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Originally Posted by peverett
One that is still around that is a bit supprising is the Hoffman TV people(Easy Vision).
http://www.hoffmanvideo.com/aboutus.asp
Of course, they do not manufacture TVs anymore.
One of my radio friends said this about Philco:
"The quality fell out before the name went on" Fitting for the 1960s GE tvs also.
I sometimes think that our memories about quality are a bit selective. I have a four year old Toshiba color tv that has given me no trouble. I had a Mitsibishi for 14 years prior to that that worked fine until a lightning bolt got it. My mother had a Korean(Goldstar, I think) made color TV that lasted 12 years without trouble. How many of the 1960s tvs, especially color TVs, could boast this kind of service? The cabinets are not as nice as back then, but the electronics are far better. How many of us like the crappy wafer tuners from the 1960s which never worked correctly after a year or two. These were even used by Zenith in some sets.
I enjoy restoring the old TVs and radios to working condition, but am the first to admit modern electronics is far better.
One final comment is that a modern piece of consumer electonics equipment is just ike the cars mentioned by doctorbongo. The components come from all over, including the US, no matter where the company headquarters are. |
I have never questioned the reliability issue, but rather the difference between different manufacturers of color sets back in the 50's and 60's, of course any solid state device would run cooler than it's tube based counter-parts, but beyond that once you got past the RCA and Zenith brands back then both picture quality and set design were sometimes questionable.
Back then you could cover up everything but the picture and the color and tint controls and for the most part I could tell by the performance what kind of design it was ie: Zenith, Rca based technology or Magnavox and so on.