The last Sony CRT ever made

On February 14, 2006, Sony announced its final CRT television, the KD-34XBR970. The last Sony CRT TV was a 34-inch model, with high definition and a 16:9 screen. So it wasn’t what we typically think of when it comes to CRTs. Or maybe we should say televisions. Plural. Because at the same time, Sony also released three conventional 4:3 standard definition models: the 36-inch KD-36FS170, 32-inch KV-32FS170 and 27-inch KV27FS170.

Sony’s last CRTs

The KD-34XBR970 generally gets credited as the last Sony CRT ever made. But it was really meant to compete with LCD and plasma displays. In 2006, LCD and plasma still had weaknesses that a CRT didn’t exhibit, so there was a small market for CRT-based high definition television sets. This was the set that got the attention in 2006, because it represented the state of the art in CRT technology.

I don’t remember anyone announcing they were getting out of the CRT business, but the suspicion in 2006 would have been the end was near. It had been clear for a while even then that LCD and plasma displays were the future. Gizmodo’s coverage published February 15, 2006 even called these sets a resuscitation of CRTs.

The better sets for today got less attention in 2006

Today, the more conventional 4:3 sets would be more interesting to a retro gamer. The KD-34XBR970 is reportedly laggy when displaying anything other than a 1080i signal, making it good for an Xbox or PS2 but not so great for anything earlier.

The more conventional 4:3 sets, on the other hand, would be perfectly at home displaying anything pre-PS2. And with them being very late model Sony tubes, they’re likely to last a very long time. With RCA, S-Video, and RF inputs, they can connect up to any vintage game console, as well as a large number of 80s home computers.

The 36-inch KD-36FS170 reportedly weighs 227 pounds, so one of the smaller sets will be more practical to cart home with you, in addition to being more practical to own and use. Although if you have PVM-4300 envy, a 36-inch Sony is definitely more attainable.

These models can have geometry issues. So while you should always buy CRTs locally, that advice goes doubly so for late-model Sonys. Bring something with you that you can connect to it so you can see how the picture looks before you pay for it, haul it home, and then decide you don’t like it.

The last CRT ever made, period

It’s hard to say with certainty what the last CRT ever made by anyone was. Small, portable black and white CRTs remained on the market for years after Sony released its last CRTs in 2006. But at least we can know what the last CRTs certain big-name manufacturers ever made, including Sony. And when it came to Sony, it was just about the biggest name of all in the CRT business.

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.