Why I refuse to buy a new TV
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Here's a 47" Sanyo, model DP47460, LCD TV from 10/2010 and I'm using this TV to demonstrate why I refuse to spend money on a new TV.
This TV is two years old and has already experienced a failure of the main circuit board. This board is hard to find and expensive when it does turn up. Even if I fixed the set, it would probably suffer from a another major fault within one year.
Back in the old days, it was not unheard of to spend close to a grand, if not over a grand, for a basic 25" cabinet model color TV. However, one knew that they were getting a good product that would last and companies provided sufficient technical support when repairs were required. Even in the '80's, I remember some 19" non-remote knob tuned color TV's costing in the $350-$400 range. In '87, my Dad bought a 13" knob-tuned Emerson color TV for $150 and that was considered a low-priced TV back then. And, that Emerson TV always performed well for us for many years. In those days, there were TV repair shops on every corner and they stayed busy.
Then, the old American companies started sending production to foreign countries and, eventually, these companies were sold out to foreign interest. The result was that TV's became cheaper and the quality dropped along with the prices.
Today, you will have a hard time finding a new production CRT (picture tube) based TV. The majority of what's out there are low quality flat paned HDTV's that are Chinese made and they are costly to repair, assuming that repair parts are even available.
In the old days, TV's used a large chassis constructed of parts that were easy to replace. It was possible to fix many of these TV's without any form of service information.
Today's TV's are so complex to the point that they contain circuit boards with many surface mounted parts that are difficult-to-impossible to service. Add the fact that service information is often unavailable makes for a TV that's difficult to repair unless the whole circuit board can be obtained. Another problem is that they often use the cheapest parts that they can obtain and the result is a TV that does not hold up.
When buying a TV, a lot of people look at the lowest possible price without thinking about how reliable the set will be. The other day, one of our local stores advertised a "no name" 32" LCD TV for $249. Now, how good do you think a $249 32" TV is going to be? Obviously, it was made cheap in order to sell it for that low price and it's likely not going to last long. I know a lot of people don't care how long a TV last because when it breaks, there will be something "better" out and in an effort to "keep up", they'll just buy a new TV. However, I'm not that way. When I spend hundreds of dollars on a TV, I expect it to last more than a year or two. And, I expect to be able to have it repaired at a reasonable price when it fails.
Knowing that few new TV's are going to meet my expectations is one of the reasons why I choose to hang on to the older model TV's. They may not be a whiz bang HD model; but, they still work well for my needs.
If you are planning on buying a new TV, try to stay away from wal-mart and buy from a dedicated electronics store. Also, take out the extended warranty because you'll likely need it. Last, try to stick with a decent brand (Panasonic, Sharp, etc). And, take note that the old brands like RCA, Zenith, Magnavox, Sylvania, etc. are NOT the same as the TV you grew up with that lasted 25 years. Back then, those brands were actual American owned companies who produced quality products. Now, they are nothing more than names purchased by offshore companies (Funai is the most common junk maker who uses the old brand names) for the purpose of slapping them on their junk.
Another reason I refuse to buy a new TV is because of all the crap programming. Up until the early '90's, we actually had real TV programming. Now, all we have are those stupid reality shows, comedy shows that are not that funny, cop shows that show too much blood and guts; and, let's not forget all of the daytime "judge" shows, along with crap talk shows like Maury Povich and Jerry Springer. Now, why would I want a new TV just to watch that crap? About all I watch is the 6 PM news and vintage TV shows that I have on DVD and VHS tape. Frankly, I don't need a big HD TV for that. I grew up watching TV on vairous 19" color TV's housed in woodgrain plastic cabinets and various 12"-19" B&W sets. I survived just fine back then and I'll survive today with those old TV sets.
I used to work in a repair shop, one day a Zenith tv came for repair, it was 23 years old and the owner said this was the first time it had needed repair.
There's no point in buying a TV theese days new or old. There's never anything on!
I only use a television for DVD's and VHS. And an old CRT works fine for those purposes...Blu-ray, I'm guessing not, but I never owned a Blu-ray player.
