Best color CRT?

[heathkit tv]

Sorry if this has already been hashed out but I'm curious as to what most feel to be the best color tube. Guess it pretty much boils down to a discussion between RCA/Zenith and Sony.

When I say "best" I mean best picture and not necessarily most durable. Obviously the chassis directly impacts the quality of the picture, but realizing that many sets have had different brand tubes installed in them (except for Trinitrons) I was hoping that others could offer their opinions on this. What sayeth youse?

[radiotvnut]

The Sylvania black faced delta gun CRT's of the '70's looked the best; but, they usually didn't last long. I have such a set that's going to be getting a Zenith CCII tube when the weather warms up.

RCA tubes from the early-to-mid '70's also looked nice and they would usually rejuvenate OK when weak. By the late '70's, RCA tubes suffered from quality issues and didn't last long. They got their act together by the early '80's and their inline tubes from that era looked nice and usually lasted a long time.

Zenith delta gun tubes from the '70's looked great and they held up better than most anything else.

The Sony Trinitron tubes looked good; but, some models tended to lose emission and they don't rejuvenate well. I've had several late '70's-early '80's Trinitrons where the green gun would be strong, while the red and blue would be dead.

So, if I were to pick a CRT based on it's overall picture quality and longevity, I'd go with a '70's Zenith delta gun CCII crt.

[sampson159]

i agree 100 per cent.the 25vdmp sylvania was the best looking crt ever,they had a short life though.the zenith chromacolor tubes were almost as good but held up much longer.i have a zenith chromacolor set now that has a 25vdmp22 in it.the picture is amazing.the sams states it was an option back in 1976.great set.the rca tubes from the early 70s seemed to take a jolt much better than others.just remember,zenith made the first black matrix picture tube.sylvania probably built it for them.regardless,these delta guns were the absolute best

[Electrohome]

Zenith introduced the first black-matrix CRTs in 1969 with their first Chromacolor sets for the 1969-70 model years for TV sets. Zenith would then set the standard for many years to come when it came to color CRTs. The first black-matrix CRTs were detla-gun tubes with black-matrix inline CRTs coming on the scene in about 1974-75. The Toshiba Blackstripe CRT is a well-known early black matrix inline CRT.

[heathkit tv]

Thanks for the replies. Mention of Sylvania surprised me but hearing good things about the Zeniths confirmed my thoughts. Guess CCII's are the vintage video equivalent of a mid 70's Marantz stereo

[kx250rider]

The Sylvania 23VCGP22 and 25VDMP22... Black face/black matrix, and didn't have a non-glare lens to blur the detail. Second would be the Zenith Chromacolor 19VDZP22 (factory issue in 19" 4-tube hybrid and delta gun Chro II models). For roundies, the HR19VGUP22 (military-spec 21FJ).

Charles

[DaveWM]

I have a Sylania 25VDMP22, and agree, its great! I was messing about with a OTA color bar dipplay and was impressed by how nice the color looks, and has the best yellow that I have seen.

[ctc17]

As far as life goes the zenith and rca tubes hold up very well. The majority of those sylvanias test dead and are very dim.
We have an 84 Mitsubishi monitor thats very impressive when it comes to picture quality and life. Its used daily and tests like new still. Not sure who made the crt.

[firenzeprima]

for my opinion are: Sony 20" trinitron
ITT 20" delta
PHILIPS delta
RCA 27" line
Sylvania 27" line

[freakaftr8]

As far as the Trinitron CRT is concerned, I have seen many in my day and the 30" in My KV-3000R wins hands down...

The factory RCA HI-LITE CRT in my CTC-40 looks excellent, Very vivid reds as well.

[Username1]

I agree completely that the Zenith '70's tubes were the best in sharpness, overall performance, and mine still looks great! I have seen this in several '70's zenith chromacolor tubes. As far as the progression in tube technology, and the companion circuitry that produce really awesome pictures my tube is the Dynaflat Samsung tube. My Panasonic 34" big cabinet "bet you can't steal it" HDTV uses a lot of the same chassis technology with variable scan speed, dynamic focusing, multi-warp-speed, dynamic spacial diffraction, inter modal dot colorization enhanced magnetically and a few other things I can't quite invent out of thin air. I think these tubes are quite similar to support the same performance claims in their advertising. I'm quite impressed with the technology they used to make a really great picture from NTSC, and put that in a big tube! But for its time, and performance Zenith Chromacolor tubes are "The Bomb!"

[colorfixer]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

For roundies, the HR19VGUP22 (military-spec 21FJ).

Charles

Is this tube medium resolution or does it have the same dot pitch as the 21FJ?

[ChrisW6ATV]

Among non-HD sets sold to consumers, I will take the late-1980s Sony XBR Pro over anything, anything else I have ever seen. Fantastic HV regulation and essentially no "ringing"/edge enhancement on vertical lines; these two areas are where I have just not seen any non-Sony set compete. Do a needle-pulse test on this set next to any other, and see what kind of undistorted contrast you can get out of both displays. I remember reading of someone who actually connected such a signal to the system feeding all the TVs in a store once, and the manager almost had a heart attack with the results!

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by colorfixer

Is this tube medium resolution or does it have the same dot pitch as the 21FJ?

That's a good question, and I don't know... The "HR" at the beginning, if I"m correct, means High Res., but that's subjective of course. There's very little data on it. I got mine from Boeing, and it appears to have the same size dots as the 21FJ. But it sure has a great picture, and was the easiest roundie (out of thousands literally) that I've done a setup on in the last 35 years. It almost converged itself, LOL.

Charles

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by heathkit tv

Thanks for the replies. Mention of Sylvania surprised me but hearing good things about the Zeniths confirmed my thoughts. Guess CCII's are the vintage video equivalent of a mid 70's Marantz stereo

Or a Sansui