This was another set I saved from being recycled. The tag is unreadable so I don't know much about it. It has a mean looking cataract and a missing control panel door but is otherwise complete. Not bad for $10 bucks. These things are hard to find in so-cal!

CTC-38 maybe?

wow, nice. Needs the drh heat gun treatment bad but should be awesome once restored. I have one that looks close to that, its a ctc35, it has an amazing picture.
I will agree that its hard to find anything here in so cal.
I got this gem from the curb yesterday. 1982, it even works...talk about delux and select.
http://justsmog.com/Clay/12-17-09_1053.jpg

I got this gem from the curb yesterday. 1982, it even works...talk about delux and select.


I like that cabinet!

Nice Zenith! As for the RCA, Sweet! Looks like the same model I got from an estate sale recently. Is it a CTC-28?

Sweet finds!! That ctc 28 looks like it's got potental and ctc17's zenith sure looks like a 1984 model system 3 that I have!! Good set and I bet it has a seperate external audio and video selector controlled by swtiches.

I see so many crt tvs on the curb now its to the point where i rip the boards out of them and harvest the parts using a propane torch. I see 2-5 per day just in my hood.
Never anything with tubes or in real good condition.

Most of the time the kids pick them up and throw them to hear the pop of the crt. Im building up such a collection of parts its great.

I have picked up 3 zenith consoles like this in the last week.

I like that set Jordan! A cataract removal and a cabinet refinish and that's a pretty set.

I'd have grabbed that RCA, too. Cataracts on recatangular tubes don't get much worse than that. You will have a great before/after shot!

Yes, indeed, that Z-nith is a rare antique! A little scratch remover and you'll be ready for the roadshow...

Kinda surprised, I was over to my friend's shop over the weekend and he mentioned that he had just sold one of his used consoles. Just what somebody was looking for, turns out. If it was the one I'm thinking about, it was a mid-90s Sentry 2. Good thing he didn't warranty it!

I see so many crt tvs on the curb now its to the point where i rip the boards out of them and harvest the parts using a propane torch. I see 2-5 per day just in my hood.
Never anything with tubes or in real good condition.

Most of the time the kids pick them up and throw them to hear the pop of the crt. Im building up such a collection of parts its great.

I have picked up 3 zenith consoles like this in the last week.

Speaking of TV dumping, I walked into the SA last week and there were at least thirty 80's-90's CRT sets piled up in the corner. All were selling for $10 or less. Too bad nothing was old enough to be interesting to me.

000

The SA here seems to specialize in $150 27" TVs, and $200 36" TVs. I can't imagine who buys them at that price...

Unfortunately, those days are gone; but, I guess someone forgot to clue them in at the SA where you are and at one of the local charity thrift stores where I live. A few months ago, there was an '80's 19" Goldstar with a vertical deflection problem priced at $54.95!

The other day, I walked in my local SA and the only two TV's in the place were a BPC 36" and a '90's RCA big screen. I didn't even look at the prices. I've tried to convince them that I'd buy their older broken TV's that come in; but, they are real quick to let me know that they don't have time to mess with me and any broken TV's go in the dumpster unless I just happen to be there when one comes in. One of the former store managers would sometimes sit stuff back for me. I think he saw it as $5 was better than throwing the TV in the trash.

One of the Goodwill stores in my area seems to have acquired an electronics "expert," complete with a roped off section for his evaluations. All the BPC VCRs and CD players are priced $20 and up. Needless to say, they have amassed quite the collection of VCRs and cheap 80s-90s stereo equipment.

One of the Goodwill stores in my area seems to have acquired an electronics "expert," complete with a roped off section for his evaluations. All the BPC VCRs and CD players are priced $20 and up. Needless to say, they have amassed quite the collection of VCRs and cheap 80s-90s stereo equipment.

What is a VCR?

Am I the only one who thinks that Jordan's new RCA color set might be a CTC-44 Trans Vista Color????