Hook it up to a computer and use it as a monitor.
Sony Playstation can play Blue-Ray
I only use them for DVDs to watch Alfred Hitchcock and The Outer Limits
They make nice computer monitors.
Why I refuse to buy a new TV: CONTENT!
So many good points in your description, I don't have time to comment on them all.
I still repair TV's but encounter the same problems. One rare and welcome exception however, is a 92-year-old lady who insists on keeping her 1980 Hitachi console running for as long as she's around. I've been servicing it for over 10 years now and I would rather work on it than any plasma or LCD. If everyone had her mentality, the TV repair industry would still be booming.
The whole reason the TV repair business is in the toilet is because of the very consumers that once drove it, as they blindly started buying up cheap imported junk without any regard for where their money goes or who they hurt by buying it. I simply cannot shop at places like Walmart in good conscience, and my opinion is that those who do shop there obviously must not have one. How else can you explain why people will spend their money in foreign-owned stores on products made by Chinese 7-year-olds, while their own neighbors are starving?
This is one *****ed-up world.....
You can thank the government and the (cough cough) Consumer "Protection" Agency for eliminating the laws that required manufacturers to maintain parts and service for the 7 yr minimum! They created this "throw-away-society" and "fake" economy to bolster "new product sales" so the Wall Street crowd can rake in money.
My 32" 2008 Samsung 720p TV is still working in 2019 as good as the day I bought it. The only thing missing from it is a flash drive port.
Got a Sony Brava 9yrs old still going strong lovely pic of her.
Same here except mine is 12 years old now.
My sony bravia went after 12 years..or the main board did. The picture still worked thru one hdmi but nothing else. The remote stopped and I tried re booting it. Eventually i bought a 4k 43inch bravia...2020..but the picture is mind blowingly good and better than old. It upscales really well and colours and sharpness good..it even looks good on dvds...see how it lasts I guess...
Older televisions are the best. I agree with everything you said in this video. I really want a 1970s or 1980s TV set with knobs.
Adding to my last comment, I'd feel better about selling someone a knob tuned 19" color TV from the late '70's-early '80's over one of these LCD pieces of junk; but, most people today wouldn't have a 30 year old TV if you paid them to take it. Whatever, keep buying new garbage and I'll keep using the same old 30 year old reliable, repairable, boat anchor TV.
I know I'm over 8 years late to the party, but I see only two main problems with that logic: with such a TV, you would need a digital converter box to watch any TV on it since analog TV died on June 12, 2009. Only LPTV currently remains analog, but now that we are in 2021 (the last year that analog LPTV is allowed to operate in the United States), the number of markets with active analog LPTV dwindles rapidly with each passing day. Granted, I enjoy the heck out of the aesthetic value of looking at a TV with a picture tube, but unless you have the strength of Hercules, it is going to be grossly impractical to try to lug around a CRT TV with a screen size larger than about 20 inches or so. Also, besides the power savings of using the fancy new AMOLED TVs that are available now (they may be far less reliable than an old CRT TV), but they weigh less than 10% of a CRT with an equivalent screen size. Related to that point, I have a setup in my den where I have a 32" Sansui TV that is an LCD flatscreen TV, but if it were a 32" CRT, that thing would easily weigh as much as me (over 200 pounds). I honestly don't think for a minute that I would have even been able to lift it up onto my desk without either the armrest shelf it sits on snapping in half or throwing my back out lifting the equivalent of myself onto my desk.
Right on. I have worked in the electronic repair business my whole life and I knew what you were going to say before you said it! As a matter of fact I have said the same things. I miss conventional circuit boards from the 60's 70's 80's and some 90's. Thank god they had the foresight to build the various equipment to be repairable. The name brands of that era are not the same today. As 99% of all equipment is now built in china so there is no good brands in my opinion. As a side note I had a 25" console quasar tv in my shop for 5 years just setting in the way. I had my nephew help me move it into the house. This was some time ago so you will understand my story. By the way when was the last time you heard "quasar!" Anyway after I got the set into the house I let it warm up and sort of dry out and I turned it on and I left in on for 4 years nonstop unless of course there was a brown out or power interruption. I got another crt tv that was larger and set it on top of the console, another use for a console by the way and you know that quasar still works. Look at the material's list for a 70's pioneer receiver for example and compare that list to any modern receiver and that tells the story!
