The CRT TV nostalgia revival is in full swing. Once considered obsolete junk, cathode-ray tube (CRT) televisions are now prized treasures among collectors, gamers, artists, and technology enthusiasts. These bulky, glass-fronted boxes — once a common sight in living rooms, schools, hospitals, and arcades — are finding new homes as people seek to reconnect with the warmth, glow, and authenticity of analog technology.
For Florida-based game developer and writer Shaan Joshi, the CRT TV nostalgia revival is more than just a hobby — it’s a passion. When he saw a listing for 10 professional video monitors (PVMs) on eBay, priced at $2,500, he didn’t hesitate. He knew that these were special CRTs once used in medical labs and TV studios, known for their superior image quality and reliability.
Joshi bought the entire lot and made a four-hour drive to Miami with a stranger he met online to collect them. “We immediately hit it off,” he said. “We chatted the whole way about our favorite monitors and the CRT TV nostalgia revival community.”
Why CRTs Still Matter
Cathode-ray tube technology dates back to 1897 and powered television for decades. The first commercial CRT TVs hit the market in 1934, bringing families together around grainy monochrome screens, then later in full color. CRT displays were also used in radar systems, industrial equipment, and early computers.
By the late 1990s, however, CRT TV sales started to plummet as flat-panel LCD and plasma screens took over. Lighter, cheaper, and capable of larger displays, these new TVs quickly pushed CRTs into obsolescence. Millions of old units were scrapped.
But the CRT TV nostalgia revival shows that these sets are far from forgotten. Retro gamers love them because older consoles were designed with CRTs in mind. Games look sharper, movement appears smoother, and there’s no input lag. “CRTs are how these games were meant to be played,” Joshi says.
The Competitive Hunt for PVMs
Not just any CRT will do. Professional video monitors — the gold standard of CRT technology — are now highly sought after. Their superior resolution and durable build make them perfect for serious collectors.
In today’s CRT TV nostalgia revival, finding these displays is part of the thrill. People scour recycling centers, broadcast warehouses, and online auctions. A decade ago, you could buy a PVM for $50. Now, some models sell for $1,000 or more.
YouTuber and CRT repair expert Steve Nutter has serviced 65 PVMs this year alone, charging around $600 per repair. “They used to be thrown away,” Nutter says, “but now they’re treasures.”
The Glow You Can’t Recreate
Part of the CRT TV nostalgia revival is the unique sensory experience these TVs offer. The faint static zap when you power one on. The warm glow of phosphor dots. The slight curve of the glass. Modern upscalers and filters can mimic scanlines and color bleed, but as retro tech developer Mike Chi admits: “You just can’t recreate that glow.”
This connection to the past is deeply emotional for many collectors. “It’s not just about picture quality,” says Byron McDanold, moderator of a 240,000-member CRT Facebook group. “It’s about recreating memories from childhood — Saturday morning cartoons, late-night gaming sessions, family movie nights.”
A Growing Community
The CRT TV nostalgia revival is also building communities. Facebook groups, Discord servers, and YouTube channels are dedicated to buying, repairing, and modifying CRTs. Fans trade tips on calibrating sets, sourcing rare models, and safely discharging capacitors before tinkering with the electronics.
For Joshi, the hobby has been as much about people as it has been about technology. “The friendships I’ve made are honestly the best part,” he says.
The moment he saw the grainy pictures of the grubby, boxy televisions for sale, Shaan Joshi, a game developer and writer from central Florida, felt an immediate, almost primal urge. He didn’t hesitate. Without a moment’s thought for the logistics or the sheer size of the relics, he paid $2,500 for a collection of ten cathode-ray tube (CRT) TVs. These weren’t the sleek, minimalist flat-screens that dominate modern living rooms. They were chunky, heavy, and thick-glassed relics of a bygone era. For a growing, global community of vintage TV collectors, these analog displays are not just objects of nostalgia; they are the holy grail of a passionate and intricate hobby.
Joshi’s find was no ordinary haul. The TVs were professional video monitors, or PVMs, the kind of high-end displays once used in hospital labs, broadcast studios, and military command centers. Long ago, they were the pinnacle of analog video technology. Today, they are the stuff of legend among a dedicated subculture of retro gamers and tech enthusiasts. Joshi is a prime example of a new generation of vintage TV collectors who are willing to go to extreme lengths to acquire these coveted machines. “Being tapped into the scene gives you a pretty good competitive edge,” Joshi says, highlighting the clandestine, almost competitive nature of this unique pursuit. “If you know enough people.”
His tip-off had come from a contact who sent him a link to an eBay listing. Within minutes of his purchase, he messaged an online group he belonged to, and an internet stranger replied with a proposition: “Hey,” the person wrote. “Do you want to go split on this stuff?” The TVs were 200 miles away in Miami, a four-hour drive, but the offer was too good to refuse. It promised to halve his costs and, perhaps more importantly, provide a partner for the daunting task of hauling the hefty sets back home. With a leap of faith, Joshi agreed to embark on the journey with a complete stranger, driven by a shared passion for a forgotten piece of technology.
