Used Sony Trinitrons - How long do they tend to last?

[evil_ash_xero]

I have been buying CRTs, to stock up.

Seems that Sony Trinitrons are the tube of choice for a lot of you guys, and...there's a lot of them!

Now, I'm just curious to those who have bought them used....how long have they lasted for you?
I got one the other day that was made in 2000. I'm wondering how long it will last.
I have another that was made around 2003 or 2005.

I know that "it matters how much they were used", so I'm really asking, how long have they lasted for YOU.

Ever bought one, and it died in 5 months? Ever had one that was made in 2000, was used, and is still kicking?

Stories folks.

[Xan]

Only time I witnessed a failure was on a ~13" Trinitron bought new in the mid-90s, in about 2009 or so after prolonged daily usage. It was serviced and is operational again.

I can certainly say that all Trinitrons I own show slight smearing of colors on black backgrounds, and I find it more noticeable on a 2000 consumer TV than on my ~1995-1997 BVM. On none of them it's so bad I would even consider going LCD, though.

I do have a JVC where the smearing issue is VERY bad, and displaying a pure white image causes the image to "shift" to the left. The electronics all seem fine as far as I could tell, but based on the heavy smearing either those Philips tubes just aren't as good as Sony ones, or the tube is just heavily knackered... either way not a great experience, I will be focusing on Trinitrons for future collecting.

[fagin]

I have a BVM that is over 25yrs old and the picture is mint!

[Xyga]

IIRC I read some can last up to 90,000 hours or even more, that is if neither caps nor the flyback transformer fail halfway.
Changing those and tune up stuff like convergence might be needed around, who knows, 30,000 - 50,000 hours ?
Depends on the model I guess, we already know PVM/BVMs have much more caps and stuff than consumer models.
On the plus side they're meant to be heavy-duty.

I have one big consumer model from around the 2000's, it's not even 8,000hrs old, it could use some work on geometry but I think I will die before it.

[22point8]

I've got a 24 year old PVM-2044QM, if contrast is cranked to max it can do an eye scorching 400cdm2 (as bright as the brightest lcd torch mode). But the max luminance without loss of focus is 80cdm2 in component/composite/s-video or 40cdm2 RGB. RGB has perfect colour, the other modes the decoder is wrong. I suspect the capacitors are out of spec now and need replacing.

Had a consumer 14 inch trinitron between 1994 and 2004 when it would turn itself off.

[leonk]

I got a portable mini b&w TV from 1961. It's one of the first to use transistors in the amp rather than tubes. The paper capacitors and 1/2 the resistors were all shot. All replaced with modern caps and resistors (a fraction of the size!!) and it now works as good as the day it was made.

Lots of TVs out there from the 40s-50s in collector hands that work just fine.

A Y2K+ made TV is a new born baby!!

[leonk]

Had a consumer 14 inch trinitron between 1994 and 2004 when it would turn itself off.

Common problem that's solved using a $0.03 part. A lot of Sony TVs of this era suffer from cold solder connections that fail. Redo owing the feet on the video amps with a small amount of solder fixes it forever.


Very common problem for some reason in other devices as well. Same fix in my 98 civic and 01 accord day light module. Saved 150$!

[gray117]

Been in a room when a pvm power/flyback failed - but it was one that was on practically all the time.

Capacitors typically dry out - either due to use/environmental influences or some slight impurity during manufacture. But I suppose these can really be replaced if ever an issue... plus there's cases where these have been good for decades. There were historically bad batches capacitors but I expect these have already failed by now if they were actually 'bad'...

Flybacks are a pain to maintain/replace so I guess these are more of a concern in the long term... but again I suppose replaceable.

Digital controls/chipsets/encoders may be subject to bit rot... no idea how critical/replaceable these are per model... imagine replacing/circumventing these is pretty much an uncrossed bridge, but maybe doable... I think 15+ years and this can become a concern... but there's clearly devices well beyond that these days...

Tubes I suppose are the most unique component... tbh I've no idea how long they'll last - presume as long as their material components will standup to use/environmental conditions assuming they were well made/pure to begin with... they're basically like a more sturdy light bulb from what (little) I understand - usually prone to failure due to impurities or over rated use/surges.... Unfortunately basically impossible to take apart and repair the tube neck though... I would not bet on crt tubes lasting than me, but I don't suppose any were better made than some of those late 90's earl 2000 ones in terms of physical manufacturing... shit they probably will outlast me actually - according to google there's a tv set from 1936 still working, got to presume the tube wasn't made to anything like more recent standards... so overcome the other hurdles and you could be laughing...

[stoneroses]

I will share my experience with CRTs I have used recently:

34" 16:9 HD hi-scan Wega refurb purchased in 2003 lasted 7 years (main tv, daily constant use) would have cost about $250 to repair but let it go as the shear weight of that set limited my uses for it

27" 4:3 HD high-scan Wega refurb purchased in 2005 and has been my main gaming set for the past 9 years and has no issues. Will probably repair though when the time comes as I love this set and it has HDMI.

27" 4:3 SD Wega - only does 480i but has a component input. Bought used from CL almost a year ago for my Tate setup. No issues. The previous owner was an elderly man who used it lightly for about 7 years or so.

Would love to stock up like you but having 2 27's in the same room zaps my available space. Would be too heavy but would love to upgrade to one of those 40" HD Wegas as I always considered that the holy grail of Sony CRTs. My current collection tops out at 27" as that is about the heaviest I feel I want to be bothered with nowadays. The old 34" tube was over 200 lbs and a previous 32" 4:3 was about 175 lbs or so.

[ChuChu Flamingo]

I believe chassis will die before tubes ever do. We still have a lot of old crts from the 40's and 50's working (and those were welded on manually, not machine iirc). Some of them do loose their vacuum due to the weldings becoming loose.

The biggest concern with tubes is how much usage it has had. Once the barium is used up in the crt, it is game over. I have also heard mixed results of people restoring the vacuum in old crts as well.

With luck, in the foreseeable future people will probably be reproducing parts that fail on popular crts (sony bvm, pvm, nanao ms9, and other arcade crt monitors). I've seen someone reproduce a flyback, so all hope is not lost.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I bought a brand new Sony Trinitron CPD-9000 series 9" monitor back in 2004 and it has a maximum 640 x 240 resolution (including support for those fake high-res arcade PCBs like Namco's Mr. Driller 2 & Hanabi De Joon arcade puzzler PCBs). Playing DDP-DOJ BL PCB on it tends make the screen jump a bit due to too much RGB signal being fed to it...have to tone down the RGB input, of course.

It's cool to use as a small RGB monitor for arcade PCBs when using a supergun setup -- due to it's extremely low hours of usage over the years, it still works like a charm.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[_rm_]

I've seen someone reproduce a flyback, so all hope is not lost.

I've read before about a company in Argentina that still produces them with the desired specs, so, i guess you are right.

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Which is good, because there was never spare Nanao ms9 flybacks