Zenith Manchu Projection set

[Eric H]

This is an interesting looking Projection set from the 80's.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZENITH-40-CO...item5d312a2dec

[ChrisW6ATV]

Wow! I had no idea anything like that was ever built. If there is even one rear-projection TV on the planet that is worth collecting, this is it. That set needs three new CRTs, for sure. I wonder if you can still get them?

[kx250rider]

I eMailed them yesterday, and it's in southern OC. I won't bid on it, but I guess it should be saved (by somebody else). Those Zeniths had rotten, dim, blurry pictures from the factory. I had the one with the motorized rise-up screen, and it was awful.

Charles

[Geoff Bourquin]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

Those Zeniths had rotten, dim, blurry pictures from the factory.

Charles

I worked for a Zenith dealer when those were being sold. We spent hours trying to get the convergence good on our display model. Never were happy with it. IIRC the convergence contol was pretty much the same as a direct view CRT TV. That's just not enough control to do the job well....especially with a screen that goes up and down.

[Adam]

I simultaneously wish it were closer (it would be the perfect thing to set next to my chinese-cabinet Zenith roundie), and am happy that it's not so I don't even have to begin to think about hauling it anywhere. Interesting that Zenith was still making the chinese cabinets up into the 80s, I wonder if Zenith ever made regular rectangular color 25" crt set in a similar cabinet. I thought they quit making those cabinets way back in '66 or '67.

[Einar72]

Had one. Black finish, "spoilers" on each end, doors with a large split brass coin-like treatment which held the door pulls. 25" tube with power tuning - vertical UHF dial, had the separate bass/treble controls too. Really looked good on those 1981 Molson's commercials with the hot-air balloon. Had a bit of trouble reproducing yellows. Gone for years now.

[YamahaFreak]

"If you just happen to love the gorgeous Oriental scene on the front doors of the case, you could remove the existing projection TV and install a 40" flat screen to fit inside!"

That made me die a little inside...

[Jeffhs]

If this was one of Zenith's "Space Screen 45" projection sets of the early '80s (I saw one in a TV shop in my old neighborhood -- the only one of its kind I've ever seen personally), I wouldn't go after it, even if I had the room for it here in my small apartment (I don't). I like anything Zenith (almost like VK member Doug Harland, drh4683), but I have no room here for anything as big as a Zenith console TV of any kind. The SS45 looked big enough that one would have to have a very large living room, not only for the TV itself, but to be able to set the couch, recliner, etc. back far enough from the set to achieve the proper viewing distance (about three feet, I'd say, for a 45-inch screen).

The only thing I didn't like about these TVs was the disappearing screen. I read somewhere that the motorized screens on those sets started getting stuck with the screen up after a couple of years, a problem some people dealt with simply by disabling the motor drive and fixing the screen in the upright position. The Space Screen 45's screen would disappear into the top of the set when the TV was turned off. This was a good idea (I once saw an ad for the SS45 on YouTube in which the lady of the house said, after the screen folded into the cabinet, "...and [now], I have my living room back"), but, like all mechanical contrivances, it could and did fail after a very short time. My best guess is that the drive mechanisms in these TVs didn't last longer than two, maybe three years at the outside; maybe sooner yet if the TV was used a lot. I wonder how many SS45's were trashed simply because the screen's motor drive system failed, although the television itself still worked reasonably well. Kinda' like the story of the man who sold his car at a dirt-cheap price, simply because the ashtray was full.

[Gunslinger]

jrff, we used to njickname them "trash compactors" the pulley systems were terrible and those sets weighed a ton.

[jstout66]

Oh Lord.... those motorized rise-up screen Zenith's had to have been the BIGGEST POS that Zenith put out.
I mean.. most rear projection sets of that era were crap anyway, but those really took the cake. Gunslinger.. I worked in my Uncle's Zenith shop when those came out. We sold ONE, and it was a POS out of the box. Customer special ordered it.. shipped from Zenith to the distributor, and then to us. God my Uncle hated that set.. many service calls, and the motorized screen broke in the first year. I went with him to deliver it, and I thought we were gonna die getting it in the house.
The only set on our service call route that we hated more, was one of those Magnavox upright combo's. Ohhhh the memories......

[magnasonic66]

Don't worry, I'll never ask you to work on mine!