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Turning a Classic CRT into a Smart TV

nickmchardy.com

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Re: Turning a Classic CRT into a Smart TV

#11

Post by deviantfero »

Baeocystin wrote: post #7

This is a fun little project, and I am happy it got posted. I have to laugh a little, though, considering that many of my clients have started asking for un smart, just-a-display units!

Personally I think there's possibly an intersection of people who want a "dumb" tv and people who would do something similar to this, I for example, would love to have a "dumb" tv and just hook up one of those firestick/chromecast/other-product dongles into one of the available HDMI ports.

I really see no point in having an integrated computer in my TV that's just gonna be stop being supported a couple of years down the road, might as well have that part be detachable for when it becomes obsolete, I'd just buy a new one, the display would still be good.

Re: Turning a Classic CRT into a Smart TV

#12

Post by willis936 »

don-code wrote: post #8

You can get pretty close to an HDTV with nothing but a dumb VGA monitor. Context: as late as 2012, I had nothing but two Sun Microsystems (rebranded Sony) 19" Trinitron CRTs. The picture quality on these monitors was _phenominal_, and I kept it as long as I could, before the siren song of more desk space got me to give them up. To get from component video to VGA, I had a color space converter. Then I hooked up a 3x c…

Analog video converter projects appear to be still picking up steam. It's really a retro renaissance if you have a serious budget and are okay with dumpster diving and cold calling.

15 kHz to VGA is still a bit of a trick since VGA's minimum horizontal frequency is 30 kHz. Line doublers are the standard way to get around this, but even the best deinterlacers are trading off fidelity and latency.

Re: Turning a Classic CRT into a Smart TV

#13

Post by Ballu »

Baeocystin wrote: post #7

This is a fun little project, and I am happy it got posted. I have to laugh a little, though, considering that many of my clients have started asking for un smart, just-a-display units!

I used my CRT for long time as smart TV. First Gen Roku had analog outputs. :)

Re: Turning a Classic CRT into a Smart TV

#14

Post by p1necone »

denkmoon wrote: post #10
Bluecobra wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8 Bit Guy did a video on this. I pretty surprised how easy it was to do on an inexpensive compact TV set from the 90’s. https://youtu.be/DLz6pgvsZ_I

Inexpensive, but requires balls of steel to work on a naked CRT. Of course it is reasonably safe if you do it properly, but as an amateur it's something I'd like to do but scares the shit out of me.

My favourite take on this is that people only say it's reasonably safe because anyone who has reason to think otherwise has already been fried.

Re: Turning a Classic CRT into a Smart TV

#15

Post by Sophistifunk »

Baeocystin wrote: post #7

This is a fun little project, and I am happy it got posted. I have to laugh a little, though, considering that many of my clients have started asking for un smart, just-a-display units!

I'm clinging to a cheap PoS TV that has bad pixels and a blurry smear in the panel, just because it's big, not-smart, and only 1080p. I don't need 4k, although I have nothing against it per se, and I like the fact it usually means better FPS in games. But I don't want a bunch of "smart" stuff constantly getting in the way of what I want my tv to do, which is show the pictures being piped in by devices I actually trust.

Re: Turning a Classic CRT into a Smart TV

#17

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

I actually tried the same thing with a raspberry pi and osmc. The darn thing had screen resolution issues, the screen would need to be offset manually every time the device restarted. I put in the coordinates in the config file but no dice.

Secondly, there was this whine when I pressed a button on the keyboard or even a Bluetooth one or a WiFi remote. Thirdly, the text looked yuck terrible compared to the composite in satelite TV running at the same time. I dropped the idea after a week of wasted efforts. Oh, I had used a 3.5 to composite cable for output, no HDMI

Re: Turning a Classic CRT into a Smart TV

#18

Post by 0x0EB0DA10 »

Baeocystin wrote: post #7

This is a fun little project, and I am happy it got posted. I have to laugh a little, though, considering that many of my clients have started asking for un smart, just-a-display units!

You know that moment when TV started getting too smart that it displayed ads when changing volume, or whatnot. Or even connect itself to open WiFi network.

Re: Turning a Classic CRT into a Smart TV

#19

Post by salamandersauce »

deviantfero wrote: post #11
Baeocystin wrote: post #7

This is a fun little project, and I am happy it got posted. I have to laugh a little, though, considering that many of my clients have started asking for un smart, just-a-display units!

Personally I think there's possibly an intersection of people who want a "dumb" tv and people who would do something similar to this, I for example, would love to have a "dumb" tv and just hook up one of those firestick/chromecast/other-product dongles into one of the available HDMI ports. I really see no point in having an integrated computer in my TV that's just gonna be stop being supported a couple of years down…

I do this with a PC monitor and some powered bookshelf speakers. Works pretty well since I live in a tiny place and have no room for a TV and PC setup. You can even get 40" ones these days. They do lack some TV features like I wish it had an optical out. Mine has a headphone out but the DAC makes everything sound like turds. A cheap HDMI switch solved that issue though.
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