The biggest CRT ever made: Sony’s PVM-4300

Move over, GE Widescreen 1000. In 1989 in Japan, Sony introduced to the largest Trinitron CRT ever built, the KV-45ED1, also known as the PVM-4300. And in 1990, they imported 20 of them to the United States, just in time for the recession. About 34 years later, one of these enigmatic TVs surfaced.

Sony’s PVM-4300/KV-45ED1

Sony’s part number suggests it has a 45 inch tube inside. But in a rare case of truth in advertising, Sony advertised it as a 43-inch model. It weighed about 450 pounds, stood about 27 inches tall, and it wouldn’t fit through a standard door frame. That’s probably okay, it’s not like someone was going to use this as a bedroom TV. This thing was going in your living room.

In Japan, it sold for 2.6 million yen, but in the United States, it retailed for $40,000, a significant markup. To be fair, shipping them across the Atlantic and then throughout the United States must have been expensive. And news articles in 1990 said Sony dealers would not allow any bickering. They would throw in a couple of options like the separate tuner or speakers. But no discounts.

Sony said at the time they hoped to sell 80 of them that year, but the recession may have kept that from happening.

The biggest conventional CRT ever

The Sony PVM-4300 was a conventional CRT, unlike the GE Widescreen 1000, which was a projection set. Projection TVs could be bigger and cheaper. But if you wanted the clearest picture, a big CRT was where it was at.

It was a conventional CRT that worked with over the air signals, but like many larger TVs of the era, it used a technology called IDTV to enhance the picture quality. The “ID” stood for “improved definition.” IDTV sets had a buffer so they would store successive frames and interpolate them rather than interlacing them the way a conventional CRT TV worked. They also had circuitry to detect motion and perform image stabilization to further enhance the image. The result wasn’t as good as HDTV. But it gave high rollers a better picture until HDTV. HDTV arrived in 1998, but articles at the time estimated 2005. The Chicago Tribune warned in 1990 that these $40,000 TVs would be obsolete in 15 years, but the salesperson countered that every TV would be obsolete in 15 years.

It’s also likely that someone in the market for a $40,000 TV didn’t worry about obsolescence. In 1990, the GE Widescreen 1000 looked dated and it wasn’t 15 years old yet.

Why so expensive?

The KV-45ED1 or PVM-4300 cost about 8 times as much as Sony’s second most expensive model at the time, which had a 29-inch screen. That’s largely because the KV-45ED1 had to be built by hand. Sony could mass produce its smaller TVs. This was a product for buyers who weren’t worried about the price.

Sony continued making CRTs into the 21st century, bowing out with its high-def KD-34XBR970, 36-inch KD-36FS170, 32-inch KV-32FS170 and 27-inch KV27FS170 in February 2006.

It is unclear how many of these enormous 43-inch units Sony sold, and some people even questioned if it was ever built. A Chicago area dealer told the Chicago Tribune in 1990 that someone had purchased one, but that the buyer wanted to remain anonymous. That was good enough for me; a TV dealer wasn’t going to tell a newspaper that they have a $40,000 item and then not have it. That’s just bad business. Good business is taking the free advertising, having an example on display to show knowing most won’t buy it, but they may buy one of the smaller units. But luring someone into the store with a lie makes it much more difficult to sell anything.

And the Tribune wasn’t going to make something like this up. It would anger the TV dealers and risk losing their advertising. And someone who could afford a $40,000 TV was likely a business owner or high-ranking executive who could pull their advertising. In the days of print newspapers, advertisers and potential advertisers held a lot of sway. This could be both good and bad. I’m not going to say capitalism solves every problem but this was a case where it helped keep people honest.

Shank Mods’ surviving Sony PVM-4300

On December 22, 2024, Youtuber Shank Mods released a video telling the story of a Sony PVM-4300 and how he acquired it. One of the photos of a purported surviving unit turned out to be very real. It was taken in a restaurant in Japan, and the owner was actually aware of the photo. Unfortunately the restaurant was having to move, and needed to get rid of the set. Shank Mods was able to contact some people in Japan who could help race against time and remove the TV from the restaurant and then ship it to the United States.

The 35-minute video is well worth watching if you have interest in vintage CRTs, or even if you just like stories of strangers coming together and helping each other just for the sake of being helpful. Actually, I take that back. At the end of the video, Shank Mods played a prank on his fellow CRT fans that is absolutely hilarious and makes the video worth watching for that reason alone. I won’t ruin it for you.

We can only guess how many other examples may survive. But we now know that at least one survives and is in the hands of a retro hobbyist.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.