I thought this was the beginning of the end, but apparently it is the end of the end.
Over the last few years it has become difficult to buy new cathode ray tube televisions (the best medium through which to play old consoles), but I had no idea the A/V situation had become so dire...
When buying new TV's recently I discovered that not only are RF inputs been removed, but now also composite (Y/R/W) inputs, and in some cases even component inputs (R/B/G/R/W). HDMI and USB are in full support, and I suspect that USB3 will ultimately make even HDMI obsolete.
The good news is that NTSC and PAL is a thing of the past (but for the absense of a radio frequency TV Tuner).
So I can now play a healthy chunk of my NTSC games, (but I had to buy a special conversion cable for the composite input), but my RF systems are now (hopefully temporarilly) dead. Those include (hushed intonation): Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Sega 32X, Intelivision, Atari 2600, 5200 and 7800. (I had long since upgraded my NES and SNES to component). Hope is still out there, for $185 I can buy a thing that converts NTSC RF to component, but the seller gaurantees nothing.
Retron 5 is starting to look good.
Ok, so problem solved.
Last night, in one of my sleepless visions, I recalled having a VCR from the US that had a coaxial cable input with composite cable outputs. So I dug through my shipping container today (which is well organized, not what yo uw oudl imagine to be an excerpt of Hoarders, found said device, hooked it up to my HDTV and Voila!
Problem solved.
I as playing Moonwalker in minutes and Pac-man on Atari 2600 shortly thereafter.