Looking for the largest direct-view CRT, the Sony Trinitron PVM-4300

[Bottom1]

The Sony PVM-4300 is a 45" (43" viewable) CRT monitor that was sold between 1989 and 1990. No surviving units have turned up in the past 20 years. If you own this CRT or know someone who might still own it please contact me.

[vol.2]

Originally Posted by Bottom1

The Sony PVM-4300 is a 45" (43" viewable) CRT monitor that was sold between 1989 and 1990. No surviving units have turned up in the past 20 years. If you own this CRT or know someone who might still own it please contact me.

The unfortunate reality is that most very large CRTs got sent to the dump. There was a long span of time when it was extremely difficult to find homes for anything like that, and the majority of them were originally owned by businesses and educational institutions that had hard deadlines to get rid of stuff.

Working for labs and colleges over the years, I've seen so much stuff just get chucked away you wouldn't believe; easily hundreds of of thousands of dollars worth of high end computers, monitors and scientific equipment in perfect working order just because a project ended and there was no space for it anymore.

As much as it pains me to say it, there isn't going to be any out there not already in the hands of a collector.

[Electronic M]

Largest I've seen is the 40" Mitsubishis.

Personally I think the Sony WEGA super-fine-pitch HD-CRT sets are the best all around performing CRT TVs out there. HDMI (and analog inputs) 1080i native phosphor resolution, built in ATSC tuning, and my KD-34XBR960 even has an iLink port for direct one wire digital interface with my D-VHS HD-VCRs (a large part of the reason I sidelined my KD-34XS955 for it). They're also still relatively easy to find compared to 90s beasts.

[ARC Tech-109]

Would need an army of grunts to move something that large, I have the Panasonic CT-34WX54 CRT set and that weighs 155 lbs.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by ARC Tech-109

Would need an army of grunts to move something that large, I have the Panasonic CT-34WX54 CRT set and that weighs 155 lbs.

Depends on how strong you are...My 34" 16x9 Wegas are supposed to be 205lbs and I can pick them up and walk with them. Getting them up the stairs that aren't as wide as the set is an 2-3 man job, but on level ground I don't need help...I've done extensive training buying and selling vacuum tube circuit era consoles.

[init4fun]

Here is a UTube video of one being found in Japan and brought to the US

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfZxOuc9Qwk&t=40s

Skip to 1:30 to get past the goofy intro and to the PVM-4300

Skip to 16:30 to see it unboxed after it's journey to the US

[vol.2]

Originally Posted by init4fun

Here is a UTube video of one being found in Japan and brought to the US

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfZxOuc9Qwk&t=40s

Skip to 1:30 to get past the goofy intro and to the PVM-4300

Skip to 16:30 to see it unboxed after it's journey to the US

Yeah, I watched that one. I love how he tried to talk to someone at Sony and they ghosted him.

I wouldn't be surprised if Sony is a little irritated that some random kid from the US ended up with something that should be in the Sony museum.

Suppose that it's their fault for not being a little more proactive about it, but honestly it's pretty awful that something like that is in the hands of a random hobbyist and not in a museum.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by vol.2

Yeah, I watched that one. I love how he tried to talk to someone at Sony and they ghosted him.

I wouldn't be surprised if Sony is a little irritated that some random kid from the US ended up with something that should be in the Sony museum.

Suppose that it's their fault for not being a little more proactive about it, but honestly it's pretty awful that something like that is in the hands of a random hobbyist and not in a museum.

There are hundreds maybe thousands of museum worthy sets that aren't in museums. As long as their owners appreciate what they are and are preserving them then it's fine if they aren't in museums.... Better someone is appreciating them than they end up scrapped or rotting in the back room of a museum that won't display them (you'd be surprised how many interesting things museums have that they don't or only rarely display).

[Username1]

Originally Posted by ARC Tech-109

Would need an army of grunts to move something that large, I have the Panasonic CT-34WX54 CRT set and that weighs 155 lbs.

.

I got one of these Great Picture, & Awesome Sound too!

.

[etype2]

Sony KX45ED-1

Best shot is the Japanese marketplace. But you never know when one might turn up.

[Electronic M]

I like how on the 2 pictures of the set he can find on the Internet the one he didn't buy he claims is unsubstantiated because there's nothing in the picture for scale when there's a freaking Pilot TV-37 in the photo sitting on top of it.

The gamers in the hobby don't seem to give a damn to learn about the TVs that came before the Atari 2600 even if some of those sets (not the TV-37 though) are worth more than their car...

[Electronic M]

Some museums aren't as bad as others but there's plenty of one of a kind stuff that hasn't been on display in my lifetime sitting in museum storage that the public can't even see in a YouTube video.

If private collectors are the only ones making an effort to preserve this stuff then they deserve to have it. There's plenty of museums that could have done the research and leg work to find and save it and beat him to it, but they didn't, and if preserving it were left to them that set would definitely hit e-waste already. May still end up in a museum eventually....One either contacts him and offers him a big wad of cash, or years down the road he gets tired of it, looses storage space or something and donates it to one...Hell if he sells it someday a museum may end up the high bidder.

I stand by the gist of my statement that a party that appreciates it for what it is and is willing to put money into it's preservation and maintenance is better than it hitting E-waste.

[vol.2]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I stand by the gist of my statement that a party that appreciates it for what it is and is willing to put money into it's preservation and maintenance is better than it hitting E-waste.

I agree with that.

I don't agree that anyone "deserves" to have anything. Applying deservedness is a sticky business.

I also agree that some museums are better than others, but that doesn't preclude the existence of responsible museums dedicated to the preservation of electronic history. Aside from the AMMI, we have a great local museum in Hunt Valley here in the Baltimore area that has loads of great stuff all out on display, and the keeper of the museum is working to get things running so the public can experience them.

You can't say that "there are some bad museums" therefore "a museum shouldn't have it;" that's absolute plastics.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by vol.2

You can't say that "there are some bad museums" therefore "a museum shouldn't have it;" that's absolute plastics.

I never said that.
However if it were my set and I had to choose between a meh level museum that is getting it to store and not display, and a collector that's going to give it the maintenance it needs to get it back to working to specification and publicly document the set so others can appreciate it I'd choose the collector. I grant that a good museum that will preserve and display it is probably a better place for it to be.

I've never seen anyone use "plastics" in a sentence besides as a way to broadly refer to all materials commonly refered to as plastic... that's a new one one me.

[vol.2]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I never said that.

Apologies, there were other people in the conversation I was responding to. I didn't make that clear.

There was a general statement made that implied it was the case. Not something you said.

I've never seen anyone use "plastics" in a sentence besides as a way to broadly refer to all materials commonly refered to as plastic... that's a new one one me.

Yes, as in "bending information to fit your hypothesis."