Charles

our local sa also has an "expert" in electronics.he might be 18 years old.i have spoke with him several times.he couldn t believe there was ever a round color set and he has heard of tubes.anything from 1990 and older is now "vintage".
he like to tell you that "the knobs alone are worth a fortune'.HE HASNT A CLUE.what is more baffling is that management takes his word as gold.they have more than 40 sets with high price tags sitting there.i havent bought anything there for years.i still go take a look.makes my day.what new valuable sets "MIKE"has checked out and priced.that 19' GE from the late 90s with a 89.00 price is highly sought after.or the sampo vhs unit with remote for 99.00.

000

0000

I do like that style control panel, no matter the chassis. I never thought much of the newer ones with the tilt-out door. A 40/44 would be neat.

The SA that I frequent has been pretty good on electronics. Of course, they recently set me up with that Airline color combo, so I can't gripe. Most are priced okay, not too cheap though. Not real consistent. You might see a very clean Monkey Wards 19" remote set from the mid-80s for $15 and next to it is a knob-tune Sears in a beat up cabinet, late 70s, priced $50. Depends who is working that day, I guess. Lately they have been good for having in stock at least one top-loader VCR priced at $5. The manager seems to have a good attitude. While I was making the deal on the combo somebody came in asking about a pair of old pianos that have been languising on the sales floor for quite some time. He said he would take $10 each. (and the prospective buyer thought that was too high!)

This was another set I saved from being recycled. The tag is unreadable so I don't know much about it. It has a mean looking cataract...
Are you sure that's a cataract? It looks more like the result of loss of vacuum from the neck being cracked off suddenly. Bill(oc)

Nice score on the RCA! Can't beat the price and it looks as though it will clean up nicely. Don't see too many of those around here. Goodwill quit dealing in televisions entirely about a year ago, and all of the local thrifts have the usual overpriced late 80's/early 90's sets on the shelves.

Have been keeping my eyes out for a top-loading VHS machine to fill up the top of my CCII, but all I seem to come across are the last gasp of VCR technology. Might have to dig out the Betamax one of these days.

Are you sure that's a cataract? It looks more like the result of loss of vacuum from the neck being cracked off suddenly. Bill(oc)

That's definitely a cataract. The Admiral in my avatar had one that was all the way to the center of the screen, save for about a 4" circle. When I first saw the picture I thought the same thing.

Do color tubes suffer from the same phenomenon when they get necked? I would think the shadow mask would protect the phosphors from at least physical (impact) damage and maybe from the damage of the air rushing into the tube.

Re: the Zenith console - I almost picked one of those up at a thrift store a couple weeks ago, but $50 seemed a little steep. It had the same control layout, with stereo decoder and A/V inputs, from 1985. In 10 years, though, they will probably be as sought after as the CCIIs are now. I remember a lot of the sets I grew up with that got tossed simply because they were "just old TVs"

-Jim

I used to have a Zenith console just like the one you picked up. Had to be from 1992 instead of 1982. It even had the dreaded Zenith picture tube failure. Had trash in the green gun that shorted occasionally giving a green raster with retrace. Ended up giving it away to a neighbor when I moved and had to downsize about 10 years ago. Don't miss it a bit. Had lousy audio with the tinniest sounding speakers they could get their hands on.

What is a VCR?
It is kind of like a DVR, except instead of using a program guide, you have to tell it the time of day and amount of time you want it to record. Often, these steps are done with small visible displays and indicators right on the front panel of the machine itself, using numerous small buttons. The recordings are not made on a hard disk drive as normal, but on large removable cartridges that each hold only a small amount of recorded TV-as few as two hours per cartridge.

The cartridges themselves do not contain an ordinary random-access magnetic platter, but two separate reels and a large amount (hundreds of feet!) of plastic tape with a magnetic coating somewhat comparable to that on a hard disk platter. The tape winds from one reel to the other as the recording is made, and it must be rewound all the way back onto the first reel before the recording can be watched (the rewinding process can itself take a minute or more after a two-hour recording). If more than one recording is made on the cartridge, this slow tape-winding process (forward or reverse) must be done before watching any of the recordings, and there is NO on-screen menu of the programs on the cartridge! Because of this end-to-end tape operation, random access to specific points in a movie was a slow, cumbersome process, and there were no individual chapters encoded on the tape cartridges.

