The Cathode Ray Podcast is a series with CRT shaman Steve from Retro Tech and Louis Zezeran from Zez Retro. Together they talk about CRTs, TVs and other retro gaming topics.

In this episode we have the pleasure of chatting with Shank from Shank Mods. You know him from that Hot Wheels PC video, GameCube Joy-cons and creating a portable Wii, among many other great portable modding projects.

Shank Mods on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/c/ShankMods

Our talk is a really casual chat with Shank about the mods he does, his love and background in CRTs and more details on 4 Layer Technologies the company he co-founded to provide components to enable more people to create portable systems https://4layertech.com

00:00 Start

02:20 The impact of his videos on our fomo

08:30 Shank's trip to the Computer Reset Warehouse

13:00 More talk about CRTs

27:10 The potential in HD CRTs 

34:30 Time Sleuth hijinks 

47:00 Buying pro and jank monitors from eBay

55:00 Shank's love of whacky CRTs: Shrek, Disney, Hot Wheels

1:04:00 Moving from CRTs to flat panels for Melee back in the day

1:14:00 Shank's home setup

1:25:00 Shank's PVM 20M2 repairs

1:31:00 His business "4 Layer Technologies" and their portable Wii kit

Steve and Louis maintain a blog about their projects "The Cathode Ray Blog"

https://www.cathoderayblog.com

You can find the audio on the web or your favorite podcast app

https://anchor.fm/zezretro

Catch us on Twitter

https://twitter.com/zez

https://twitter.com/usa_retro

For all your CRT repair needs, check out Steve's channel

https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroTechUSA

The Zezcast is my solo podcast where I interview creators and individuals in the retro gaming community who I think are interesting.

In this episode I talk to Vinnk from Famicom Dojo, who for me is one of the OG retro video creators. Famicom Dojo is a series which has been around longer than YouTube (!) and started with Vinnk living in Japan and wanting to make the first documentation of the cool stuff he saw back in the day (some before it was retro).

He continues to make videos and streams with his partner Sean Orange to this day. In the last few years he has also opened up a new avenue for his retro games collecting: opening his own Japanese import games online store Japan Retro Direct https://japanretrodirect.ocnk.com

I ask Vinnk about the origins of Famicom Dojo, what his experiences have been running Japan Retro Direct and whats his take on the state of second hand retro gaming products on the ground in Japan right now. Oh and we also talk about how Japanese retro gamers see CRTs as well. I couldn't leave out a tube tv discussion.

00:00 The origins of Famicom Dojo

07:30 The real Famicom Dojo store in Japan

14:00 The slower update of retro collecting in Japan

23:00 Are Japanese retro gamers into CRTs?

42:45 How did you start Japan Retro Direct?

1:00:10 What trends have you noticed among your buyers?

1:12:00 Observations of an average Japanese retro store in 2022?

01:26:20 Our shared experiences as westerners living in a foreign country

Check out Vinnk's store: https://japanretrodirect.ocnk.com

Famicom Dojo on YouTube: https://youtube.com/famicomdojo

Famicom Dojo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/famicomdojo

Vinnk on Twitter: https://twitter.com/famicomvinnk

I also have a podcast with my friend Steve Nutter from Retro Tech USA called "The Cathode Ray Podcast" where we discuss CRT's and retro tech in general

https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro/

Steve and I maintain a blog about their projects "The Cathode Ray Blog"

https://www.cathoderayblog.com

You can find the audio for the Zezcast and The Cathode Ray Podcast on the web or your favourite podcast app

https://anchor.fm/zezretro

Catch me on Twitter

https://twitter.com/zez

The Cathode Ray Podcast is a series with CRT shaman Steve from Retro Tech and Louis Zezeran from Zez Retro. Together they talk about CRTs, TVs and other retro gaming topics.

In this episode the guys talk about

00:00 Start

02:00 Upcoming Zezcast episode with Bob from RetroRGB

03:40 Xbox 360 steering wheel repair

08:30 Steve's thrifts for this week

17:00 Steve cleaning disgusting cap leakage on a BVM board

21:30 A closer look and explanation of the BVM card

41:15 A discussion about CRT Wikis 

The second half of our episode is a longer discussion about the current state of CRT information on the Internet. Now we have multiple sources for this information which is great if you are looking up info. What about if you want to contribute back to the community? Where should you put your findings? Steve and I discuss the various options to help you understand how you can best play your part.

CRT Wiki: https://consolemods.org

The CRT Database:  https://crtdatabase.com/

Steve and Louis maintain a blog about their projects "The Cathode Ray Blog"

https://www.cathoderayblog.com

You can find the audio on the web or your favourite podcast app

https://anchor.fm/zezretro

Catch us on Twitter

https://twitter.com/zez

https://twitter.com/usa_retro

For all your CRT repair needs, check out Steve's channel

https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroTechUSA

The Cathode Ray Podcast is a series with CRT shaman Steve from Retro Tech and Louis Zezeran from Zez Retro. Together they talk about CRTs, TVs and other retro gaming topics.

In this episode the guys talk about

00:00 Start

3:30 CD hunting in Australia

11:45 Is mould bad on magnetic tapes?

23:30 Just WTF is a "stubbie holder" / "beer koozie"?

29:00 Steve's upcoming work as a CRT consultant for a museum 

40:30 What is the future of the Retro Tech business? Should Steve expand with more staff or remain a focued boutique? A longer discussion about the ways a small business can expand.

You can find the audio on the web or your favourite podcast app: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

Catch us on Twitter

https://twitter.com/zez

https://twitter.com/usa_retro

For all your CRT repair needs, check out Steve's channel

https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroTechUSA

In this series I team up with CRT shaman Steve from Retro Tech and we talk about CRTs, TVs and other retro gaming topics.

