5 ms·

What Happened to the Largest Tube TV? [video]

63 points by zdw 2y ago

ggm 2y ago
I was told a pretty significant amount of hard RF leaks out the back of a tube. I wonder if its more, on a bigger one. I was also surprised by how gentle the round off was. Sony did a decent job on the trinitron making tube front flat but it always pushed up against size. You gotta make it stable under a fair bit of vacuum.
- CamperBob2 2y ago
  RF is not an issue, but X-ray emission is indeed a problem that had to be confronted by TV engineers back in the day. A rule of thumb is that a color TV needs about 1 kV of acceleration voltage per diagonal inch. 43 kV is no joke when it comes to X-ray generation, so I'm curious if they found a way to make it work at a lower voltage. At one point in the video you can see that the TV has two second-anode leads, so maybe that was the trick, using two separate acceleration electrodes at half the voltage.
zbuf 2y ago
The best of the internet, engineering and humanity... all in one video.
- davidhyde 2y ago
  And yet it disappeared off Hacker News almost immediately. I kind-of feel lucky to have stumbled upon it, what a gem of a video.
  - zbuf 2y ago
    Yes, a shame. I honestly expected this could get picked up as a mainstream news story over Christmas (except I think the actual story is older than this video); Young people with talent and ingenuity, using modern skills and tools to acquire and maintain something with a history behind it. I've bookmarked it for next time some old guy complains that young people aren't smart or motivated etc. etc.!
ChuckMcM 2y ago
This was a very fun video. Both the technology involved and the passion of someone collecting these things.
emchammer 2y ago
Single-tube. Jumbotrons count and they are way bigger, but you can only boil electrons off a cathode at such a rate and velocity.
- fuzzythinker 2y ago
  Fun fact (from wikipedia): > The largest JumboTron in use was located at SkyDome (now Rogers Centre) in Toronto, Ontario, and measured 10 m tall by 33.5 m wide (33 ft × 110 ft), with a resolution of 672 × 200 pixels, or 134,400 pixels.[9] Its cost was US$17 million.
unsnap_biceps 2y ago
It's a real shame that Sony didn't allow the interview to happen
CarVac 2y ago
This is an epic tale about a marvel of engineering.
jbyers 2y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42497093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42497093

63 points by zdw 2y ago

ggm 2y ago

I was told a pretty significant amount of hard RF leaks out the back of a tube. I wonder if its more, on a bigger one. I was also surprised by how gentle the round off was. Sony did a decent job on the trinitron making tube front flat but it always pushed up against size. You gotta make it stable under a fair bit of vacuum.

CamperBob2 2y ago
RF is not an issue, but X-ray emission is indeed a problem that had to be confronted by TV engineers back in the day. A rule of thumb is that a color TV needs about 1 kV of acceleration voltage per diagonal inch. 43 kV is no joke when it comes to X-ray generation, so I'm curious if they found a way to make it work at a lower voltage. At one point in the video you can see that the TV has two second-anode leads, so maybe that was the trick, using two separate acceleration electrodes at half the voltage.

zbuf 2y ago

The best of the internet, engineering and humanity... all in one video.

davidhyde 2y ago
And yet it disappeared off Hacker News almost immediately. I kind-of feel lucky to have stumbled upon it, what a gem of a video.
- zbuf 2y ago
  Yes, a shame. I honestly expected this could get picked up as a mainstream news story over Christmas (except I think the actual story is older than this video); Young people with talent and ingenuity, using modern skills and tools to acquire and maintain something with a history behind it. I've bookmarked it for next time some old guy complains that young people aren't smart or motivated etc. etc.!

ChuckMcM 2y ago

This was a very fun video. Both the technology involved and the passion of someone collecting these things.

emchammer 2y ago

Single-tube. Jumbotrons count and they are way bigger, but you can only boil electrons off a cathode at such a rate and velocity.

fuzzythinker 2y ago
Fun fact (from wikipedia): > The largest JumboTron in use was located at SkyDome (now Rogers Centre) in Toronto, Ontario, and measured 10 m tall by 33.5 m wide (33 ft × 110 ft), with a resolution of 672 × 200 pixels, or 134,400 pixels.[9] Its cost was US$17 million.

unsnap_biceps 2y ago

It's a real shame that Sony didn't allow the interview to happen

CarVac 2y ago

This is an epic tale about a marvel of engineering.

jbyers 2y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42497093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42497093