Despite these shortcomings and limitations, the machines were very popular for a number of years. Large numbers of the "video cassettes" were sold, at very low prices, and people collected cabinets full of them in their homes. Because the cassettes were removable, it was possible to buy or rent individual cassettes with popular movies, similar to the way Blu-ray movies are bought and rented today (as were DVDs previously).

:)

The set turns out to be a CTC-28 and it has a hi-lite 25xp22 which has excellent emission. There also isn't any evidence of major failure - or service for that matter.

It will be down the line - but I will try and restore this one - looks like a good bet it will turn out well.

our local sa also has an "expert" in electronics.he might be 18 years old.i have spoke with him several times.he couldn t believe there was ever a round color set and he has heard of tubes.anything from 1990 and older is now "vintage".
he like to tell you that "the knobs alone are worth a fortune'.HE HASNT A CLUE.what is more baffling is that management takes his word as gold.they have more than 40 sets with high price tags sitting there.i havent bought anything there for years.i still go take a look.makes my day.what new valuable sets "MIKE"has checked out and priced.that 19' GE from the late 90s with a 89.00 price is highly sought after.or the sampo vhs unit with remote for 99.00.

I used to think i was the dumb one until i got older, and this proves some people should of not been born!

Nice score on the RCA! Can't beat the price and it looks as though it will clean up nicely. Don't see too many of those around here. Goodwill quit dealing in televisions entirely about a year ago, and all of the local thrifts have the usual overpriced late 80's/early 90's sets on the shelves.

Have been keeping my eyes out for a top-loading VHS machine to fill up the top of my CCII, but all I seem to come across are the last gasp of VCR technology. Might have to dig out the Betamax one of these days.



That's definitely a cataract. The Admiral in my avatar had one that was all the way to the center of the screen, save for about a 4" circle. When I first saw the picture I thought the same thing.

Do color tubes suffer from the same phenomenon when they get necked? I would think the shadow mask would protect the phosphors from at least physical (impact) damage and maybe from the damage of the air rushing into the tube.

Re: the Zenith console - I almost picked one of those up at a thrift store a couple weeks ago, but $50 seemed a little steep. It had the same control layout, with stereo decoder and A/V inputs, from 1985. In 10 years, though, they will probably be as sought after as the CCIIs are now. I remember a lot of the sets I grew up with that got tossed simply because they were "just old TVs"

-Jim

At the local Value Village thrift ive always seen a few top loaders off, and on. A matter a fact their is an RCA Selectavision VHS top loader there that has not sold yet for 5 bucks. During half off days it could be bought for $2.50! Sorry you did not live here!

When I was younger I busted/imploded plenty of crts, and I guess most were color. I don't recall any of them having a signifcant marking on the face from breaking the neck. Seems like it took a pretty good implosion to do that. But very common on the bw tubes.

I was in my friend's TV shop the other day and some folks came in looking for a VCR. Tony didn't have any left so he deferred to me. I told them that anything made in recent years was bound to be junk, and to look for a good one at a thrift store. Unfortunately I didn't have a spare I wanted to part with.

Necked tubes B&W and color both usually will have a black center where the phospher got blown off upon minor implosion. Have sen my share of busted CRT's in my 34 years.

It is kind of like a DVR, except instead of using a program guide, you have to tell it the time of day and amount of time you want it to record. Often, these steps are done with small visible displays and indicators right on the front panel of the machine itself, using numerous small buttons....
:)

This was cut/pasted from wikipedia, right?

No, I entirely made it up for fun as I entered it. That's why I put the smiley-face symbol at the end.

Anyone remember the 90s Toshibas that had an "on-time counter' in the service menu? It was in hexidecimal or something and you needed a chart to convert it to actual hours....OT but cool...anyway

Yeah, lots of junque sets around here....overpriced at the thrifts. The usuals, bpc crap at $50 missing the remotes and all.....

When I was last in there and bought my 13" 1982 GE set, the kid working was like, the OLD set is the one you want?! And he phoned the bossman and was like, he wants the olddd tv ... how much? Got it for 10 bucks iirc.