zenith chromacolor

[sampson159]

just got the chromacolor unloaded and cleaned up.brushed out all the dust,cleaned the crt face and plugged her in.the beautiful sound of high voltage!picture was very dark and the sound was scratchy.i got out the beltron and the crt registered like new.screens were turned all the way down!set guns ,cleaned all modules with deoxit and gave her another try.bam!!!
what a great picture.i did a quick set up and this set stands tall.as good as my xl 100.i will bring it in the house and set it along side for comparison.it never fails to amaze me,the zenith quality.not a flat chassis,but as good a picture as i ve ever seen on a crt.freebie made it even better.

[freakaftr8]

Let's see pics! Chromacolors have one of the best pictures I have ever seen!

[DaveWM]

yes some pix please!

still amazed at how well these old sets work, and they are so quickly tossed out for the "upgraded to a flat screen"

[radiotvnut]

Nice, another Zenith saved. Would like to see some pictures.

I know a couple who are still using a Zenith console from around '75 or so. Their daughter is my age and I've known her for 30 years, since we were small kids and she assured me that wen it died, it was mine. The thing is, it probably won't die! The reason they have not upgraded to a new TV is because her Dad can't see buying a new TV as long as the old one works. I think Mother and Daughter are hoping it will hurry up and die so they can upgrade. She's already told me that some people who visit them have already made such remarks as "OMG, don't you think it's about time for a new TV".

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I think Mother and Daughter are hoping it will hurry up and die so they can upgrade. She's already told me that some people who visit them have already made such remarks as "OMG, don't you think it's about time for a new TV".

Hah. Tell you what, I will NOT spend a nickel on a new TV. That '08 Sansui (Orion) my brother gave us did something weird last night. The whole picture turned green for about a minute, then went to black & white for a few minutes. After that the color returned. Now I'm not sure whether it was the set or the digital cable, but if the Sansui poops out it's getting replaced by that Zenith hybrid I'm working on or that '83 Sylvania console I have in storage.

[radiotvnut]

Yeah, I think that Zenith or Sylvania will stand a much better chance of long range survival over that Sansui.

As far as being embarrassed or worried about what people think about my TV's (or whatever else), I'm not. If anyone comes over here and does not like what's in my home, they can leave and not come back.

[zenithfan1]

Uggh. Just like all the once great companies, it's a terrible shame what crap they're slapping the Sansui name on. Just like Zenith too for example. Makes me sick as a hardcore Sansui fan.

BTW, WE want pics! :

[Electrohome]

Would love to see some pictures of that Zenith Chromacolor II, if it looks similiar to my parent's Zenith Chromacolor II from 75-76. Thanks and much appreciated-Thanks:-)

[sampson159]

finally got around to going through the zenith i got a few weeks ago.i pulled all modules,inspected them for breaks,(found very few),cleaned all connections and lubed all controls.the crt is a 25vdmp22!replaced?hard to believe a zenith needed a crt!never saw that happen ever.the replacement tube is a video display corporation unit.i thought that it looked a little different that what a remember.i will try to post pics as soon as i can.camera was borrowed and never returned so cell pics look really bad.this set puts out an amazing picture and i truly believe that the 25vdmp22 is the best looking crt of them all.it may have been a sylvania in another lifetime.

[robert1]

i too, have a 75 Chromacolor that i have been using as a daily driver for over 15 years. it is still playing & has a great picture. it still has the original CRT. the only work i have ever done to this set was replace a 15 ohm resistor in the horizontal driver circuit, replace a couple of electrolytic capacitors on the low level video board & replace the video output board (thanks to a Videokarma subscriber who had one). i think this set is going to outlast me.

[DaveWM]

I am going to have to pull my out and check the yoke, I noticed the pic was a bit crooked when I was watching a letter box. would that mess up the purity and convergence (I have to figure it would) as both of those are out a bit.

I have mine hooke up with my vintage maggie for sound (and some remote speakers).

[freakaftr8]

It could if the yoke had dispositioned itself down the neck. Mostly purity but I have seen it affect convergence too.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Yeah, I think that Zenith or Sylvania will stand a much better chance of long range survival over that Sansui.

