Picked up a Magnavox Console Today

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

Very interesting set there. It's amazing that its got complex features like PIP and stereo, and the chassis is a miniaturized mainboard like modern ones.

I noticed that tiny main board too (relative to the size of the cabinet), and did a double take when I saw the board; good grief, I said to myself, is that the entire television (less the CRT, tuner[s], yoke and speaker, of course) on just that one panel? Seems to me to be an awful waste of space; they could have put a stereo AM/FM tuner/amplifier and phono in the space left in there. I've seen this (the use of a very small main chassis in a huge console cabinet) in other makes of TVs from the '80s (and even some older console radios) as well, so that set's design wasn't necessarily an oddball.

That Maggie will be a very good set once the issues with the cold solder joints are resolved and the defective resistors are replaced. Stereo sound, PIP, Total Remote Control...it has the works. This set also may have been one of the last Maggies actually manufactured in the US, judging from the stamp on the back cover. (Is Magnavox's Greeneville, Tennessee plant still there?) However, I don't think even this set was built as solidly as earlier Maggies from when the company was based in Indiana.

[JCFitz]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I noticed that tiny main board too (relative to the size of the cabinet), and did a double take when I saw the board; good grief, I said to myself, is that the entire television (less the CRT, tuner[s], yoke and speaker, of course) on just that one panel? Seems to me to be an awful waste of space; they could have put a stereo AM/FM tuner/amplifier and phono in the space left in there. I've seen this (the use of a very small main chassis in a huge console cabinet) in other makes of TVs from the '80s (and even some older console radios) as well, so that set's design wasn't necessarily an oddball.

That Maggie will be a very good set once the issues with the cold solder joints are resolved and the defective resistors are replaced. Stereo sound, PIP, Total Remote Control...it has the works. This set also may have been one of the last Maggies actually manufactured in the US, judging from the stamp on the back cover. (Is Magnavox's Greeneville, Tennessee plant still there?) However, I don't think even this set was built as solidly as earlier Maggies from when the company was based in Indiana.

Actually the tuner is on that board too.Some of the consoles of the 90s the boards were even smaller. You should see all the empty space in an RCA console with a 32" or 36" tube and CTC 177 or 187 series chassis in it.They even made smaller chassis with portable sets.I think the smallest I've seen are Funai and Orion with the entire tv except the yoke, picture, tube and speakers.I've seen an entire chassis hardly as big as a 45 rpm record with electronic tuning,stereo, video inputs,flyback, everything on this tiny board.The tuner on some of these boards is 1 inch tall by 2 1/2 inches long and tunes up to cable channel 125 and all the UHF to channel 69.

[graywolf]

Thanks for your interesting comments about this old TV of mine. As of today it is still working. I have not gotten around to pulling the PC board to check the solder joints as I have a new project taking up my time. I am not much of a TV watcher either and it seems fine if I only use it for a couple of hours at a time.

I too was amazed at the size of the circuit board in that big cabinet, and chuckled at those "BIG HI-FI" speakers. However, I do have to blame AK for the fact my TV was made in 1989, my stereo receiver in 1979, and my portable radio (ZTO, the new project) in 1957... Stange thing is that it all looks like it belongs right here in my living room.