What do you all think is a good brand of set currently available new? By that I mean not just picture/sound quality, but durability--reliability--longevity. And then by value for the money.

I know this may cause arguments (at least I hope so LOL) but it should be interesting.

One of the reasons I'm asking this is to determine what brand of set may make a good choice to donate it's chassis to an older console....obviously the modern set would need to have a conventional curved picture tube face (not one of the new flat jobs).

Anthony (donning his asbestos suit)

Anthony, In my opinion I think Panasonic/Quasar puts out a pretty good set. As I stated in an earlier posting I don't think any sets are very good anymore. I surf the web on alot of tech sites and notice that the techs seem to have the most problems with RCA/GE, Zenith, and Sony. It seems Sony's quality is suffering as of late. I thought Magnavox was supposed to be pretty good but I think I read that they are made by Funai now, which would be total CRAP. I'm sure you'll get varied opinions on this posting! :)

As has been stated here many times before (by others as well as myself), the RCA CTC185xx series are good sets which will run for years once the issues with the on-board tuner are resolved. I have a 19" CTC185A7 XL-100 set which I have only had serviced twice (both repairs having to do with the area of the tuner around the RF port) since it was new in 1999; the set has been working fine the last two years since the connections around the tuner were resoldered. No problems at all with the circuitry itself or the CRT; the picture is beautiful on cable in my area.

I recently read another person's post here regarding Magnavox TVs and VCRs now being manufactured by the Korean electronics company Funai, not by The Magnavox Company of Fort Wayne, Indiana (and, in its early years, New York City, New York--the company's big 3-way consoles and console color sets, not to mention stereo consoles, radios and the like, were all made there in the '60s).

What is it about Funai-built equipment that is so bad? Just because these sets are made in the Orient does not, IMO, necessarily mean they are all junk (or "crap" as I have seen these sets described in this forum). Almost all televisions today are manufactured overseas; however, not every make is junk. I have a friend who swears by Toshiba (he has three such sets in his house which have given him little or no trouble in all the years he has had them); as well, one of my great-aunts had a Sony Trinitron 15" portable for many years which gave her no trouble at all. The set finally gave up the ship after perhaps 15 or 20 years and was replaced by another Sony which, the last I heard, was working quite well.

I will admit that some of the smaller Japanese, Korean, etc. television manufacturers' sets may and often do have design flaws caused by the slap-dash manner in which they are assembled (on automated assembly lines), but the better makes can and often do last many years. If I were to buy a new TV tomorrow, it would probably be either a Toshiba, Sony or possibly Sharp. These are probably the last good makes of TV left (except, as I said above, for the RCA CTC185xx series once the tuner's bugs are resolved).

Keep in mind as well that every make of TV set will break down eventually, regardless of make or model. If they didn't go bad once in a while, the stores which sell them, not to mention TV repair shops (which, so I've read here, only do mostly warranty repairs these days), would be out of business in a hurry.

My vote will have to go for Toshiba. definetly.

We have a few of em. two 19 inchers a 32 inch and a 20 somethin thats probbly 10 years old. still works good. however, not nearly the picture quality of our newest 32 incher.

Chalk me up for Panny, beit vcr, camcorder, or tv.

Cheers,
Russ

Anthony,

What difference does it make whether a new TV with a flat or curved CRT is used to replace an old, worn-out chassis in a console, 3-way or otherwise? Unless one is a real fanatic as to wanting to keep the set authentic-looking if the former chassis was, for example, 1950s vintage, I don't think it should make much of a difference at all, as long as the new set fits the opening in the cabinet the old chassis was in. I had two great-uncles who replaced the old color chassis in their RCA 3-way consoles with new color table models (one was a 1970s-vintage Zenith; I can't remember the make of the other one, but they both had curved CRTs). The replacements both worked great, and fit the openings left by the old chassis almost perfectly with just a bit of woodwork to make a frame around the excess space. In fact, one of my cousins still has the console with the Zenith replacement TV; last I heard, it was working well.

