Zenith's Decline

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by andy

I've heard various stories about what caused the problem, but I'd love to find out the real story. I'm not sure that even Zenith knew what was wrong (if they did, you would think they would have fixed it).

The problems I saw with these CRTs were that the guns lost emission quickly, and they tended to develop various shorts. That seems to point to some kind of contamination. The phosphor screens never showed any signs of trouble, but that doesn't mean it wasn't the source of the contamination. They acted like shoddy rebuilds.

Thomson made excellent CRTs, and Sony made decent CRTs in the US at that time...

I would like to know this MYSELF. And if it was due to the "greens"--then why did RCA continue to make GOOD crt's that last and LAST__until the mid' 00's or so-?

I mean...I have a CTC 169 RPTV from 1993. My sister watches it EVERY day...12 or MORE hours EVERY day. I have had it in the family room for over 9 years now. I calculated she has put OVER 40 THOUSAND HOURS on it since july or so of 2005 when I put it there..-- and it STILL looks decent !! I repaired it ONCE since then--just a couple of cps in the PS_-and I did some PM soldering on it when I replaced them too. HOW Many flat-panels would handle that sort of use ? how many CCFL tubes would have failed? How many DLP sets or LCD projo sets with Xenon/mercury lamps--how many bulbs would they had gone through in that amount of hours--? light engines? Color wheels ?

Think about it for a minute.

Zenith used to made the BEST Crt's in the WORLD. We all KNOW how good their chrmacolor DELTA tubes were. They are often STILL good today--wello over 35 YEARS since the last sets used them. The round col,or tubes of their also werte pretty good--maybe not QUITE as good as the chromacolors--but not bad--and somewhat likely to still be found good now.

THEN--they went to the "tri=potential' 100 degree chromacolor tubes. There are NOT as long-lived as either the delta chromacolor tubes or the round color tubed and not real likely to be found good now. I would classify them as 'fair' lifespan wise--maybe on the level of most trinitron tubes-- they had a great picture but trinitorns are NOT known for long-life and CANNOT be rejuved. Tri[potentials maybe can be--but I was seeing them bad in the late 19*80's, when they were often only a decade or so old.


After this--they came out with their 110 degree tubed--also only fair--but seem to hold up a BIT better then the 100 degree ones. These tubes had not magnetic shield--no doubt another cost-cut measure. This was the early 1980's or so..

THEN---something DID "happen". By maybe 1991 or so...Zenith went form making indestructible CRT"s...to tubes that died in maybe 3 YEARS !! This has been covered here. Probably cathode contamination. But WHY couldn't they FIX that? I am SURE they HAD to have known about it--the problem went on for over 6 YEARS. By 98 or so...Zenith was using someone ELSES tubes--n their sets--saw no brand name on most--some had RCA looking tubes though. These hold up pretty well.


It just does not make SENSE....how could a company go from the BEST tube--to the WORST tube--in about a DECADE?? Was the QC that much BETTER--in say, 1973 or so--than 1991?