This is the tv we have in our living room. It is a Douglas. Before finding this tv I had never heard of Doublas before. Not quite sure who made them though. This is our next project to start working on.
Am I the only one who still likes CRT "tube" TV's?
- Thread starter austinado16
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The neat thing about this douglas is that the controls for it are on a chairside console with a built in record player. It has a cord that runs about 30 feet from the console to the tv. An early remote control you could say.
austinado16
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That remote system on your Douglas is pretty amazing. I think you just won the award for most unique vintage TV!
I love that Douglas television, and the remote record player setup! I think this has been shown before, but this is part of the Philco Predicta line, which ultimately bankrupted Philco.
(The Tandem)
(The Tandem)
austinado16
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Very cool!
whirlcool
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They still make the Predicta television set. An independent company started this up a few years ago. Pricey, but if you like the vintage look...... Telstar is the companies name.
cfz2882
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sharp internals?
IIRC,the predicta replica used sharp picture tube and circutry
-that was a few years ago,hard to say what they are using
today..
IIRC,the predicta replica used sharp picture tube and circutry
-that was a few years ago,hard to say what they are using
today..
My friend Ken in North Carolina sent me info on that outfit years back, before I got my computer. I think they have a great idea there, not totally sure about the product, as I haven't read any long term reviews on them. I imagine they are as good as they claim. And, of course they make everything related to the tube surrounds, cabinets, and fittings, there isn't a single original part from the Philco used at all. And all in color format, I would love to have one. The same friend had two original black and white Princesses, I could have bought one for $150.00. Now you can't touch a decent original for less than $300.00.
Regarding the innards-I believe they used RCA internals for a while.
Regarding the innards-I believe they used RCA internals for a while.
Predicta. We have one that we picked up a couple years back. It is just the one piece unit that sits on a table or whatever you like. A friend of mine has two, the tandem one as well as the one they called the barber pole.
Wow, lucky friend! I did see a third table Predicta, the man wanted $350.00 for it, which is cheaper than the Telstars. If I put a lot of money into a television, I'll put it in a Telstar Debutante, instead of a 32 + inch flat screen.
washernoob
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TIM!
TIM!
That royal next to your TV is absolutely positively gorgeous!
Really digging these old tubes. Just dont see them too much anymore. Would love to find an old green glass looking philco like Alan posted!
TIM!
That royal next to your TV is absolutely positively gorgeous!
Really digging these old tubes. Just dont see them too much anymore. Would love to find an old green glass looking philco like Alan posted!
bugsyjones
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I got that Royal at an estate sale for $3. I couldn't just leave it there for that price.
~Tim
~Tim
washernoob
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WOW! Talk about luck. That bag looks so fresh and the colors are bright. Not bad for a vacuum from the 50s!
autowasherfreak
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We have a Sanyo flat screen in the living, but I like my big old Sear's that belonged to my dear mom better.
I think it's hard to beat a high-quality CRT. My 14-year old Toshiba 34" has deep blacks, and wonderfully warm, accurate colors. There's texture and depth to the picture.
The 10 year old RCA in my bedroom lacks the cinema-like finesse of the Toshiba. The colors, even after careful adjusting with a....crap, what is it called?...it's a DVD that you use to set the color, brightness, contrast, etc., of a CRT's controls for an optimal picture. Anyway, the RCA colors look a little crude and the picture seems flatter in comparison to the Toshiba.
In the end, when they give out, I'll probably be glad to have lightweight TV's I can move around easily. Unless something better comes along, I'll go with plasma.
Speaking of giving out, both my ancient TiVo's are crapping out on me. The one in my bedroom went first, about 2 months ago. The hard drive locked up on it. The one in my family room, in the home theater set-up, needs to be reset every other day, lately. It calls in to get programming information every day, but I keep getting "Failed when loading series" messages. If I unplug it for 30 seconds, then start it up, it'll download information from the next call, but after that, I get the "failed" message again. They've both long outlived their 7-8 year life expectancy, so I guess I shouldn't complain.
The last time I called TiVo's support line, the guy said "Wow! You have two of those first generation things still working? They're practically antiques." The new TiVo's require internet jacks instead of phone lines, and I don't have one in the bedroom or the family room, so I've been trying to nurse my old TiVo's as long as possible. Looks like I'll finally have to break down and call my internet provider to run two new lines for me.
All my home A/V equipment is getting so old. Seems like there's something or other wrong with almost every piece of equipment in the set-up.
The 10 year old RCA in my bedroom lacks the cinema-like finesse of the Toshiba. The colors, even after careful adjusting with a....crap, what is it called?...it's a DVD that you use to set the color, brightness, contrast, etc., of a CRT's controls for an optimal picture. Anyway, the RCA colors look a little crude and the picture seems flatter in comparison to the Toshiba.
