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Posted: 05 Feb 2013, 13:07 

Wega is what Sony called their CRTs after the Trinitron name got old.

The size and weight can be a pain for people used to such conviniently thin and light stuff like what is the norm today, but it's soooo nice to just not have to think about scaling or stretching or any of that stuff.

Downstairs I have an old JVC pro monitor for arcade games. I see people talk endlessly on other forms about NTSC encoders, sync issues, VGA up scalers, trying to get fake scanlines to look right, expensive line doubles like the XRGB series, etc. Meanwhile I just plug my boards straight into this thing and its %100 analog 240p RGB purity. Zero artifacting or dot crawl, all the old school interlace based special effects work perfectly and there is zero delay.

The new stuff is great for Bluray, PS3, Apple TV, etc, but sometimes the easiest way to do stuff is just to match the era of the source and display. It's amazing how much crap you can skip dealing with this way, and with quality CRTs being literally FREE these days the the only reason to not stock up on the things is if you have space issues.

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Posted: 05 Feb 2013, 16:55 

The Wega (for those who don't know, it's pronounced Vega) name was applied only to Sony's sets that used the FD Trinitron tube, which was a perfectly flat, in both directions, CRT tube that Sony developed in partnership with Dow-Corning glass - it used specially formulated and tempered automotive windshield glass for the front faceplate to help it withstand the incredible pressures the flat, square tube was put under. The Trinitron name stayed on the sets that used the conventional Trinitron tube that was flat vertically, but had a slight barrel-shaped curve horizontally. For a short time they also applied the Wega name to some of their flat plasma or LCD sets, almost using it as a replacement for the XBR name to identify their best-of-the-best sets, but XBR stayed as the high-end marker for televisions, like Pioneer's Elite name or Sony ES. Their low end CRT's with the flat tube didn't always get the Wega name and those were just FD Trinitron sets.

The very first Wega's introduced in 1998 were a 32-inch and 35-inch, and both came in the standard Wega name and in XBR Wega versions. A $9,000 35-inch 16x9 XBR Wega was also introduced at the same time - it didn't have the improved fine-pitch Apeture Grill like the later 16x9 Wega's, but even so, Consumer Reports - in a rare rave review - tested it and said it was the very best television they had ever tested and in many parameters even surpassed their $35,000 professional Sony Broadcast monitor. The 35-inch XBR Sony had introduced in 1997 to go along with the DVD launch was not only their first set with component inputs, but the first that had a color demodulator that decoded the full 1.5MHz chroma bandwidth of LaserDisc's and broadcasts - it also was Sony's first set to use a red phosphor that was much closer to the original red specified by the NTSC (Sony's reds had been quite orange up to that time) - and happily, Sony continued that improvement with all the high-end Wega's having the improved red phosphor and wideband chroma decoding - Sony even went further and put in an "accurate" NTSC decoding mode that shifted the color decoding axis back to the I/Q standard, eliminating red and green push, as well as setting the white balance to the correct D6500 Kelvin color temp. They made these switchable so people could have an inaccurate picture if they wished. Their ultimate XBR Wega, the 16x9 model 910 (I think that's the model number) had the incredible Super Fine Pitch Apeture Grill for over 900 lines of horizontal resolution and the blue and green phosphors were also replaced with phosphors that were much closer to the NTSC standard, producing an image that had an almost "Technicolor" look due to its incredible saturation and purity - it could also produce shades of yellow and other colors that standard sets simply couldn't do, making it a transparent window into the original film you were watching. The only current televisions that can come close to the color gaumut the Sony reproduced are the DLP projectors that have the 6 or more segment color wheels with the addition of yellow, cyan and magenta filters in addition to the normal RGB filters. The only drawback to Sony's HD CRT offerings is the awful DRC - Digital Reality Creation scaler they built into the sets - I've never seen one that worked right without damaging the picture or adding aliasing artifacts to the image.

I don't know if Sony's final CRT HD sets would take progressive signals natively via HDMI and bypass the DRC - does anyone know?

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Posted: 06 Feb 2013, 07:37 

Wega is what Sony called their CRTs after the Trinitron name got old.

The size and weight can be a pain for people used to such conviniently thin and light stuff like what is the norm today, but it's soooo nice to just not have to think about scaling or stretching or any of that stuff.

Downstairs I have an old JVC pro monitor for arcade games. I see people talk endlessly on other forms about NTSC encoders, sync issues, VGA up scalers, trying to get fake scanlines to look right, expensive line doubles like the XRGB series, etc. Meanwhile I just plug my boards straight into this thing and its %100 analog 240p RGB purity. Zero artifacting or dot crawl, all the old school interlace based special effects work perfectly and there is zero delay.

