Magnavox longevity

[supersuds]

Well, yesterday the 13-inch Magnavox color portable TV that I bought in August, 1984 finally went kerblooey. After 27 years without a repair, there was a smell of burning insulation and the speaker did nothing but emit loud bursts of static.

I'm not asking for repair advice, just thought it was worth remarking that this American-made (Greeneville, Tennessee) relic served well above and beyond what I had a right to expect.

It goes to the dump with honor.

 

[cfz2882]

yes,some "old skool"TVs do last a real long time-i have a 19"rca color in the
bedroom,july 1983,that is still going strong and out in the garage is a 19"rca,
december 1981, that not only is still going strong,but the performance of the tv
is still very impressive-even compaired to the two 2010 TVs i have.I bought the
garage TV at a rummage sale in 1993-grubby and with the on/off volume knob broke
off,it was priced at $1.00...about 5 yrs ago,the filter cap terminal corroded off
(resulting in a very strange picture and a tell tale hum from the speaker)
replaced the bad cap and no problems since-for $1.00 the best TV ever!!

 

[whirlcool]

Just for the heck of it, I'd take it in and have someone look at it. It could be a cap or a resistor. It may be very cheap to fix. The key is how bright was the picture before it went out? If the CRT is in good shape, I'd probably get it fixed.

We have a 12" Zenith B&W portable from 1969. Zenith made a kajillion of them. It was working fine, but the CRT is getting dimmer with age. We don't turn it on very often.
So if it goes, it goes. I don't think a replacement CRT is even available for it anymore.

 

[supersuds]

The picture tube looked great. I don't think that was the issue.

I have an almost-identical Sylvania of the same vintage that I wasn't using so I've just taken it out of storage to use as a replacement.

The Magnavox cost $219 as i recall, so that works out to less than 10 bucks a year!

I really have a hard time adjusting to the modern mindset of throwing expensive gadgets away after a couple of years....

 

[whirlcool]

What I had meant is that if the picture tube is in good shape, try and fix it. If the picture tube was dim, trash it.

 

[combo52]

1984 MAGNAVOX

Our sure that even your 1984 13" TV was built in the US?, most sets that size were imported long before that. And I see no reason why most new flat screen sets today will not often last 30 years. I drought that your 13" set was on 6 hours a day its whole life which is considered normal use for a TV today.

 

But I totally agree that I too have a hard time throwing something away that I am used to and has worked well for so long.

 

[mixfinder]

Evolution

Remembering days when we had to buy tubes, use screw drivers and table knives to hold the tuner in place, constantly adjust the horizontal hold and wait days for the TV repairman.  Few appliances have come farther in design for reliablity than the Television.  From the mid 70's on with click tuners for both UHF and VHF telvisions just keep getting better and better.  I haven't had a TV failure in years and gift mine to the kids when I get an upgrade.  I have a Panasonic LCD that's only 6 years old and is a steller performer.

[this post was last edited: 8/29/2011-15:01]

 

[macboy91si]

My Experience

My experience with newer televisions is hit and miss. I've personally dealt with a bad 32" LCD and our "community" Plasma $3999 lasted less than 2 years. I think in the consumer electronics field that cheap is hip. It has nothing to do with the "old is better" mentality or anything, they're just cheap and worst of all mostly non-serviceable. While they are nice when they do work, I've had (have) some CRT based televisions that have an absolutely amazing picture. My daily driver is a 56" Sony projection from 1999 (big bucks then). I have a 13 Magnavox, and 13" Emerson, both with wood-grain plastic, the Magnavox is made in Japan, the Emerson is a re-badged Goldstar (LG to modern folk) and made in South Korea. The Mag is an 84 and the Emer-star is an 88. Both have been good so far. The Emerson is somewhat sentimental as it's the TV that I had when I was a kid that we used to play Nintendo and Atari on. I've somehow managed to hold on to it all these years.

-Tim

 

[whirlcool]

Still remember the days where the Color TV truck was usually parked outside somebodies house. Maybe a rectifier tube went out, or a high voltage tube, or in some cases a tube in the tuner may be weak. It was pretty common in the 63'-69' era.

And it was no secret when a new color TV arrived on the block, they'd put the big box that contained the console at the end of your driveway proudly proclaiming that you'd bought a Zenith, RCA, Admiral, etc. set to await trash pickup.

