I remember reading a @fortninety post claiming that those clear CRTs were manufactured for prison common rooms. They’re clear so you can’t hide contraband in them.
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Yup!
And sup. This is a mighty fine thread! Thanks for letting me know about it… might stay a while.
Oh, and back to the TVs… there are slight variations in models, which can hard to keep track. Some lack speakers, meaning, to hear audio you need to plug in headphones. Given how noise from someone else’s show might cause a stir, in a prison, I get that.
Also, despite being old fashioned, analogue tube TVs, the ones I had a show I produced (it was the launch party for a graphic novel on the history of Tetris and I gathered a bunch of different 8 & 16 bit versions) had digital TV tuners, something that was discovered by accident…
… More pics and info about the show can be found here: https://medium.com/attract-mode/this-is-what-a-tetris-block-party-looks-like-e46a19d96e71
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Thank you for the info y’all! I am enlightened 
I just passed up one of those clear prison TVs over the weekend. You’re making me regret it!
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sweet paydirt
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Fuck yeah swing out sister
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Sharp 10P-35, ~1982
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Andy Gregg’s Hantarex 28 wall.
Details...
After a very long journey, I’m stoked to finally be sharing the final incarnation of the 4x4 CRT video wall I started restoring about a year ago. These are 28" Hantarex MGG monitors ( mfd. circa 1990), assembled inside a custom built case. To the left is the control console, also in custom built housing (with a mounting rack as its frame), and a Sony PVM on top. I originally built this for a big art show back in February, but since then it has sat at the entrance to our studio space, which is where it will remain because MY GOD is this a pain to transport lol.
THE LONG JOURNEY:
Some of y’all might remember a few of my WIP posts here. About a year ago I was tipped off by fellow Collective member and now irl friend Loren Vanderbilt III to a Craigslist post where a guy that runs a large-install AV business was selling these. They had been in his basement storage for 15 or 20 years, and all of them required major amounts of repair. Luckily I found Namco’s machine repair service at their HQ in the Chicago suburbs, and was able to get their tech to fix most of the damage. In addition to the technical issues though, more than half were missing their original resin bezels, so being a bit of a purist, I contracted a fabricator in LA who specializes in architectural restoration, and was able to have new replacement bezels molded from a few of the existing ones.At the same time, I also designed the final postmodern housing (which matches the early 90s aesthetic of our studio), and contracted a fabricator friend to build it. It was quite the effort, and he killed it – it looks almost exactly like my original concept drawings.
While all this was going on I was also building animations for the wall to display during the show. My work often centers on memory, nostalgia, and the intersection of the commercial and the personal, and so I made a looping three minute video comprised of ten 16-bit-style animated mall advertising slogans.
THE TECH:
The video signal actually originates from a VJ program on an older Macbook Pro (via Thunderbolt to HDMI cable) to a downscaler. The downscaler box scales and converts the signal from HDMI to YCbCr component which then inputs into an Electrosonic Vector video wall processor. The processor splits the signal and sends the image (via 9 pin RGB) to all 16 monitors. Essentially the vid wall is set up to just be a second monitor for the MacBook Pro, so really you can display anything on it super easy. Separately, the PVM plays a looping video being sent from a small media player.Anyway, thanks to all the folks in this rad community that have patiently answered my questions over the years, and have been so insanely helpful in this super niche subject. Love this group.
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Neato. Apparently NAD sold a display as the MR-13. Wonder if it is just a rebrand or something more bespoke.
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wow
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Thanks for posting that close-up of that nad.
So like what’s the easiest way to run a stable signal from my gtx1080 thing into one of these old ass tellies?
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