I know we have some TV collectors on the forum...
Who I'll probably bore, but thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.
The RCA 2000 certainly IS a collector's item. It was RCA's first all solid state set, but also the first that I'm aware of to have digital memory for VHF stations, brightness, color, etc. An amazingly complicated feat...for $2000 in 1969!
For those who don't know, Dumont was the Cadillac of televisions. I'm fortunate to own one and it's built like the proverbial tank. When set prices started to come down and manufacturers found new ways to cut corners, Dumont fell on hard times. Emerson bought them out in the late 50's and you can tell a distinct difference in Emerson made Dumonts by appearance alone. When I was a kid, a local thrift store had a round-screen color Dumont radio/phono combo that was every bit of 8' long. 5 bucks was the price. Try as we might, there was no way that my mom, the clerk and I could even get one end off the ground! I got the money handed back to me and told to take what I wanted off it. If you think that's a shame, you should hear the time I had to gut a mint condition Zenith black-laquer chinese cabinet color Hi-Fi Space Command set because a lady had just bought it for the cabinet half an hour prior at that same store for 50 bucks and was going to have the insides "smashed up". The CRT and all came home intact with me that time.
There were still a couple companies making consoles and large screen B&W sets in the early 80's, but not many. I have a 23" Zenith table model from that era in a steel w/woodgrain cabinet. An odd duck. I read recently that Sylvania had at least one console from that period. -Cory
Who I'll probably bore, but thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.
The RCA 2000 certainly IS a collector's item. It was RCA's first all solid state set, but also the first that I'm aware of to have digital memory for VHF stations, brightness, color, etc. An amazingly complicated feat...for $2000 in 1969!
For those who don't know, Dumont was the Cadillac of televisions. I'm fortunate to own one and it's built like the proverbial tank. When set prices started to come down and manufacturers found new ways to cut corners, Dumont fell on hard times. Emerson bought them out in the late 50's and you can tell a distinct difference in Emerson made Dumonts by appearance alone. When I was a kid, a local thrift store had a round-screen color Dumont radio/phono combo that was every bit of 8' long. 5 bucks was the price. Try as we might, there was no way that my mom, the clerk and I could even get one end off the ground! I got the money handed back to me and told to take what I wanted off it. If you think that's a shame, you should hear the time I had to gut a mint condition Zenith black-laquer chinese cabinet color Hi-Fi Space Command set because a lady had just bought it for the cabinet half an hour prior at that same store for 50 bucks and was going to have the insides "smashed up". The CRT and all came home intact with me that time.
There were still a couple companies making consoles and large screen B&W sets in the early 80's, but not many. I have a 23" Zenith table model from that era in a steel w/woodgrain cabinet. An odd duck. I read recently that Sylvania had at least one console from that period. -Cory