Sony PVM-4300

In the late 1980s, Sony began developing a 43-inch display tube, which was finished in September 1987. The PVM-4300 was unveiled in a 1988 issue of the Japanese DIGIC magazine and in American tech publications, with no official release date given.{{Cite magazine |last=Lachenbruch |first=David |author-link=David Lachenbruch |date=November 1988 |title=Video News |url=https://archive.org/details/radio_electronics_1988-11/page/n7 |access-date=February 5, 2025 |magazine=Radio-Electronics |pages=6–7 |volume=59 |issue=11}}{{Cite magazine |date=October 1988 |title=トリニトロンとは何か |url=https://bouya.officew.jp/digic-vol-9/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241210125148/https://bouya.officew.jp/digic-vol-9/ |archive-date=December 10, 2024 |access-date=February 5, 2025 |magazine=DIGIC |pages=10–11 |volume=9 |lang=ja}}

The PVM-4300 was released by Sony in Japan in April 1989 for an introductory price of ¥2.6 million in Japan.{{Cite web |last=Farquhar |first=Dave |date=June 19, 2024 |title=The biggest CRT ever made: Sony's PVM-4300 |url=https://dfarq.homeip.net/the-biggest-crt-ever-made-sonys-pvm-4300/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250125212155/https://dfarq.homeip.net/the-biggest-crt-ever-made-sonys-pvm-4300/ |archive-date=January 25, 2025 |access-date=February 5, 2025 |website=The Silicon Underground}} Around twenty sets were imported into the United States around January{{nbsp}}1990, with an introductory price of $39,999.99 {{USDCY|39999.00|1989}}. It was described as being aimed at the "videophile and elite-consumer market."{{Cite magazine |date=February 1990 |title=ELECTRONICS WISHLIST |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/90s/90/PE-1990-02.pdf |access-date=February 5, 2025 |magazine=Popular Electronics |page=58 |volume=7 |issue=2}}

In April 1990, Jim Palumbo, president of Sony's Consumer Display Products Co., reported to the Sun Sentinel that only three PVM-4300 sets had been sold in the United States,{{Cite news |date=April 22, 1990 |title=FOR $40,000, TV'S PICTURE BETTER BE SHARP |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1990/04/22/for-40000-tvs-picture-better-be-sharp/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231013223222/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1990/04/22/for-40000-tvs-picture-better-be-sharp/ |archive-date=October 13, 2023 |access-date=February 4, 2025 |work=South Florida Sun Sentinel}} although a month earlier he had told the Chicago Tribune that "at least four or five" had been sold.

File:Back of Sony PVM-4300 (KX-45ED1).jpg

Following its release in the late 1980s, photographic and documentary evidence of the monitor began to dry up, which, in addition to its limited release, gained it a somewhat legendary status among enthusiasts of CRT monitors.

In October 2022, American hardware modder Shank of the Shank Mods YouTube channel tracked down a functional PVM-4300, one of the last, in the second-floor waiting room of Chikuma Soba, a soba noodle restaurant in Osaka, Japan. The location was to close permanently for demolition only days after Shank's discovery.{{Cite news |last=Orland |first=Kyle |date=December 23, 2024 |title=The quest to save the world's largest CRT TV from destruction |url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/12/retro-gamers-save-one-of-the-last-45-inch-crt-tvs-in-existence/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250126092051/https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/12/retro-gamers-save-one-of-the-last-45-inch-crt-tvs-in-existence/ |archive-date=January 26, 2025 |access-date=February 4, 2025 |work=Ars Technica}} Shank, with the help of another person and a company involved in shipping of industrial equipment, arranged for the monitor to be shipped to the United States. It was thoroughly tested and serviced upon arrival.

File:Top of Sony PVM-4300 (KX-45ED1) with cat.jpg for comparison]]

The PVM-4300 has a 45-inch (with a 43-inch viewing area) color Trinitron Microblack CRT picture tube, which is the largest ever produced.{{Cite news |last=Beschizza |first=Rob |author-link=Rob Beschizza |date=June 23, 2024 |title=Sony's PVM-4300 was the "biggest CRT ever made" |url=https://boingboing.net/2024/06/23/sonys-pvm-4300-was-the-biggest-crt-ever-made.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250126112851/https://boingboing.net/2024/06/23/sonys-pvm-4300-was-the-biggest-crt-ever-made.html |archive-date=January 26, 2025 |access-date=February 4, 2025 |work=Boing Boing}} It can display a standard interlaced image as well as a 480p picture at a 60 Hz refresh rate, using improved-definition television (IDTV), which used a digital frame buffer to deinterlace video.{{Sfn|Gardner|1989|p=30}} The monitor contains two RGB inputs at 15.75 and 31.5 kHz to allow for native 480p inputs.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/sony_PVM-4300_Operating_Instructions.PDF/page/n11 |title=Sony Monitor Manual: PVM 4300 Operating Instructions |publisher=Sony Corporation |year=1989 |pages=12}} It does not have a built-in TV tuner.

