1968 Magnavox - Should I get it? - Page 2 - Videokarma.org TV - Video

captainmoody · #16 07-17-2006, 06:54 PM

Compucat, how far are you away from Detroit? I have the Zenith 18" Metal cabinet tabletop color set you were talking about...
BTW, if you have the room, get the maggie! Moyers still stocks the flybacks for those(at least the last time I bought one) they claimed to have plenty at the time. May not have been the very best quality electronically, but the cabinets were awesome! I enjoy my 1969 astro-sonic combo, it has the double sliding doors and remote that even controls the reject function on the changer! I would never put it into hard every day service though, as the pc boards became very brittle on the high hour units that used to come into my shop. (that's when they were 9-10 years old then, think what they would look like now)

Chad Hauris · #17 07-17-2006, 07:58 PM

I have 4 of these Magnavoxes which work fine. 1 is an 18", 2 are 23" consoles, the 4th is a 23" console with radio and phono. They all appear to use very similar TV chassis. 2 of them have needed repairs to the 6BK4 circuit but have had no trouble with the flybacks themselves. Had to replace some bad tube sockets on the 18". The remote model I have is the deluxe model with automatic UHF tuning.

captainmoody · #18 07-17-2006, 08:33 PM

Chad, you say you had to replace some sockets on the 18", were the sockets shot from heat issues? How did the pc boards look as well? Just curious to see how they held up after 30+ years!

Geoff Bourquin · #19 07-17-2006, 09:45 PM

I haven't worked on one of those in years, but one thing I do remember is that if you are not VERY careful when you take tubes out, you'll take out the socket and a chunk of the pc board too. Especially around the horizontal and vertical outputs tubes. I dont remember any other sets being quite so bad about that.

OK, 2 things I remember....Lots of bad flybacks too.

Bill R · #20 07-17-2006, 10:12 PM

If it were close to me I would get it. I liked the early Magnavox sets. I do not recall flybacks being much more of a problem than any other brand. When they were properly aligned and set up they had an excellent picture. I always liked the picture because of the nice red of the crt. Not the orange red of zenith, but close to true red.

Bill R

glen65 · #21 07-17-2006, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by compucat

I have a chance to buy a 1968 Magnavox color TV almost exactly like the one pictured (pix swiped from gallery) but without remote control feature. It is complete but I don't know if it works. I wouldn't plug it in at the store anyway. It has a repair slip inside from 1975 for power supply filters so I know it has been in service at least until then. The question is this: Is this a good model to restore and use daily? I would like to resotre a tube color Tv and this has that 60s tube Tv look that is just so attractive. It uses PC boards and I never like the idea of tubes sitting on boards. We all know what that causes over time. Are picture tubes for this model readily available? What do you think? I would want this as a restoration project and daily watcher.

I ran into a bunch of these about 20 years ago.
Most of them were junk. And the main reason was…yep the PC
boards. The dammed things were always deteriorated causing
bad connections making it a PITA to do anything with them.
Even the boards that had no tubes on them would fall apart.
I seem to remember a board that went vertically off the main chassis.
It contained several power resistors. I remember them falling apart
if I were to put any pressure on the resistors. It wasn’t just the fact that
they used PC boards. Whatever material they was using to make them with was $hit.
If you want a vintage set I would stick to something like an RCA or Zenith.

Tony V · #22 07-18-2006, 01:00 AM

I've had several of these sets and they all worked when i got them. I never had flyback troubles but had major tube socket problems and alot of intermittants with them. I ended up doing like Chad does and hardwire the socket connections and bypassing the original traces on the pc boards. After that i had no more problems. Like Geoff said...you have to be very careful replacing tubes as the material they made the pc boards out of was very brittle even on low hour sets. None of mine were very sensitive on antenna but worked well on cable. As with all older model sets these dont behave very well when using a VCR but play great with a dvd player. Sound quality is excellent like most older magnavox sets. These had a chromatone control on the back also where you could adjust the white balance from a sephia color like old photographs to a blueish screen which was nice when watching b/w programs if you got tired of the same ole picture and didnt have to mess with the main adjustments. Not as good quality compared to a Zenith but definately worth looking into if it shows some signs of life. If it was close i would concider it. My favorite one was like the combo that Captain has.
Tony

compucat · #23 07-18-2006, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by captainmoody

Compucat, how far are you away from Detroit? I have the Zenith 18" Metal cabinet tabletop color set you were talking about...

