CRT sets on clearance at Wal*Mart

[Trance88]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "Flat Panel" is it the $299 LCD SD set or the $5000 Kuros Plasma?

Just want to know if we're comparing Apples to Apples or?

The flat panel TV's were fairly large probably in the 40 to 50 inch range. I believe both LCD and Plasma. Flat panel display TV's no doubt put out a clearer picture and save space but I just feel they lack the quality that was put into so many old tube sets.

[RobtWB]

It seems to me that a lot of us tv collectors have forgotten just how much maintenance a "vintage" tv, vcr, am/fm stereo receiver, table top radio, etc really required even when new. Up until the mid 90's there were still thousands of tv/appliance repair shops keeping this gear operational. Just remember how many "authorized" Zenith, RCA and Admiral repair shops there were in existance.
Then the bpc and spc sets arrived from en masse from Asia and things really changed. Realiable sets became the norm, excellent pricing, and decent pictures. We have all ran across mid 80's sets from all of the import manufactures that are still working perfectly - tens of thousands of those sets still work just fine - just look at the "dumpster" finds posted here. I am sure we all have bpc sets lying around that have thousands of hours on them without ever needing anything more than a shot of Windex to clean the cabinet and crt face. VERY SELDOM does one come across a "vintage" RCA, ZENITH, ADMIRAL, etc that has not seen a servicemans screwdriver.

But I still like my old tv's. Especially the RCA and Zenith consoles. True, they come no where near the picture quality of a $250 wallyworld lcd set, and they are "mostly" reliable, but damn the look really nice!!

Still searching for an original front loader Selectavision VCR from the early 80's to go with my RCA consoles of that era. Knowledge tells me that any "new" vcr is infinately better, but i really want an old Selectavision!!!

Next time I catch one of those no name 19/20 inch lcd baby tv's on sale, I think I'll snag one and hang it in the kitchen. Maybe that will stop the GF and daughter from eating in the LR.

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by Trance88

I just feel they lack the quality that was put into so many old tube sets.

Thank you, sorry if I've been a little cranky today, I just get a little weary of the "New stuff is crap" threads that pop up every few weeks.

I grew up with tubes sets and they were anything but reliable or even well built, granted they were cheap 19" B&W portables but as a whole they used the same tubes, caps and controls as the more expensive sets.

As a whole the average TV built today is light years more reliable than most tube sets, they are also much less repairable and I think that is what bugs people.

As for how a set looks in the store, you can't put much stock in it, many of them are badly misadjusted or being fed a poor signal, or people have fussed with them.

I know that a lot of cheap modern LCD & Plasma sets don't look as good as a decent CRT set but that doesn't mean that everything Digital or 16:9 sucks, and I speak from several years of hands on experience with them and I wouldn't go back to CRT for anything unless they can build one 50", 16:9 and less than 100 pounds.

[goraman]

I have grown up with black and white admeril T.V.,to a 22 inch all tube curtus mathus, to a 22 inch solid state C/M .then a 27 inch RCA to a 32 inch RCA ,then a 52 inch Hitachi rear projection and now a 65 inch Mitsubishi DLP. and I hate tube T.V.s they take for ever to warm up,and when you turn off the lousy picture it just keeps getting smaller and an hour later there is still a little glowing dot in the middle of the picture tube.I really liked the move to solid state,tube sets broke down alot. but now the old CRT is just to heavy,could you pick up a 65 or 72 inch CRT?
glad to seeum go.

The next gen nano static film tv's will be even better,the thin film is streached out on a large wall and the transtuner attached useing 3 conductors.
It is possable to leave it on for 30 years with no troubble and uses only 1/2 a watt!

[radiotvnut]

Yes, the fact that they are much less repairable is one of the major things that bugs me. My old tube stuff may or may not be reliable. I suppose time will answer that question; but, at least I stand a good chance of being able to repair it (and maybe learn something in the process) when something does fail.

Also, I don't ever mean to slam anyone who owns a Plasma, LCD, DLP, or whatever latest technology TV set. If that's what you like, go for it! The main ones I get ticked at are the people that are just trying to keep up with the guy next door. I'm not saying there is anyone here like that; but, I know plenty of people in this town that are. They think that living in an expensive house, driving an expensive car, owning all the latest expensive new electronic gadgets, etc. makes them somebody. As for some of the people I know, all it makes them is deeper in debt.

Just today, I picked up a 24 year old Zenith console from an old man out in the country. The old Zenith was being used for a stand to sit his new Magnavox LCD TV on. I gave him an empty cabinet in exchange for the old Zenith TV. And, he wasn't living in a large house or driving a fancy car. He really didn't strike me as the type to care about HD. I think he wanted a picture bigger than his old 25" set and the LCD set was what he decided would meet his needs.