According to CRT Database, the unit weighs 199.6 kg (440 lb), and measures at 105 × 92.5 × 76.7 cm (41.3 × 36.4 × 30.1 in).{{Cite web |date=December 22, 2024 |title=Sony PVM-4300 {{!}} CRT Database |url=https://crtdatabase.com/crts/sony/sony-pvm-4300 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250204210048/https://crtdatabase.com/crts/sony/sony-pvm-4300 |archive-date=February 4, 2025 |access-date=February 4, 2025 |website=crtdatabase.com |language=en}}

Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune expressed his astonishment at the size and of the cost of the monitor, writing: "This TV set is to your TV set what your TV set is to an old Popsicle stick in the gutter with ants on it."{{Cite news |last=Zorn |first=Eric |author-link=Eric Zorn |date=March 6, 1990 |title=TO GET THE BIG PICTURE, YOU'LL NEED A BIG WALLET |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-03-06-9001190332-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/U6yjn |archive-date=February 4, 2025 |access-date=February 4, 2025 |work=Chicago Tribune}} A review in the Sun Sentinel expressed a similar sentiment to its cost yet praised the monitor for its "brightness, clarity and sharpness of color." A 1989 issue of Video Review described it as the "best-looking, big-screen set we've ever seen", but also said it's "designed more as a statement than a conventional product."{{Cite magazine |last=Fagan |first=Gregory P. |date=August 1989 |title=Sony's 43-inch Direct-View TV |url=https://archive.org/details/video-review-august-1989/page/n33 |access-date= February 5, 2025 |magazine=Video Review |page=32 |volume=10 |issue=5}}

Shank, after acquiring the set in 2024, described it as looking "incredible" in person.{{Cite web |last=Tyson |first=Mark |date=December 23, 2024 |title=Console modder hunts down world's largest CRT TV — saves it from noodle restaurant demolition death half the way around the globe |url=https://www.tomshardware.com/monitors/console-modder-hunts-down-worlds-largest-crt-tv-saves-it-from-noodle-restaurant-demolition-death-half-the-way-around-the-globe |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250126111238/https://www.tomshardware.com/monitors/console-modder-hunts-down-worlds-largest-crt-tv-saves-it-from-noodle-restaurant-demolition-death-half-the-way-around-the-globe |archive-date=January 26, 2025 |access-date=February 4, 2025 |website=Tom's Hardware |language=en}}

File:Direct front view of Sony PVM-4300 (KX-45ED1).jpg|Front view of the set

File:Close internal view of Sony PVM-4300 (KX-45ED1).jpg|Internal view of the set, showing the boards and electron gun inside

File:Below view of Sony PVM-4300 (KX-45ED1).jpg|View of the slide-out control tray at the bottom of the monitor

File:Front right face view of Sony PVM-4300 (KX-45ED1).jpg|Front right face view of the set

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{Cite magazine |last=Gardner |first=Dana L. |date=December 4, 1989 |title=Holiday Trappings For Technology Lovers |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_design-news_1989-12-04_45_23/page/n31 |access-date=2025-02-04 |magazine=Design News |pages=29–30 |volume=45 |issue=23}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Poelman |first=Dirk |date=October 29, 2024 |title=AC thin-film electroluminescence: A historical overview with a look ahead |url=https://pubs.aip.org/avs/jvb/article-abstract/42/6/060801/3318365/AC-thin-film-electroluminescence-A-historical?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B |volume=42 |issue=6 |pages=1–7 |doi=10.1116/6.0004083 |bibcode=2024JVSTB..42f0801P |issn=2166-2746}}

{{refend}}

{{Commonscat|Sony PVM-4300}}

• [https://consolemods.org/wiki/CRT:PVM-4300 PVM-4300] at ConsoleMods Wiki
• [https://crtdatabase.com/crts/sony/sony-pvm-4300 Sony PVM-4300] at CRT Database
• {{YouTube|id=JfZxOuc9Qwk|title=What Happened to the World's Largest Tube TV?}}
• {{YouTube|id=Dgkw3uu19V8|title=Overview of the KX45ED1 / PVM-4300 (Worlds Largest CRT)}}

{{Sony}}

Category:Television sets

Category:Sony products