Quote:
Originally Posted by andy
I've seen at least one Zenith made Signature 2000. Later Zenith's even had a mode in the service menu that changed the remote codes, and how the on screen display looked.
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Interesting about the Zenith/Signature 2000 observation. Actually, now that I think about it, I remember seeing department-store-label console on the curb on trash day a while back that surprised me, since I recognized it as a Zenith Advanced System 3 console in disguise. I think it was made in 1990 or so, which was a few years before I saw those Sanyo(?)-made Signature 2000 sets alongside the "Zenith" Admirals at M-W. I'm trying to remember for sure if the set I saw was a Signature 2000, but I think it was.
You're right about that option in the Zenith service menu-- it's the "ZEN/PL" mode select option at least on some early/mid-90's Zenith-made sets. I tried that once long ago on a 1993 25" Zenith which was my main TV at the time. If I remember correctly, setting it to "PL" (Private Label) not only altered the labeling of some of the OSD menu items, but it also removed a few of the menu options entirely. I suppose if someone wanted to save a few bucks at the time, they could have bought a "private-label" Zenith, then gone into the service menu and turned it into a "real" Zenith set.
...Not that doing that would have improved the reliability of the CRTs they were using at the time, however.
The service menu was pretty cool though. At least on some Zenith lines, the service menu included a number of settings that were obviously intended for hotel/business/institutional applications. At the time, I figured that if I ever encountered a *really* annoying salesperson at a store that sold Zenith TVs, I thought the following procedure would be a funny (read: mean) practical joke to pull. Go into the service menu on one of the display models in the store, then enable the "power set on automatically when AC cord plugged in" option, set the default power-on channel to an active channel, set the minimum/power-on sound volume to its maximum, and disable the front panel controls. Then, exit the service menu, power off or unplug the set and (quickly) leave the store. At most mass-merchandisers, if someone did that, I wonder if the anyone working there would ever figure out what happened or how to fix it.