Got another freebie today from the local classifieds - 1991 Emerson EC1331 14" Color TV. Made in Korea. From the listing, I had no idea what year it was from or even if it worked ! I had to drive about 40 minutes to get it. Anyways, I brought it back home, cleaned it up and turned it on. Works as it should. :smoke:
I never knew TV sets made in the early 90's still had the knobs on the tuner and woodgrain look as well !

Anyways, here's some pics and a video.

http://youtu.be/sAG4b65EiVw

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3949/15496624329_867551088f_b.jpg
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5612/15496622539_f7d7085985_b.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7534/15658782536_25a9119724_b.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7481/15658781036_ee7c3aca83_b.jpg
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5606/15497688610_3c0d9a467e_b.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7516/15658781666_0a1cdc7c53_b.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7521/15682490105_c028b35ed7_b.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7484/15497296797_759c0a9064_b.jpg
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8572/15496622239_62a2afdce9_b.jpg
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5610/15497102898_f34c764a92_b.jpg

Knob jobs were still made well into the 90's. A lot of cheap
B&W's had them. Latest one I remember was my first Chinese
set a Crown IIRC. Must have been '95 or later. Biggest POS
set I have ever seen bar none. Barely worked, horible
workmanship.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Nice vintage look to that one. Normally a set that recent would be of no interest to me, but I would be all over a 19" version, this size too if it were free and nearby.

Nice vintage look to that one. Normally a set that recent would be of no interest to me, but I would be all over a 19" version, this size too if it were free and nearby.

Me neither.. I usually dont get newer than 1984-ish...
It's so tough to find sets from the 1960's to 1970's as well here, that are clean and in working shape ! They were all trashed long time ago as well !

In other parts of Ontario 70s sets seem to be fairly common. Nova Scotia is pretty barren all over.

That set looks almost like a 13" Emerson that my Dad bought in '87 to go on the motorhome. He paid $149.99 for it at Service Merchandise and at the time, that was cheap for a color TV. Except for a bad connection on the flyback transformer that was repaired right after the warranty expired, it was a great TV that had a nice picture and was still working great when I sold it sometime around '98. When Dad bought this set, they had a non-remote varactor tuned version that was about $40 higher and the remote/cable ready version was well over $200.

Concerning knob tuned sets, I think they were available in the USA until at least '93. In '93, the closed caption mandate went into effect for all sets 13" and larger. At that point, manufacturers probably figured out that it would be cheaper to go with an electronic microprocessor based tuning system that had the CC decoder built into the microprocessor, instead of designing a CC decoder circuit around a mechanical tuner. I recall seeing 12" B&W TV's with two-knob mechanical tuners being offered at least into the mid '90's; but, these sets didn't fall under the CC mandate because they were smaller than 13". Those last B&W knob tuned TV's sold for $39.99, would operate on either a 12V wall wart or a car cord; and, were very cheap in terms of build quality.

I think the last knob tuned 13" color set I remember seeing was a Megatron-branded set. I don't know who made them; but, they were nothing to write home about and I remember one of the discount electronic stores selling them for under $100, right about the time the CC mandate went into place. I recall a woman asking me to fix one for her and she got upset when I gave her an estimate, saying, "I didn't pay but $79 for the TV." The whole time I'm thinking, "I don't care, this is what it will cost if you want it fixed."

I don't know when Canada required a CC mandate; so, it's possible that knob-tuned TV's in Canada (and other places) were available much later than in the USA.

As recent as the late '90's, I had customers who only wanted knob tuned TV's, claiming that they were afraid they'd push the wrong button and mess things up on a newer TV.

Oh, and speaking of oddball last-gasp knob tuned TV's, Sharp made a 25" knob tuned table TV during the late '80's-early '90's. In terms of picture quality, that one certainly wasn't anything to write home about.

radiotvnut, This tv says 14" Right on it. Isn't that an odd size ?

