rca xl-100 score

[sampson159]

thanks ! contrast is set at minimum.my mom had a set like that back in the late 80s.tube went south and i put in a sylvania 25vap22.good swap.i like this one alot and it will go to my room beside the zenith.can t wait to get that sylvania from bryan.my triple crown!!will post pics after i do a real set-up on it.

[rcaman]

i very well remember the xl100 sticker on the face of the tube. even though my mon ordered our xl100 when it was delivered dad wouldnt allow the sticker to come off for a couple or three days to make sure we were going to keep it. he thought seriously about having a new crt installed in our old admiral roundie. he said this rca is to bright and to yellow he was just not used to the vivid colors of a solid state set. we kept the set and the dealer patched up our old roundie and sold it foe us we got $50.00 for it. steve

[Big Dave]

Ron, Nice score. If you need boards and that, I have stock in Warren if you would ever need them. The pic on your set is great. I think I also have a CRT for the XL or Colortrak series. If you need parts, give me a email.

[Jeffhs]

Speaking of RCA's XL-100, I've wondered for some time why the company held on to that designation for so long, and for that matter, when they finally dropped it. My RCA (Thomson) CTC-185 (bought new eight years ago) has "XL-100" at the upper left corner of the cabinet, above the CRT. I called RCA/Thomson's business offices in Indianapolis several years ago and asked what "XL-100" means these days, years after the original. Was told that XL100 is just a model designation, nothing more and nothing less. The explanation may be something very similar to why Zenith has held on to their "lightning bolt" Z trademark as long as they have; the trademark is still on the instruction manuals for televisions actually manufactured by LG, which may or may not have the lightning bolt logo below the flat panel displays.

[rcaman]

xl00 means extended life 100% solid state. steve

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by rcaman

xl00 means extended life 100% solid state. steve

I understand that. But why is RCA (Thomson) still using XL100 some 20+ years after introducing the first 100-percent SS extended-life sets? My best guess is that they, like Zenith, don't want to see the designation go into the public domain; that or else RCA is still very proud of its original XL100 TV chassis design, and they want the world to know it. (Was RCA the first U.S. television manufacturer to have 100-percent solid-state sets in its product line? If so, the company is justified in hanging on to the XL-100 designation, well over 20 years after introducing the first sets with this chassis design.)

BTW, I believe the "extended life" claim in XL-100. My own RCA CTC185 is still going strong (original CRT with a beautiful picture, as well) after eight years of daily use, with only one repair (actually two repairs for the same problem) in all that time; the RF port to which the antenna/cable connects snapped off the tuner PC board, once IIRC in 2000, the second time [!] a year or so later. (Neither repair, however, was covered by my set's warranty; I had to pay out of my own pocket both times, and it wasn't cheap.) Even the on-board tuner hasn't been a problem since the ground points were resoldered the last time the set was worked on.

I'm expecting this TV to last years now (well into the all-digital age beginning next year), as the on-board tuner was the main sticking point in the CTC185s. Seems as if RCA/Thomson finally got it right (thank goodness) with the CTC203 and its successors, which have the tuner mounted separately from the main chassis. What gets me, however, is this: Why on earth did it take them so long to correct this problem? I'd have thought they would have known (or at least suspected) something was very wrong when the CTC185, and other chassis using the on-board tuner, were turning up for warranty service left and right with cracked solder joints around the tuner and corrupted EEPROMs. Since RCA/Thomson was footing the bills for each and every one of these warranty repairs, it could not have shown very well in the company's profit/loss statements either.

[Chad Hauris]

Looks like a Seeburg LPC-480 or PFEAU1 there too!

[sampson159]

good eye! thats a seeburg lpc-1.i got that from an elderly man in elyria ohio. he owned it for over 42 years.it was clean outside but the switches were so dirty it wouldnt even scan. cleaned it up and it works well. i have a rock-ola 432 coronado also. will post pics of it and my cavalier coke machine and the u.s. popcorn machine-the only known unit in existence!

[1980'slover]

dang that thing reminds me of my two consoles tvs made by rca i forgot the models but one was made in 1983 and it was a colortrack, and the other was made in 84 and it had a remote

[1980'slover]

i would polish the wood on both every weekend the 83 was bigger then the 84 and it was a dark brown color, the 84 was a light brown