Looks like a GE maybe?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3085633637&category=3320

I'm pretty sure it's a Sylvania "Superset". When they worked well they had a pretty good picture.

It certainly looks like it produces a nice picture! If for no other reason, the picture quality looks like it would be would the bid price. Cabinet looks clean as well.

"You won't beat Sony again!!!"

HA! I was going to make a comment about that ad. Who all remembers "AGH! Sylvania beat Sony again!"?

I thought it was Sanyo beat Sony again. MIght've been Sylvania.

Then the guy says something that sounds like "Bullsh*t" as the commercial fades.

Looking at the auction web page, there's a shot of the TV showing a basketball game. Looks like the green gun is weak.

I have another Sylvania set from 1981 or so, produces a good picture. Neighbor tossed it, had a defective tuner. Resoldering a connector fixed it. :)

those "Supersets" did have a good picture, but had chassis problems EARLY in their life. I remember LOTS of vertical problems. I remember the color being good, but they had a dark picture AND didn't seem to be very sharp. I know they didn't beat Zenith during that era....... I think at the time they used a very dark tint on the tube, and that's why the picture appeared to be better than other brands.

A friend of mine had a Sylvania Superset console for years (it was the first TV he and his wife had after they were married in 1982, IIRC). It worked well as long as it was working, but after about 15 (?) years it developed serious problems and was replaced a few years ago by a Toshiba 32" table model. My friend now has three Toshibas in his house, BTW, that all work well, although one of them blew a couple ICs shortly after he bought it. The repair was done under warranty, however, and ever since then the set has been working fine.

As to his Superset, I'd say 15 years (this is only my conservative estimate, as I really have no idea how long the set worked before it finally died) was a long life for a TV made in the early '80s, although I have no idea how much the set was used during the time my friend owned it.

I am almost afraid to mention this, knowing how AK members (myself included) feel about gutting older TVs for the cabinets, but here goes anyhow: When his Sylvania Superset finally went west, my friend gutted the set, threw out the chassis (please, no flames) and converted the cabinet to a bookcase or entertainment center (again, I'm not sure which). :eek:!!! But this friend of mine is an accountant, not an antique TV collector (though he does have several antique automobiles, so one would think, would one not, that he'd have a feeling for the value of things made 50+ years ago) and certainly not an electronics expert, so I guess he can and should be excused for gutting a 15 (? again) year-old color TV for its cabinet, an act I know makes us AK members gasp in horror. :eek: (I've seen it happen several times in this and other AK forums).

Originally posted by jstout66
those "Supersets" did have a good picture, but had chassis problems EARLY in their life. I remember LOTS of vertical problems. I remember the color being good, but they had a dark picture AND didn't seem to be very sharp. I know they didn't beat Zenith during that era....... I think at the time they used a very dark tint on the tube, and that's why the picture appeared to be better than other brands.

In the '70s, Zenith introduced its Chromacolor series of color sets, which I believe were the first sets to use black-matrix (aka negative guard band) CRTs. The Chromacolor sets made very good pictures and lasted years (one of my great-uncles had a Zenith Chromacolor II console that lasted some 20 years or more [he bought it in the mid-70s]; I think it was still working well when he finally got rid of it after he moved).

Js, I don't know to which set you were referring when you mentioned Sylvania "didn't beat Zenith . . ." and used a dark-tint CRT. As I said, Zenith had their Chromacolor NGB tube in the '70s, which was superseded later in the decade by Chromacolor II, but I don't know what type of CRT Sylvania used in its Superset color TV line of the same period. I don't think the negative guard band CRT design was that popular at the time; I believe only Zenith and, IIRC, Sony were using them initially, and then only in their top-of-the-line portables and consoles.

BTW, I wonder. Is the dark-tint CRT, with the aperture grille (as opposed to the shadow mask in older color tubes) and in-line electron guns, now the industry standard in CRT-based color televisions, or do some very inexpensive sets still use the older delta-gun tube?

As to chassis troubles, some brands are more prone to them than others, especially when the design is new. Another example: Today's Zenith-branded sets are made by Gold Star, and have more chassis difficulties early on than you can shake a stick at. Some off-brand sets with brand names we may never have heard of are also prone to early and often severe chassis troubles, such as defective flybacks, catastrophic shorts caused by inferior CRTs (like the ones in the GS-made "Zeniths") or when the infamous four-lead capacitor in the HV system shorts (do today's sets use these anymore?), et al.