What brand do you think made the best Japanesee tv sets?

[lotusstp]

Phillips sold the Sylvania brand name to Funai; they're AKA Emerson, Symphonic and Durabrand. http://www.funai-corp.com/

Originally Posted by waltchan

Why aren't NEC, Mitsubishi, Orion, and Funai in the list? They are Japanese brands.

[mr_fixer]

Dr.Ido you are absolutely right, that's what I would do today if I wanted to restore a vintage Sony. And I'm sure if i had that same set today, with the same H.O.T. that there would be a easy cross reference for it. Since there are the resources of the Internet and AudioKarma. I wish it had existed back in 1985!!! Please pardon my previous rants as I'm a curmudgeon in training. Logan

[rcaman]

if i were buying a new tube set i would look no futher than sanyo. most bang for the buck and they are not junk like everything else out there. i have worked on sets for over 25 years and sanyos quality seems to still be there.
steve

[dr.ido]

All the new Sanyo sets that I have seen lately use slim flat CRTs. I've worked on one of these sets and while the build quality was better than the cheaper sets the picture had an odd look to it. Anything with a slim flat CRT seems to have noticably poorer geometry and corner focus. There's only so much the correction circuits can do as the deflection angle gets higher. I've seen a few other flat CRT sets and while some are better than other they just don't look right to me.

I guess I've been looking at conventional curved CRTs for so long that I can't get used to anything different.

[mr_fixer]

Originally Posted by rcaman

if i were buying a new tube set i would look no futher than sanyo. most bang for the buck and they are not junk like everything else out there. i have worked on sets for over 25 years and sanyos quality seems to still be there.
steve

I bought a Sanyo 27" in 2001 at Wally mart and it's still working with a decent picture. 6 years isn't bad for a $175 TV set. Logan

[bgadow]

I might be wrong about this, but I don't think Philips ever "owned" Sylvania-I think they just licensed the name from GTE & later Osram. I can only guess that Philips didn't want to renew the deal and that Osram (which does appear to own the name, and sells Sylvania lighting products) now licenses it to Funai. As for Japanese TV sets, Sony just never did anything for me, at least not with its color sets. I only had one junk Sony back years ago, which had a weird convergence/pincushion problem. I've been impressed with the quality from Panasonic and Sanyo in particular.

[TVtommy]

Mr Fixer, I beleive the Sony sets you refer too were the ones from the 70's with the word "ECONOQUICK" proudly emblazened on the front under the speaker. Never has there been a larger misnomer in the history of television! The HOT you refer to was probly the SG-603 used in this pos. It is actually a type of scr called a "gate controlled Switch" A dist. in Md at the time would gladely sell you one for $64 + s&h - I bought one and the set played for 10 min. before it smoked one of it's 2!! flybacks. Long enough to see that the crt was crap also. Lesson Learned. Sony has left a bad taste in my mouth ever since. Thay did actually become easier to service going into the 80's though still querky. BTW, I have read some where that the SG-603 could be replaced with a run of the mill plastic case HOT. I run across another one of thse in the future with absolutely nothing else to do, I might just give the NPN HOT a shot - nothing to loose.

[andy]

Originally Posted by TVtommy

BTW, I have read some where that the SG-603 could be replaced with a run of the mill plastic case HOT. I run across another one of thse in the future with absolutely nothing else to do, I might just give the NPN HOT a shot - nothing to loose.

I did it on a 12" and it worked fine with no modifications. I just connected it as a normal BJT HOT would be connected. I would be interested to hear if it's as easy on the larger sets.

[mr_fixer]

Wow, I wonder how Sony could sleep at night, selling a part for $60-$100 that could be replaced with a $10 dollar part.
I feel very lucky to have access to the Internet and AK, being able to chat with other Techies has made my life much better! Logan

[Einar72]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Why aren't NEC, Mitsubishi, Orion, and Funai in the list? They are Japanese brands.

Who cares?