1980s NEC CRT TVs in general...

[waltchan]

Although never mentioned in this forum, what is the general overview with NEC CRT TVs made in the 80s? Do they produce good picture quality, is it reliable, and is the CRT durable? Thanks for your help.

[radiotvnut]

Most of the NEC sets I saw were actually Curtis Mathes branded. I saw a couple of "monitor style" 26" NEC sets. One of which was branded Kenwood. They made a decent picture when working; but, I can think of other brands that were more reliable. Bad flybacks were a common problem and I've seen a couple that had one problem after another. Many of the Curtis Mathes NEC built sets of the '70's and early '80's were rather junky, considering what they cost. Also, many of these had bad CRT's by the time I found them.

[freakaftr8]

Yeah I had an NEC back in the day, it was a mid 80's tabletop 27". Id had a crappy pic, poor focus control, horrible convergence, and sometimes an intermittand bright green raster w/ retrace lines. Think the tube was going south. And the wierd thing is the tv hadn't had much use before I got it.

[kx250rider]

Those had a GREAT picture, and the quality was excellent. They had one problem, easily fixed: Bad solder connections on pins 32 & 33 of the main T-chip. It caused the sound to cut in & out. Also I saw some leaky electrolytics in the vertical circuit, but otherwise, a great set!! Unfortunately, Freakaftr8 had one with a bad tube. That would be a deal-breaker.

Charles

[AndrewM]

In Australia we have had NEC based sets since the mid seventies and they have generally been tough and long lasting sets. Even today 25 year old sets often turn up for sale still in good working condition.

[MRX37]

No experience with NEC TV's, but NEC computer monitors are built like tanks, including the CRT! Right now I have a 21 inch NEC monitor from 1996 that's still very bright and sharp. It weighs a ton and God knows how many hours that CRT has seen.

[Spinning Head]

I found a Curtis Mathis branded NEC from '88 about 8 years ago on the curb. It worked fine and it is used almost daily in the bedroom. I've only had the back off to blow the dust out. It was a high end set for it's day, and seems to have above average construction.

[ChrisW6ATV]

I have seen a couple of the "monitor-style" 25" NEC TV sets from the mid-80's. I had the stereo-ready one, and my friend had the next-newer one with built-in stereo tuner. Both had very average pictures, not bad but just very mediocre compared to a Sony Trinitron. Their HV regulation was not that great if I remember right.

[jedo1507r]

I had an '88 20" NEC set that I picked up from a neighbor back in 2005, the audio was spotty (resoldered a couple of points) and the tube was not as bright as it should have been. I liked the post-monitor look though, but it had to make way for another trash find, a 1982 Sony KV-2024AE after about two years and the NEC passed hands.

The stereo audio on that NEC was a bit pale (worse than Thomson's sets), but it did have external audio output.

From what I remember, the set was assembled here in the States. Any idea where?

[superdeez]

In 2001, I got the folks' old 30" NEC colour set that they got in about '87 or '88 when a lightning strike knocked out my them roommate's old mid-70s Panasonic colour.

In 2003 or so the set began to suffer from a string of failures that ultimately led to me abandoning the thing in an apartment when I left. (The place was being converted into condos, and someone bought my unit and decided to post an eviction notice after I made my first rent payment to them instead of the apartment complex...but I knew they were doing that when I renewed my lease...)

It seemed to eat flybacks there for a while, one lasting a whole 20 minutes before it failed. Plus, too, a lot of the PC boards seemed to suffer from bad soldering.

Eventually, the tube became undeniably weak, with a dim, cyanotic picture even with the drive adjusted all the way up on the red gun. Finally, right after the second of three hurricanes to strike my area within a month in 2004, the HO died and I was left with nothing but dim, blue lines.

The funny part was I only had room for the big set in my bedroom and I didn't feel like lugging the 90-lb. beast out the door and down the stairs to dispose of it, so for the last year or so that I lived there, I quite literally did have my working TV sitting atop my broken one...

edit: Another thing I remember was that a local movie theater had an NEC set identical to mine up on a mount about 20' in the air in their lobby that they used to play movie trailers on. The thing had probably been on for years and years and still seemed to work...

[rcaman]

the only one i had was a 27" with a weak crt. i was not thrilled at the quality of the set. steve