[andy]

000

[bgadow]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

I was talking with my wife today about the 19" Symphonic or Durabrand (or whatever) set she had when I met her, asking if she wanted to put it in her daughter's bedroom and get it out of my shed. She said that she bought it on sale for $70 new in 2004 at Wal Mart - I still find it incredible, a new TV for $70. Incidentally, I never have bought a new TV; never paid more than $25 for a used one.

I have bought one new TV set...a 12" bw Midland from Western Auto back around '85. With tax I paid over $70. Not a bad deal at the time.

Color TV selling for under $100 was a major milestone, though few thought much about it, I guess. It was a nail in the coffin of every independent TV shop in the country.

I have nothing against someone buying a flatscreen; I just have no interest in owning one myself. Luckily my wife doesn't either. A couple times I have offered to replace our living room set (an inherited 19" Sylvania that is close to 20 years old) with a 27". She says that would be too big! Fine with me. I'll keep that old NAP set as long as she'll let me.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by bgadow

I have nothing against someone buying a flatscreen; I just have no interest in owning one myself. Luckily my wife doesn't either. A couple times I have offered to replace our living room set (an inherited 19" Sylvania that is close to 20 years old) with a 27". She says that would be too big! Fine with me. I'll keep that old NAP set as long as she'll let me.

My wife isn't pushing for a new TV, but I plan on getting her one for Christmas. She has the DVD and Playstation that needs the input jacks. I have everything hooked up "McGyverish" (is that a word?) through the VCR and a cheapo RF modulator to our 4-year-old Durabrand, whose A/V jacks are inaccessible without a remote. She still has to ask me how to switch from one thing to another, so I guess I should make life a little easier for her. I figure the red Chinese TV will probably catch fire or something soon - at least it was free, a gift from a family friend when I finished rebuilding the house. The nice thing is she doesn't mind if I put a new flat screen on top of an old color console for my own use.

[Red October]

I work at Radio Shack and I usually do the TVs. The only adjusting done is to fight the flouro lights which make the sets look awful. But there is only so good they willl look as they are fed from a Dish TV box that produces a signal so full of compression artifacts that I wonder why people buy it at all. If I can see the compression artifacts badly on a 32" Envision LCD, I wonder how they would look on my buddy's new 62" Samsung LED set? One problem with the flat sets, where does everything go? You can't even stick an antenna on top, never mind set a cable box, VCR, DVD, whatever. That and they have no soul. I lucked out though, when my buddy bought that Samsung, he sold me his HD Tube projector set. Throughout my youth, a projection set said "I've made it". I love the warmth of a tube picture, and I've got HD. I win. At least in my own mind, but what else matters?

[dr.ido]

I sometimes wonder if those of us who prefer a 4:3 CRT are that way because it is what we are used to and therefore "right" if that makes any sense. I guess I've spent most of my life in front of a CRT of some description from the 14" Toshiba my parents bought to go with my 1st computer as a child through the many various sets I have owned and still own to this day. Maybe I just can't get used to anything else.

I bought an LCD computer monitor when one came my way cheap. I used it for a couple of days, but I found it gave me a headache so I went back to my CRT. I now only use the LCD as a test monitor when working on other PCs as it is more convenient to move around.

I had a 50" HD LCD rear projection set for a while. I got rid of it because I found the lack of constrast on dark scenes, the limited viewing angle and the scaling artifacts (I don't entirely blame the TV for this, there's only so much that can be done when an SD signal is scaled up so much) when viewing anything other than a 1080i source distracting.

I had a 32" 16:9 flat screen CRT set for a while. The regulation was not good enough to keep the edges of a 4:3 image straight, so it's gone now.

Now I'm back to a 32" 4:3 curved screen CRT and I see no reason to change unless I find a better CRT. I have no problem watching letterboxed movies on a 4:3 set, but 4:3 content pillarboxed on a 16:9 set drives me nuts for some unknown reason.

Maybe I'm strange though, I've always preferred to watch movies at home as (among other reasons) the projected image in the cinema doesn't look right to me either.

I have no problem with those who prefer LCD/Plasma/etc, as long I don't have to pay for it or spend hours watching it.

[zenith2134]

True about the sets being totally set wrong in the display rooms. Either the OEM has the menu settings at 'showoff' mode from the start, or some unintelligent employee at the store set it wrong, or both!

One thing to avoid, from experience: Velocity Scan Modulation (VSM). Lot of Sony's had this, including all of the flat-crt Wega sets. Makes things look blurred and crappy, overall. And I usually have to kick back the chroma level and set the sharpness to max, i.e., off.

Factor in poor black levels and red push in some late model sets, and I'm hanging on to my classic crt sets.