Comment by ssl-3
2 days ago
Industrially, it's very nearly a completely lost tech.
Last I heard the only new-production of electron guns for CRTs was one singular source in Russia, but that was before the war started.
Even preservation of already-manufactured CRTs is difficult.
The last CRT rebuilder in France closed years ago. Some folks purchased some of the equipment and tried to get it set up at the Vintage Television Museum in Columbus, Ohio, but ultimately failed. It's in the care of a dude in Maryland now but is not in production status.
AFAICT, the singular remaining entity presently capable of working on existing picture tubes is Colorvac, in Germany: https://colorvac.de/service/
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In the unlikely event that new CRT production ever ramps up again, it will be a lot like the reboot of Polaroid film was: So much institutional knowledge will have simply evaporated that even though the new product works, it will never work exactly the same as it once did.
Thomas Electronics in the US supposedly still makes and repairs CRTs for military and aerospace, but those will be much smaller than you'd want for a TV or monitor and often if not always monochrome. Even if they did make big colour tubes they wouldn't give mere mortals the time of day anyway, they're in it for the big money contracts.
https://www.thomaselectronics.com
Thanks.
I think I may have already known that at one point, but I'll try to include this the next time I am motivated to brain-dump some CRT lore.
Given the lifespan of CRTs and no hope of repairs, when should the last CRTs be expected to die forever?
They're pretty stable just sitting in a box in a warehouse.
I forecast that none of us reading this at the end of 2025 will live to see the last CRT.