Goodwill Score! It's a Quasar
 

Hello all. I just wanted to show my new TV I just picked up from Goodwill. It was half off $3, so only $1.50, not too bad!! :thmbsp:

It is a 1986 Quasar Dynacolor, model # TT9803YU. I'm not too familiar with Quasar at all, so I don't really know what Dynacolor is. This TV is particularly interesting to me because it be bares an uncanny resemble to the RCA Lyceum TV (CTC-121), which is my favorite TV, so I couldn't pass this up for $1.50. It also pretty much weights the same as the Lyceum TV too; it's freakin' heavy!!! Anybody have anything to say about 80s Quasar or Dynacolor? I just broke the channel down button, so I have to keep cycling through the channels with channel up, which is kind of annoying but not horrible.
As you can see, I like beefy 80s TVs!

I've worked on a lot of these. In almost all cases, it was a bad flyback/HOT and/or a weak CRT. And, loose connections were also common. IIRC, the flyback p/n was TLF14423F. By this time, Quasar TV's were actually rebadged Panasonic's; which, were made by Matsushita Electric of Japan. There were also some of these sets made for GE. GE also had some similar looking sets that used either their own "PC" or "PM" chassis.

Prior to '75, the Quasar brand was owned by Motorola and was first used on Motorola's line of solid state color TV's and, later, on some of their tube/transistor hybrid color TV's. Sometime in '74, Motorola sold it's consumer electronics line, and the Quasar name, to Matsushita. I actually have a 19" Motorola/Quasar "televiewer" hybrid color motel TV from the early '70's.

The Dynacolor name was just a marketing term and really didn't mean much.

Nice looking Matsushita Quasar, looks to be in good shape for its age - you gotta love those red LED's!


At the local GW there sits a Sears monitor style tv of that same vintage and appearance - even has the original manual and remote with it - I was gonna pop for it but I have too damn many sets now.

Are there controls hidden behind the Quasar logo?

I found a few late-1980's/early-1990's sets at Goodwill as well. They must've been working well because my friend, who works there, said that unless the old TV's are "antique," they recycle all old TV's that don't work. So it's probably not a good idea to donate the 1960's console with a sound problem to Goodwill.

The controls are behind the Quasar logo, yes. I wish I had a remote for this set. I've been trying to program an RCA universal remote to it, but haven't had any luck yet. Breaking the channel down button doesn't really help the TV viewing either. I wish I could find a manual for the TV. I don't really know how the channel erase, add, program buttons work yet. It's still sitting on my living floor, as I'm trying to figure out a home for it—maybe add it to my existing bedroom TV-T, except it won't be a T anymore.

When at Goodwill, I also bought a Panasonic time lapse VCR, which is commercial grade, also for $1.50. This VCR is pretty crazy and high tech. I'm pretty sure it's from 1989, but I can't seem to find a manufacture date, but '89 is the first date on the internal calendar. 2004 is the last year in the calendar, so I need to figure out which year is the same as 2011. It's model AG-6030 and is intended for video surveillance, but I guess all time lapse recorders are for that.

It almost looks like it has a photocell for auto brightness adjustment like the Lyceum.

I have a couple of T/L vcr's a got from the place I worked at. I have to look at them again to get familier with all the options on them. Really complicated. Most of the systems today use hard drives, something like a Tevo.

Are Panasonic mid-80s televisions reliable, overall, or did you service a lot of them?

I'm not too crazy about most Panasonic/Quasar TV's from the mid '80's to mid '90's. It seems like most of them experienced bad flyback transformers, weak CRT's, and/or low quality PC boards with lots of loose connections (especially around any power resistors). I did, however, service a big 32" flat tube silver Panasonic from the early 2000's. That set was well built and had a great picture. I guess that was one of those situations where their quality improved over time.

My favorite Panasonic items were their radio's, VCR's, and their portable B&W TV's.

The programming was done thu the remote