I dreamed of "those CRT noises"

[Dan Q]

I don't own any CRT monitors nowadays. Haven't for years. But one turned up in a dream I had last night: one that I had from around 2003-2004 through 2014.

This monster was a massive 21-inch screen. Before then, most of my monitors had been 14"/15", although I'd owned a 17" at some point... but a 21" one felt enormous! And it was capable of a crazy 1600×1200 resolution, which I'd never experienced before (but fortunately my graphics card could handle). Mind-boggling.

I was given it by a friend who no longer had space for it. I loved everything about that monitor... except, perhaps, its weight, which made my desk creak and bend in alarming way.

The attached picture shows the monitor in 2010, alongside a (more-standard-sized for the time) 15" screen.

Anyway: in the dream, it was the sound of the monitor that I remembered best. Because a monitor of this size and resolution can have some distinctive noises: a personality all of its own. Like:

• The whirry buzz of it powering up after being switched off for more than a few hours, as the picture briefly appears to grow from a central, tunnel-vision like spot to fill the screen with light and colour
• The mechanical clunk of the degaussing button, carrying with it the feeling of something snapping into place; something hitting plate armour; a noise that represents something undesirable, but planned-for
• The electric bang that accompanies the arcing flash of lightning when you disassemble it and discharge the beam steering pins against a nearby radiator: a fearsome sound that instinctively feels like what it is: dodging a nasty shock (obviously don't discharge a CRT unless you know what you're doing)

There's something magical about these experiences. They come at the boundary of where the mysterious and invisible world of electrical internals interacts with the more-observable world of physical processes. The black box of computation reaching out into things we can experience more-directly, like the gentle tingle of static electricity as you run your fingers across the glass of a screen that's been running for a few hours.

Like: when you degauss, you're discharging a stack of power into an electromagnet, repeatedly alternating the polarity, to demagnetise the shadow mask. And throwing that much juice into an electromagnet from a standing start makes a noise.

Like: when you discharge a monitor before you transport it, the electrical arc ionises the air and splits atmospheric oxygen into ozone molecules, and you can smell it!

These are real, tactile things that you experience as a long-term owner of a large CRT.

And for all that LCDs/TFTs are great (large, sharp, reliable, slim, light...) they just can't replicate the physicality of the experience of a "fat" monitor.

Except, perhaps, in my dreams.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I remember what fun it was to use the Degauss-button of my monitor (also one of these 21' ones :D) on LAN parties - it would spawn a wave that would go through the entire room(!), evoking a line of color artifacts that went through on all of my friends screens - I believe we even used this tactically in one instance when playing Team Fortress. But TFTs came into fashion rather early in my youth, and the trick wouldn't work on them anymore.

[wolfkitty42]

Wow, I mean... Wow. This is some lovely writing! I also find myself fascinated by CRTs...

The first one I ever had contact with was growing up. When I looked for it recently (trying to remember the model) I flipped through all the old albums I could before I found it. I still can barely remember, but it was gray on a cart. I remember movies, Harry Potter and eating pepperoni and drinking ginger ale and watching documentaries. It was lovely.

I didn't even remember funky crt noises at all until I got my current one! His name is Shrek3 (pronounced shrek-y) because he had a dvd of Shrek 3 inside of him when I got him.  ??????? LOL... He is a Magnavox and his model is MWC13D6. I ordered his remote online because I like having captions for him... I picked him up because he was 9 dollars (9 dollars!!!), fully functional, and well, I could pick him up! XD being able to lift him was nice....

At first, I was spooked by all the noises. The first few times I used him he definitely smelled dusty. I cleaned his outer case, but I didn't feel able to open him to clean his innards. The high pitched whines and thunking clunks and sparking noises that came when I plugged him in really freaked me out. I had a lot of big anxieties that he would explode, which... are mostly dissuaded now, I think! I usually play Regretevator on him, or Undertale. I don't have as many movies to watch (although I did watch a tinker bell movie the other day on him...) I am really, really happy that I found him because having it has brought me lots of joy! I really resonate with a lot fo what you were talking about with the tactile aspects. It feels a little odd and I'm not entirely sure how to describe my affection for Shrek3. Obviously, I am anthropomorphizing him because it's fun. But.. I'm also doing that because it feels reactive, and I felt like I had to get to know it to trust him, yknow? He has funny little features and a dvd gullet and cables. It reminds me of how my first CD player would always start CDs best if I put it on my lap first. Sometimes it is nice to whisper encouragements to your devices. Sometimes it is nice for them to get love too.

I love thrifting because half the time I come across crts. There's a lovely shop in my town- Their website says they don't take crts, but I frequently find them in there! I've found a variety of models, from teensy tiny ones (like, as in ones with portable handles and screens as big as my paw) to super big ones that basically could be a mirror for the upper half of my body! I'm short, but... Still!! I just feel like devices have such a lovely certain charm to them, and I wish to treat the objects that charm me as the wonderful things they are. Of course, I think I value any possession I have- But for instance, my school given chromebook is much less precious to me than I feel these devices are, primarily because my relationship with it is inherently temporary, but also because it is similarly just not a particularly charming being. I have to go to bed... I just adore CRTs and generally quirkier or older tech designs, so your writing resonated a lot with me!

[lakes]

i kinda wish i still had crt if only because my family switched to broadcast tv from cable and the reruns they have don't look right on an hdtv (it has those little black bars on the side)

[Solinus]

I did have a Magnavox CRT TV from childhood (late 2000s) up to 2015 or so. When I was very young LCDs were replacing CRTs, and the CRT was the bedroom TV. I was scared of the noises it made and moreso the loud static it would make when the cable TV box was switched off. Meanwhile the LCD Toshiba in the living room wasn't as scary. Maybe the static was quieter, or it auto muted the static after a few seconds.

In 2015 the CRT was tossed away, and we got an even larger Samsung TV for the living room. The Toshiba was moved to the bedroom, where it lasted all the way until 2025, when a gamer moment from my brother killed it.

[littlelum]

Near the end of Covid I got one from 2001. I use it to play my old consoles that I've acquired, up to my childhood Wii. Right now I'm procrastinating Final Fantasy V on my Dad's PSX. One thing I don't like: the lights in the room flicker whenever I turn it on. I solved that by plugging it into a power strip, so now it's just the LED of the strip that flickers.