inline tube from the '70's and '80's.

Found an interesting online article from a 1974 issue of Popular Mechanics on the state of the art of CRTs here: CLICK

The main differences (as I understand them) between the Trinitron and Linytron is that the former had a slotted mask which had continuous slots while the latter had slots that were separated in sections.

The article also mentions the Panasonic Quintrix system which had a round dot matrix but used an extra focusing grid.

The Linytron, like other sets, had a self-supporting mask. The Trinitron mask consisted of wires under tension, supported by a heavy frame.

I have never seen anything special about the linytron CRT. Thy always looked the same as any other inline CRT.

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thats because they were a generic inline bought from toshiba,nec,hitachi,and even rca!

as for the best vintage crt its got to be the zenith 23vc3/vcm.yes the tinted sylvania was nice but even in the day most were weak at the 2 year mark.going to be rough to find a good one now.only hope would be vdc.

2-3 years and they were in the shop for replacement.i have one in my zenith chromacolor.it is a vdc rebuild and it is great!the sylvania hybrid crt from the d-16 chassis always seemed to hold up much better.we used many of those in the solid state sets for replacement.it was our 99 dollar special.used crt with a two year warranty.cant remember any coming back.love to find a d-16 slide control set.those are awesome and my dad bought one in 1972-73 to replace the philco roundie.the early 80s were the best times for us.plenty of crts available and plenty of sets needing them.