I think a record, in good shape that's played on a decent system, sounds better than current digital formats.
CDs Like Junk 8-Track Tapes Wear Out. I learned that Vinyl Recotds Don't Wear Out Because They Have Grooves, and Grooves Don't Wear Out.
From 25 years of doing this, I've seen a lot more CRT TV's that either survived a fall without harm or were repairable after a fall. Not too many flatscreens can make that claim. I also get calls all the time from people, concerning busted panels on flatscreen TV's from either their children hitting the screen or someone hitting the screen with the wii controller. I didn't have that problem with CRT's.
I found a 1994 21 inch JVC TV in a barn of a farm house I was renting and plugged it in but it wouldn't power up. After pulling the chassis and discharging the CRT I found the circuit board was cracked in a number of places. It looked like someone had dropped the set. I scraped off the coating on the circuit tracks and soldered jumper wires across the breaks and verified everything worked then epoxied the circuit board where it was cracked. The TV worked perfectly and I ended up giving it to a friend who's Samsung TV was failing. This was back in 2003.
Ah I remember a mosquito flying across my CRT monitor. I squished it thinking I couldn't have done that with a flatscreen monitor.
Right there with you! I smashed all my LCD TVs when I figured out how bad they are
I Have (and still use), a 1975 Zenith Chromacolor set that is the main TV in the house. it gets 8 - 10 hours of use every day. i have had it for 20 years & only had to service it three times since i've owned it. it still had the original CRT that is still showing good emission & still has a decent picture. the only things i had to do to it was replace the HV trippler & replace a couple of capacitors. i believe this set will outlast me. this was the last of the best TV's ever built.
with all this environmental craziness these days, manufacturers make these disposable TVs that are filling up landfills nationwide. pretty stupid if you ask me. We have a 2 year old 32" Panasonic HDTV and... so far so good. but I wish they still gave us the option of a CRT TV and analog broadcasting... I miss being able to put stuff on top of the TV.
coolbluelights you can still get CRT's second hand but the last CRT's made did have HDMI and 100Hz and were stunning picture quality and widescreen too.
realgroovy24 tech I'm still watching a 1997 RCA tube tv. The sound is not as good as it used to be, but I keep it turned down on the TV, because I have the audio running from my cable box to my OLD Yamaha receiver and big Yamaha speakers from 1978.
I'm going to keep on loving my old equipment as long as I can.
I feel the same about my 1984 Montgomery Ward clothes dryer, and my 1993 Kenmore washing machine!
MissAstorDancer I feel the same way! my TV is from 1994 its a 25 inch sony and it goes as good as day one my oven is from 1976 and still goes pretty well with a few minor issues I will get to repairing I have 5 computers 3 desktops and 2 laptops from about 2003/04/05 all second hand which I got all for less than $40 and go pretty well I upgraded the desktops and are going good for my main PC and my laptops are for on the go and still do the things i need it to I still use my VCR from 1991 for watching movies and I use my DVD player from 1998 for movies too my fridge is from 1986 it is a fisher and paykel
realgroovy24 tech I forgot to say my TV is a 27 inch.
I am still using my Sony vcr/dvd combo player from 2004, for both vhs tapes and dvds, and to record shows from cable. I have a fairly large library of home-recorded stuff, especially concert videos (lots of episodes of Austin City Limits and other concerts).
My Hotpoint stove and my Frigidaire refrigerator is are both 8 years old, but they came with my house when I bought it. I don't have a dishwasher.
My HP desktop computer is the second-newest thing I own, and I bought it in July 2012.
I don't own any other tech; even my cellphone is a 4 year old flip-phone! I still had a traditional land line until this past May. Now my "land line" is through my cable company.
