I was a process control engineer for a SONY branded rear projection tube! I worked at a place called "Lexel Imaging" which was the remnant of Hughes Electronics. One of their products were CRTs that looked EXACTLY like those at 3:10 and were used in CRT projection systems for aircraft flight simulator trainers. Ours had a glass plate that was bonded onto the front and ethylene glycol coolant pumped in. And they WERE a SONY branded part. Lexel Imaging had the contract rights to manufacture them under the SONY name, and I was the process control engineer for these tubes! The deal was we had to do it EXACTLY as Sony demanded and couldn't modify much about the process. There was a bonding agent called Shin-Etsu, which needed to be ordered from Japan. I remember when the 2011 Tsunami hit, I got funds from my boss to order a whole bunch of it because I anticipated a shortage --- and I was RIGHT. The Shin-Etsu plant had production problems a little later because of the electrical power rationing that resulted from that tragedy. Anyway, that's my story.
Hi @telesniper2, thank you very much for your story and a bit of history. Fascinating times! I appreciate your sharing some of your memories at the SONY plant. ~ VK
I remember like it was yesterday playing Tiger Woods 2003 at college on my old Sony projection TV. After I left school and my younger roommates stayed, they gave it a send off by shoving it out a 2nd story balcony when it wouldn't work anymore.
Those were great TV's and delivered a superior picture to the others brands. I did repair work on them, and other that some components that ran thermally hot (STK convergence correction IC's) they were super reliable.
So to clarify this more to people that need it. The rear projection sets had three small CRT screens inside the set each with there own coloured filters red green and blue the three main primary colours. Those CRTs would project the image off a mirror in the back the three images would combine as one on the panel screen in the front. The images were produced upside down so when the image bounced off the mirror it be the right way on the screen in the front. Being a CRT the blacks were perfect and colours were deep and inky. The downside is these sets were big and heavy and sometimes during the day the screen since it’s being projected could look washed out but not all the time.
4:00 I remember we had this TV when I was a kid. After a while it broke, so my parents let me take it apart and play with how it was made. Those magnifiers are incredibly powerful. I remember I took one outside on a sunny day and it burned a hole through our backyard deck because of how it concentrated the sunlight to the wood on the deck. It was so dangerous to be playing with that at 6 years old. But it was a lot of fun and taught me a lot about how magnification works.
There are now people on youtube who take old projection TV fresnel lens screens and make "solar death rays" out of them. You were a few decades before the trend 😉
DAMN. I worked there back in 2000. I was only 21 then and I did the image calibrations on the rear projection big screen tv's. We were all i the "tent", Doing the color balance, white balance system(WOLF) and man I can remember then other one. our Reference signal was A bugs life. I think I have seen that movie 600 times from working there LOL
I never saw these types of TVs in Sweden growing up. Only time I saw one was in Canada. Of course these days with flatscreens you can see up to a hundred inch screens but back then it blew my mind to see a 50 inch screen. The biggest I had seen in Sweden were around 30 inches.
Fun fact they even had 70 incj ,odels of rptv sets with witch as thin as 6 inches depth could be mounted on a wall. Just as with moder tv flat panel sets.
Early on we had a rear projector by Zenith and then a Mitsubishi rear projector. By the time the CRT unitsa worn out Samsung had introduced thier flatscreen LCD
On a fast-track to the future ... where CRTs no longer are made, LCDs won't see any further technological advancement, OLED is commonplace, and MicroLED is the state of the art...
Miss workn there. 2:49 I remember this 💩machine in Auto Insertion behind Hand Mount. We had to "teach" the stupid thing for the board. Sometimes it would go wild and start shoving eyelets everywhere. 3:49 - that used to be the back of PJA.
Woah kewl I just figured the tubes were round fwiw ngl.. so legit that is neat to have never seen this particular video before. Same with how the lcd one is gonna be.
I remember this style of TVs had issues with spiders getting into the display area and making webs in there, as well as color accuracy issues. Not sure if it was a Sony or not, but this looks really similar. Of course, that could just be because it was owned by a cop that my biological fertilizer donor married back in 2011 or so as his second wife after being divorced. Or maybe leaving it on too much for like sports was bad for it, I don't know.
Very bed service of Sony company of India,I bought a Sony wega engine projection Tv,but when need to change bulb they completely reject.still now I am suffering.
![Twenty One Pilots - “The Line” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E2Rj2gQAyPA/mqdefault.jpg)
My grandfather bought a Toshiba 50 inch big screen years ago when I was a kid and we still use it 20+ years later.
@@Rajaraja-uf9pgYou're talking to yourself 😂
You must’ve had to replace some bulbs a couple times or more
It's sad that Sony only had a manufacturing presence in this country for twenty years.
Thanks for the look back.
I was a process control engineer for a SONY branded rear projection tube! I worked at a place called "Lexel Imaging" which was the remnant of Hughes Electronics. One of their products were CRTs that looked EXACTLY like those at 3:10 and were used in CRT projection systems for aircraft flight simulator trainers. Ours had a glass plate that was bonded onto the front and ethylene glycol coolant pumped in. And they WERE a SONY branded part. Lexel Imaging had the contract rights to manufacture them under the SONY name, and I was the process control engineer for these tubes! The deal was we had to do it EXACTLY as Sony demanded and couldn't modify much about the process. There was a bonding agent called Shin-Etsu, which needed to be ordered from Japan. I remember when the 2011 Tsunami hit, I got funds from my boss to order a whole bunch of it because I anticipated a shortage --- and I was RIGHT. The Shin-Etsu plant had production problems a little later because of the electrical power rationing that resulted from that tragedy. Anyway, that's my story.
