I don't know whether I was just lucky or what, but my RCA CTC-185, bought new six years ago, still works great; excellent picture on cable, and still has the original CRT. The color controls are rock-stable as well (I haven't had to readjust them in months). Only had one repair done on this set to date; that was for an RF port that snapped off the tuner PC board about two or three months after I purchased the TV. The tech who repaired the set also told me the jungle IC had some sort of problem, but if it does it wasn't then and is not now noticeable in the picture at this point--at least I don't see it.
BTW, what type of color control circuitry did the later RCAs use after ColorTrak? I understand their newest CRT sets have a system they call Advanced Color-View, but I am interested in the color control systems used in RCA sets made from 1999 until ACV came in. Was the pre-ACV system a spinoff of or a modified version of ColorTrak? Whatever it is, as I said above, even the pre-Advanced Color View system was great, as I haven't had to adjust the onscreen color controls on my set in months, maybe closer to a year as I write this. Just turn the set on, get the channel I want, and enjoy the show. No more fiddling with color controls that won't stay put.
Now, if only the programming on the major networks was better than it is (!), I'd really enjoy watching TV. Oh well. That's why I have a DVD player and a VCR. When there's nothing interesting on regular TV, I just put in a DVD (from Netflix) or one of my old VHS tapes of any one of many older (1950s-'70s and certain '80s-'90s) programs.
My RCA set works great with both DVD and VCR as well. Some day I'll break down and get a new square-corner flat-screen TV, but as long as my RCA works as well as it does, I intend to keep it until it dies, or until the picture gets so dim I can't see it. My barber just bought a new Philips 20" square-corner stereo TV for his shop; it replaced a 22-year-old Philco color set (with detented UHF tuning; that set must have been closer to 30 or more years old). The CRT in the Philco must have been getting dim for some time, as he tells me it eventually became so dark the picture was unwatchable. I don't think the Philips is a Philips-Magnavox, as the molded-in nameplate at the base of the CRT mask just says Philips. Which reminds me. Are Philips TVs any better or worse than Philips-Magnavox, or are they basically the same set, with the same reliability issues and other problems as when Philips took over Magnavox in the late '80s or '90s? I was very sorry to see Magnavox quality go downhill as it did once Philips got hold of it
, as this was for years my second-favorite brand of TV, next to Zenith. Never owned a Magnavox TV myself, but I have relatives who had a Maggie 3-way console for many years and had good service from it. I would love to have a similar Maggie or Zenith console (I like the looks of those older cabinets as well), but I simply don't have the room anymore
since I moved to a small apartment from a three-bedroom house with a basement late in 1999.