Funai Emerson find (lol)

[zenith2134]

Yes, the chances of an integrated circuit being unobtainable in a set like this are quite good when it fails. And then it's a dead paperweight. I am not trying to collect these tv's but this one was a castaway and it works for free so i picked it up.
I of course tried the channel down and up to find the video inputs...I will use a universal remote I have somewhere to try the SVideo input.

[Jon A.]

I think that the S-video may be mapped to whatever A/V input it's next to. Seems that may have been the case with my old Sanyo, I never saw an option on the screen for S-video, just Video 1, Video 2 and Component.

[zenith2134]

Probably true. I had a Sony WEGA that had Svideo attached with one of the composite inputs.

[jmetal88]

I have a couple of Funai-made sets back home, and you can't get to any of the video inputs without the remote on those.

[andy]

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[andy]

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[radiotvnut]

The main things that kill IC's in modern electronics are lightning, power surges, etc. I've seen quite a few bad vertical output IC's in TV's and that was mainly due to bad electrolytic capacitors causing the IC to self-destruct.

[zenith2134]

I was opining on the topic of whether or not the last of the CRT displays will be abundant in 50 years or so. I can vouch for the fact that integrated circuits post-MSI-scale-era rarely fail. But, like you guys have said, the rest of the circuit can fail and supply bad power and/or extraneous noise through one to destroy it. Let's face it; no one really "re-caps" any of these later sets...Yet compared to the 20+ yr. old stuff, the caps can often be worse. Not to mention the quality of solder work.

[radiotvnut]

In many later CRT sets, I've seen the switching power supplies run away with themselves and send hundreds of volts throughout the entire chassis. As you might expect, this isn't too good for sensitive parts such as IC's, the tuner, etc. You'd think that they'd include a fail-safe circuit as part of the power supply; but, most of these later sets were designed and built as cheaply as possible. A few years ago, someone gave me an SPC 13" Orion and that's exactly what happened to it. I don't know why I bothered; but, I actually fixed that set from parts from junk boards. I remember the over-voltage condition wiped out the tuner, the vertical output IC, the horizontal output transistor, some diodes, and some capacitors that had their tops blown out. I think the power supply fault was caused by an open resistor. If I found such a set today with that much damage, it would hit the trash can in short order.

[zenith2134]

There certainly should be a fail-safe mechanism of action to protect the main actives and constantly monitor the supply voltage and amperage. I suppose the cost of implementing even a basic feedback oscillator on the b+ line would not be worth it to the manufacturer in a SPC set. Yet the V-Chip for censoring content & the other "extra features" are deemed of higher importance in these TVs.

My favorite era was right before OSD became common. They were built to be maintained and repaired if needed.

[radiotvnut]

I guess one can't expect much, when the TV only cost $89 when new.

The "V-chip" was a thorn in my side. More than once, I've gotten TV's where the parental lock would be turned on and the set would not receive certain programs due to their ratings triggering the parental lock.

When I was growing up, my parents were the "V-chip". If they didn't want me watching something; then, I didn't watch it.

[andy]

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[jmetal88]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I guess one can't expect much, when the TV only cost $89 when new.

Funny, both of the only two CRTs I bought new were $89 in store, and both were Funai sets.

First was one I bought probably in middle school, a 13" 'Sylvania' from K-Mart.

Second was one I bought in high school sometime, a 23" 'Symphonic' from Wal-Mart.

They've been alright for me, but I've since gotten better used sets for much cheaper prices, and now I'm watching exclusively on those.

[waltchan]

Funai has a good reputation on reliability overall since the last 30 years or so. I wouldn't say very good or excellent, but their products always like to surprise customers how well they hold up despite the lowest prices they offer.

At one time during the 1980s at their highest peak, Funai products scored better in reliability than Hitachi, Sharp, and Sony, according to old Consumer Reports covering televisions and VCRs. They accidentally had problems with their VCRs during the 1990s which caused their reliability scores to plummet at the bottom, but has since gradually recovered back in between by 2000s with the introduction of DVD players, which have a low failure rate.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by tvcollector

I don't see why anyone would collect such plastic garbage.. ..

It's roughly the same as radio collectors actively seeking out those cheap Japanese AA5 radios. Built before the Japanese learned how to do quality.