Design Life of Vintage TV sets

[Sandy G]

Well, I got some bad/good news from Terry today...The 2 little color sets I took down to him are pretty much at the ends of their lives-The 9" 1968-71 era Panasonic, & the Sony 8" Trinitron from about '75. The Panny has a weak CRT, & the Sony has a squirrely flyback. But I've only had these l'il guys about a year, & I have no way of knowing how hard lives they led B4 I got 'em. The GOOD news is the little cathedral 1937 Philco got a new lease on life & is prolly playing as good as it did when bran-spankin' new.. Rode down w/fellow AKer John James, & got a big surprise when we got there-Kent Teffeteller had come up from Athens to see Terry,too, so it was kinda like "Old Home Week"....BEAUTIFUL day, couldn't ASK for nicer weather.

[Dan Starnes]

My Parents bought their first set in 1953 when TV hit Quincy IL. Then they bought another new one in 1962. Then they went color in 1972. So the 10 year thing is pretty accurate. That 1972 set lasted until 1986 and it was given to younger brother. . Those were all Admirals. Then in 1986 they bought an RCA console that lasted them the rest of their lives (2004-2012) and I have that set.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by init4fun

And lets not forget the great "tube count scandal" of the late 20s/Early 30s where some manufacturers , knowing the buying public equated tube count to the radio's performance , took to falsely inflating the "tube" count by using multiple , unneeded , "Ballast Tubes" (glorified lightbulbs that looked like tubes but were far cheaper to produce) . These "Tubes" were nothing more than resistors , but resistor count wasn't sellin radios , TUBE count was , So what if half of the "tubes" actually wern't active elements in the reception or amplification of the sound ? "Hell , It's got 12 tubes !!! It's GOTTA sound better than that 6 tube radio , right ?" . Lawsuits were brought , companies ruined , and it was just business as usual for the poor buyers who saw no refunds on the prices they had paid for these phony "High Performance" sets .

Same thing happened with transistor radios in the 60's. Radios bragged how many transistors they used. I have a "16 transistor " set that had pairs of transistors wired in parallel, base to base, emitter to emitter, and collector to collector. But only the transistor with a lower B-E voltage drop will do any work.

And about 15 years ago computers were sold on how many MHz the CPU operated at...

[Sandy G]

I think E.H. Scott & Midwest Radio were the primary culprits behind the "High-Tube Count" business... Of course, E.H. Scott WEREN'T bluffing...In THEIR case, higher tube counts DID make for increased performance...Midwest, their "Bargain Basement" competitor, in THEIR case, high-tube count meant little, if ANY, gain in performance...

[peverett]

Some (Motorola, for instance) used photo finish after WWII, long after the depression. TV makers went to Masonite cases very quickly in the 1950s.

Also remember the pot metal used in the 1920s radios(making them very difficult to restore. Manufacturers have always been looking for ways to cut costs. The old days were no different than now.

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

The engineers who designed 'em might be AMAZED that they're being collected 60+ years later..

Yes i reckon they would be quite happy also!

[Rod Beauvex]

It has always amused me, particularly on this forum, that "back in the good old days" TVs, even relatively new ones only 3 or so years old, could get away with eating capacitors, resistors, tubes (in excess amounts), and even the occasional fly back, whereas a modern set, God help it it it pops a single cap after a some use after a few years.

(Yes, I realize the old vs new debate isn't as clear cut as I make it, but my point is still valid)

As far as the tube count thing goes, Radio Shack was doing this until they stopped selling tubed audio, and would frequently note "X number of tubes including doubles", for Y number tube performance.

I've also heard elsewhere of transistor radio manufacturers who would outright stick transistors in the radio that did nothing and weren't connected. This practice has shown up in the computer days, with the infamous fake cache chips. (I used to own one of those board I got second hand)

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

Same thing happened with transistor radios in the 60's. Radios bragged how many transistors they used. I have a "16 transistor " set that had pairs of transistors wired in parallel, base to base, emitter to emitter, and collector to collector. But only the transistor with a lower B-E voltage drop will do any work.

And about 15 years ago computers were sold on how many MHz the CPU operated at...

OOps , I had missed your response , but now that this thread grabbed my attention again , You sir are right on ! I also remember the Phony transistor counts and found it at first odd , and then downright sneaky when I saw radios with dummy transistors in em . My favorite was a transistor with one lead clipped off being used as a diode but counted among the "transistors" . Had they said "8 Semiconductors" when it had 6 transistors and 2 diodes that would have been fine . But to count the diodes in with the transistors calling it an 8 transistor radio kinda proved to me that they learned nothing from the tube count debacle of years prior .

I know it's human nature to want to look back fondly to "the good ol days" , I do it sometimes myself . I then get a bit of a chuckle thinking about the fact that even back then the people were , in fact , people just like today's people , with all the good and bad attributes that come along with being human .