r/crtgaming•
ingx32

Hunting for a Mysterious Panasonic CRT

First, despite the date, I promise this is not an April Fools joke. I have been hunting for a specific Panasonic CRT from my childhood, which has specific nostalgic value for me. Long story short, this set had serious issues with the picture when I had it as a kid, and fixing it to the best of my ability became somewhat of a pet project for me when I was about 6 years old. I remember reading the manual for it over and over just for fun, dreaming of being able to set the picture settings to something resembling what it originally looked like out of the box. Needless to say, I had no real success with fixing it (it was pretty badly damaged, I'm not sure how this happened), but it was more about the journey than the destination for me.

Unfortunately, this particular set apparently broke for good around the time I was 19 - the plastic started falling apart, and my parents threw it out. At the time I had no attachment to it anymore - I guess I had buried the nostalgia since I had gotten super into LCDs and HD stuff by then - so I didn't really care that it was gone. But now that I'm back into CRTs, I genuinely miss this old set, and finding one of the same model has become a holy grail for me.

Thankfully, I remember the manual fairly well, and by looking at Panasonic manuals online, I believe the set I had was the CT-20620T (manual here: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/507228/Panasonic-Ct20620t.html#product-CT20620T). It seems to be part of a small, little known collection of sets sold in the 90s, of which there seem to be only 3 (the CT-205115, the CT-20620T, and I think one other that isn't identified by model on this site - there may be more, but I haven't looked through every manual here obviously). This collection can be identified by the distinct remote shape as well as the layout of the on screen menu, which is different from the Panasonic models that most people are familiar with.

I have made an imgur album (https://imgur.io/a/bSdTYYi) pointing out the distinctive features of the set I had that I recognize in the manual for the CT-20620T. I am not 100% certain that there isn't some other model I haven't found that's closer to what I remember, but this is by far the closest I've found, and it fits my memories enough that I'd jump at the chance to buy it. Something I forgot to point out in the album is that I don't necessarily remember the remote having VCR buttons on it - but I also don't remember it not having VCR buttons, as I never paid that much attention to the remote. Another thing worth mentioning is that the front of this model looks identical to that of the CT-20G11U (which you can see in this ebay listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/225424856409) - the difference is in the menu layout, as well as not having the audio out sockets in the back for external speakers.

I am looking for any assistance I can get in tracking down this model, as this is of great personal significance to me and seems to be somewhat rare. If anyone thinks they have it and can send pictures proving it's the one I'm looking for, I am willing to drive and pay cash for it (I'm in the southeast PA area, but I'm willing to do a bit of a road trip since this is so important to me). If I absolutely cannot find the one I'm looking for, after exhausting all my options, I may be willing to settle with one that's as similar as I can find. But if at all possible, I'd like to find the exact one - which, as of now, I strongly believe to be the CT-20620T. If anyone has any information you think may be helpful, please do not hesitate to post it here.

Thank you.

Posted Apr 1, 2023, 6:50 PM UTC

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