I still us an old Sony 100-CD carousel player, and my old Yamaha turntable. (Yes, I still have lots of vinyl - over 200 albums!) My turntable has a new belt, and I re-foamed the woofers in my Yamaha speakers.
Oh, I take it back, my newest thing is my small Polk Audio speakers I have hooked up to my computer, which are not quite 2 years old, and they are AWSOME, given their size! Of course, they can't compare with my big old Yamahas!
My vision is failing bad, so I really could use a large screen TV. My sister keeps talking about getting me a 40 inch HDTV, but I sorta dread the change-over! Plus, moving my big old HEAVY RCA TV will be a real pain. I cannot do it alone, which means I would have to hire someone to move it for me.
Ahhhh, ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!
New stuff isn't too bad! I do have some new stuff too well my flip phone is about a year old my printer is 6 months old one problem with CRT TV's is they are very heavy! but flat screens don't feel the same they don't feel like a proper TV, I do also use vinyl got a great warm feeling to it but its a shame to hear whats happening to your eyes though.
I'm sure its been mentioned since this is an old video but its a bad ic chip and they sell repair kits for $21 to repair that tv... some of your comparisons dont make sense to me... I could say a horse and buggy can be almost completely submerged in water and still function when removed from water but an automobile wont... So we should have all stuck with a horse and buggy? You know a radio is more reliable than a tv so why even have one? I repair machines that have become more advanced and more disposable myself so I get what your feeling but the publics ignorance is the reason everything is disposable these days. economists know if people spend money and buy the same stuff over and over they makes more money... automakers learned this years ago. its no different that other shady tactics like raising taxes to pay for more improperly managed funds.
I agree. A friend of mine bought a 32" LCD TV from Walmart for $98 on Black Friday and after two weeks it would no longer power on!
Ryan Toomey For $98 it had to have been a generic set like Dynex or something.. I have never seen anybody who still had a generic flat panel set a year after purchase. They're total garbage.
Ryan Toomey Weird.. For a 90 dollar tv you would think you were getting quality , right?
People never learn. You're better off buying a used brand name set that's been refurbished than you are buying a new cheapo set.
Ryan Toomey Black Friday is only an opportunity for stores to sell their junk and problem electronics to the public at discount They sell all their lemons at discount and the consumer has the nightmare of a 60 inch flat screen tv blowing up after a weeks use because the tv was a lemon to begin with. If your lucky , the tv might fail within the 90 day warranty period. After 90 days ,you might as well hire a lemon law attorney or toss the tv out your window. Everyone should get a 3 year extended warranty on this new shit that is non repairable I cannot stress this enough as a service techThis new shit is designed to go up in smoke right after the factory warranty. Trust me!!!!!
@@ldchappell1 My Dynex is still working. Best Buy house brand back when. Probably sourced different manufacturers. A crap shoot what you actually get.
I have a 20" Sony from 2002 in the den, a 27" JVC from '97 in the living room, an early '90's 13" Sharp in the kitchen, an old Zenith vacuum-tube based 23" B&W from '69 in my bedroom, and various other old B&W and color TV's that were made between the late '40's and the late '80's. Some of them work and others are waiting for me to stick the soldering iron in them. There are enough CRT based TV's around here to insure that I don't have to buy a Chinese junk flat panel TV anytime soon.
Not all LCD TVs are crap, we have a Panasonic 32' LCD TV that is nine years old and it is still going strong!
it wont last much longer than 15 years anyway unlike my 1976 Philips TV thats almost 40 years old and still fine
That's what you think, but a good LCD TV will last just as long as an old CRT TV!
