What are old TVs called?
For those of us gamers invested in classic gaming setups, those chunky, bulging boxes with the glass screen we grew up with are known as CRT TVs. CRT stands for cathode ray tube – quite an old school vacuum tube technology that ingeniously shoots electrons to light up our gaming worlds.
Let‘s delve into the history and tech behind CRTs to understand why they still matter for providing the ultimate retro gaming experience…
Why Gamers Still Pine for CRT TVs
For both competitive gamers and those who want to faithfully recreate vintage gaming setups, CRT screens still reign supreme over modern LCD and OLED panels.
Superior Responsiveness
With no digital processing causing input and display lag, playing old school 2D titles like Pac-Man or Street Fighter II simply feels right on a CRT. Precise reaction timing critical for competitive success sees pro gamers hunting down CRTs to practice classics like Super Smash Bros Melee before tournaments. Their raw, real-time connection between controller input and phosphor glowing can‘t be replicated on flat panels – even expensive, low-lag ones aimed at gamers!
Accurate Color and Contrast
Modern HDTVs may boast higher resolutions and impressive dynamic range on paper, but classic gaming content wasn‘t designed for them. Retro games utilize limited color palettes, indexed color graphics, and low pixel resolutions that get upscaled poorly on new displays – introducing visual artifacts like blurriness, lag, and pixelation that ruin the intended experience. And vintage console output signals like composite video or even component video get badly interpreted by modern scalers. A CRT‘s analog display of the original native signals simply represents retro content as the creators intended – with sharp pixels, accurate colors, and high contrast.
Zero Display Lag
As mentioned before, responsiveness is king for both retro and competitive gaming. The significantly lower input lag of a CRT display allows instant on-screen feedback without sluggishness when aiming that fireball or going all-in on a Smash Bros finishing move. Gameplay simply feels tighter.
Deep Blacks and Vibrant Colors
Black levels, contrast ratios, and color reproduction of aged CRT screens still exceed LCD or OLED panels that gaming monitor manufacturers are trying hard to catch up with. Combined with their innate 4:3 display ratio matching older game formats, CRTs deliver vibrant, exciting images that modern displays still fail at – despite their higher resolutions and HDR certifications that crush black levels by backlight bleed and bloom.
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The Special Breed of PVM/BVM Monitor CRTs
For the CRT connoisseurs among us, picking up a professional video monitor (PVM) or broadcast video monitor (BVM) designed for critical production house work takes things to another level. With their ultra-sharp phosphor masks calibrated to accurately reproduce video signals, these reference-grade CRTs offer stunning image quality tailored to retro gaming‘s limited color and resolution needs. Supporting multiple input types, high TV line resolutions exceeding 1000 lines on larger models, and consistent geometry, a 20" Sony BVM outpaces any modern display technology for playing that original PlayStation. And they can be had much cheaper than equivalently specced LCDs!
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CRT Television Technology Overview
Understanding why CRT tech still matters requires knowing how these TVs and monitors work in the first place. Let‘s learn about the magic behind the glass screen!
The Cathode Ray Tube
The large glass ‘tube‘ enclosure under vacuum contains the critical components – the electron gun and the phosphor-coated screen.
Electron Gun
The cathode emits a focused stream of electrons when heated, flowing towards the front screen. Control grids around the cathode regulate and accelerate the electron beam.
Deflection System
Electromagnetic coils embedded around the outside neck of the tube precisely guide and bend the beam in a scanning pattern across and down the entire screen to hit phosphor dots, lighting them up as the image.
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CRT TV Tech Spec Evolution
While many remember those massive wooden cabinet CRT "furniture" owning family living rooms initially, picture tube technology improved immensely over the decades before flat panels took over in the 2000s:
| Year | Screen size | TV lines (resolution) | Phosphor type | Inputs |
| 1960 | 12-20 inches | 405 lines | Halophosphate green/blue | RF antenna only |
| 1970 | 25 inches | 525 lines | Rare earth europium red | Composite video |
| 1980 | 30+ inches | 600-800+ lines | Multi-layer rare earth phosphors | Component video (Y Pb Pr) |
With color standards improving from poorly saturated NTSC color to the wider gamut of component video, and specialty phosphor coatings enhancing CRT color quality and TV line resolutions/sharpness greatly, picture tubes reached impressive quality levels by the 1990s.
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The Eventual Downfall of CRT Screens
Given their reign for over five decades since color TVs first released, what ultimately led to the downfall of CRT displays? Their Achilles heel was the bulky vacuum tube design itself.
Large, Heavy Form Factors
Limited by deflection angles, focusing coil geometry, and housing depth needed, CRT TVs couldn‘t feasibly slim down beyond a point or scale up beyond 42" sizes for average homes. And hefty leaded glass, giant magnets, and high voltage safety concerns meant heavy, dangerous to manufacture screens.
High Power Consumption
Lighting large phosphor coated areas and powering multiple high voltage electron guns sucked electricity – that too also contributing heat and fan noise. Going bigger or brighter got highly inefficient.
Analog Nature
Increasing broadcast and media industry shifts to natively digital formats like HDMI and HDTV through the 2000s meant expensive analog to digital conversion circuitry additions.
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Once LCD and plasma flat panels matured to offer much lighter form factors, sleeker aesthetics, larger feasible screen sizes, lower power draw, and native modern format handling, consumer shift was inevitable. CRT production had mostly ceased by around 2008.
And while recycling all that leaded glass is troublesome, the reduced energy usage and safety concerns of flat panel adoption has helped sustainability and climate change goals considerably. With over 250 million CRT TVs sold in the US alone since the 1960s, that‘s a massive environmental impact decrease!
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The Last Bastion Remains with Gamers
And yet, for retro gamers and competitive tournament players, lugging around old CRTs persists thanks to their irreplaceable display capabilities highlighted earlier. The nostalgia factor also plays a part undoubtedly!
OLED and microLED panels do promise CRT-beating color vibrancy and black levels someday. Mini-LED backlit LCD monitors like the ASUS PG32UQX with its insane peak brightness headroom can simulated enhanced dynamic range too. And gaming monitors like the 360 Hz ASUS PG259QN with bespoke signal processing provide unmatched fluidity for eSports.
But until display technologies can match CRT‘s raw analog signal display responsiveness, zero input lag, phosphor-based image quality, and geometry perfect for low resolution retro content – bulky picture tubes will continue gracing tourney stages and gamer caves. Professionally calibrated PVMs and BVMs will remain prized among discerning enthusiasts as well.
Among the gaming community, CRTs live on as both relics reminding us how far display tech has come along and yet showcase how some picture perfection goals set decades ago remain elusive to modern engineers!
What old and beloved technology still remains irreplaceable for you? Let‘s reminisce in our era of big pixel gaming and cathode rays!
