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I did Magnavox Service from 1977 to 1990.
I THINK Phillips bought Magnavox in 1979-1980.
Before the change, Magnavox sets were plagued with issues like using 1/4 watt resistors in circuits that should have used 1/2 watters, etc. Their console sets looked really nice, but the chassis were cheap. The early solid state consoles had plug-in modules like Quasar, but, they had lots of issues with bad connections between the chassis and these boards. Also, FIRE! I gave my folks a new 1973 SS 25" console with the Videomatic circuit that would raise and lower the brightness of the set according to what the little photocell under the screen would sense in the room. It ran OK for 2-3 years, then it burned a connection on the HV board that punched a hole in the back of the set! I replaced the board connectors, and hard-soldered the whole board to the chassis. Never had a problem again with it, until 1980 when it got hit by lightning, hard. I bought them a 25" Phillips-made Magnavox with remote, their first, in a fake wood cabinet that matched the living room. It used the 25C1 chassis, which in all these years, has only been repaired one time, and that was to replace the big filter cap on the power supply half of the chassis. It is still running today, 2006.
The Phillips sets were for the most part very reliable. Many I have seen have outlasted their kines. When the C4's came out with the first stereo amp chassis, they had a few issues with the power modules, but I never had any trouble fixing them. Rarely had tuner problems, or IF stuff. It was almost always Horizontal outputs, Flybacks, and vertical module failures on these sets. Once in a while, on the 19C5 chassis, I would find a dead set with nothing wrong but a single pin on the horizontal output transistor cracked away from its board connection. A quick blob of solder, and it runs on!
The 26C8 chassis was the ONE that turned around on me. A certain power supply failure (switched mode) would cause a catastrophic failure of MANY parts around the switcher. IF I missed one defective part, the whole thing would die again on start-up!
The B1 chassis series were damn good. Rarely had any problems with them. Ran one here in my home from 1988 or so until 1991, gave it to a friend, and it still is running today.
Magnavox cabinets were made in Arden, NC, here in my neck of the woods until around 1988. The sets were assembled in Greeneville, TN, and in Knoxville, TN.
I went to many training seminars with them. Good engineers, and very good tech-support.
Then the projection sets came along. Aaraugh. THATS about when I stopped doing big sets. I DID for a time, rebuild scan modules, and small signal boards for the Magnavox-built SEARS branded LXI sets in the early 90's. Then, as I stopped working on the PTV's, Phillips came out with the all-on-one-board PTV chassis in their 50" sets. No more plug-in modules. Many returned sets to Sears due to the tech having to make sometimes 2-3 visits to the customers home to fix the things!
Enough of my ramblings. Does this help?
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