Frustrated

[50scraze]

I bought a 42" Plasma and it already has issues. Its only about 2 years old and part of the screen is dead already!

I think im going to give up on flat panels all together and use my 71' chroma color as my daily watcher. Those sets have a reputation of running forever! Just curios as to what vintage sets you all use as your daily watchers?

[newhallone]

The Tv that gets the most use in my house is a 53 Zenith.

[miniman82]

Daily watcher: 65" Mitsu DLP. Not too bright, but it's a hell of a big picture for an apartment. If that went down, I'd be watching the '68 Philco-Ford roundie or my CTC-7.

[ctc17]

They dont last do they? To much heat and micro electronics crammed in a a small space.
2-3 years seems like the magic number for consumer technology, think of cell phone contract length. Think 2 years is a magic or a well researched designed number?

Average sweep tube life was one year but those could be purchased at the local drug store.

[mstaton]

You will have more complex and expensive problems with plasma's than LCD Tv's. Like anything, some brands are MUCH better than others. I sold a friend of mine my 2004 Toshiba 42" Plasma and It's still going. Never a repair, never! The only reason: It says "made in Japan" on the back. I have never seen one since and probably never will again. I use Sony's(LCD) and I find them better than most others. As for an older TV, I use my Admiral roundie in the bedroom and I rarely turn on the LCD anymore.

[radiotvnut]

My Daily watchers are a 19" Zenith CCII motel TV from '79 that's used almost every day. The bedroom TV is a '69 23" Zenith B&W console that may get turned on once or twice a month. The shop TV is a '78 Sylvania 22" solid state B&W console that is connected to a DTV converter, DVD player, VCR, and it gets used a good bit. I also have a '76 Toshiba 9" color blackstripe TV that still works fine.

Basically, most any solid state TV from the '70's until the mid '90's will be more reliable than most Chinese junk made today.

[rcaman]

daily watcher 2004 pioneer 64 hdtv stunning picture on hdtv. the other rca 42" plasma that has a beautiful pix reds are out of this world. one repair that was a bad connection then i installed 2 computer fans on the y and z sus boards it is a 03 model. steve

[CoogarXR]

My old 50" Pioneer plasma from 1998 is still going strong. I think the "more problems from plasma" is a misconception. I work for an electronics recycler, and I see a pretty even number of LCDs and Plasma TVs on the scrap pile. I think both categories have winners and losers.

Anyway, to the OP, what model TV is it? It might be one I have seen. Some of these have easy fixes (some don't though, heh).

[sampson159]

my daily watcher is my magnavox bicentennial console.i have a 122 inch infocus projector that has over 10,000 hours on it.it does flicker occasionally and i just put it on high output for a minute.there is a sony 65 inch dlp that has one lamp replacement in the main room.it gets little use.my garage set is a zenith chromacolor II remote set.my xl100 doesnt get used much anymore and the roundie hasnt been turned on in a year.

[Reece]

Seven-year old Toshiba 36" CRT set that goes probably 12 hours a day or more, and eleven-year old 25" Magnavox (that I changed a filter cap on several years ago) that goes maybe 4 hours a day. Both make perfect pictures.

[50scraze]

Originally Posted by CoogarXR

Anyway, to the OP, what model TV is it? It might be one I have seen. Some of these have easy fixes (some don't though, heh).

Its a Panasonic Viera. about 4 inches of the screen is completely dead on the right side all the way down.

I noticed many of you are using solid state sets as your daily watchers. The Chroma color i have is the tube model and works perfectly . Would it still be good as a daily watcher in the long run?

[radiotvnut]

Since it's a Zenith and since it's built on a steel non-PC board chassis, I'd say it would be OK to use as a daily watcher. Like any tube set, don't leave it on unattended. If something like a flyback or power transformer decided to go up in smoke while you were out of the room, the results could be a disaster.

[CoogarXR]

Originally Posted by 50scraze

Its a Panasonic Viera. about 4 inches of the screen is completely dead on the right side all the way down.

There is a 50/50 chance you could fix that by replacing the lower buffer board on the side that's dead. Sometimes they die, sometimes it's the chip embedded in the ribbon cable. If the embedded chip dies, there's no fixing it. It's worth a shot, you can probably get a lower buffer board for $30 or so on e-bay.

[rcanewvista]

The only tv I have is a 1968 magnavox magna color stereo theatre. I watch it only about 1 to 2 hours a. Day, 3 days out of the week. I use the stereo every day though. I like that it has concealed doors so it looks like furniture when not in use. When I have guests over they always ask me why I don't have a tv, then I proudly open the door up haha.

[Electronic M]

I'm not fond of non-CRT type displays.
My daily driver sets are the top two in this photo.

The top left set is a 71' Zenith Chromacolor hybrid.

Tom C.