[Electronic M]

If you want one box that will last forever, you will have to have 2 and know how to fix them.

RF modulator wise I have one that I KNOW I can keep alive since it consists of 2 tubes (3 with my audio add on)....Hell that thing will survive an EMP (I'll have to swap some diodes for tubes) and I'll have nothing to send over it since all my video sources are SS.

Every SS device will need cap changes eventually...My Zenith DTV boxes, my Blonder tongue agile modulators, hell even my Dell media PC all have ALREADY had cap failures, and will have more.

My solution is to diversify. I've got close to a dozen VHS VCRs (most high-end S-VHS models), several betamax decks, U-matic, 8mm, CED, LD, DVD, DVD-R, DVR, PCs with S-video equipped video cards, DTV, Cable boxes, video game consoles....You name it! (I ought to get an HDMI-composite converter eventually though.) My main video source rack is BIGGER than my largest TV console, and I have a few mores worth waiting to sub while anything is waiting a turn on the service bench. I hold out the most hope for tape (strange as it sounds)...I've got RTR and wire audio recordings that still sound perfect 60-70 years after being recorded....With tape the key is finding an early player that is reliable, easy to service and performs well, learning to keep it going and having spares and parts decks on hand....Also you want a good tape library...You can only play one copy of the Wizard of OZ so many hundreds of times before it is unwatchable or you get so sick of watching it as to destroy it your self...I've got hundreds of tapes I've made off the air/cable and a modest collection of pre-recorded material that grows thanks to $0.49 tapes at the thrifts.

If you can find a device that has NO caps in it, relies on media that won't die or transmission formats that won't be obsolete more power to you. The best I can hope for is that in ~56-80 years from now when I draw my last breath that at least a few specimens will be there to provide signal to that Zenith CCII that still works like new, and still is better than anything they have made by then.