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Comment by sneak

2 years ago

My AIM username for a while was kw34hd1 which is the model of Sony’s first (and maybe last?) 1080i CRT. I recall it being around $25k too at the time.

34” diagonal, 196lb.

Edit: A googling suggests it was launched end of ‘98 for $9k. $17k in 2024 dollars.

They made a 40" CRT. I used to find them for free all the time on Craigslist because people just wanted them gone.

Here's a pic of one:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/VkcAAOSw1jpij-aq/s-l1600.webp

I found a brand new one from someone's house where the person had died a long time ago and three of us lugged it back to my house (three people can barely lift it). I grabbed it for light gun games, but it uses some sort of digital filtering on all the inputs which stops gun games from detecting the scan. I was going to take it apart and figure out how to bypass it, but I lost it in my divorce lol.

  • That’s the one I had. What a beast. I gave it away around 2009 when I got my first LCD.

These kinds of TVs were under $2k a few years later. I had a Panasonic CT-34WX53 "Tau" display that I bought for $1600 in 2002.

  • I was seriously considering Sony’s 32” CRT for my first HDTV around 2006 or so. It must have been right about the tail end.

    It may have had a better picture, at least for analog stuff which was most all of it at the time. But the biggest factor was size. At ~150-200 lbs I couldn’t move it and would need new furniture to hold it.

    The LCD I bought probably weighed 40 pounds, was easy to move, and my existing furniture was fine. It was 720p only though.