I've been waiting a few years, but I finally found an LCD TV in the trash. Only a block from my house, I found a 20" "Techview" LCD TV, it even has a built-in slot loading DVD player.

It IS from October 2003, so I guess it was getting on in years.

I assume it is not working at all, but will have to wait until I get a power adapter for it.

To be honest, about a year ago I found a 15" LCD computer monitor in the alley, but the screen was smashed, and the data cord cut off, so I left it.

Anybody else find one yet?

bout a year ago, i found a 20" LCD screen in my neighbor's trash after they moved out. i was stunned, and cleaned it up, only to find a cracked screen under the anti glare film. shucks!

I haven't seen one yet in any house trash, but plenty in TV repair shop trash. Especially the early Phillips Magnavox plasma sets from the late 90s; the ones with the big external receiver box.

Charles

Have any of those early plasmas been repairable?

In a word; NO.

It's most always a failing/failed display, which costs more than a brand new top of the line Sony Bravia. I doubt if any early plasma set will ever be repaired, unless it was a gift from a very rich person's mother, and the mother passed away the next day. Only then might one ever be fixed. And not fixed by me for any reason!!!!!!!!

Charles

There's not really anything fixable in the screen of these, is there? I guess the only thing that might could be repaired is something like bad caps in the power supply.
The DLP sets seem to have more that can be repaired. My friend's parents have a rear-projection DLP and it seems like they had to have the xenon bulb replaced (was in warranty though). Even after that, the set seemed to still have problems and they had to be given a new set.
A service contract/extended warranty I think would be a smart idea on any of these types of new technology sets, especially DLP.

These crummy things have barely been out 10 years, & they're already starting to check out ?!? And we have color sets from 1954 w/CRTs that still work dandily ? Why are we being made to get away from CRTs as fast as the companies can back away from 'em? I can feel warm 'n' fuzzy about an operating CT-100, but somehow I doubt anyone will get the same feeling over a functioning plasma set from 2006 50 years from now...but I'll wager the CT-100 will STILL be wow-ing them in 2056....

Technology is all made disposable, and that's the problem. Stuff back in the 50's - early 80's was made to last. Believe me, I have worked on electronics dating from 1933 all the way to only 1 or 2 years old. You can just see how companies just don't care what they put their name on anymore.

This set probably would have cost over $500 when it was new, looking at what they sell for now. I would be pretty upset if something I paid that much for had to be thrown out in three years.
I bought a power adapter from that auction site, should come soon and we'll see what it does.

One issue I have found is there are getting to be very few guys or gals that can repair down to the component level these days. Very few high schools teach old school electronics now. I think there is very little interest from young people today with how things work inside etc... That's why Heathkit is no more. I have found the general disinterest in electronics to be a very real problem where I work. Everybody is into software but they don't have a clue what is going on inside the box.

Perzactly. There's another thread here about a guy repairing a CD player for his teenage son. When I was a teenager,I LOVED to tear into things to see how they worked. Sometimes they even STILL worked after I'd poked around inside 'em ! Don't kids still have that innate curiosity anymore? I sure do wish I'd been smart enuff to learn a little bit about electronics...But I'm pretty HOPELESS when it comes to that...Plus, I NEVER had an "Elmer"-an older guy to show me the ropes.

Part of this is because it is very difficult to repair anything at the component level anymore. The integrated circuits in a typical TV contain more active components than 1000 tvs back in the 1960s. It is very difficult to determine which one is bad.

Also, if you were able to determine what the issue is, the surface mount components make it very difficult to replace anything.

And on top of all this, it is easier to find a receiveing tube for a 40 year old TV than the integrated circuit for a 5 year old one.

With such difficulties, it does not supprise me that young people do not tinker with electronic devices today.

Part of this is because it is very difficult to repair anything at the component level anymore. The integrated circuits in a typical TV contain more active components than 1000 tvs back in the 1960s. It is very difficult to determine which one is bad.

Also, if you were able to determine what the issue is, the surface mount components make it very difficult to replace anything.

And on top of all this, it is easier to find a receiveing tube for a 40 year old TV than the integrated circuit for a 5 year old one.

With such difficulties, it does not supprise me that young people do not tinker with electronic devices today.

