Last March I talked about the Toshiba 3787DB, a 37-inch television that basically set the upper size limit for consumers in the UK. However, when someone searches for the world's largest CRT television, all arrows point in the same direction: the Sony KX-45ED1. Only a handful of images survive on the web, and many enthusiasts came to think it never existed, but Shank Mods managed to locate one in Japan. His mini-documentary shows us the complete rescue and import process... not an easy task considering the television weighs 200 kilograms...
CRT enthusiasts fight against time. Those who collect old consoles and computers know that battle well, but the challenge of CRTs is even greater. We can replace capacitors, reproduce PCBs, clone casings, even emulate entire systems. However, the tubes are a one-way street... and the world has stopped making them.
That process places a lot of pressure on any rescue and restoration attempt. I say 'rescue' because certain models are true unicorns, and at the top of the list appears the Sony KX-45ED1. Also known as the PVM-4300, this limited edition television (which celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the Trinitron line) arrived on the Japanese market in 1988... but not a few doubted its existence. While there are official prices (2.43 million yen, and $40,000 for the US version in 1989), manuals and technical information, the KX-45ED1 became a myth, and some interpreted it as a simple publicity stunt by Sony.
Sony KX-45ED1: When the Myth Becomes Reality
The reputation of the Sony KX-45ED1 reached an even more legendary level due to the existence of barely two images of the television in real life, which by the way had never been confirmed. However, everything changed in October 2022, when Shank Mods (whom we know from his modified consoles on YouTube) received a message from his friend 'Derf': He had the precise address of one of the images. He traced its origins to locate the original post on a Japanese blog called 'Move of Sunday', and upon asking its owner about the location of the television, he received the exact information... the waiting room on the second floor of a restaurant over 300 years old called Chikuma Soba, in Osaka.
Good news, the Sony KX-45ED1 was most likely still there. Bad news, the restaurant was about to change its location, closing its doors on October 24, 2022 to begin demolition of the old building. The idea of that television ending up in a landfill drove Shank Mods to despair, and he had no choice but to ask his followers if anyone lived in Osaka to confirm the existence of the KX-45ED1. Shank achieved much more than that, as he came into contact with Abebe Tinari, the true hero of this story.
At 1:23 AM on October 23, Shank Mods received confirmation: The television had not moved from the second floor. Abebe spoke with the restaurant owner, who told him they had to move by the end of November... and get rid of the television. Thus began "Operation Big Boy": Make an offer to its owner, take the television down from the second floor, store it in a safe place, schedule its shipping to the other side of the planet, and have it arrive in Shank's hands in one piece.
With the support of his friends, parents, and the video's sponsor (Shopify, which deserves a special mention), Shank Mods initiated the rescue. Abebe had news from the owner: They had until November 20 to remove the television, and they could take it for free if they handled all the logistics. Once again, Abebe accepted the challenge: Thanks to the intervention of his friend Chihiro, who specializes in international shipping of machinery, the KX-45ED1 was rescued, removed, and transported in time. The heavy lifting was done by a contact of Chihiro, Mr. Takahashi, and his team.
The Sony KX-45ED1 and its special table arrived undamaged on January 16, 2023. The unboxing and setup was almost a ritual, but after that they did something more than appropriate: Play a good game of Smash. With the assistance of friends and CRT enthusiasts, Shank Mods managed to calibrate this monster, and repair a failure in the convergence controller, however, he decided to do nothing about the cataracts in the tube (barely noticeable, and the risk is too great for such a rare television).
To conclude, the video includes a fabulous interview with the restaurant owner, Sony's refusal (which never responded to messages) to authorize an interview with a Trinitron engineer who knew the original designer of the KX-45ED1, and of course, a recognition to that titan named Abebe Tinari. Who exactly is he? A game designer, and the director of "Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon".
More images: ConsoleMods.org
