From what I've read about them, RCA's XL100s (the originals from the '70s, such as the set being discussed in this thread) were great sets. It seems as if Thomson must have decided to honor this tradition, as I have an RCA CTC185 XL-100 19-inch table model (1999 vintage) that also makes a very good picture on cable, almost as good as my 13-year-old Zenith Sentry 2. This set (my XL100 RCA) is eight years old and has had only one repair done on it (the RF port snapped off the tuner PC board not long after I bought the set). Inline CRT (still the original). Will have to look on mine to see where the red phosphor is. I read the post addressing the repositioning of that phosphor on some inline CRTs; now it has me wondering.
However, despite the problems with the onboard tuner in RCA TVs from the late '90s until the CTC203, the XL100 series, I'll say it again, were excellent sets; once the problems with the onboard tuner are addressed and corrected, these TVs will run for years. I expect to be watching digital TV on mine come February next year.
BTW, I agree with the poster who mentioned that TVs are often put out for the trash these days because they do not have remote control, are not set up for high definition (though quite a few defective or unwanted HD flat panels and rear-projection sets, the latter having been superseded by FPs, are showing up on eBay as of late), or simply because their owners got tired of them and wanted something newer. I'm glad Zenithfan1 found that 1974 XL100 and decided to restore it; it's one more set saved from a certain death in a landfill.