Then the fun began because most dealers didn't tell the customers up front that for Color TV, you need a better antenna system than you used with your black & white TV.

My parents played that game for two years. They said they didn't want to spend the $79.95 for a new antenna and lead in wire, so suffered through a somewhat snowy and ghosty picture. From my part time job I went out and bought the appropriate Winegard antenna and used 75 Ohm (or was is 72 Ohm?)coax. I did it all myself including the running of the wires etc. The picture quality after that was outstanding.

 

[supersuds]

Are you sure that even your 1984 13" TV was built in the

Yes, that's the reason I bought it. You're right, most small sets were Japanese by then, and I was a little surprised that you could still get an American-made one that small.

If my camera was working I'd post a picture of the back of the set to prove it.

Evidently they did import some models since macboy has an example.

My brother-in-law was an engineer at North American Philips back then. He worked on the picture-in-picture system they touted. Their three brands by then were Magnavox/Sylvania/Philco and were mostly made in the Greeneville plant until the later Nineties, until after Nafta passed. Then they sold out to some contract manufacturers who lasted for another ten years or so, according to this story.

http://greenevillesun.com/story/301397

 

[cfz2882]

'80s us made small tvs

a lot of RCA,GE,and zenith small TVs were still made in USA up through about 1985,
though some of the zeniths since about 1978 show a "assembled in mexico"on the back
around 1986 GE and RCA merged together and after that seems only the larger TVs
were still made in usa...I have a larger GE console from '85 stashed in storage and
though the picture performance is very good,i find the speaker amps of my 85 and
earlier true GE TVs to be a little weak and distortion prone compaired to the
fairly strong amps in the RCAs.

 

[arbilab]

In the 65-75 era, I was the guy in the truck.

 

[cfz2882]

mobile TV repairs...

last time i saw a TV repairman come out to do an in home TV repair was in 1984
when one came to my friends house to try to fix an arcing flyback in a big late-
'60s era console TV-i think it was an admiral-TV would work ok,would start to
squeal,pic would contract and go out.Repairman could not fix the arcing and
recommended a new TV...We,as teenage kids tried to fix the flyback too and could
not stop the arcing either(i never thought to try silicone rubber-that might have
worked...)TV then became a shooting target and the remains still lay where they
fell on the remote wyoming praire LOL
A local TV shop accepted carry-ins as recent as 2005,but now only takes large,
expensive TVs and older consoles as most people balk at spending more than $100
to fix typical TVs anymore.

 

[whirlcool]

About 15 years ago there was a small tv repair shop located here in Houston that I used when the 13" Zenith quit one day. I dropped it off. The owner (the only employee) must have been near 80. He said to come back next week and pick it up.

I returned the next week to inquire about the set. He said a resistor had blown and he replaced it. The total bill? $12.00. I offered him more, but he wouldn't take it. He said it was an easy fix and to hold onto that set as it'll last forever, it was one of Zenith's last "hand wired" designs.

A couple of months ago I drove by that place and it's a cat hospital. I wondered how much longer after my last visit did it last?

 

[philr]

Until recently, I had a 26" 1974 GTE-Sylvania GT Matic which was good for many years. I once had a technician repair it and all it needed was a replacement chip. I remember he just removed a chip from the circuit board (they weren't welded to it!) and replaced it with a new one and the TV was good for a few more years! This TV had the "instant on" feature which pre-heated the picture tube so the image was there as soon as you turned it on!

 

I had a BENQ LCD monitor on my computer that quit after about 3 years of use. And a friend of mine has a plasma Samsung tv that had a flashing red dot in it's screen from the first week of use and Samsung wouldn't repair it... I took a picture of it with my cell phone because Samsung wanted to see a picture of the computer screen before they sent a technician. Then I had to go 4 times to my friend's home during his working hours to be there for the techincian. First he came with USB keys that didn't work and then with a replacement module that created another problem (the sound on the TV would stay on after it was turned off!). So he replaced it with the old module (which wasn't causing the problem anyway).

Samsung refused to replace the screen and the annoying flashing red dot is still there!

 

[philr]

A few weeks ago, it became worse!

 

[philr]

And the next day, a part of the picture was back but there was still a large black stripe and another thin one (only the large one is visible on my poor cell phone picture). Now there are two large black stripes and the technician should be back in a few days! (again during my friend's working hours...).