Cutting the cord-anybody else?

[Mdragger88]

Speaking of weighs a ton... My oldest son was really into video games and when he started earning his own money he invested heavily in his hobby. Apparently "serious" gamers like using flat screen tube TVs or monitors to play the older systems the the SEGA or SNES, since older game systems weren't designed to be played on high def screens. My son bought a couple of retired medical CRT monitors that are encased in steel frames and weigh about 100,000,000 pounds. One was 26" and the other was 20". Guess what stayed in my house when he moved to Japan? When I sell the house it will be included gratis. I have no idea how he got it up the stairs. Along the same vein, I also have 7 or 8 old school TVs of assorted size and age that were accumulated for the same purpose. Getting rid of a CRT around here is like trying to get rid of spent plutonium. No body wants it and it you try to dump it somewhere they will track you down and make you take it back!

Recently there was a girl on our neighborhood page requesting old tube tvs so she could smash them for therapeutic purposes - apparently its a new popular hobby
maybe that’s why mine got snatched up from the road so quickly

 

[zea3]

We have a few rage rooms in town. I need to see if they want some free TVs!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I do agree with your son though … the old school SEGA and Nintendo games suck on flat screens. My kids play Nintendo games and the new Switch lets you download all the old games and play them. I was walking by the other day when my son was playing Metroid and he was so excited to show me. I was glad he was excited but I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the game looked terrible all expanded out to fit the different aspect ratio. You can set the TV to use the old resolution and aspect settings but it’s still not the same. You need the three color phosphors to make it realistic … and the occasional electrical glitch that makes the electron beam of the CRT a little erratic if you want to the real effect.

I’m sure my life expectancy has been reduced by many years from sitting in front of the tube for hours on end with those beta rays streaming through me ….

 

[kul]

Aww the old video games. Remember how final the reset button was? I used to threaten my little brother that I’d push it and once I accidentally did. And then I ran for my life!

 

[an1vrsy]

Getting rid of a CRT around here is like trying to get rid of spent plutonium. No body wants it and it you try to dump it somewhere they will track you down and make you take it bac

When we moved from California to Nevada at the end of 2019, we took all of the old tube TVs and flatscreens we didn’t want to Goodwill. They took them, no questions asked.

 

[otter86753]

I took some items to Goodwill at the beginning of the pandemic and there was a huge sign stating they would not accept tube TVs. We watch very little TV and the guest room TV is a relic from 30+ years ago. I hope the city trash will take it when the time comes (no comments about its time already gone).

 

[Newdude]

Doesn't best buy or anyone else selling electronics have to recycle them regardless of where they were purchased ?

 

[HeyEng]

I do agree with your son though … the old school SEGA and Nintendo games suck on flat screens. My kids play Nintendo games and the new Switch lets you download all the old games and play them. I was walking by the other day when my son was playing Metroid and he was so excited to show me. I was glad he was excited but I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the game looked terrible all expanded out to fit the different aspect ratio. You can set the TV to use the old resolution and aspect settings but it’s still not the same. You need the three color phosphors to make it realistic … and the occasional electrical glitch that makes the electron beam of the CRT a little erratic if you want to the real effect.

I’m sure my life expectancy has been reduced by many years from sitting in front of the tube for hours on end with those beta rays streaming through me ….

Yes, and you can't play Duck Hunt unless it's on an old tube TV. The light gun will not work on flat panels. What's old is new again!

 

[Newdude]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/services/recycling/pcmcat149900050025.c?id=pcmcat149900050025

They will take tube tvs up to 32 inches for a $30 fee and it doesn't say for larger ones. Search around at anywhere similar by you (regional chains, Aaron's, etc) maybe someone takes them for free

 

[JoyfulNoise]

CRT's have tons of toxic chemicals in them, lead and cadmium being the biggest problem. They have to be disposed of properly and many municipal recyclers won't take them without a fee. Tucson is nice in that they run a "hazardous waste collection" program every month and that includes old electronics. But I know for a fact that the city pays a hefty price tag to ship them all to Nevada where you can just dump stuff with all the other toxic waste and alien debris ...

