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bookofdanielvol2While driving to work on Monday, I happened to see some junk set out on the side of the road, and somehow managed to spot that one of the things there was an old CRT TV. I've been looking for a backup TV for my game room, as well as a larger TV with a curved screen. My current primary game room TV is a 2002 Apex flat-screen 20" CRT, which is great for the most part, but some light gun games play a little wonky with it. The only other CRT I currently have is a 13" Daewoo, also from the early 2000s, which works OK and has a convex screen, but is very small, cheap and only has a monaural audio input; it also has a crack in the upper right corner of the bezel that, years ago, I jokingly put a band-aid over that's still there.
Of course, nowadays it's very rare to find CRTs on the side of the road; when people were first getting rid of them in the 2000s they were everywhere, but today people tend to try to sell them online as "retro gaming TVs" for $150 or more.
Anyway, after noticing this TV I found a place to turn around and went back to check it out. It turned out to be a 20" Hitachi from 1992 with stereo audio inputs on the back, so it's pretty much exactly what I've been looking for. There were, however, a few negative points: first, this TV was absolutely filthy; it looks like it's been in somebody's shed for a decade or two, and second, it was laying on its side and had clearly been left out in the rain for an indeterminate period. Still, the screen appeared to be intact, so I decided to take a chance and grabbed it. When I got home, I put it in the basement near the dehumidifier to dry out.
When I got home today (Thursday), finding it fully dried out, I decided to go ahead and plug it in to see if the thing is actually functional, and - perhaps miraculously - it is! Came right on; the "image" (just static) looks good. I have to take the cats to the vet in the morning tomorrow, but I'm planning on spending a few hours after that cleaning the TV up and then will see how it performs with a game - I'll probably hook up an NES with Mario 3 and try it with both an RF adapter and with RCA cables to make sure all the inputs are working. But it's looking good - I think I hit the vintage-TV jackpot!
Of course, nowadays it's very rare to find CRTs on the side of the road; when people were first getting rid of them in the 2000s they were everywhere, but today people tend to try to sell them online as "retro gaming TVs" for $150 or more.
Anyway, after noticing this TV I found a place to turn around and went back to check it out. It turned out to be a 20" Hitachi from 1992 with stereo audio inputs on the back, so it's pretty much exactly what I've been looking for. There were, however, a few negative points: first, this TV was absolutely filthy; it looks like it's been in somebody's shed for a decade or two, and second, it was laying on its side and had clearly been left out in the rain for an indeterminate period. Still, the screen appeared to be intact, so I decided to take a chance and grabbed it. When I got home, I put it in the basement near the dehumidifier to dry out.
When I got home today (Thursday), finding it fully dried out, I decided to go ahead and plug it in to see if the thing is actually functional, and - perhaps miraculously - it is! Came right on; the "image" (just static) looks good. I have to take the cats to the vet in the morning tomorrow, but I'm planning on spending a few hours after that cleaning the TV up and then will see how it performs with a game - I'll probably hook up an NES with Mario 3 and try it with both an RF adapter and with RCA cables to make sure all the inputs are working. But it's looking good - I think I hit the vintage-TV jackpot!