I suppose but LCD's havent been around as long but that will change I guess! I got a LCD monitor from 1998 still going which has had a recap so it should last a lot longer its not for my main computer though just for my older pc which I use time to time
***** My CRT TV is about 40 years old but i do agree LCD's can last a long time however it doesn't seem as long as a CRT can as the circuit boards have embedded chips if they fail the whole thing is trash like that sanyo TV in that video also CRT's can be repaired so easy.
realgroovy24 tech Crts last a while, thats for sure. but its pretty hard using one these days considering they've already switched to 16:9 (the last one i used that displayed 16:9 would only fill 40% of the screen ) but thats not a bad thing. Im enjoying my 55 inch vizio ive had for the last 2.5 years lol ( and doesent strain my eyes like the crt did)
I have one of these and it had the EXACT same problem, the solution seems to be replace capacitors on the main board. Those use junk Chinese caps which seem to fail in the same way and that seems to be high ESR. Luckily the caps which are the most problematic are through hole and fairly easy to replace.
I agree. If they made products that lasted and could be repaired, the landfill wouldn't be filling up as fast with this garbage; thus, less pollution. So, the green freaks think my Zenith tube-type TV from the '60's is un-friendly to the environment? Well, at least it's still going and likely will be for many more years, unlike today's junk. It's a little hard for a piece of equipment to hurt the environment if it never hits the landfill.
I agree with you EXACTLY 100 percent!!!
Some RCA's had a yoke that was held in place by a clamp and others were permanently bonded to the CRT. Those old RCA's were good TV's and many of them are still in service today.
Reading these comments from those who don't know any better...just makes me shake my head. "Oh I bought a new Sony from Best Buy the other day and it will last a lifetime".. *nope* "I bought this so-and-so LCD from Walmart and it's made in the USA!" *nope*
I'm not aware of ANY modern new television that is *NOT* made in China and *NOT* gonna fail within the next few years.
+Harley Badger At best they will survive 15 years.
Marks mediaTV Yeah, in ALL the modern televisions Spats and I have encountered, the one with the absolute longest life is my parents' Vizio plasma. It lasted from late 2002-mid 2015, so 12 years. Granted, those were 12 years of probably 18-hour days, but when you consider Spats and I have TVs that are 60, 70 years old and still work perfectly...
+Harley Badger It's true that the big screen HD flat panels being sold today won't last as long as the older CRTs but people are also paying 85% less on average for TVs today than they did in the 60s. A 21 inch color set in 1962 was $495.00. Spending $600 today for a flat panel would be the same as spending $74 for a TV in 1962. Value wise it's a much better deal these days.
ldchappell1 Sure, but we have probably 25 or so sets from the 60s that *still work fine.* If you have to keep replacing your flat-panel, the value decreases. Not to mention how many of them end up in landfills, and many have mercury and other dangerous materials.
Harley Badger The older CRT sets are just as bad for the environment. The average CRT set has 4 pounds of lead as well as mercury and hexavalent chromium. CRTs also require twice the power of LCDs. A.19 inch CRT requires around 110 watts A 19 inch LCD requires around 45 watts. CRTs also emit more electromagnetic radiation, even though most of it gets filtered by lead heavy glass, you still get around 60% more than you get from LCD. CRT does have it's advantages. CRTs can produce more colors. It can produce true black which LCDs cannot. There's no such thing as a dead pixel on a CRT.
Even if some newer smart TV’s don’t last very long
i have been in the tv business for over 20 years i can tell you everything this guy says is TRUE!! All the no name brand tvs have no replacement parts. if a tv should fall in the warranty period. The manufacture just exchange it. There is no service diagrams on some of this stuff because most of the manufacturing is done by two or three third part sources who will put you company name on a tv for a price. Stick with brand name.
i agree been doing tv repair for quite a years here too, never wasted my time on lcd or plasma junk cant get half the parts or service manuals i stick with working on crts and tube equipment
We've used our 21" JVC CRT TV regularly for 24 years, had it repaired some time in the early 2000's, and it shows no signs of age in 2014. We'll hold on to this one for a good long time. Every time we stay in hotel rooms and get to try out the flat panels there, for one thing the sound is tinny. Nothing beats a full-size speaker in a roomy enclosure to give you sufficient bass. Interestingly it seems that analog looks good on analog and digital looks good on digital. You may notice that camera techniques have changed over the last 10-15 years to adapt to the growing size of TV displays. Up until the '80s it was common to see full-size facial shots covering the whole screen. On an older TV that seems appropriate, but on a large panel it can seem too much. Furthermore, today's wide camera shots and smaller on-screen fonts are harder to view on older smaller CRTs. So the TV "environment" is not as friendly on these old sets today; you also need a DTV converter and those are often cheaply made and unreliable.
