[EliRivers]

Purely for the fun of thinking about it, and not just to be awkward:

We owned a heavy, wooden CRT TV set from the 1970s or 1980s that hid all buttons behind a fake, black "speaker" that you could press to pop open. A decade or two after we had tossed this TV into our barn for disposal, my brother and I took turns hitting the glass screen as hard as we could with a baseball bat.

It never left a mark, regardless of how hard we hit it. Why don't we produce that quality anymore?

I would hazard that given the inflation adjusted price of a mid-range TV appears to have dropped about 99 percent since 1975, if we were willing to pay 100 times as much for a TV as we actually do here in the year 2026, we could have one made out of bulletproof glass too :)

[jameshart]

There is a simpler explanation: Because TVs no longer contain particle accelerators that require the screen to be made of sufficient lead glass to absorb all the ionizing radiation they would otherwise be beaming into your living room, while enclosing a near vacuum.

[baron3dl]

i wonder if there's a niche market for an oled screen with a 100lbs glass surface for the hipsters out there. all the weight without that pesky electron cannon.

[alnwlsn]

I remember visiting a science museum as a kid which had a couple of CRTs like that set up where you could pull a rope to smash a hammer into it and try to break it. With the same result; never leaving a mark.

CRTs are built like that because otherwise they would implode from the slightest bump and send thousands of tiny glass fragments flying in all directions.

Panel displays of today have their glass pieces glued together into one solid lump, and there is no pressure, so when they break the broken pieces stay where they are for the most part.

[dirkc]

I grew up with a TV like that. I'm pretty sure the one we had probably caused at least a hand full of slipped disks

[esailija]

TVs for consumers are sold at loss and the TV companies are making money with data and ads.

I guess the real price is 5-10x of what you pay. So only 10-20x more expensive for more apples to apples compariaon.