Picked up a Magnavox Console Today - Videokarma.org TV - Video

graywolf · #1 12-16-2006, 08:04 PM

Hi, this is probably too new to interest most of you, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me about it.

As mentioned it is a Magnavox 27 inch stereo console TV. On the back it is ID'd as a RK607 PE02. Chassis type 27P1-01. Date code is 3190283D (Feb 83?). RENEWED is stamped over the label. Assembled by Phillips in Greenville TN.

It seems very clean only a couple of scratchs (one put on the top at the thrift shop after I bought it, but before I picked it up. Inside just has the usual dust from a fairly clean environment. They did not have the Remote, but I would guess that a universal would work. It looks good and matchs most of my other furniture.

Interestingly the price tag is still on the back $849.95 list, $539.97 store price. Price tag ID's it as a RK607 PE99 (note difference from makers label).

It has a problem, and I can not even blame the thrift because it takes an hour or so to show up. After playing nicely the color kind of slowly flashes brighter and dimmer then it shuts off. Before that the picture was not bad at all. It works again after being unplugged for a bit. Protection circuit? Bad cap? I worked in a TV shop once but that was long long ago, so any suggestions would be appreciated. If I can fix it for not too much money I will keep it, otherwise it is destined for the dumpster and it looks too nice for me to want to do that.

ADDED (12/17/06): I vacuumed and blew all the loose dust out of the set this morning. It has been on for a couple of hours with no further problems. Maybe I lucked out.

andy · #2 12-17-2006, 01:46 PM

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graywolf · #3 12-17-2006, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andy

What do you mean by the color flashes brighter and dimmer? Do you mean the picture gets more, or less saturated and then goes B/W? Does it flash brightly red, green, or blue and then the entire TV shuts down?

You hit it on the first one, it got more saturated several times, alternating with fading on (maybe) a thirty second cycle, then went B&W for a moment, then shut itself off (as in the power-on light went off). Do you know what could cause that?

JCFitz · #4 12-17-2006, 10:40 PM

Your set is an early 90s chassis.Probably around 1989or 90.It probably has some bad solder joints.Magnavox sets are known for bad connections on the horizontal drive transformer and check where any high power resistors solder the circuit board.Usually the solder there will be cooked and turned a dull gray.Also that particular chassis has a mylar capacitor with a resistor in series with it across the 130V b+ rectifier off the switching transformer.It is located right between the resistor and the standup rectifier. The capacitor short and burns the resistor.This causes shutdown problems.The capacitor gets cooked from the heat.I always mount the replacement under the board.Also the B+ should be very near 130v.It's pretty critical that it be within a volt or so of that voltage. There is a special 8 pin opto isolator IC that goes bad on that chassis sometimes too.Either causes high B+ and shutdown or low B+.

andy · #5 12-17-2006, 10:52 PM

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graywolf · #6 12-18-2006, 01:46 PM

Thanks guys, I will pull the board and take a look. However it has not done that since I blew all the dust off the board, I am hoping that the dust was just causing a partial short.

graywolf · #7 12-19-2006, 05:53 PM

http://www.graywolfphoto.com/digital/TV.html

KentTeffeteller · #8 12-24-2006, 10:24 AM

Hi,

Another thing to notice. Renewed was Philips/Magnavox vernacular for refurbished. Soldering is very much an issue. Look especially for gray looking solder around power resistors as this is a weak point. When fixed, these were pretty reliable and made nice pictures. These sets were made 80 miles away from where I live.

zenith2134 · #9 12-24-2006, 02:10 PM

Very interesting set there. It's amazing that its got complex features like PIP and stereo, and the chassis is a miniaturized mainboard like modern ones.

I started to notice the small mainboard catching on in the late 80s on othber brands, like RCA's, specifically the CTC-130 era, which had stereo, osd, and all kinds of other stuff, but used one or two chips for basically everything. Really is a drag today when you try and locate one of those NLA chips from NLA manufactureres! Like Zenith, etc... Its a shame. Well anyway looks like quite the futuristic set for 1989. In 89 I wish I couldve had one similar, my daily watcher was a 1983 RCA 19 incher with osd and remote, but it had lots of hours on it by then. I believe it was a CTC117. Still have it today and still works, but the CRT is very old.

Jeffhs · #10 12-28-2006, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zenith2134

Very interesting set there. It's amazing that its got complex features like PIP and stereo, and the chassis is a miniaturized mainboard like modern ones.

I noticed that tiny main board too (relative to the size of the cabinet), and did a double take when I saw the board; good grief, I said to myself, is that the entire television (less the CRT, tuner[s], yoke and speaker, of course) on just that one panel? Seems to me to be an awful waste of space; they could have put a stereo AM/FM tuner/amplifier and phono in the space left in there. I've seen this (the use of a very small main chassis in a huge console cabinet) in other makes of TVs from the '80s (and even some older console radios) as well, so that set's design wasn't necessarily an oddball.

That Maggie will be a very good set once the issues with the cold solder joints are resolved and the defective resistors are replaced. Stereo sound, PIP, Total Remote Control...it has the works. This set also may have been one of the last Maggies actually manufactured in the US, judging from the stamp on the back cover. (Is Magnavox's Greeneville, Tennessee plant still there?) However, I don't think even this set was built as solidly as earlier Maggies from when the company was based in Indiana.

JCFitz · #11 12-28-2006, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I noticed that tiny main board too (relative to the size of the cabinet), and did a double take when I saw the board; good grief, I said to myself, is that the entire television (less the CRT, tuner[s], yoke and speaker, of course) on just that one panel? Seems to me to be an awful waste of space; they could have put a stereo AM/FM tuner/amplifier and phono in the space left in there. I've seen this (the use of a very small main chassis in a huge console cabinet) in other makes of TVs from the '80s (and even some older console radios) as well, so that set's design wasn't necessarily an oddball.

That Maggie will be a very good set once the issues with the cold solder joints are resolved and the defective resistors are replaced. Stereo sound, PIP, Total Remote Control...it has the works. This set also may have been one of the last Maggies actually manufactured in the US, judging from the stamp on the back cover. (Is Magnavox's Greeneville, Tennessee plant still there?) However, I don't think even this set was built as solidly as earlier Maggies from when the company was based in Indiana.

Actually the tuner is on that board too.Some of the consoles of the 90s the boards were even smaller. You should see all the empty space in an RCA console with a 32" or 36" tube and CTC 177 or 187 series chassis in it.They even made smaller chassis with portable sets.I think the smallest I've seen are Funai and Orion with the entire tv except the yoke, picture, tube and speakers.I've seen an entire chassis hardly as big as a 45 rpm record with electronic tuning,stereo, video inputs,flyback, everything on this tiny board.The tuner on some of these boards is 1 inch tall by 2 1/2 inches long and tunes up to cable channel 125 and all the UHF to channel 69.

graywolf · #12 01-18-2007, 09:48 PM

Thanks for your interesting comments about this old TV of mine. As of today it is still working. I have not gotten around to pulling the PC board to check the solder joints as I have a new project taking up my time. I am not much of a TV watcher either and it seems fine if I only use it for a couple of hours at a time.

I too was amazed at the size of the circuit board in that big cabinet, and chuckled at those "BIG HI-FI" speakers. However, I do have to blame AK for the fact my TV was made in 1989, my stereo receiver in 1979, and my portable radio (ZTO, the new project) in 1957... Stange thing is that it all looks like it belongs right here in my living room.