I think this set is rated at 225W; which, is in the neighborhood of what a '60's tube color console will pull. And, let's not even talk the power rating of plasma TV's; yet, these are supposed to be efficient? GIVE ME A BREAK! The only way this set will get fixed will be if I can obtain a free or very cheap board. Then, I'd be afraid to sell it to anybody for fear that it would come back to bite me.
My Mother has a 26" Samsung LCD that's in the two year old range. It sees a lot of use and has not given any problems; but, I wouldn't be surprised if it suddenly took a dump at any time.
Agree. the better the picture quality nowadays, the worser the programming!
I think you're right about the camera. One day, I need to look into getting a better one. Sometimes, you get lucky and one of these sets will actually last; but, I think LG is a little better than Sanyo. Sanyo made good CRT TV's; but, their LCD sets are pure junk, IMHO.
The OTA channels like METV, AntennaTV, COZI, GetTV, and GRIT are all I watch now.
I'd find a B&W set from the early-to-mid '50's. Those are usually built on a handwired metal chassis and are fairly simple to fix. If I were to go with a color TV, I'd choose a Zenith from the '60's/early '70's. Whatever TV you get, make sure to test the CRT before repairing the chassis.
Probably something in the power supply. Its very probably the capacitors have failed. You can likely replace them and get it going again. I've had some luck doing that with monitors. This 32" LCD that I have out here in the shop as a monitor had some surface mount regulator die on the circuit board. I couldn't fix it, but I got a whole power supply for 50 bucks or something. Popped it in, and it works fine now.
I have a Samsung flat screen TV that I bought 20 years ago. It's still going strong. No repairs needed so far. Of course it's never been dropped, knocked over etc.
I work on old electronics, mostly old radios. I've never gotten into repairing the flat screens. On some of my modern gear after a couple of decades I've opened them up and checked the ESR on the electrolytic caps in circuit and replaced anything questionable.
I agree with everything you have said and written in your description. Your points are 100% flawless. I have realized since companies deliberately use the cheapest parts possible in order to make an extreme profit, that, the best thing we can do as consumers in this day and age, is to learn and develope all the knowledge necessary to replace electronic parts ourselves with much higher-quality parts. It is actually quite simple, and fun. I have already successfully fixed one 8 year old LCD TV, and a DVD player, and made them BETTER than new for a total cost of only $5 in new parts. The problem you are having with the TV you mentioned is that there are most likely one or several leaking or blown electrolytic capacitors in the main power module circuit board. Sometimes these capacitors will visually look picture-perfect, but they will still be defective. The brand of these originally used capacitors are of TRASH quality. It was the exact same problem I had. All you need to do is de-solder the old faulty ones off, and re-solder new higher quality branded capacitors on, and everything will be resolved. It is not necessary to get a whole new circuit board.
I still use VHS tapes; but, there has not been anything on TV lately that I cared to record. I recently bought a mid '80's Sony beta VCR, just in case I ever need it. It was $4 at the thrift store and they said it worked; but, who knows. For $4, I'm not going to complain if it doesn't. I also have a bunch of older (early-mid '80's) VHS machines that I need to overhaul. The older VCR's are 1000 times better than those "last gasp" plastic $39 VCR's and those Funai-built DVD/VCR combo units.
I still use VHS tapes. Loads of them and quite rare. Stuff you’d never find on DVD. I still use cassettes for recording radio programs. A couple of reel to reel tapes and about 500 mixed records (singles, LPs and 78s).