This is my second episode recorded from rural NSW in Australia, the internet is stil shocking slow but we got it done. Our next episode will be Wednesday next week when I am back in Estonia and then we will get back to our regular schedule (and 1080p60 video haha)

Topics this week:

Kangaroos right outside my back door

CCTV is tracking drunk bogans

Steve installs a GC Digital Port Upgrade

Goodwill war stories

Why are Switch games not coming down in price yet=

You can find the audio on the web or your favourite podcast app: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

https://twitter.com/usa_retro

For all your CRT repair needs, check out Steve's channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroTechUSA

Zez Retro Audio: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

Zez Retro Video: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro

Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran

In this series I team up with CRT shaman Steve from Retro Tech and we talk about CRTs, TVs and other retro gaming topics.

This is a special episode as I am currently visiting my parents in Australia. You want to know about crap upload speeds? Anyone on Tel$tra in rural OZ knows what I am talking about. I apologize this episode is only at 720p otherwise we would have been here until next week uploading it. 

I wanted to film this outside with a nice background but we are getting the tail end of the bad weather which effected Dan Mons so badly in Brisbane. No flooding here but a sh*t ton of rain.

Topics this week:

Starlink enabling their network in the Ukraine

Dan getting rained on in Brisbane

Steve constructing a "new" PVM from parts

The tale of saving and restoring one of the worst 20L2 monitor's Steve has ever seen

The value of providing services: how much is your time worth?

You can find the audio on the web or your favorite podcast app: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

https://twitter.com/usa_retro

For all your CRT repair needs, check out Steve's channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroTechUSA

Zez Retro Audio: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

Zez Retro Video: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro

Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran

In this series I team up with CRT shaman Steve from Retro Tech and we talk about CRTs, TVs and other retro gaming topics.

In this episode we are joined by developer Dan Mons. You may know his name as the lead developer (or "guy who pieces it together" as he likes to say) of RetroNAS, which is a great new open source solutions for storing all of your retro ROMs and ISOs.

In addition Dan is a CRT nerd from back in the day. He has a huge personal collection himself and he has worked in many VFX and production studios which used professional CRT monitors. In particular he has a lot of experience color calibrating pro monitors and we go deep into this.

Sound quality note: There is some faint feedback in the recording,  sometimes it sounds like an softer echo. I tried to manually remove most  of it but you can hear it occasionally.

0:00 Start

01:30 Our experiences with the RetroNAS

22:30 Dan's tutorial videos are great

27:30 Dan loves CRTs

35:00 We keep talking about how much we love CRTs

39:45 Dan's favourite CRT project

46:00 Color correcting CRTs in a production studio

01:00:15 Steve's experience providing CRTs to museums

01:06:00 Medical CRTs

01:15:00 Did CRTs just naturally reach their end of life?

01:19:00 The CRT elite club

01:20:00 What is the difference between a movie and a VR game?

01:31:30 Growing up in Australia and using BBS before the Internet

01:40:00 Australian broadband

01:46:00 Buying, preserving ROMs

The RetroNAS project: https://github.com/danmons/retronas

Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_daemons

You can find the audio on the web or your favorite podcast app: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

https://twitter.com/usa_retro

For all your CRT repair needs, check out Steve's channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroTechUSA

Zez Retro Audio: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

Zez Retro Video: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro

Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran

In this series I team up with CRT shaman Steve from Retro Tech and we talk about CRTs, TVs and other retro gaming topics.

This week's episode is a general round up of what the guys have been doing this week

0:30 Steve's surname, come on

10:30 Should you choose that OLED PVM over a modern OLED?

22:30 Using Retronas with a PS2

27:30 Making your own network cables

29: 30 Installing network cable in my university sharehouse

41:30 Running a small tech support shop in 2001

52:20 Steve's experience in writing articles for RetroRGB

01:03:00 Our thoughts on the direction Bob is taking RetroRGB

We would like your questions too! For now just tweet at Steve or I and we will work your question into the next episode

You can find the audio on the web or your favorite podcast app: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

https://twitter.com/usa_retro

For all your CRT repair needs, check out Steve's channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroTechUSA

Zez Retro Audio: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

Zez Retro Video: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro

Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran

In this series I team up with CRT shaman Steve from Retro Tech and we talk about CRTs, TVs and other retro gaming topics.

On this episode we are fortunate enough to speak to Martin Hejnfelt from Denmark. Martin has done some amazing work in the retro community designing input cards and control replacements for pro CRTs. Some of Martin's work:

* Designing the BKM-68x & BKM-129x replacement input cards for Sony pro CRTs.

* Designing input cards and RGB mods for JVC sets

* Reverse engineering the control protocol for the BKM-15R remote

Martin's technical write ups: https://immerhax.com

Martin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MartinHejnfelt

You can find the audio on the web or your favourite podcast app: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

https://twitter.com/usa_retro

For all your CRT repair needs, check out Steve's channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroTechUSA

Zez Retro Audio: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

Zez Retro Video: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro

Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran

In this series I team up with CRT shaman Steve from Retro Tech and we talk about CRTs, TVs and other retro gaming topics.

This week's episode is a general round up of what the guys have been doing this week

* Steve's Goodwill hunting missions

* More about the OLED PVM

* Filming CRT screens

* Converting RGBHV to RGBs

* Steve explains the experience of going to a NASCAR race to me

We would like your questions too! For now just tweet at Steve or I and we will work your question into the next episode

You can find the audio on the web or your favorite podcast app: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

https://twitter.com/usa_retro

For all your CRT repair needs, check out Steve's channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroTechUSA

Zez Retro Audio: https://anchor.fm/zezretro

Zez Retro Video: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro

Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran