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#1
12-03-2009, 11:38 AM
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The worst color tv?
I'm sure most everyone who frequents these forums agrees that the solid-state horizontal chassis Zenith Chromacolors were the best vintage color TVs. What vintage color TVs were the worst design, worst quality, hardest to repair, etc.?? Let's hear your thoughts.
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#2
12-03-2009, 12:12 PM
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Well, I did some work on a 1976 Quasar (panasonic)? 25" console that had nothing but flyback and HOT trouble, I used to work at a TV repair here in Sacramento. We had 3 of these all with the same issues. Mine seemed to be consistant.
As for current CRT sets, im not knocking down Sony, but the 2000 to 03 series KV36XBR450 seems troublesome in the standby circuit and flyback cold solder taking out the HOT and general bad board soldering plauges that set too. Iv'e repaired mine roughly 10 times now.
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Honey, turn on the tv.. I'm cold!
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#3
12-03-2009, 03:20 PM
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I can't remember the model but a Phillips 36 inch CRT set made around 2000 would lose it's flyback and around 30 other parts. The automatic brightness control line was tied into the jungle IC and when the flyback went, it tore the chassis up. I fixed a couple and wouldn't take any more in.
That was about the worst I remember. I'll probably think of others later. 
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#4
12-03-2009, 04:09 PM
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Back around 1981, RCA had the CTC101 chassis with the infamous integrated flyback transformer. The concept of having the high voltage rectifier diodes in the same casing with the flyback was new then, And they split up the high voltage winding into 6 segments, and there were to be 6 diodes, but they cheaped out and used only 3. Problem was that the dynamic AC voltage around pairs of joined windings got too great, and caused the plastic to break down, frying the flyback and the HOT. ouch.
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#5
12-03-2009, 04:55 PM
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Every time I pull a sams folder I see all these random brands, Coronado, Starlite, Supre-Macy on and on. I never see any of these sets anywhere. Is that because they were all junk?
Also never seem to see many Packer Bell or Curtis Mathis style sets. On the newer stuff...once Thompson got ahold of RCA the quality went south.
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#6
12-03-2009, 05:31 PM
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Quote:
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#8
12-03-2009, 05:34 PM
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As far as older sets; GE made some junk. Mainly the YM, EM, and EC sets. The YM sets always had bad flybacks and the EM/EC chassis sets were a pain to work on and were full of those "griplets" that gave so much trouble. Really, the first solid state GE color chassis that was decent was the "PC" chassis. I wasn't too crazy about their tube type color sets, either. The main ones I remember, besides the porta-color's, were the C1 and KD chassis sets.
As far as newer sets, the one with the lousiest picture that I've seen was a 19" Chinese made Durabrand set from Wal-Mart. I've seen several of these and the picture was always muddy and washed out. I don't care for the newer RCA and Philips TV's. These are very cheap made and the RCA's eat flybacks more often than the old tube type CTC38's. I think I'd take a Funai or Orion over a modern RCA.
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#9
12-03-2009, 05:35 PM
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#13
12-03-2009, 09:20 PM
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When I think of every color tv I ever had (even curb finds I only held onto for a few days):
1991 RCA 1988 Goldstar 1988 Goldstar 1988 Hiatchi 1988 Sony 1988 Toshiba 1986 Zenith 1985 RCA 1984 Zenith 1983 Supre-Macy 1983 Zenith 1982 Zenith 1981 RCA 1980 Zenith 1978 RCA 1978 Sony 1976 Sharp 1976 Hitachi 1975 RCA 1975 RCA 1975 Zenith 1975 Zenith 1972 GE 1971 Curtis-Mathes 1971 Zenith 1968 GE 1968 Viking 1968 Zenith 1967 Magnavox 1967 Zenith 1965 Magnavox 1965 RCA 1965 Zenith 1963 Philco 1960 RCA The only ones that stand out as consistently having problems are the tube Magnavoxes (both had bad flybacks). Last edited by Adam; 12-03-2009 at 09:46 PM.
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#14
12-03-2009, 09:21 PM
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Old ones: GE CE/C2 chassis. This was their 18-19" hybrid. Nearly impossible to work on, cheap cheap cheap. I have seen a watchable picture on one of these, but it took some work. You can judge a lot about a set by pulling the Sams and seeing what shape it is in. I have one Photofact in particular that is ripped, taped, worn, coffee stained, and covered with all sorts of notations. It is for this GE chassis.
Among modern sets, I think of the TV in the local pizza place. They had some BPC from the 90s but when NTSC went away they replaced it with this SPC Wally World special. Worst color I've seen since the last time I turned on an old GE... I think most of the reason those minor names don't show up these days is because they never sold well to begin with. They might have done well in a certain local area. There were plenty of small towns where one of the only places to buy a TV might have been a Western Auto or a Sears catalog store, something like that. But in the nation as a whole, it was the big names that sold big.
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Bryan
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#15
12-03-2009, 09:37 PM
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The absolute worst color TV was the Olympic 910, 19 inch TV, of the mid 60s. It was unreliable, unrepairable and worked terrible out of the box. Three of three. It produced a pathetic pale picture and had so little gain that when the antenna was removed, it had no snow or noise. The dull grey image looked like someone removed the IF tubes. The printed circuit would evaporate if you tried to replace a part. It came with a bag of parts to make it work, but that didn't help either. It probably put color back 3 years. I doubt any exist today.
Anyone who had ever seen an Olympic 910 would not need to contemplate the worst color TV. It is the hands down champion; or as we are told, the debate is over.
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