 

[mknauss]

ship them all to Nevada

hey -- I live here!!! Only glow a little most nights ---------

 

[Wolfepack88]

CRT's have tons of toxic chemicals in them, lead and cadmium being the biggest problem. They have to be disposed of properly and many municipal recyclers won't take them without a fee. Tucson is nice in that they run a "hazardous waste collection" program every month and that includes old electronics. But I know for a fact that the city pays a hefty price tag to ship them all to Nevada where you can just dump stuff with all the other toxic waste and alien debris ...

Yeah, but you can dump your prius or tesla anywhere, LOL. The toxicity of the batteries in all the EV's are the dirty secret nobody really talks about. How do we think we will generate all the electricity that will be needed when we convert from gas to EV vehicles? Wind and solar (pipe dream), natural gas plants will be humming round the clock. I'm gonna be like Lee Majors in that movie where he was siphoning gas on the highways in his race car. Burgess Meredith was hunting him down in an F-86 sabre. Who remembers that movie??

 

[zea3]

Goodwill in Houston stopped taking CRTs years ago. My sister lives in a near by city who does allow you to drop off old TVs without a fee, but they limit how many you can drop off. I have brought her along to use her ID to dump a few TVs but I don't want to get her on the "no recycling TVs" list!

 

[Woodstock1234]

Here we have a drive through e-waste service. If you can get it there in your car or truck, they will take it. You just open your doors and the guys take it and throw it in huge bins. It's the first Saturday of the month. The line is long, but these guys have it down to a science.

 

[dfwnoob]

Late to the party here as a newbie, but figured I'd my two pennies.

I'm in my mid-30s now. Grew up with cable in the house most of my life, we probably got it back in 1993-1994. We lived in Atlanta, so it was whatever MediaOne was before it was MediaOne. Through various acquisitions, that cable network is now Comcast. I moved out at 18, and never had cable again. At one point, the local cable internet provider was sending unprotected SD-quality QAM channels down the pipe, so we had totally free cable.. still didn't watch it. Neither me nor my roommates were sports fans - living in Pittsburgh at the time made that difficult because people look at you like you have two heads when you tell them you don't care about the STILLERS. There was just nothing good on.

Later on, the girlfriend and I got Netflix and Hulu, and that constitutes probably 95% of what we watch, which still isn't much. Plus whatever we get included with the Amazon Prime subscription. Over the holidays we decided to try a 1 month trial of YouTube TV, which as other people have mentioned, is pretty much just basic cable. I still haven't cancelled it because we DO occasionally turn it on and watch something. We just moved into this new house with the pool (which is what got me here) and the old owners left a flatscreen TV mount on the wall in the living room. I decided it was time to upgrade from my 8 year old 50" Element from Walmart and get something nice. Picked up a 65" Samsung 4K QLED with most of the fancy stuff like HDR and a soundbar with Atmos.. I gotta say, it's pretty awesome looking and I'm not into that sort of stuff usually. TVs have definitely come a long way.

You might be surprised how that old antenna picks up digital tv.

You are spot on. Antennas are antennas - either they're in the right range for the frequency or they aren't. There is no special "HDTV" or "4K" antenna, and if someone tries to sell you one, they're being dishonest. Modern digital TV operates in the exact same VHF and UHF band as old school analog, they're just sending 0s and 1s through the air instead of an analog signal. That being said, most channels after the recent FCC repack are up in the UHF band, with only a few stragglers in VHF, so check to see what the actual broadcast (RF) channels are in your market to make sure your antenna is best for what you're trying to pick up. Just because something says it's "channel 5" doesn't mean it's actually broadcasting there. For example, channel 4 (which would be VHF in the old school world) FOX DFW is actually broadcasting on RF channel 34 (UHF). You can see this stuff on sites like Antennaweb.org.

 

[Mdragger88]

Hulu live & YouTube live are great for those who can’t pickup network tv with an antenna but for those who can, the savings are substantial when u can just supplement the antenna with philo for the cable only channels (there’s 63 currently) for around $20/month. Its also available free to students on many college campuses around the us (philo edu) if u know any college kids who are paying for crazy subscriptions & could stand to save $$ (for themselves or their parents).