In USA standards, that would be considered a 13" TV. If you actually measure the picture, you will probably find that the actual viewable picture measures in the 13" range.

Up until around 1970, TV's were sold in the USA that were advertised as a 25"; but, the actual viewable picture was only 23". Or, sets sold as 19"; but, actually had an 18" viewable picture. Then, the Government stepped in and said "no, no, no, you can't do that" and required manufacturers to advertise the ACTUAL size of the viewable picture in their advertising.

I don't think Canada had the same rule in place at the time; so, that's why your set claims to be a 14" model. The actual tube size is 14"; but, you only have a 13" viewable picture.

I've actually had my hands on TV's that read on the dataplate, "25 inches (in Canada, 27").

It's so tough to find sets from the 1960's to 1970's as well here, that are clean and in working shape !

It is not all that common to find any sets from that area anywhere that still work. If you want one that old you gotta be willing to fix it your self or track down a tech willing to fix it.
My criteria for a set of that era is that it be complete and not have and major cosmetic damage (ie grooves dug in the case, ruined photo finish, or rusted trim), and that the CRT tests good(and that the fly looks like it is still okay if I can see it).

That Emerson looks like a newer version of one I had when I was a kid. Could not fit it in the car in a move and had to leave it. I still kinda wish I could have kept it.

I rarely find any knob-tuned TV's around here and the ones I do find are usually not in mint condition. There is a little mid '80's knob-tuned 13" Daewoo-built set at the flea market that looks pretty decent; but, I'm not paying them $20 for it.

Obviously you have analog cable service; who's your provider? Also, what's the console TV that I have seen in the last couple of videos?

I noticed that the UHF tuner only goes to 68. Nice set!

Obviously you have analog cable service; who's your provider? Also, what's the console TV that I have seen in the last couple of videos?

Rogers.
The console is 1977 Zenith SG2570P chromacolor TV

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m305/rob89m3/DIY/666.jpg

Got a new old stock remote for it recently. :)

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m305/rob89m3/DIY/222-1.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m305/rob89m3/DIY/444.jpg

Rogers.
The console is 1977 Zenith SG2570P chromacolor TV

Got a new old stock remote for it recently. :)
Man, that's pretty slick. I have seen plenty of those remotes on fleabay, but not that NOS unit, so I guess you got that elsewhere. I'm looking for the version with the same complement of buttons but in a different form factor. I have an early infrared Space Phone remote with the same box.

Man, that's pretty slick. I have seen plenty of those remotes on fleabay, but not that NOS unit, so I guess you got that elsewhere. I'm looking for the version with the same complement of buttons but in a different form factor. I have an early infrared Space Phone remote with the same box.

I bought it on ebay. It popped up and I bought it immediatly.

I bought it on ebay. It popped up and I bought it immediatly.
Funny, it didn't show in the sold listings.

I really miss the days when even inexpensive TV's like this Emerson had some chrome and woodgrain trim. I know it's just aesthetics, but it adds some class compared to the new flat panel TV's, which are just a cheap looking black plastic frame and equally cheap looking gray plexiglass panel. I want to buy flatscreens for my living room and family room, but I don't want the industrial look of the new TV's. My TV is turned off 23.5 hours a day, so how it looks when off is just as important as how it looks turned on. I know there are some furniture-grade wood cabinets which raise and lower the flat panel TV and keep it out of sight when not in use, but those are prohibitively expensive. Am I the only one that wishes a new TV could blend in with the furniture?

You may not like the looks of flat screen televisions, but that's how they are built nowadays; the old style sets with heavy, real wood cabinets are relics of a bygone day we may never see again.

