Goodbye Zenith/Funai
 

My 2000 Zenith 20" Combo TV/VCR bit the dust, and it had such low use. (as it was my treadmill tv...ha) A friend gave it to me and it was rarely used, picture wasn't outstanding, but not bad. Anyway.. went to use it Saturday, popped a tape in and the tape wouldn't do anything, and then TV turned off. Took the set apart, got the tape out and it still would turn off after 10 seconds, so it wasn't a hard decision... off to the trash it went.
I was surprised how CHEAP everything was when I had the set apart. Did Funai make ALL of the combo units that came out around that time-frame? If so.. there can't be many of those around. I replaced the set with a 1987 RCA Colortrac, and paired it with a matching VCR (so I only have to use 1 remote!)
I think this set-up is a much better fit.

Almost 11 years' use ? Wow...That must be some sort of record for one of those...

Underneath the VCR is the transport mode locator switch. It was probably dirty. A little WD-40 usually would bring them back to life. It is under the cam gear. If that didn't fix it, the infra-red LED under the prism is bad. Use your cell phone camera to look at it with the prism removed. It is visilble in the cell camera. I know it is trashed now but hopefully this info will save the next one. I've fixed many of these. The killer is when the power supply fries!

I think Panasonic/Quasar made their own and some of the RCA's were rebadged Panasonic's. Most of the other brands seem to be rebadged Funai.

And, I've seen the switching power supplies fry in these later TV's. I've also seem them send several hundred volts through the chassis; which, pretty much fries everything.

Ya.. I don't usually throw anything out, but I have some older 19" sets that work fine, so figured the 87 Colortrac was better than the "Zenith". Everything about the Zenith was so cheap and shoddy, I actually didn't feel too bad telling it "Buh-BYE"... lol!
If I come across another one, I'll know what to look for one. And ya Sandy.. almost 11 years, but like I said.. it was my treadmill TV, so not alot of use....

Isn't this one made by Orion or GoldStar, because I don't think Funai made a single product for Zenith yet?

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Ya.. not sure who made the chassis, but it had a Funai branded picture tube, so I assumed the whole set was Funai. The Panasonic combos are decent, but my only complaint from a few I've seen is that the picture tubes don't hold up that well in Panasonic sets. I have a Panasonic combo unit I gave a friend years ago, and it works fine, but noticed the picture tube is a bit soft. I think it's a rebadged RCA.

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A Funai picture tube automatically assumes the whole set was made by Funai. Most Zenith TV/VCR combos were either made by GoldStar or Orion.

Actually the most hated TV's here are the later RCA's that go crazy and blow their flybacks and HOT. They turn themselves on and off so fast they kill the sweep parts. Also, Phillips! They are terrible sets. Boards turn dark brown in the vertical area and their power supplies, junk!:thumbsdn:

That Zenith is definately a Funai product. The same as Magnavox, Sylvania, Sears and of course, Funai. I have one where the CRT is made in Vietnam.

I agree. Looking at a newer RCA or Philips TV will make a Funai or Orion look like a top quality product.

I've gotten to the point where I won't even look at an RCA or Philips TV that was made after about 2001.

Those later RCA's use cheaply built flyback transformers that usually fry before the set reaches the two year old mark. RCA had the same problem in the early '80's; but, back then, they made things right by offering a better designed flyback transformer. Now, they couldn't care less.

The Philips sets use Chinese built PC boards that are full of off brand Chinese capacitors. And, the traces are very delicate on these sets. Even with a low wattage pencil soldering iron, they will lift up and break very easily.

I took in a '04 Philips 19" set where the top two inches of the picture is black and the bottom of the picture is cut off. It sort of looks like the vertical centering is way off. After checking/replacing a half dozen caps around the vertical output circuit without success, I finally gave up and put it back together. I'm sure the problem is a cap that I missed; but, no sense in wasting any more time on this junk.

My 2008 Sansui 27", which has been purported to be the last traditional CRT set sold, was made by Orion I believe. It's already exhibiting some flakiness - color shifting here & there. Not enough to bother with yet but I'm anticipating having to replace it before too much longer.

Seen this issue in the Magnaxox/funai tv/vcr combos three times all in the same household. Yours is the same chassis. Crap, crap, crap! The plastic loader gear gets cracked. Slipps a tooth and all hell breaks loose, then the set thinks there is a loader jam then shutsdown. ticktickticktick for like 10 seconds then shutdown again. Error messages come up on the screen and when powered up again it's ejecting. bypass the loader sensors and you might get lucky, of course the VCR portion is now rendered useless.