I live in Suffolk, VA. I really would love to restore and use one of those metal Zeniths. For me it's all about build quality and longevity and Zenith has always delivered. This would be a great replacement for the 12" B&W Zenith in my avatar which was my favorite until my 2 year old daughter accidentally knocked it over and destroyed it.

Are you offering that 18" Zenith for sale? I would be willing to pay to have it properly packed and shipped since pickup is out of the question. What is the cosmetic and operational condition? It does not have to work, just be restorable and free of dents, missing cabinet parts, etc..

captainmoody · #24 07-18-2006, 07:04 AM

The Zenith works great and looks the same! Shipping might be a bit of a problem as it is at least 70 pounds and would require a huge box to allow for enough padding for safe arrival.

compucat · #25 07-18-2006, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by captainmoody

The Zenith works great and looks the same! Shipping might be a bit of a problem as it is at least 70 pounds and would require a huge box to allow for enough padding for safe arrival.

Can you post or send me some pictures of it? I know it would not be cheap to ship but it might be worth it to me. Might it be possible to ship cabinet and chassis separately? Harry Poster did this for me once and everything arrived quite safely.

compucat · #26 07-19-2006, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geoff Bourquin

I haven't worked on one of those in years, but one thing I do remember is that if you are not VERY careful when you take tubes out, you'll take out the socket and a chunk of the pc board too. Especially around the horizontal and vertical outputs tubes. I dont remember any other sets being quite so bad about that.

OK, 2 things I remember....Lots of bad flybacks too.

I was able to look inside the back and I believe I saw the horizontal output and damper tubes mounted on the metal chassis The high voltage cage is on the left hand side if you are facing the front of the set. It was hard to make out any other details as there is almost forty years of dust inside the set.

old_tv_nut · #27 07-19-2006, 11:17 AM

I have the 1967 remote version of this that you pictured, bought from DRH. He told me he replaced the flyback, among other things (and did a lot of work on the remote receiver too). I power it up infrequently since I have heard the reputation of poor reliability, but it is a real work of art cabinet-wise.

Regarding picture brightness, I found that swapping out video output tubes until you find a "hot" one helps. The chassis has plenty of color drive, but the luminance seems to depend on the gain of the video output tube, with very little cathode resistance in the circuit. Only other thing I have done is the focus rectifier tube died and had to be replaced.

Jeffhs · #28 07-19-2006, 11:58 AM

I have yet to see a Magnavox TV on the curbs or treelawns, either where I used to live (suburban Cleveland) or where I live now (just beyond the Cleveland suburbs by about 10 miles). Were there certain areas of the U. S. where Magnavox was really popular? Since the company was based in Fort Wayne, Indiana during most of its existence, I would think these sets would show up most frequently in Indiana. But why was Magnavox so (seemingly) unpopular in northeastern Ohio? I had a collection of old TVs years ago (late '60s-'70s) which included just about every major U. S. make except Magnavox. I remember seeing only two Maggies in the Cleveland area; one belonged to a cousin of mine, the other was owned by an elderly lady (now deceased) who lived very close to Cleveland. (Both sets have long since been junked.) But so help me, these were the only two Mags (made by the original Magnavox Company) I've seen in 40+ years of electronics experimenting. The grocery store three blocks from my apartment used to have a small (13" or so) "Magnavox" branded stereo portable TV they would use during football season, but I'm sure that one must have been made overseas. Wouldn't surprise me if the chassis was made by Funai or some other offshore electronics firm.

BTW, I agree with the comment made as to the fragility of the tube sockets in those Maggies which had PC boards. Magnavox was not the only make with this problem. I had a 1964 Sears Silvertone-branded roundie (the chassis was a CTC12 clone) in which the video-output tube socket broke out of the video PCB after I'd had the set just three years (I got the TV in 1970 from a neighbor in my hometown).

slow_jazz · #29 07-19-2006, 12:00 PM

the wood alone is worth it....

compucat · #30 07-19-2006, 12:23 PM

The set I am looking at was serviced and probably sold by Prices. They were the local Magnavox dealer and authorized service center here up until the mid 1980s. They disappeared during the 80s at the same time most of the legitimate TV shops around here did. That's about the time when customers considered sets to be disposable. I think that one store probably accounts for all the 60s and 70s Magnavoxes in Hampton Roads, Virginia.