I bought my RCA CTC185 XL-100 19" TV when I moved here ten and a half years ago. The set still works every bit as well as it did when it was new. Only had one repair on it in all that time, when the antenna connector snapped off the tuner PC board after I'd had the set about six months. The technician also resoldered the ground points around the on-board tuner, which in this series were a major trouble spot. The repair cost me something on the order of $120 since I had to have it done twice (wasn't covered by the warranty ), but it was worth it, as the TV has worked (and still works to this day) amazingly well for its age. The same goes for my Zenith Sentry 2 19" table model, but that set has had no service done on it at all in almost 15 years. Still works as well as the day I got it as a present for my 39th birthday in 1995.

As to your comments regarding other people's opinions of your TVs and other possessions, I agree with you. I feel the same way. Everything I own in my apartment is ten years old (all of it bought new when I moved here in late 1999), and I intend to keep all of it until I absolutely must replace it, others' opinions of it be darned. The stuff may be out of date, out of style, out of whatever, but as long as it works I will keep it. I won't tell anyone to leave my home if they criticize me for having out-of-date things, but they had better not expect me to answer their comments because I will not do it. I learned long ago never to answer an angry or snide remark with such a remark, as this can and will get you absolutely nowhere and just keeps the argument going; this in turn can and all too often does lead to hurt feelings and has ended more than one friendship.

About people getting rid of perfectly good analog CRT TVs just because they want the latest and greatest thing in video (which these days means a large, expensive, short-lived flat panel with a Blu-ray Disc player and 5.1-channel Dolby surround sound), I don't agree with the practice. I do not intend to get a flat panel TV until both of my analog CRT sets go bad; who knows? Maybe (hopefully) by then the really good makes of FPs, RCA, Panasonic, and Sony, will have come down in price far enough that I can afford one. I could get a flat-panel tomorrow if I wanted to settle for a 15" picture; Best Buy often has these small sets for sale at very affordable prices, but I've made up my mind that when I do eventually get a FP TV the screen will be at least as large as my 19" CRTs, made by a company that's been around awhile (such as, again, RCA, Panasonic or Sony), and has a decent reputation. I cannot see spending over $1000 for a flat-panel set that will go bad within a year after initial purchase or after the warranty expires, whichever comes first. This is also why I would never buy an off-brand flat panel; these sets are made by fly-by-night no-name Pacific Rim-based electronics firms with questionable construction practices. I have read posts from some of you in this forum telling of a lot of these coming in for warranty service because of cold solder joints, components on the rotten edge of failure, loose or missing hardware, name it. The problem (one of them, anyway) is that, while the sets are repaired free of charge to the owner under the warranty, if anything happens after the warranty expires, the TV is often not worth repairing--especially if it only cost something on the order of $200 or less when it was new (as is so often the case with off-brand flat-panels). Best Buy offers extended warranties for the FPs it sells, but probably will not renew it once it expires, the reasoning being that a late-model flat-panel TV five years old or more is not worth repairing. I don't know how much money FP TV manufacturers lose on extended warranties every year, but I bet a lot of the smaller ones (Vizio, et al.) can't afford them, so they offer a 90-day to one-year warranty on the set that begins after the initial purchase, but which will not be renewed at the end of the term.

[radiotvnut]

If I were to buy a FP TV, I don't think it would be an RCA. I think they've changed ownership at least once (and, maybe twice) since Thomson had them and the brand has really gone down the toilet. The last noteworthy sets that carried the RCA name were the CTC17xx/CTC18xx sets. For the last few years of RCA CRT sets, the insides were made in China and they didn't last long before major things, like a flyback, started to fail. There are still a lot of CTC17x/18x sets still in use and I still get the opportunity to service them from time to time.

My Mother bought a 26" Samsung LCD and it seems to be doing OK (only had it 3 or 4 months) and the Panasonic sets seem to be OK, from what I hear. If I were to buy a FP set, which I'm not, I'd probably stick to one of those two brands and I'd take out the extended warranty. The ones that give the most trouble are: Vizio, Insignia, Dynex, Polaroid, Westinghouse, Emerson, Sylvania, Sanyo, Haier, etc.