Which brand of TV gave you the most headaches?!?

[Big Dave]

I had really good luck with Zenith (tube only), RCA, Sylvania and Silvertone. The make that gave me headaches was GE. Every GE set I have ever had made its way back where I found them... the curb. That's before I learned the goodness of recapping. I'll try GE again, recap it, and if still no luck, I'll part it out. The trick now... find more old sets, rescue them and fix them.

I had an old Magnavox U-11 (RCA CTC-11), with bad flyback insulation. After removing the burnt stuff, the set worked on a test rig. Then, CBS cut into the program that happened to be on for then-President Bush. That's when the fly went kerbloooeee. I never did get to see the picture on the round screen. The CRT from this set now resides in my Silvertone.

[Rob]

The TV that probably gave the most headaches was the Sylvania Halo-lite. Man what were they thinking?

Maybe was the same engineer that invented those stupid pilot helmets on Battlestar Galactica. Yes, people's night vision is definitely improved when they they have the equivalent of a 500 watt makeup mirror shining in their face!

Rob

[rcaman]

zenith has to be the biggest pile of pure crap that is made today.
including projection sets. show me one past 5 years old that still has a decent picture on it and i bet it just came out of the box
steve

GE color sets of the late sixties and early seventies (KC, KD & KE chassis) were pure crap. Many had bad flybacks right out of the shipping carton. The sets were loaded with compactrons that got so hot they quickly baked the PC boards in the vicinity of the tube sockets and made them brittle. GE used a weird instant-on circuit in these chassis that used multiple ganged switches on the volume control. These always went bad, and either the set would not turn off, or it would not turn on. Changing that switch assembly was a bear, because it required removal of the tuner mounting bracket from the cabinet and unsoldering and resoldering about a dozen wires. The only good thing I can say about these sets is that the CRT's were really good. I don't think GE built the CRT's.

Originally posted by Mike Bates
Color is just sooo fake.

Agreed!

Originally posted by rcaman
zenith has to be the biggest pile of pure crap that is made today.
including projection sets. show me one past 5 years old that still has a decent picture on it and i bet it just came out of the box
steve

Whatever happened to "The quality goes in before the name goes on"?

Well, let's see...

Silvertone-

Never had one that had a good picture. Always had fuzzy video for some reason. I'm referring to the rectangular-screen tube-type color sets of the late 60s/early 70s.

Motorola Quasar/Quasar II-

Works great, when the modules all make good electrical contact, that is.

Philco-

Predictas and other "Cool Chassis" sets are too hard to work on and have CRT problems.

I seemed to have the most luck with Zeniths (tube-type). Often, I'd bring one home out of the garbage and it would work perfectly without any work being done to it. Most of what I found those days were tube-type rectangular CRT Silvertones, Zeniths, a few RCAs, and a Japanese set every now and then. Those are the sets I had experience with at the time.

As for GE... it's a mixed bag for me. I'm currently working on a KC chassis (1967) that basically works, but has a lot of off-value resistors in it. I had a HB mini-color set years ago that had a weird chroma problem I never figured out. I probably could have fixed it now, but I knew far less about electronics twenty years ago. When a GE works, it works good, but they can be tough to figure out when they don't. One thing GE did, though, was use a lot of engineering shortcuts such as no 3.58mHz oscillator in their color sets or some sets that did not use a HV regulator.

[kc8adu]

Originally posted by wvsaz
GE color sets of the late sixties and early seventies (KC, KD & KE chassis) were pure crap. Many had bad flybacks right out of the shipping carton. The sets were loaded with compactrons that got so hot they quickly baked the PC boards in the vicinity of the tube sockets and made them brittle. GE used a weird instant-on circuit in these chassis that used multiple ganged switches on the volume control. These always went bad, and either the set would not turn off, or it would not turn on. Changing that switch assembly was a bear, because it required removal of the tuner mounting bracket from the cabinet and unsoldering and resoldering about a dozen wires. The only good thing I can say about these sets is that the CRT's were really good. I don't think GE built the CRT's.

remember the ym?
talk about fly failures!

[kc8adu]

Originally posted by Mike Bates
I have a 4-5 year old Zenith front projector where I project on to a 7 foot low gain screen and the picture quality and color is fantastic IMO. Far better than all of the LCD projectors I've seen, even some high dollar "big buck" models.

As far the regular tube sets from Zenith I never really had one so won't comment.

"zenith has to be the biggest pile of pure crap that is made today.
including projection sets. show me one past 5 years old that still has a decent picture on it and i bet it just came out of the box"

you are damn lucky.
i see more zenith projo's for repair than all other brands combined.after 2 years they seem to break once a year like clockwork.
and direct view sets go an average of 16 mo till the crt goes.

[rcaman]

you hit the nail right on the head on the zenith projection sets.
we have 4 in the shop now going to the dump oldest one is a 96 model. pure crap. steve

[kc8adu]

see a lot of those that lost regulation and star cracked the necks of one or more crt's.
those jello pads on the face of the crt are a pain too.

[Rob]

Originally posted by rcaman
you hit the nail right on the head on the zenith projection sets.
we have 4 in the shop now going to the dump oldest one is a 96 model. pure crap. steve

Steve,

I hope you might consider pulling the lenticular/fresnel screens out of those projection sets before tossing the rest. They would be useful to anyone restoring a vintage 40's projection set that has a clouded or damaged screen! They can be re-cut to the right size (usually 15x20 inches) if very careful with a hot blade. Saw vibrations will send fracture cracks along the grooves of this material.

Thanx,
Rob

[kc8adu]

i save the screens(freznel lense) also save the mirrors.
they are usually front silvered .
the lenses can be useful too.