People keep calling old CRT monitors 'retro' but I see them used for actual work

I was at a repair shop in Detroit yesterday and they still use a Sony Trinitron from 1998 to calibrate their equipment. Ngl it bothers me when folks act like these are just for nostalgia when they're still doing real jobs. Has anyone else spotted old tech still being used professionally somewhere?

3 comments

3 Comments

charles64011d agoMost Upvoted

lol you're totally right, I still see old CRTs at recycling centers waiting to be shipped out for actual calibration work too. My own TV repair guy has a beat up one from the 90s he swears by for fixing modern sets. Makes me feel like a dinosaur every time I walk in there, but hey, whatever works works. I tried using my modern monitor to calibrate something once and it looked fine to my eyes until he showed me the CRT version and I realized my colors were all jacked up. It's like these things just refuse to die, which is honestly impressive considering I can't keep a laptop alive past three years without something breaking.

drew_hart411d ago

Respectfully disagree man, I think part of the magic of CRTs is they force you to actually look at the image instead of relying on software tweaks and calibration profiles. Like yeah your laptop might die in three years, but that old TV repair guy with his beat up CRT probably hasn't upgraded his setup since Clinton was in office and still gets better results than us. Sometimes older tech just works better for certain things because it's simpler and more honest about what it's doing.

logan52510d ago

Do you ever feel like the rest of the world just moved on too fast and left us behind? I get it, my buddy has a Panasonic CRT from like 1998 he uses for color grading and it still beats my expensive monitor. It's kind of sad and funny at the same time. You can't even find parts for laptops from five years ago, but these old bricks keep chugging along. Makes you wonder what we're really getting for all that money we spend on new stuff. I'm glad your guy showed you what you were missing, even if it hurt a little.