What is it with 1990's Zenith televisions?

[MRX37]

I know Zenith's overall quality went downhill after the golden age of television, but GEEZ!

I own or have owned several Zenith televisions all made in the 90's. All of them have problems with the CRT.

1994 25" Zenith. I forget the model number. The picture was sharp, but dim. So dim I had to adjust the flyback to brighten it. It also had color bleeding and poor contrast.

1992 25" Zenith console TV. Found on curbside. Picture tube was very dim. So dim that even with flyback adjustments it was unwatchable.

1997 27" Hitachi. It's a Zenith with the Hitachi name. It has Zenith guts and a Zenith CRT. I've grown to hate this one. I mean I really hate this TV. The middle of the screen has a decent picture, but the edges have such poor convergence that small text is unreadable, and no amount of playing with the yoke or ring magnets will fix it. The tube also has color bleeding, usually bright red or orange.

1998 27" Zenith A27A23W. The best 90's Zenith I own. It hasn't seen a whole lot of use in its lifetime, but already the corner convergence is not as good as in the middle of the screen. Playing with the yoke helped somewhat, but it's still noticeable if I look for it, and I suspect it will only get worse.



I have found TV's from the 1980's and 70's that are still going strong. I had an RCA Colortrak TV from 1991 that had such a good picture that I would have kept it if I hadn't found a newer and bigger RCA Colortrak TV. I've messed with various models of RCA TV's made throughout the 90's, and the picture tube usually had a lot of life left in it.

What happened to Zenith in the 90's, and is their new stuff just as crappy?