What was the 1st TV you purchased NEW?

[sooznd]

I think we paid around $379 - or so for it, by today's prices would be very expensive. I liked how all the dials were at the bottom.

I did find a photo in an old sales brochure on ebay

[Jon A.]

Ugh, my spc 2005 Sanyo was the first and the last TV I'll ever purchase new. What can I say, back in early 2006 I had bad taste in TVs. It had a doming problem right out of the box. It went to the curb shortly after I got my 1987 Trinitron (had to get an RF modulator first for a full test). I debated on whether or not to pick up the Trinitron as it meant a long bus trip with something heavy, but I eventually decided it would make a nice retro replacement for the Sanyo. That was last March, and here I am.

[rld-tv01]

I purchased a 12 inch Sony BW new in 1972 from the armed forces PX in Mainz-Kastel Germany when I was stationed overseas in the Air Force. I didn't watch it much sence I couldn't understand German and I worked 5:00pm-Midnight. The television quit working when it was still under warranty so the PX gave me a choice of full refund or replacement. I was going back to the US soon and it was a 220 volt set so I took the cash. My next new set was a color set many years later. I had several used BW sets inbetween.

[Jeffhs]

My first new TV was a 12" b&w offshore-made tube-powered portable. Bought it new in 1975 from the now-defunct Kennedy and Cohen retail chain, which had a store near where I lived at the time. The set cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $80, and it worked well out of the box; however, I turned it on one day three years later and was greeted by a thin plume of smoke curling up out of the ventilation slots in the cabinet.

Needless to say, I junked the TV. I bought a solid-state Zenith b&w 12" portable shortly thereafter that lasted me 22 years, and was still working when I got rid of it (space constraints, as I had just moved to a very small apartment [where I live now] and already had two 19" color sets; no room for a third TV, even a working one). I can only hope that whomever found the Zenith set behind my apartment got several more years of use out of it, as it was still working and had a very bright CRT. (I wouldn't be surprised if that set is still going strong today.) I guess that just goes to show, again, that you can't kill a Zenith.

[davet753]

After years of watching sets I brought home from my shop, I finally bought a new 27" Magnavox in 2000. My mother has it now, but it still works just fine.

The second new set I bought was a 32" Westinghouse LCD HDTV that's now about 7 or 8 years old and has worked flawlessly.

[Retro in RI]

When I got a new, better paying job in the mid 90's, I treated me and the wife to a new tv when our old one crapped out. A 27" GE (1996 or 1997 model). After a few years, it would on occasion, emit this terrible static like buzz noise and would need a good bitch slap on the side or top. Then it would work fine for a while. I still have it, but it's not retro enough for me. However, since it's the only new set I ever bought, and likely the only new one I ever will, I can't bring my self to part with it.

I still have the owners manual but can't find the receipt. Wish I knew what I paid for it.

Al

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Retro in RI

When I got a new, better paying job in the mid 90's, I treated me and the wife to a new tv when our old one crapped out. A 27" GE (1996 or 1997 model). After a few years, it would on occasion, emit this terrible static like buzz noise and would need a good bitch slap on the side or top. Then it would work fine for a while. I still have it, but it's not retro enough for me. However, since it's the only new set I ever bought, and likely the only new one I ever will, I can't bring my self to part with it.

I still have the owners manual but can't find the receipt. Wish I knew what I paid for it.

Al

The TV or the wife?

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Retro in RI

When I got a new, better paying job in the mid 90's, I treated me and the wife to a new tv when our old one crapped out. A 27" GE (1996 or 1997 model). After a few years, it would on occasion, emit this terrible static like buzz noise and would need a good bitch slap on the side or top. Then it would work fine for a while. I still have it, but it's not retro enough for me. However, since it's the only new set I ever bought, and likely the only new one I ever will, I can't bring my self to part with it.

I still have the owners manual but can't find the receipt. Wish I knew what I paid for it.

Al

That set was from the RCA era.
I wonder if it's a CTC177, or similar, with the on-board tuner problems. That model put a nail in RCA's coffin.

[Retro in RI]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

That set was from the RCA era.
I wonder if it's a CTC177, or similar, with the on-board tuner problems. That model put a nail in RCA's coffin.

I'll check the model when I get home.

I did check the date and it's a 96. Also says assembled in the US, Indiana I think.

Al

[zeno]

Mine was a 13" Zenith, dont remember the model ## but
it was a 13GC10 chassis. Had varactor tuner but no remote.
When the first ones came in I took one look at it & it went right out
to my car. Kept it years, still like new when I sold it.

73 Zeno

[etype2]

The first set bought new was a 1964 GE 9 inch black and white cube. Still in high school.
The second set bought new was a 1966 RCA CTC19 color consolette. Prices dropped for color sets and it was the first season with 100% prime time color.
The third set bought new was a 1968 Sony KV 7010UA Trinitron. Loved it. Whopping $429.95 for a 7 inch color!

[tubetwister]

First new one was a 25" 78 or 79 Magnavox star set console good picture (for the time)
not very reliable though. It went through a CRT and digital tuner in the first 3 yrs.
then a few years after the CRT was replaced the H. V. moduale ran amok and maybe somehow shorted out to the deflection yoke it melted the neck of the CRT . Thing was cursed or just not well built and to think the Magnavox replaced a used CTC 16 I had before that.

After that I've owned Toshiba and Sony over the years for the most part no complaints .
every one of those lasted over 10yrs without repairs.

I bought 4 new sets in the last year a 60" Sammie plasma ,a 32" Toshiba CCFL/LCD a 42" LG LED/LCD and a just last week a new Sony KDL40R450A LED/LCD for my bedroom watching it right now. We were given a perfectly working 2011 40" Dynex also so plenty of sets here no older ones though. Wouldn't mind a vintage CTC 12 ~16 roundie or something like that but I don't know where I would put one.

[Retro in RI]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

The TV or the wife?

LOL!!. Nope, she was quiet, but she required the bitch slap for different reasons

[soundman2]

In 1993 I bought a Mitsubishi 21 inch TV. It cost £400 and it might as well been a Phi;ips in disguise. The chassis was all Philips and so was the tube!

[dishdude]

I was probably 14 and saved up to buy a 20" Zenith Sentry 2 in 1991. IIRC it was $299 and had the Light Sentry sensor that you could turn on and off in the menus, and a cool green stereo LED.

Odd thing about the TV was it didn't have video inputs, but it did have a "stereo VCR" input that would route the video from rf channel 3 or 4, and used RCA input jacks for the audio.