Anyone have any opinions on this set I picked it up for 15 it seems to work as far as I can tell. Ps does this set a hybrid?176284

Cool set. I believe it's one of Zenith's last Black and white sets. And no.. not a hybrid.

I'm sure it's solid state and from the late '70's-early '80's. It's still a decent set, if the CRT is still strong.

well after getting it set up properly after having hundreds of people turning the knobs on it every witch way I finally got it working picture is not very sharp and when showing a program that fills the screen the picture at the top bends to the left. I have already cleaned all of the pots so I don't really know what to do from here...
p.s. anyone know the model? apparently it got rained on and all of the labels fell off...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF08G00RJxg&feature=g-upl here is a video

You are using a VCR, correct? That's the problem. Use another source (DVD player, cable, converter box) and you'll see it go away. I'm not smart enough to tell you how to get the VCR problem to go away!

There is centering rings on the back of the yoke that will let you move it over but it still has to much width. There may be an adjustment for that or maybe your line voltage is high. Reducing the line voltage may shrink that down, depends on how well regulated the power supply is.
Also silghtly moving the horz hold will shift it from side to side.
If its a zenith it should have the chassis number printed somewhere on the metal part of the chassis.
Post some good pix of the inside.

Well I fixed the width problems and got the lines to go away pretty good but it seem like every tone I get it right it changes a little that knob is very sensitive. And why can't I use a VCR? When played on any other set it has very good picture.

Here are some pics of the inside. Pretty basic176292176293176294176295

I know this answer isn't very technical, but this is what my Uncle always said. (he had a Zenith sales /repair shop form about 1973-2000) Anyway.. when VCR's first came out (and they were a HUGE investment, if one can imagine today) the customers almost always bought a new set. Why? Well.. altho their old set might be functioning perfectly well off antenna, or cable, they were NEVER designed with the thought of home video. So this is especially true of tube sets, and even early solid state ones. You always got that "tearing". Funny thing is.. some sets might be fine, but most weren't. Altho your Zenith B&W is mid to late 70's, I suspect Zenith didn't put much thought into if a VCR would work on it. At that time VCR's were still fairly expensive, and most people would have never thought of using a VCR on a B&W set. Anyway.. he always said that if the set was pre-VCR, or not sesingned with the use of one in mind, the manufacturer cheapened out on the sweep circuits, which made for lousy VCR watching.

Interesting. I found a date tag that is in one of the pics it was made in September of 1980

I was working in a TV Shop at that time and I remember at least one new model of Zenith Color TV that wouldn't Sync with a VCR, there was a factory issued fix for the problem.

My Maggie 15 clone tears at the top also. Just the way it is.

I know this answer isn't very technical, but this is what my Uncle always said. (he had a Zenith sales /repair shop form about 1973-2000) Anyway.. when VCR's first came out (and they were a HUGE investment, if one can imagine today) the customers almost always bought a new set. Why? Well.. altho their old set might be functioning perfectly well off antenna, or cable, they were NEVER designed with the thought of home video. So this is especially true of tube sets, and even early solid state ones. You always got that "tearing". Funny thing is.. some sets might be fine, but most weren't. Altho your Zenith B&W is mid to late 70's, I suspect Zenith didn't put much thought into if a VCR would work on it. At that time VCR's were still fairly expensive, and most people would have never thought of using a VCR on a B&W set. Anyway.. he always said that if the set was pre-VCR, or not sesingned with the use of one in mind, the manufacturer cheapened out on the sweep circuits, which made for lousy VCR watching.

NOT due to "cheaping out" the circuits. Pre-VCR sets depended on the sync timing being correct, because they could then reduce the bandwidth of the horizontal AFC and therefore sync perfectly even in extremely weak/noisy conditions. VCR's came along with up to 1/2 line (!) offset of H sync at the head switching point, causing the "flag waving" effect; and manufacturers including Zenith had to compromise their over-the-air fringe reception by speeding up the horizontal AFC circuit so that the bend would occur in a few lines before the visible top of the picture. Sets ever after had more horizontal jitter in noisy conditions.

Just Reyes ou the uf tuner and it picks up channel 15 just fine even though I can only get that channel in round rock not out here in Florence actually never here in Florence!176298 that is with the sets built in antenna! Watching sienfeild

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This is strange, because I was always able to adjust the waving at the top of the picture by adjusting the tension arm on the VCR.

This is strange, because I was always able to adjust the waving at the top of the picture by adjusting the tension arm on the VCR.

True, but liable to change with time and/or different cassettes, I think.

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I seem to recall finding a Zenith module with a suffix of 'VCR' which I guess was the update for a set with that problem. The other issue you'll see is lines on the screen when watching a copyrighted DVD. This was also an issue when viewing the local PBS station when they were still analog, as they were sending extra information with the signal. Newer sets wouldn't pick it up, and not all old ones would. I could fire up my 60s DuMont at the same time as my 60s Zenith; the cheaper DuMont would play fine but the Zenith had so many lines that it was a pain to watch.

I have a JVC D-VHS deck, and it has a built in time base corrector, but it has one problem, on analog RF or Composite input, the luma is quite dark, thus the picture is dark and over-saturated.. It's apparently a flaw with them.