was there EVER an American made lcd tv or plasma, I guess not. would of been neat, recently fixed a no name mini unit 10".
There ARE two ultra mini, skinny flourescent type light bulbs, incredibly white blinding like the sun. It needed a HV cap, replaced, one bulb worked but was dim, a digital ballast type setup. Interesting technology for a cheap mass produced unit.Any old RCA techs/engineers out there???

RCA experimented w lcd in 50s or 60s, do any of these creatures exist? for equipment or test displays? ANY ever made for video.

:scratch2:

...

I believe that both Sony and Sharp worked with Tektronix on the "PALC" panel, but as far as I know it, no consumer product was made.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5917283.html

Update (from NY Times):
"SONY AND SHARP FORM FLAT SCREEN VENTURE
Published: September 20, 1996
The Sony Corporation and the Sharp Corporation said yesterday that they would jointly develop a new type of flat panel display for use in computers and in television sets that can hang on a wall like a picture. The collaboration, to last three years, aims to produce a 40-inch screen using an approach developed by Tektronix Inc. of Wilsonville, Ore., that combines liquid crystal and plasma technologies. Sony and Sharp, which did not disclose any financial terms of the alliance, said they hoped to begin shipping samples by the fall of next year."
jr

I suspect that some of the big Asian firms assembled them here for a while, especially Samsung & Sanyo.

I picked up 2 roundies from a local e waste guy and he had 2 waterproof outdoor plasmas that were made in the UK. I think they were NEC or Sanyo branded. They were hard core commercial professional quality units. I wouldnt doubt that there were some high end professional ones made or assembled here.

All of that flat screen tech was developed here for military apps. There are now screens that can be "rolled-up" like a sheet of paper, so quite a bit ahead of consumer electronics.... Just as CRTs got their biggest boost from radar in WWII.

Naturally, no consumer flatscreens are manufactured here in any great numbers. (Possibly a handful were built in AZ by Vizio? That was something I'd heard.)

I am writing a chapter for the book I'm writing on manufacturing that deals with the "targeting" of US consumer electronics which began as early as the mid-50s. An amazing case with roots reaching back to the late 1800s, when the first American trusts were organized, then broken up.

Rarely such a clear-cut case of good vs. evil. You'll appreciate your Zenith sets all the more when you read it, and want to burn your RCAs. I'll post it here free when the research is completed.

Although there were no flatscreen TVs made in the US, I would venture that the foreign made TVs had/have parts designed/made in the US. This is also true of the foregn car companies, one of the integrated circuits I worked on ended up in a Lexus audio system.

One theme that I get while reading VideoKarma is that the posters believe that all consumer electronics is offshore now. With Intel, Texas Instruments, IBM, AMD, Spansion, Maxim, Freescale, TSMC, and even Samsung having integrated circuit manufacturing centers in the US, this is simply not true!

These and many other companies have design centers in the US.

RCA and Zenith may no longer be around, but others are(including Motorola, believe it or not).

My father works for an electronics company that makes various ICs-primarily motor drivers and hall sensors, they do almost (if not) all their wafer fab and design work in the US!

Intel and IBM are now turning out integrated circuits for the internet server market containing billions(not millions) of transistors. US technology is still very competitive.

In fact, the guts of the Chinese supercomputer that recently made the news are Intel and Nvidia chips, both US companies.

Although there were no flatscreen TVs made in the US, I would venture that the foreign made TVs had/have parts designed/made in the US. This is also true of the foregn car companies, one of the integrated circuits I worked on ended up in a Lexus audio system.
RCA and Zenith may no longer be around, but others are(including Motorola, believe it or not).


If I understand the OP's question, Runco TVs are manufactured in Beaverton, Oregon. Runco, as a division of Planar industries has always been a US manufacturer of DLP and Plasma displays, and projectors. In fact Runco was the company that first trademarked the term "Home Theater" in California. They brought to market the FIRST Plasma over 60". In their early days they had components built for them by Texas Instruments. No device is ever going to use all locally-produced components, but Runco takes an NEC display in raw form and modifies it for their own use right on US soil. While expensive, Runco flatscreen TVs are considered THE best, and are all-American! http://www.runco.com/products/flat-panel-displays/plasma/

Also Vizio LCDs are ALL designed and entirely built in the US. They keep costs down due to reduced shipping charges, no import taxes, and the use of trailing edge technology with off-the-shelf parts. Also they carry a lower margin than other companies, 5 or 6 % versus the 40% of a company such as Samsung.

Dunno. I do have a writeup from an old Playboy magazine (in the late 1970's, they did good writeups of the new high-tech toys) of a flat screen, using electroluminesence, where Sharp had a prototype back in 1979. It was supposed to go to market later that year or early 1980 but I don't recall it ever making it. IIRC, it was black and white only. Of close Sharp is Japanese but I figure I'd mention it.