Besides, what's wrong with keeping up with the times? Flat is where it's at, as an advertisement for flat-screen TVs and computer monitors in my local newspaper put it some time ago. I will admit, purists may balk at the idea of putting an ultra-modern color chassis with a flat CRT in an old cabinet, but this is a great way to go if you like the looks of an old (if large) TV cabinet but the TV, stereo, etc. is shot. Junk the old tube-powered guts, put new SS equipment in its place, and you have what amounts to a new set, for a fraction of what you would pay for a new console (if you can find them these days; most folks today, however, make their own, using a commercially-manufactured entertainment-center cabinet. I converted a utility cart (solid oak) to a TV/VCR cabinet some years ago, and couldn't be more proud of the results than if I had a big console. (My TV, BTW, has a curved CRT, but if I ever get a new one, it may well have a flat screen tube.)

Funai is actually a Japanese company. The problem I have with them is the VERY poor quality of all their products. They are by far the worst quality VCRs and TVs made. Their VCRs have power supplies that often lose regulation and have no protection to prevent them from destrying the rest of the VCR with excessive voltage. The mechanisms bearly work when new. They're easy to spot because they have all plastic cabinets and are so light you can't push a button without it sliding.

I personally like most of the better Japanese brands, but you have to be careful. I've seen Hitachi branded TVs with a Zenith chassis and (bad) CRT. I've seen a Toshiba VCR that was made by Samsung. Even Sony used Funai VCR mechanisms for a couple of years.

The thing about people expounding how brand X has lasted X years doesn't do anyone much good in regards to what's available for purchase NOW.

The current stuff is so many generations removed that you have absolutely no guarantee that anything is the same, or even if the company is still owned by who you thought.

Comments from those who own a realtively new set or better yet, from those who service and repair these is the best barometer for which brands hold up best.

Hell, you could probably just call up a wholesale parts supplier and ask them what they sell the most of and for what brand. That's a pretty clear cut example of what's really going bad and eliminates the "Ford Vs. Chevy" syndrome.

Anthony

Would you consider using an older (80's) solid state color set? A lot of them still work great and can be gotten cheap, or do you really want all of the modern features such as closed captioning, etc.?

Originally posted by Chad Hauris
Would you consider using an older (80's) solid state color set? A lot of them still work great and can be gotten cheap, or do you really want all of the modern features such as closed captioning, etc.?

Very good question(s), I must admit that I am remiss for not having defined what features I seek.

Solid state

Remote control

Hi Fi and stereo (spatial or surround sound would be nice but not mandatory)

Cable ready (not so much the large number of channels, but the ability to accept the compressed signal etc)

On screen channel and time display (don't care about closed captioning)

Multiple inputs would be nice (for CD and VCR)

Someone earlier suggested that I should consider using a flat screen and go basically go full bore on the conversion----my resistance to this is based on appearance. I feel that it may look out of place because of the vintage. Also, those tubes have sharp corners and I'll surely lose some of the viewable screen behind the cabinet's mask.

A curved screen would not only look "period" but also fit the opening that much better.

Anthony

Im my opinion, a old/vintage tv with a new tv chassis is pure junk. A vintage tv must stay vintage tv all the way. Just my opinion. A vintage tv is original only once....

Originally posted by drh4683
Im my opinion, a old/vintage tv with a new tv chassis is pure junk. A vintage tv must stay vintage tv all the way. Just my opinion. A vintage tv is original only once....

I appreciate where you're coming from, but as I said earlier, any mods would be made with an eye towards them being reversible.

It's like those who put a modern engine in place of the original in an older car. To the casual observer nothing has changed except the car now runs as well as a newer one.

Short of repairing the original chassis, a non operational set is nothing more than a piece of furniture. At least with a new chassis it is a usable/watchable set once again.

Hope that makes my position clear and perhaps a little more palatable.

Anthony

A high end Sony from the mid to late 80's would fit that description. Something like a 25XBR has 3 sets of AV inputs, 2 CATV inputs, RGB input and stereo reception. Just about any stero Sony TV from 1985-1988 would be great if it has a strong CRT. If a 19", or 20" is good enough, Sony was selling those CRTs for $35 each for some reason about 5 years ago. I don't know if they have any CRT brgains now. I put one in my 1985 Sony and it looked great.