Hi @telesniper2, thank you very much for your story and a bit of history. Fascinating times! I appreciate your sharing some of your memories at the SONY plant. ~ VK
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject You're very welcome
Interesting! I have a detailed teardown video of exact Sony model shown in this video. It might be an interesting watch.
Hi @BGTech1, yes, I like your Channel too! You have some very good video teardowns, highly recommended! ~ VK
Dad bought one in the 90s.
Best movie memories.
I'll never forget that specific textured glow from the fresnel screen.
I remember like it was yesterday playing Tiger Woods 2003 at college on my old Sony projection TV. After I left school and my younger roommates stayed, they gave it a send off by shoving it out a 2nd story balcony when it wouldn't work anymore.
Those were great TV's and delivered a superior picture to the others brands. I did repair work on them, and other that some components that ran thermally hot (STK convergence correction IC's) they were super reliable.
Hi Norcal715, Thanks very much for the info! I am not sure what STK convergence correction is. A heat measurement of some kind? Fascinating!
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Nope. Those ICs help with the convergence geometry, so that the three projected images line up perfectly.
Eh I’d disagree when my grandfather bought our Toshiba rear projection screen and he preferred the quality of it over other tvs.
I had one it worked fine until you ran it for over an hour then the screen would tweak tf out
Another great video looking back at production facilities.
So to clarify this more to people that need it. The rear projection sets had three small CRT screens inside the set each with there own coloured filters red green and blue the three main primary colours. Those CRTs would project the image off a mirror in the back the three images would combine as one on the panel screen in the front. The images were produced upside down so when the image bounced off the mirror it be the right way on the screen in the front. Being a CRT the blacks were perfect and colours were deep and inky. The downside is these sets were big and heavy and sometimes during the day the screen since it’s being projected could look washed out but not all the time.
4:00 I remember we had this TV when I was a kid. After a while it broke, so my parents let me take it apart and play with how it was made. Those magnifiers are incredibly powerful. I remember I took one outside on a sunny day and it burned a hole through our backyard deck because of how it concentrated the sunlight to the wood on the deck. It was so dangerous to be playing with that at 6 years old. But it was a lot of fun and taught me a lot about how magnification works.
Hi @kyleb3580, a fascinating story. Thanks for sharing that! ~ Victor, CHAP
There are now people on youtube who take old projection TV fresnel lens screens and make "solar death rays" out of them. You were a few decades before the trend 😉
DAMN. I worked there back in 2000. I was only 21 then and I did the image calibrations on the rear projection big screen tv's. We were all i the "tent", Doing the color balance, white balance system(WOLF) and man I can remember then other one. our Reference signal was A bugs life. I think I have seen that movie 600 times from working there LOL
I never saw these types of TVs in Sweden growing up. Only time I saw one was in Canada. Of course these days with flatscreens you can see up to a hundred inch screens but back then it blew my mind to see a 50 inch screen. The biggest I had seen in Sweden were around 30 inches.
Fun fact they even had 70 incj ,odels of rptv sets with witch as thin as 6 inches depth could be mounted on a wall. Just as with moder tv flat panel sets.
thx for the video. its fascinating to sense that USA had a consumertech-industry back then..
but then again... hmm yeah the era of the Dodo.
awesome video. glad you posted it
2:58 "Exacting Sony specifications."
I remember when there was a rash of boards in 40" Sony XBR flat screen CRT TVs in the early '00s.
This is back when international trade was fair and decent. We had great trade relations with Japan. Now everything is made in China.
We had great relations with Japan, for quite a long time too.
Early on we had a rear projector by Zenith and then a Mitsubishi rear projector. By the time the CRT unitsa worn out Samsung had introduced thier flatscreen LCD
On a fast-track to the future ... where CRTs no longer are made, LCDs won't see any further technological advancement, OLED is commonplace, and MicroLED is the state of the art...
I had one 24" Sony Trinitron
WOW 👑SONY GOD FOREVER#1 ✌️ 👑
Rear projection TVs were an option someday, but they didn't have any positive compared to LCD and LED TVs.
Miss workn there. 2:49 I remember this 💩machine in Auto Insertion behind Hand Mount. We had to "teach" the stupid thing for the board. Sometimes it would go wild and start shoving eyelets everywhere. 3:49 - that used to be the back of PJA.
Japanese Rear Projector TV!!!
4:24 Fallout time!
Woah kewl I just figured the tubes were round fwiw ngl.. so legit that is neat to have never seen this particular video before. Same with how the lcd one is gonna be.
Rear screen projection TV from Sony were never introduced in India.
Fascinating! I wonder was it due to size, cost? etc.
Essa tv é demais
I have 4 tvs, i like to much
I remember this style of TVs had issues with spiders getting into the display area and making webs in there, as well as color accuracy issues. Not sure if it was a Sony or not, but this looks really similar. Of course, that could just be because it was owned by a cop that my biological fertilizer donor married back in 2011 or so as his second wife after being divorced. Or maybe leaving it on too much for like sports was bad for it, I don't know.
Why everything now made in China? Not in America, can anybody tell me please?
Quite a bit is made in other Asian countries as well. Difference in cost of labor?
my father fast tv 1985 National color tv National video in Kuwait to Pakistan 20 yares usd
*Promo SM*
Yes, it is from a SONY Promo film. A nicely done piece. Wish we could find more like this one! ~ VK
The work ethic and the people are not the same we get now
Border wide open and too many green cards from poor countries.
Very bed service of Sony company of India,I bought a Sony wega engine projection Tv,but when need to change bulb they completely reject.still now I am suffering.
Too bad to hear about that. Perhaps, keep trying... (?)