You can make a perfectly good retro setup in the UK with a nice consumer CRT TV. Sony Trinitrons are generally considered very good models, but Panasonic and Philips have quality models and I even had a lesser-known brand Thomson that was equal to my Trinitron on picture quality.
Very true. I've kind off given up on PVM, BVM hunting. And try to find consumer TV sets in very good shape instead. Not to say I won't buy one when the chance arrives but not at all cost.
My personal tier list looks like this.
S tier CRTs: Broadcasting monitors, medical monitors, personal computer monitors (comodore amiga etc).
Top tier consumer TV's: Bang & Olufsen, Loewe, Sharp, JVC, Mitsubishi and of course Sony Trinitrons.
Mid tier consumer TV's (still good but quality depends on a model): Samsung, Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Thomson, Sanyo, Grundig. Thomson and Sanyo are very prone to failure though and Phillips to a lesser degree.
Of course the most important factor is how heavily it was used in the past. CRTs degrade with time. So it's best to pick typical guest room, bed room units, that are usually smaller (20-21"). Bigger ones almost always were used as main TVs in the household. So it's harder to get them in good condition.
