View Full Version : RCA barn tv
captainmoody 09-17-2004, 01:34 PM Remember the CTC 19 mini console I saved from the barn a few months ago? Finally got it going last night after replacing 2 6GH8 tubes to restore the color and the deflection yoke to cure the keystone picture. This is the picture of it right after without any adjustments to vert height or convergence yet (heck, I still haven't bothered!) Just glad to see the crt is so good still.
Jeffhs 09-21-2004, 03:43 AM Originally posted by captainmoody
Remember the CTC 19 mini console I saved from the barn a few months ago? Finally got it going last night after replacing 2 6GH8 tubes to restore the color and the deflection yoke to cure the keystone picture. This is the picture of it right after without any adjustments to vert height or convergence yet (heck, I still haven't bothered!) Just glad to see the crt is so good still.
Yes, it's always good to know the CRT is good, especially in a color set. :) Those tubes are very expensive unless you can get one from a junker set. No wonder so many new "RCA"s and Zenith-branded Goldstar sets wind up by the side of the road these days when the CRT goes. I have a friend whose parents had a 25" RCA GuidePlus set in which the CRT went bad after only two years. Yup, you guessed it, they chucked it and bought a new set when the tube blew. By contrast, they had a Zenith System 3 color console that lasted some 15 years before it quit, and before that, an RCA color console (made by the genuine RCA of Camden, New Jersey, years before Thomson bought them out) that lasted many years (don't know exactly when it was new, though I'd guess it was perhaps '70s vintage or thereabouts) and finally gave up in the early '80s.
My own RCA XL-100, bought new in 1999, however, is used daily, still has its original CRT and works very well on cable. I also have a Zenith Sentry 2 19" table model in my bedroom which still has its original CRT (and has never been serviced) after almost ten years. It still has a very good picture after all that time (used only on cable, never with an antenna). With all the problems Zenith has had with sets made from 1992 on, I am very pleased, if amazed, that my set has been so trouble-free.
Sheeeesh--I'd better clam up before I jinx things. Just you watch. The next time I turn on that Zenith, the tube might blow or . . .
BTW, I wish I could have seen the pic of your RCA mini-console. I've seen many RCA color and b&w sets, but never a "mini" console like yours. Was that set a limited edition? I'll be waiting for the new server to come online so we can see your pics of the TV. Sounds like an interesting one.
Post Thomson RCA tubes have been surprisingly good. They do have a rather high defect rate, but if you get a good one they seem to go on forever. I've never seen one that was too weak to use.
The bad Zenith CRTs started in late 1993. After that 3 years was about all you could expect out of them. Of course, a bedroom TV that's only on an hour a day could still look fine.
rcaman 09-21-2004, 10:49 AM thomson crt,s are used in a lot of different name brand sets out there. and yes they just keep on going & going. havent replaced one under warranty in years. and we sell a lot. dont see any weak ones either. steve:uzi:
tv beta guy 09-21-2004, 04:13 PM My daily watcher set is a 1996 GE 21". In the past 8 years, I have heavily used that TV. Up until 2 years ago, that TV was on 8-16 hours a day. Now it's more like 6-8. The CRT still looks good, but here is my experience with it. It had excellent contrast and was very bright during its first year. Then it started to gradually lose its brightness. It finally settled down after being 2 years old and has remained in the same state since. It still looks nice and sharp, but I have to have the contrast on max to look decent to me.
I already had to do the on board tuner repair back in 1997. It has held up perfectly since. I had to redo greyscale on it around 1998 because everything had this terrible bluish tint to it, and had to tweak a few other parameters in the eeprom that weren't set right from the factory (like horizontal phase and video gain level on the tuner.)
I am surprised it still works to this day. It has been a good performer despite the little problems I've had with it.
Jeffhs 09-21-2004, 08:49 PM Originally posted by andy
Post Thomson RCA tubes have been surprisingly good. They do have a rather high defect rate, but if you get a good one they seem to go on forever. I've never seen one that was too weak to use.
The bad Zenith CRTs started in late 1993. After that 3 years was about all you could expect out of them. Of course, a bedroom TV that's only on an hour a day could still look fine.
Andy, I forgot to mention that my Zenith Sentry 2 was my main watcher the first four years I had it, and I used it a lot. It wasn't until I moved in 1999 and bought a new RCA XL-100 that I relegated the Zenith to the bedroom of my apartment. I don't use the Zenith much anymore, but still fire it up every once in a while just to see if it still works. It does, and well, even after nearly a decade, but I notice ghosting, windshield-wiper and other interference on certain cable channels, which does not show on the XL-100 in the living room. The reception on the broadcast channels and most cable channels, however, is excellent on both sets since the cable system in this area was completely rebuilt this past spring.
The only conclusion I can come to about my Zenith Sentry 2, which, BTW, survived the move (15 miles) from my former home out here to the small town where I live now (no components shaken loose, etc.), is that this set was one of the rare ones that had a "good" CRT, despite having been manufactured in 1995. What can I say, the set works, even after all these years.
BTW, I must have gotten an RCA with one of the so-called "good" CRTs as well. As I mentioned in my last post, my set now has almost five years on it and the picture looks great, as good as when the set was new. The one time I had the set serviced, the technician resoldered every connection around the onboard tuner; the set has been working fine with a cable box (for Comcast digital service) ever since. The only other problem the technician pointed out to me was a slight defect in the "jungle" signal-processor IC, but that doesn't seem to be affecting anything as far as I can tell at this time. (Heck, the set's been working like a charm since that repair, which was over three years ago now--what can I say?) I did not have the problem repaired because the tech told me it would cost over $100 to replace that chip (that estimate was not so much for the chip itself as for the time spent reprogramming the thing, and other expenses which go along with any TV repair job).
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