Have you thought of putting your flat screen in an entertainment center cabinet? Not necessarily one that raises and lowers the set (shades of Zenith's Space Screen 45 projection set of the early 1980s), but a cabinet that can hold the TV as well as your DVD and audio gear; some of these have doors you can close over the equipment when not in use, but they are rather large. A friend of mine has his TV and stereo equipment in a large, floor-to-ceiling cabinet (it fits since his family room has very high ceilings), and I personally have my small video setup (19" flat screen, VCR and Blu-ray player) installed in an old oak-finish woodgrain utility cart. My stereo gear is separate from the TV, with the main unit next to my computer and the speakers at either side of my desk. This is about the closest I'll come to having a large cabinet TV/stereo entertainment unit in my apartment, since the place is very small.

BTW and IMO, if you use your TV only 30 minutes a day, any flat screen you get should last years, despite the estimates that most flat screens last only two years due to the use of cheap parts, mainly power supply capacitors that swell and burst or outright explode. My 19" Insignia flat screen is just out of warranty and still works; I use the set about two hours a day, mostly watching DVDs and retro TV stations (there are three such stations in my area, two of which are subchannels of local network affiliates). Don't have much use for the major networks these days, except for news.

I personally have my small video setup (19" flat screen, VCR and Blu-ray player) installed in an old oak-finish woodgrain utility cart. My stereo gear is separate from the TV, with the main unit next to my computer and the speakers at either side of my desk. This is about the closest I'll come to having a large cabinet TV/stereo entertainment unit in my apartment, since the place is very small.
Ha, my place is probably smaller than yours and I have two console TVs along with six other sets, only two of them portables. Right now, there's a 27" table set sitting behind my chair (gotta move that one back into place) that will serve as a parts donor (if needed) for my RCA-built Sears console, and one of my portables is on the desk beside me. Mom and I share an apartment and she has two more CRT TVs of her own, but one is smaller and a spare. I guess it depends on how "obsessed" one is. ;) I don't get any trouble for it; after all, she wouldn't be able to manage without me.

Robb, in regards to the Zenith console, what's that little window above the channel indicators for? A Color Sentry indicator perhaps? At first I thought it may have been for a VHF tuner indicator as it has what looks to me like a 7 behind it, but then I noticed the VHF numbers farther down.

I noticed that the UHF tuner only goes to 68. Nice set!

The FCC reassigned channels 70-83 to land-mobile use in 1970. By the '80s most UHF television tuners stopped at channel 69, but all sets with UHF tuners made prior to about 1985 still tuned the full UHF band, 14-83; some people used the upper range to listen in on cordless telephones, before they were moved to the gigahertz range for security reasons.

I am only guessing as to when the upper 13 channels were eliminated from the tuning range of most UHF TV tuners, but '70 is the figure that sticks in my mind. Both my CRT TVs (1999 RCA/Thomson and 1995 Zenith Sentry 2) have tuners that only run from 14 to 69, so by the mid-'90s (perhaps even a bit earlier) the 55-channel UHF tuning range had become standard. The move to DTV chopped up the UHF band even more. Today, there are only about 35 channels remaining for those few UHF stations still operating under the NTSC standard.

I understand, however, from reading on broadcastingandcable.com and other TV-industry websites, that low-power and translator stations will be required to switch to digital by some time in 2015, if they haven't done so already. This will eat up what few analog UHF channels there are left, so that the entire UHF television band (channels 14-51, IIRC) will be digital by that time. We will just have to wait and see what becomes of the FCC's plan to "repack" U. S. TV channels; this plan, if and when it comes to fruition, may force the few DTV stations presently operating on VHF channels to move to UHF. The VHF band has already been vacated by full-power TV stations, so moving the few remaining DTV stations to UHF would release the rest of the former VHF TV spectrum for use by other services; this, after all, is what the FCC had in mind when they decided to end analog TV in June of 2009.

My parent had an similiar Emerson set like that from the late 80s with a column-style tuner w/ remote. We had it 'til 1994 when the color went bad on it. It had a green tint to it.

We had it 'til 1994 when the color went bad on it. It had a green tint to it.

You could have repaired it no ?