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TV Sets

R

RicoGregg

Now that we're approaching the February date for analog TV signals to turn off, I'm sure people will be reminiscing about some of their past sets.

I'm just wondering if people had either a particular favorite set, or brand of TV set.

I had a couple of Admirals in the 60s and 70s that performed great.

I currently have an 19" RCA ColorTrak that is running fine, and is going on 12 years. I'm planning on getting a converter box for it.

I can remember a lot of brands, past and present, that were widely advertised.

Admiral
Curtis Mathes
Emerson
Magnavox
Muntz
Panasonic
RCA
Sanyo
Sony
Toshiba

...among many others. Did anyone have a favorite brand?
 
Not a favorite brand, as I never had one, but a DuMont television used to be the gold standard. It was from the same company that operated the DuMont Television Network.
 
When I moved into my current house, there already was a Zenith console TV (made either in the '70s or '80s); it had a wireless remote control that had five series of buttons: on/off, channel up/down, volume up/down, current time, and I think mute.

As I get nearly all of my TV through cable and satellite, I'm pretty much ready for when Canada shuts off analog over-the-air reception. In fact, the oldest TV at present (because I gave away the console about 5 years ago) was made around 2000 or 2001 and it's a Memorex (and that certain model of Memorex also operates a Durabrand set (which is/was a Wal-Mart brand) I bought the next year, and the same kind of remote will also operate my Electrohome TV that I bought on 12/31/2004; I think all the technology in those three sets came from Citizen Electronics).

I'm sure there's a few people here who have used an older Electrohome TV back in the day. (In case you're wondering, Electrohome is/was a Canadian brand of television sets, and they also made other electronics and appliances over the years.)
 
My grandfather used to love the Curtis Mathes brand. Pricey but good stuff. We owned 2 13" TVs with VHF telescoping rods and two screws for a UHF antenna. My grandfather even owned a bulky camcorder kit. It used standard VHS tape placed into a top-loading deck. That would be unhooked from the camcorder and docked into a tray which sat in the living room by the TV. It even recorded sound in Hi-Fi (not sure if it did it in stereo). This was around 1984-86, so bear with me. My older brother once used a 2-head Quasar VCR which had little thumb wheel tuning and 12 presets. It even had those little channel number squares that a green LED would shine through when you tuned up and down. Tuning channels meant preset "A", preset "B", etc. Ugh! :(
 
The earliest TV I remember was a Capehart b/w with, of course, the old UHF converter attached. We used it till we got a color set in the fall of '65. Curtis Mathes was, of course, the most expensive TV in America, and darn well worth it.
 
No one has mentioned the kit TV's produced by Heathkit back in the 60's. They were great sets and capable of being adjusted by the end customer as components aged.

I still have an RCA XL-100 25" console from 1979 which works perfectly and a 45" Sylvania rear-projection big screen which also works perfectly. The big screen blew an audio card years ago but that's been the only repair.

My parents still had their original 1954 B&W 25" Magnavox when they died in the mid 90's. Still worked fine.
 
We got our first tv in 1949. It was a Philco. VHF only. As I recall, it was supposed to have a built in antenna inside. We were about thirty-five miles from Baltimore and the stations but that supposed antenna didn't bring in a spec.
 
Growing up, the family went from a 21" Zenith B&W
as our primary TV to a 25" RCA New Vista Color set.
I think it was one of RCA's first 4:3 rectangular tubes.

We managed to wait through the era of those RCA
round tube color sets. Wasn't a common complaint
that "everything looked purple" on them?

Our 25" RCA however was a "repair queen" and never
had decent fine tuning or color reproduction.

OTOH, a 12" Sony Trinitron I purchased in 1973 was
still performing flawlessly 32 years later when I finally
replaced it with a 27" Sony.
 
KML-224 said:
I can only imagine how the hookup will be like to these old sets with the digital converter boxes. :p
Click to expand...

I wouldnt think it'd be a huge problem..Just find an adapter to make the old 75 ohm clips to fit into the rg-59/6cable..Unliss I'm missing something here..
 
Yup, that's all you need. My circa '79 RCA console works just great with the DTV box. Maybe get another 30 years out of it (and me).
 
I still use a 1988 RCA Colortrak 2000 console on a swivel base. It receives HD signals via a 2004 refurbished Direct TV receiver that was sold as an HD box. The receiver is the size of a 70's vintage VCR. At some point I will upgrade the television but can't bring myself to simply trash the set since it still has a perfect picture. So the set might retire to the den.
 
KML-224 said:
I can only imagine how the hookup will be like to these old sets with the digital converter boxes. :p
Click to expand...

Not a problem at all -- I'm using an Insignia digital converter box with my 1977 Panasonic 13" color TV without any difficulties.
 
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