There have been a couple of impressive DIY conversions on the forum for LCD screens being used to replace Avant TV tubes. I wonder what the economics would be for either B&O or a reseller to sell LCD/LED conversion kits for TVs like the Avant? (Assuming tubes are no longer readily available at some point and/or a move to all HD broadcasting).

Or is it the case that when a tube fails (average 10-15 years?) all the other TV components are unlikely to last much longer?

Or, regardless of its qualities, is the Avant dead and beyond resurrection simply because of its bulk and weight relative to the likes of the BV10?

Graham

A fair idea, though until the tube is broken, I would not swap it!

I had never thought of this - what a great idea.

In cases like Avants with tubes dead (and no more replacements available) any replacement panel would be marvelous item. I wouldn't think of scrapping the tube out of a working set but with sets with bad tubes (like a Beovision MX3000s, tubes are told to loose their emission very quickly in these sets, mine is working fine, though, perhaps because I never use it!). Some sort of converter would be needed for the electronics and one problem could be fitting the flat LCD/LED-panel to the curved case/frame of the CRT.

I would believe that the electronics in TV sets last (or can be repaired) much more easily than the tubes, they are big, heavy, sealed, made of glass, contain a vacuum, work on high voltages.... none a reason that makes repairs easy! The electronics would need to be changed/heavily modified in order to make the set work with higher definitions than original but as a way to keep the set working this would be great.

I wouldn't imagine B&O making these (rather some small company specialized to these) but who knows - perhaps one day. Interesting idea at least.

The problem is that a conventional TV set contains pretty much nothing useful for this conversion apart from the case. Starting from the power supply, they have been designed around the high voltage deflection stage that the tube requires and there's not much sense running it "dry". Even the connector panel and signal routing is usually too integrated with the rest of the chassis.

Things are a bit different with B&O TVs that have active speakers, since the amplifier modules are usually conveniently separable... and even the passive speakers beat just about any flat screen you can get from other manufacturers. I don't think a conversion kit could ever be economically viable to B&O, and I'm sure they'd much rather sell new TVs anyway.

Of course none of this prevents anyone doing it themselves

I suspect it would be trickier than it first appears. It is far more likely that a 3rd-party company might offer it as a service rather than B&O themselves, although any conversion kit may be less cost-effective than buying a second-hand Beovision 5

Simon