Last time I looked (a few years back) people were virtually giving away even Trinitron 14" TVs. Now the Sony's are going for over a £100!
Anyone know of ones of a similar picture quality (with RGB Scart) that aren't stupid money?
They are still fairly easy to find an cheap in the US. I didn't realize they were becoming so difficult to find in Europe.
Looking through eBay, lots of people are tagging them with retrogaming in the title. I'm guessing people actually prefer the 14" ones over here for retrogaming because they're small.
And they are catching onto the notion that they are for retro gaming and raise the price.
Over here in USA some recycling people have helped me out. I've found CRT TVs from one of the very first color sets from 1954, which was a 25in size, all the way up to 2005 with HDMI. In general, the classified ads almost no longer contain listings of people selling CRT TVs and most people just throw them out, so I've had to get creative in my searches. I probably own 30+ CRT TVs now. I like them and am planning on making a video wall of sorts some time, as well as having lots of backups for my arcade machines. I swap out burned tubes for compatibles ones from TV sets.
The best consumer TVs in the USA I think are actually JVC-D series which are typically 27" to 32", and Insignia which are about 20" since they have curved tubes AND component video in (which is virtually identical to RGB). I gave away ALL my consumer Sony TVs as the picture was inferior to these sets. Flat screen Sony TVs often have geometry issues. The curved Sonys in the USA unfortunately do not have component input, but S-Video at best. Some of these can be RGB modded though.
If you can find Sony curved screens over there with SCART on them, I'm quite certain those would be great TVs, but none typically here in the USA.
Of the flatscreen CRT variety I've found the Philips brand to have the best picture.
You have 30 CRT TV's?! Wow! I have two and I thought I was doing fine. I can still find them on Craigslist here in Miami.