How much cheaper can they make tvs?

[jhal]

I thought I would share this. A couple of months ago, I bought a Panasonic DVD-RP56 player BRAND NEW in the box for $28.00 shipped off Ebay. It was made in Japan, in June 2001, about a year or two before DVD players went cheap. I was the only bidder. Has progressive scan, a nice big flourescent display, and a jog/shuttle dial. It sold for about $240 in 2001. I was going to settle for a used one, and got lucky.

[andy]

Originally Posted by Thyratron

Not to change the subject, but Whirled One, is there anything to watch for if you come across one of these old ones to indicate if it is in worthwhile buying condition? I saw a huge chrome-faced one (two feet wide or so) a while back, but left it due to not being able to tell if it was functioning or not (short of plugging it in and seeing if it powered up). It looked nice, though.

These old microwaves seem to be very reliable. I just picked up an Amana RR-9 from 1976 or so that was basically working fine. The only thing I did to it was glue down a few loose transformer laminations that were causing a loud buzz when the HV was on. That's the most major repair I've had to do to one of these apart from obvious things like damaged door trim, or cosmetic damage. Even ones that were too dirty and scratched to use still worked fine.

[Jeffhs]

Back on the subject of cheap TV sets: The cheapest new-in-box televisions I have seen to date are those little 5" battery/AC-operated sets with AM/FM radio which can be found at Big Lots, etc. for as little as $11.99 (the ones I've seen at Big Lots are branded Sylvania, but in reality are probably, even likely, rebadged offshore-made units). Of course, these little things aren't worth repairing when they eventually go bad, not to mention they will be worse than useless when TV goes 100-percent digital just over a year from now. Who wants to tether a 5" battery-powered TV, which is meant to be portable, to an AC-powered external set-top box and cable or an external antenna? The dodge will no doubt work (the image may even be sharper due to the small screen, albeit in monochrome and letterbox format), but in my mind it defeats the purpose of portable televisions, which are designed to be movable with ease from point A to point B.

[wa2ise]

The electronics business is even more convoluted than you would imagine. There exist companies like Jabil Circuit in Tampa Bay FL that essentially contract with other companies (ones that hold the brand names) to supply TVs and such to get sold at Wally World. And Jabil contracts with places in China to get the stuff made. SO that's essentially 4 layers to the system, but it's likely that, once things are going, that the Chinese factory ships directly to Wally World.