I was once told that switching to 16x9 made CRTs very difficult to produce. I work at a TV station and they brought a guy from Panasonic out to show us the "new" stuff 6 or 8 years ago. He said at that time that the CRTs looked better, but most of them didn't work. The failure rate at the factory was something like 60%. Anyhow, that's what this guy said. I'm sure the story has changed since then, but that's what got them looking at other technology. Then when folks saw the flat TVs, the marketing guys took over.

Take care,

Ed

Technology is all made disposable, and that's the problem. Stuff back in the 50's - early 80's was made to last.

I hear this a lot, but how long did most people keep their TVs back then? 10 year old TVs seem to be considered junk in books and magazines that I've read from the 50's and 60's. I read in a 60's TV repair book that the life expectancy of a B/W TV was something like 6-10 years including several major repairs. 50's electronics magazines frequently talk about 40's TV as being obsolete.

It's easy to see a TV that's lasted 40 years and say they were made to last, but 99.99% of it's peers are long gone.

In a word; NO.

It's most always a failing/failed display, which costs more than a brand new top of the line Sony Bravia. I doubt if any early plasma set will ever be repaired, unless it was a gift from a very rich person's mother, and the mother passed away the next day. Only then might one ever be fixed. And not fixed by me for any reason!!!!!!!!

Charles

They're still worth picking up. Bronken plasma TVs regularly fetch $200-$600 on ebay. Even recent ones with smashed screens are worth money. I've been looking for one to play with, but I refuse to pay $500 for a broken TV that probably can't be fixed!

I wish I was running into a lot of plasma TVs in the trash.

I think a lot of the issue is that the older sets can be repaired fairly easily with industry standard parts whereas the newer ones cannot. Many of the tube type color sets I have are on their second or third CRT by now.

The majority of tube type color sets I see are from around 1967-1970 and many have new CRT's dating from 1974-1980 or so..so they were often getting about 10 yrs or less out of the CRT. The fact the sets cost a lot more then and had easily replaceable parts probably led to more of them being repaired rather than junked.
I think Andy is right about the typical "lifetime" of a set. Many of the tube type sets that are still around are on their 2nd or 3rd "life" with new CRT's, flybacks, tubes, caps etc.

I have never seen any plasma or LCD TV or computer monitor in the trash either. Most of the sets i see is from the early-mid 90s, sometimes late 90s. I only grabs them when i want something to crush. I always test them first, but i have never found a working one, so i drop them from the second floor and down in the basement. I collect TVs from the mid 80s and older; the "modern classics". The oldest one i have is from 1976. It is very unusual to find sets older than the late 70s here in Norway, but most of the sets i find is in pretty good shape. The only drawback is that the switching power supplies cannot be soft started. When i turn up the variac, nothing happens until i reach 120-170 volts, and then it "kicks in" at full power. I think it´s a good idea to collect theese sets now, when they are easily available at any dump, and they are usually not too difficult to repair if something happens. They are mostly discrete, and the few ICs are mostly op-amps. Most of my old sets outperforms my mothers 4 years old Finlux on both picture and sound. The old Philps sets with the twin speaker system sounds great, the picture is crystal clear if the CRT is not too worn, and the chassis are virtually bulletproof, except for some bad solderings from time to time.

I haven't seen one yet in any house trash, but plenty in TV repair shop trash. Especially the early Phillips Magnavox plasma sets from the late 90s; the ones with the big external receiver box.


Big external receiver box, huh? I wonder if those will become like Predictas are to us in around 2050.

I've seen quite a few LCD monitors in the trash, but so far all but one has had a smashed screen. The only one without a smashed display had been plugged into the wrong power supply. I tried to follow the power supply, but eventually gave up trying to trace through the multilayer board and identify unmarked SMD components. I sold it on as is. I've seen a few LCD TVs come through the junk auction (where most of the stuff comes from people who collect it off the side of the road). One was a small 6" model from a car system. It had a broken mounting bracket and flex cable. One had a dead backlight, but appeared to be okay otherwise. One seemed to power up okay and display the blue background with OSD but I couldn't get it to display a signal. All went higher than I was willing to pay for something to play around with. I've fixed laptop LCD displays before, but they usually fail predictably (backlight or flexcable). I've changed a driver IC on an old mono display, but I doubt I could do it on a modern display.

I can think of a couple of places that where space is at a premium and picture quality isn't critical where I'd use an LCD if I found one cheap enough, but I'll stick to CRTs everywhere else.