The new stuff is great for Bluray, PS3, Apple TV, etc, but sometimes the easiest way to do stuff is just to match the era of the source and display. It's amazing how much crap you can skip dealing with this way, and with quality CRTs being literally FREE these days the the only reason to not stock up on the things is if you have space issues.
I understand what you're saying, it makes sense and obviously since CRT was the attached technology at the time to Laserdiscs (with the exceptions of possibly MUSE Hi-Vision and proper 16x9 anamorphic enhanced Laserdiscs), but I actuelly don't have the storage space unless I ditch my bedroom LCD which I don't plan on doing in favor of a replacement CRT for reasons I outlined previously. I do actuelly have a bulky CRT that still works but it has shifty colour issues so that's out of the question.

Anyway, I am actuelly quite content with the overall results I am getting with LD on my LCD anyway, so its not exactly a buzz killer as I will continue to buy and watch Laserdiscs for as long as my player keeps working.. I can live with a little bit of image stretching to fill the screen because thankfully and truefully it actuelly hasn't bothered me, well not yet anyway.. :mrgreen:

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Posted: 09 Sep 2017, 19:56 

this here is a 2011 46" SANYO OEM for BEST BUY's "INSIGNIA" house brand, that happens to make a very strong argument in favor of LCD Monitors employed as Analog SD video displays;




I have an Insignia TV and its total garbage. Maybe its an aggregate name for so many suppliers that you get a good one once in a while.

The best LCD I have (excusing a 4K iMac) is a 34" Bravia. Its OK, but I'll still take CRT for old stuff.

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Posted: 12 Sep 2017, 22:31 

I honestly would have moved on it if I needed something. If you want CRT you are usually better without the HD stuff. "FD" is, I think, just to indicate that it's a flat tube. There are WAY better Sonys but they are all OOP now so you have to take what you can get.

To be clear: on a wide SD CRT the difference between 16:9 and 4:3 is simply how much it limits the path of the beam. The exact same info just gets stretched out to 16:9 in wide mode or not in 4:3 mode. Analog scaling. No issues. The same goes for 16:9 enhanced mode in 4:3 TVs, only on the opposite axis. The only issue you have is how wide "wide" is. As long as the geometry is good it always looks fine.

Also this would likely be much lighter than the higher end sets. Over 200lbs is common with a big 32+" set. Mine is about 250 and they get even worse some years, closer to 275...and I've never seen one with halfway decent handles on it. :)

Another thing, CRT shopping is a lot of trial and error. Even if you find the right model there may be something messed up on it since it's older than Facebook. The tubes are never perfect to begin with and they do drift over time...

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Posted: 13 Sep 2017, 09:05 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Q190Aoiuk

Personally I would look for something else, IMO 16:9 for LD is not recommended, !

my 16:9 CRT works beautifully with a widescreen LD and a scaler, my DVDO VP-50, which can be picked up reasonably easily/cheaply. Robocop in original aspect ratio:

https://s10.postimg.org/wnva7bhft/R0018666_800x547.jpg

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Posted: 13 Sep 2017, 13:44 

I know the 16:9s sony are highly regarded, I've never had a chance to use or see one. I'm just sort of partial to 4:3, it's just what I'm used to. some things don't work so well with it, but LD certainly does.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to pick up one of those sets some day, I did inquire about a free 16:9 wega a few months back just for kicks but someone had beat me to it.

At the moment though it would not be practical because of space limitations. I just finished an av rack unit incorporating my 20" wega, and I have two 24" sets in the basement, though one I may have to part with since I think its tube may be failing.

To the OP though I would say what there to lose if the price is fight (free or close)
like Zeta said they won't be making these again

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Posted: 14 Sep 2017, 08:11 

Where did he live?

=> Plattsburg, Missouri. USA

His first website domain is gone: http://www.laservisionlandmarks.com/ but the contents live on http://laservideodisc.tripod.com/LaserVision/

+ https://issuu.com/disclord

I'll make a full backup of these just in case...

Julien

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Posted: 20 Sep 2017, 10:51 

Yeah they should have made a serious sci fi war film. In the cards the martians invade, enslave humanity etc but the humans start fighting back, then build rocket ships and send troops to Mars to smash and enslave the Martians! Payback!! Wish they'd done a kind of starship troopers with that revenge story and the designs of the original.

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