Who made 1990s Admiral tvs - Videokarma.org TV - Video

radiomojo · #1 05-20-2011, 03:16 AM

My late 80s Magnavox tv is going out and I am going to check on a 1990s 27" Admiral TV and I am wondering who made them at the time. I think the Admiral company went broke in 1979.

Also, I plan on trying to fix the Magnavox sometime in the future. I have a felling it is just bad caps.

Rod

Findm-Keepm · #2 05-20-2011, 06:48 AM

Most likely AOC - Admiral Overseas Corporation, commonly called Admiral of China by TV repairmen. Admiral naming rights were sold to AOC back in the late 1970's for most Admiral consumer electronics - TVs, VCRs, and the like.

They've fallen back to producing LCD monitors these days.

Cheers,

brokenbroken · #3 05-20-2011, 07:07 AM

I had a 90's Admiral tv and it was a Zenith with the famous bad crt.

radiomojo · #4 05-20-2011, 10:35 AM

Thanks everyone, I guess for $10 I will take a change on it. That old Magnavox has been a good one. I think we got it in 87 and it has never been serviced at all.

Rod

radiotvnut · #5 05-20-2011, 11:18 AM

Didn't Montgomery Ward use the Admiral name on some of their TV's from the '90's? I remember seeing one MW set from the '90's that was a rebadged (junk) Zenith; but, I can't remember the actual brand of the set.

AOC TV's are nothing to write home about, either. They were cheaply built and flyback transformer failures were common.

kx250rider · #6 05-20-2011, 12:07 PM

I've seen several makes rebadged Admiral. K-Mart sold Admiral and Capehart, and even Curtis-Mathes sets in the 90s. There were Sharp, Emerson (Orion), Funai, Kawasho, and other boards in those sets. The AOC sets appeared to be Gold Star-related, or sure looked like it. Especially the 13"ers.

Charles

Adam · #7 05-20-2011, 02:32 PM

I used to have an Admiral 12" b/w from '88, and I also had a Montgomery Ward b/w from '87 (but I think that was a 9")

Findm-Keepm · #8 05-20-2011, 07:34 PM

We had a stash of Admiral service lit - I kept all the 60's-80's stuff, all genuine Admiral. Admiral shifted the production to Taiwan right before selling out to AOC. Our AOC literature showed that AOC was a one-of-a-kind Taiwanese-created animal, and they kept the Admiral part numbering system for a while, then going to a funky part numbering system. AOC National parts was good at stocking parts, never had an issue, even for odd stuff.

We saw many KMC (Kresge/Kmart) sets that were Admiral and AOC sets. Thankfully, Sams covered some of them, the rest we had the AOC lit for. Sams came out in 2000/2002 with a cross-reference that listed chips and what sets they were used in. Most often, the "jungle chips" used by AOC were used only by them...a real pain when the Sams didn't match the set directly, and the AOC lit was lacking waveforms and voltages. Never saw a LG/GoldStar rebadged as Admiral or vice-versa.

Cheers,

bgadow · #9 05-20-2011, 10:02 PM

Monkey Wards & Admiral had a real long term relationship, both with major appliances and electronics. Towards the end of MW I remember lots of cheap Admiral branded TV sets; they looked like very generic BPC. MW also carried Bell+Howell branded stuff, which was an odd name to put on a television if you ask me.

radiomojo · #10 05-21-2011, 03:15 AM

Thanks everyone, I decided to pass on the Admiral since it didn't have a very good reputation and no imputes other than cable. I adjusted the focus and screen setting on the Maggie and the picture looks a little better. Also. I moved the Wii away from it and that seem to help some. Also, I get the year wrong on the Magnavox it is a 1994 model

I'm going to keep me eye out for a better set though 25-27. So what would be some good models to look for.

radiotvnut · #11 05-21-2011, 11:57 AM

Panasonic, Sony, Sanyo, Magnavox (up until around '99), pre-2000 RCA's, and pre early -2000's Toshiba are all decent sets if the CRT's are strong. The older RCA, Sony, Sylvania, and Magnavox sets from the '80's are also good.

Stay away Anything made by Orion, Funai (these two makers will carry many different brand names), post-2000 Magnavox, Philips, or RCA (these 3 really went to crap in the early 2000's), and '90's era Zenith TV's (because the CRT's are no good).

radiomojo · #12 05-22-2011, 01:22 AM

Thanks radiotvnut, what I really would like to have is late 70s or late 80s console but they are so heavy to move.

waltchan · #13 05-26-2011, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radiomojo

My late 80s Magnavox tv is going out and I am going to check on a 1990s 27" Admiral TV and I am wondering who made them at the time. I think the Admiral company went broke in 1979.

Also, I plan on trying to fix the Magnavox sometime in the future. I have a felling it is just bad caps.

Rod

If your 90s 27" Admiral TV was assembled in USA, it was made by Sharp.