In the end, when they give out, I'll probably be glad to have lightweight TV's I can move around easily. Unless something better comes along, I'll go with plasma.
Speaking of giving out, both my ancient TiVo's are crapping out on me. The one in my bedroom went first, about 2 months ago. The hard drive locked up on it. The one in my family room, in the home theater set-up, needs to be reset every other day, lately. It calls in to get programming information every day, but I keep getting "Failed when loading series" messages. If I unplug it for 30 seconds, then start it up, it'll download information from the next call, but after that, I get the "failed" message again. They've both long outlived their 7-8 year life expectancy, so I guess I shouldn't complain.
The last time I called TiVo's support line, the guy said "Wow! You have two of those first generation things still working? They're practically antiques." The new TiVo's require internet jacks instead of phone lines, and I don't have one in the bedroom or the family room, so I've been trying to nurse my old TiVo's as long as possible. Looks like I'll finally have to break down and call my internet provider to run two new lines for me.
All my home A/V equipment is getting so old. Seems like there's something or other wrong with almost every piece of equipment in the set-up.
washernoob
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Thats one thing that I love about our 52" LCD.
It doesn't weigh ANYTHING! lol. I remember moving a c.a 40" tube TV by myself from my grandpas basement to my brothers house to use for XBox. So we didn't have to play 2 players on his 15" screen!
Holy cow, That thing felt like a zillion pounds. IT was old, had all that extra unnecessary plastic around it, and was about as big as I am!
It doesn't weigh ANYTHING! lol. I remember moving a c.a 40" tube TV by myself from my grandpas basement to my brothers house to use for XBox. So we didn't have to play 2 players on his 15" screen!
Holy cow, That thing felt like a zillion pounds. IT was old, had all that extra unnecessary plastic around it, and was about as big as I am!
The only non-CRT we have is on the laptop. Our main TV is a rear projection CRT.
A few years ago a friend stumbled on some Sony F500R CRT computer monitors, they were bought as spares for a corporation and had been sitting unopened in a warehouse for ten years. I took a gamble on one and it's been running great for 3+ years now. LCDs have never heard of black levels like this.
A few years ago a friend stumbled on some Sony F500R CRT computer monitors, they were bought as spares for a corporation and had been sitting unopened in a warehouse for ten years. I took a gamble on one and it's been running great for 3+ years now. LCDs have never heard of black levels like this.
SONY 34" Kd-34xbr970
We got our SONY 34" FD Trinitron Wega Tv in 2006. At the time digital tuners were just starting to being used commonly in the Hi-Def tv sets. I wanted a set with a tuner, because I didn't want to change my Dish set up for a Hi-Def set up yet.
The SONY is a 1080i High Definition 9 x 16 picture. Consumer Reports rated the picture to be better than plasma or LCD at the time. It is smaller than most sets available now. We still like the picture because it has those deep blacks and overall great color. DVD's really show up great, in fact Bluray at this screen size doesn't do that much. We do have it for streaming netflix though. That is another story, a computer with the HDMI output can actually give you more variety than a Bluray player for streaming Netflix or Hulu.
We got our SONY 34" FD Trinitron Wega Tv in 2006. At the time digital tuners were just starting to being used commonly in the Hi-Def tv sets. I wanted a set with a tuner, because I didn't want to change my Dish set up for a Hi-Def set up yet.
The SONY is a 1080i High Definition 9 x 16 picture. Consumer Reports rated the picture to be better than plasma or LCD at the time. It is smaller than most sets available now. We still like the picture because it has those deep blacks and overall great color. DVD's really show up great, in fact Bluray at this screen size doesn't do that much. We do have it for streaming netflix though. That is another story, a computer with the HDMI output can actually give you more variety than a Bluray player for streaming Netflix or Hulu.
austinado16
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Been looking at this exact model for our bedroom TV, but I think it might be too wide for the location.
Size
This TV is 39" wide 24" deep and 26" high. It weighs 200 pounds so you need help moving it. It also uses about 190 watts, not bad if you compare that to the large sets now for sale. I have seen them for sale on Craig's list occassionally.
You might also check avsforum. Look for display devices. Also there are forums about CRT tvs to read.
This TV is 39" wide 24" deep and 26" high. It weighs 200 pounds so you need help moving it. It also uses about 190 watts, not bad if you compare that to the large sets now for sale. I have seen them for sale on Craig's list occassionally.
You might also check avsforum. Look for display devices. Also there are forums about CRT tvs to read.
