Goodbye Zenith/Funai

[jstout66]

Ya.. not sure who made the chassis, but it had a Funai branded picture tube, so I assumed the whole set was Funai. The Panasonic combos are decent, but my only complaint from a few I've seen is that the picture tubes don't hold up that well in Panasonic sets. I have a Panasonic combo unit I gave a friend years ago, and it works fine, but noticed the picture tube is a bit soft. I think it's a rebadged RCA.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by jstout66

Ya.. not sure who made the chassis, but it had a Funai branded picture tube, so I assumed the whole set was Funai. The Panasonic combos are decent, but my only complaint from a few I've seen is that the picture tubes don't hold up that well in Panasonic sets. I have a Panasonic combo unit I gave a friend years ago, and it works fine, but noticed the picture tube is a bit soft. I think it's a rebadged RCA.

A Funai picture tube automatically assumes the whole set was made by Funai. Most Zenith TV/VCR combos were either made by GoldStar or Orion.

[Zenith26kc20]

Actually the most hated TV's here are the later RCA's that go crazy and blow their flybacks and HOT. They turn themselves on and off so fast they kill the sweep parts. Also, Phillips! They are terrible sets. Boards turn dark brown in the vertical area and their power supplies, junk!

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by Zenith26kc20

Actually the most hated TV's here are the later RCA's that go crazy and blow their flybacks and HOT. They turn themselves on and off so fast they kill the sweep parts. Also, Phillips! They are terrible sets. Boards turn dark brown in the vertical area and their power supplies, junk!

I agree. Looking at a newer RCA or Philips TV will make a Funai or Orion look like a top quality product.

I've gotten to the point where I won't even look at an RCA or Philips TV that was made after about 2001.

Those later RCA's use cheaply built flyback transformers that usually fry before the set reaches the two year old mark. RCA had the same problem in the early '80's; but, back then, they made things right by offering a better designed flyback transformer. Now, they couldn't care less.

The Philips sets use Chinese built PC boards that are full of off brand Chinese capacitors. And, the traces are very delicate on these sets. Even with a low wattage pencil soldering iron, they will lift up and break very easily.

I took in a '04 Philips 19" set where the top two inches of the picture is black and the bottom of the picture is cut off. It sort of looks like the vertical centering is way off. After checking/replacing a half dozen caps around the vertical output circuit without success, I finally gave up and put it back together. I'm sure the problem is a cap that I missed; but, no sense in wasting any more time on this junk.