The Allure and the Anatomy of the CRT
So, what is it about these heavy, power-hungry, and seemingly obsolete devices that makes them so sought-after by vintage TV collectors? The answer lies in their unique properties, which are impossible to replicate with modern technology. The CRT, a technology that dates back to the late 19th century, functions as a high-tech vacuum tube. Inside a thick glass enclosure, an electron gun at the rear of the tube fires a beam of electrons towards a screen coated in microscopic phosphor dots. These dots, which are meticulously arranged in red, green, and blue clusters for color displays, light up when struck by the electron beam. The speed and intensity of the beam, controlled by magnetic deflection coils, allow it to “paint” an image on the screen, scanning back and forth in a fixed pattern known as a raster.
This process is fundamentally different from how modern flat-panel displays, like LEDs or OLEDs, work. Instead of fixed, perfectly square pixels that can appear sharp and blocky, CRTs produce a soft, organic image with a characteristic “glow.” For fans of video games from the 1980s and 1990s, this distinction is crucial. These games, with their low resolutions and pixel art, were designed and optimized for the unique visual properties of CRTs. When played on a modern high-definition display, the image can look stretched, blurry, and out of place. The deliberate fuzziness and depth of the CRT’s picture are central to its appeal.
For many vintage TV collectors, the hobby is driven by a deep-seated desire to recapture a past experience. Byron McDanold, a moderator for the Facebook group “The CRT Collective” which has over 240,000 members, speaks to this emotional connection. “You push the button on the front and it makes that zap, pop noise as it turns on,” he says, describing a sound that is a sensory trigger for a generation. He believes that many collectors are on an “epic quest to recreate specific memories or feelings from their childhoods.” This pursuit, he notes, often turns into an obsession over the technical details in a search for “hypothetical perfection” from a decades-old device.
The Economic Paradox and the Repair Renaissance
The rising demand for CRTs has created a strange economic paradox. A little over a decade ago, these TVs were considered e-waste, piling up in mountains of discarded electronics. Now, they are a valuable commodity. “Ten years ago, you might have picked up an aging PVM for as little as $50,” says Steve Nutter, a CRT repair technician and YouTuber from Virginia. “But that’s unheard of now.” Today, the most sought-after models can sell for over $1,000, and a cottage industry of resellers and technicians has sprung up to support the hobby.
Nutter himself is a prime example of this new ecosystem. After his own retro gaming consoles looked awful on a modern TV, he turned to CRTs, initially finding them by the dozens in recycling warehouses. When many of them proved to be non-functional, he took it upon himself to learn the difficult art of repair. “I’ve serviced about 65 of them so far this year for people. Mostly PVMs,” he says, charging around $600 for a repair. Working on CRTs is a high-risk, high-reward skill that requires specialized knowledge of high-voltage electronics. There are no modern courses on how to fix them; Nutter is entirely self-taught, learning from old service manuals and long-abandoned websites. The sheer difficulty and danger of the work only adds to the value of a working, well-maintained set, further fueling the market for vintage TV collectors.
The demand for the authentic CRT experience has also spurred an interesting counter-market: upscalers. These devices are designed to “upscale” the low-resolution signals of old consoles so they look better on a modern flat-screen TV. Mike Chi, the creator of the popular RetroTINK upscaler series, has sold thousands of his devices, which can cost as much as $750. His software is meticulously designed to mimic the appearance of a CRT, allowing users to add effects like scanlines and color bleed. However, as Chi readily admits, even with all the “wizardry” of his technology, “you just can’t recreate that glow” of a real CRT. This acknowledgement from a key figure in the upscaler market validates the dedication of vintage TV collectors who insist on the real thing.
From Hobbies to Lifestyles and the Future of Nostalgia
The appeal of the CRT extends beyond just retro gaming and into broader artistic and social realms. The boxy shape of the televisions allows video artists to stack them to create intricate “walls” of screens, echoing the work of pioneers like Gretchen Bender who used CRTs to create dynamic video installations. Some vintage TV collectors even prefer to watch contemporary TV shows on their old screens. Bella Roberts, a social media content creator in the UK, bought a CRT for around £20 and created a viral TikTok video of herself setting it up to watch a show like Stranger Things, which is set in the 1980s. Her video, which has garnered nearly two million views, shows that the hobby is resonating with a new, younger audience.
Professor Andrew Przybylski of the University of Oxford, who studies the psychological impacts of technology, notes that this phenomenon is part of a wider trend. He observes that people “do tend to play games from their teenage years,” suggesting that the drive is rooted in a desire to revisit a formative period in their lives. The social element is also crucial; the community that has grown up around this hobby brings people together, both in online forums and at in-person events.
For Shaan Joshi, the man at the center of this story, the quest for the perfect display has brought him more than just a massive collection of televisions. His epic four-hour drive to Miami with an internet stranger ended with a new and lasting friendship. “We chatted the whole way down about what sets we had, our favourite monitors,” he recalls. “We chat once a week.” He reflects on the fact that, in many ways, the monitors themselves are secondary to the relationships and shared experiences that the hobby has fostered.
The Future of CRT TV Nostalgia
The demand for CRTs is only growing as supplies dwindle. Museums and video artists are also competing with gamers for surviving sets. Meanwhile, companies like Thomas Electronics still make CRTs for specialized military and industrial applications, proving the technology’s enduring value.
As long as there are collectors and gamers who appreciate analog technology, the CRT TV nostalgia revival isn’t going away. Whether it’s for the authenticity of old-school graphics, the tactile experience of powering on a heavy set, or the memories of childhood that flood back with the warm glow, CRTs are experiencing a renaissance.