Trash find:Sony Wega 20"

[jstout66]

Ya, I wasn't impressed with the Wega series, after my "incident".
About 2004, I bought one NEW... in the box.... ( the 24")
The picture was good, unless you tried to watch a DVD. Picture was super dark even with the brightness turned all the way up. Then I read the reviews and saw may FBT issues, so I made the store exchange it for a 24" Toshiba, that I had NO issues with. I still have the Toshiba, but don't use it at the moment.

[dr.ido]

I read a post here a while back from someone who described a method for rejuvenating Trinitrons and other "unboostable" CRTs. He described the circuit he used, he wasn't using a CRT tester. I recall it described as a more gentle approach.

If I can find the the post again (and some time time) I'll give it a go. I've got a couple of sets here that are completely useless as-is, so it's not like they can get any worse. I'll grab the next Wega I find and try it as well.

[zenith2134]

So I suppose I'm not the only one who would have picked up this 20" Wega..
It takes about 6 seconds for the picture to come up, so the tube has a decent amount of life left in it.

[Jon A.]

Seems that Sony spent most of their life making junk, in regards to TVs anyway.

[dishdude]

I always thought Sony was overrated. They did have some very unique sets though, so props to them for that. They were like the Japanese Zenith.

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by rca2000

I think the QC just went WAY down near the end of the tube era. You may recall about 10-12 years ago--Sony projo sets had tubes that failed after a few thousand hours of use. The story was that the cathodes were contaminated from the START--and the tubes would short--often taking out the driver chip and perhaps some other parts. They did not lose emission...they just shorted and killed other things. For awhile--Sony was replacing these tubes under warranty. By that time---Sony was beginning to feel the backlash from the failed LCD projo light engines coming back under warranty LEFT AND RIGHT. Finally...Sony gave up and only cared about flat panel sets.

Their DV tubes from this time period seemed to have been built with the same QC as the projo tubes. Failng Sony pix tubes were VERY common --say 10-15 years ago...and would first begin looking bad--then the set did the "flash, flash flash" thing. And for a long time--Sony trinitron tubes have been built-it seems--with a built-in "timer", for lifespan. Unlike other tubes, Particularly roundie color tubes..Trinitrons do not rejuvinate at all.

I recall trying to hit one--a 26" tube....It DID come up, and looked nice...for about an hour..THEN...it faded and looked WORSE than before. I tried a filament boost---and it got worse...and finally looked so bad as to be totally unwatchable. All of this was in a period of less than 3 hours.

A similar thing happened on a 90's 27" trinitron set. I let the shop owner know the set had a bad tube. He said to boost it, so I did the "self boost" thing (shorting the filament dropping resistor). It DID look a lot better...for a couple of days.Then..it looked a LOT worse than it did in the first place. The owner of the shop was in a fix, since he had told the set owner we had REPLACED the tube--and had charged quite a bit of money for the repair. Now--he was in a mess--as the set was pretty much unwatchable. He blamed ME for the whole thing...even though I told him the tube would NOT last that way. I was able to "bail hm out" by finding a set with a good tube--and we installed it--and the set looked nice again. Did I get a thanks? No...this was the guy who along with his wife...cheated me out of about 10K in back money...and unemployment about 5 years ago.....

I forgot to add..that the Sony I spoke about was under an EXTENDED WARRANTY...and still Ray had LIED to the customer and the warranty co...about replacing the tube.. He wanted ALL of the money for the job , WITHOUT replacing the tube. .Had I not found him that junk set with the good tube..he would have been in a WORLD of hurt. Of course...that happened anyway, a couple of years later, but this was in early 2007 or so, a couple of years before it all "went South" for me at that place...

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by dishdude

I always thought Sony was overrated. They did have some very unique sets though, so props to them for that. They were like the Japanese Zenith.

As far as quality goes...Sony was...and IS ... all hype. The trinitron tube saved the company--and gave them something to brag about for nearly 40 years. The story goes that they had lost so much money trying to perfect the chromatron..they were near bankruptcy. Had the trinitron failed....Sony would be a distant memory, instead of a "world class" conglomerate. And it DID have an excellent picture. They just do NOT last all that long.

[maxhifi]

Growing up, we had a 1982 21" Trinitron from 1988 through to 1999, when replaced with another Sony, as the main family TV. It was second hand from a family member, who used it more or less non stop from 1982 - 1988 before we got it, and every day after that. That TV was fantastic, the only issue it ever had was somehow the V-Hold pot got dirty, and became really touchy. I fixed it by spraying it with contact cleaner, and the TV kept on working. The main limitation it had versus its replacement was only a 36 Channel CATV tuner, and the screen size. I can say without any question that TV was brighter, sharper, has better geometry, and better sound than other TV sets in the family from other brands. Because of that TV, through to the end of the CRT era I always regarded Sony as a superior product.

[zeno]

Small world. Today I was going shopping & on a lawn was
a 20" Wega with a free sign on it. Bet it works fine.
I sped up..................

73 Zeno