Symptoms like that make me immediately think of cheap failed capacitors in the power supply, but I agree that quality of many products is unacceptably low. At my local recycle yard, I see a pile of functional CRTs that are 10-20 years old next to a pile of failed LCD units that are only a couple years old.
Heard exactly the same thing about their crockpots. Something about handles that break off. After 40-plus years of that product being on the market you know anything like this is deliberate.
You damn right,this short livin digital crap of today is really dissapointing. Many of them are made for "buy and throw it away after short life" :-(.
I still have my Toshiba CRT TV from the mid 1990's and it has been used constantly and still works flawlessly. :)
We had the same experience with an electric grill. The one from china-mart didn't work right from day one and was promptly returned. Went to Sears and bought the exact same grill. That one worked just fine and still works. It also came with accessories that the china-mart grill didn't come with. Also bought a Dell PC from china-mart that was a POS.
I Love the old TVs
This is a very valuable Set.....its what is refered to as a "Smart TV"..........it takes one look at whats on and turns off
Good for you for being honest with your customer. I have heard way too many stories of LCD tv's lasting only 5 or 6 years old & then the screen just dying. For that reason, I have a 22" Toshiba LCD/DVD combo, with only 2 months use, that I will keep new in it's box. I am using my 1994 JVC 32" tube tv till it dies or if there ever comes a time it can no longer use the cable company's signal. Only then will the Toshiba be used.
+James Roy James, the JVC tube TV I bought for $50 bucks from a former landlord back in 2010. I loved the picture, but it was too big & heavy. It finally died in June 2015 at 21 years old. It's replacement is a 27" 1997 Sony Trinitron....a a friend owed me $20 bucks when the TV died, so he gave me the Sony to wipe out the debt. I bought the Toshiba mainly because most of the apartments I have had the living room is really small, so no need for a big TV. I am still keeping it in the box for when the time comes it's needed. Has only been used about 5 months. I also have a 2001 20" Panasonic Tau tube TV I am using in my bedroom right now, the same friend gave it to me when he moved out of a apartment & didn't want it.
As for tube TV's dying around 5 years old....yes have seen that too. Seems to be mostly the tube TV's made after the year 2000....when LCD TV's started production, they started lowering tube TV quality. I have noticed it seems that any tube TV that lasts over 10 years seems to be made in the 80's or 90's. Before I got the JVC in 2010, I had a 1989 27" Sanyo tube TV that was still going strong.
They make things more complicated for a reason. $$$$$.
Expensive to buy, expensive to repair, expensive to replace. Especially appliances.
Including cars.
it sucks pioneer no longer makes televisions, cause they made some damn good stuff
You bring up some good points, however, there are some to refute:
Most of the time, the newer TVs tend to fail due to shoddy power supplies. I recently repaired a 52" Samsung HDTV that needed ALL of its capacitors on the power supply replaced. As a result, this typically leads to other components to fail. While I agree that finding the schematics can be tricky to find, you may be able to easily find the schematics for a particular IC.
The other issue is, quality control hasn't been enforced as much as in the past, therefore, the chances of winding up with a defective set is slightly higher than in the past. I've had a badge-engineered RCA TV from 2008, and it's working just fine, same with my Mexican-made Insignia HDTV from the same year. I still have my first HDTV, an Insignia from 2006, and its working flawlessly. I even trash found 2 LCD TVs, one being a Samsung, and another being a no-name brand, and those work just perfectly fine.
This became predominant as demand increased, therefore, to increase supply (and profits), they had to outsource, just to be able to meet or exceed supply to meet demand. In some scenarios, people get the cheapest TV set they can find because it's all they can afford, and some people have a bad habit of associating older stuff with the possibility of inheriting the previous owner's issues with the used item, and in some cases, associate the risk of bringing home unwanted critters such as bedbugs.
Of course, back in the day, to justify the high price, even for stuff that was considered "low-end" and "cheap", the build quality was often superior, but not everybody could afford it. Even back in the old days, there were items of dubious quality, which I've come across many times. You just don't see said stuff as often anymore as they are almost non-existent nowadays.
I also keep an old Sony Trinitron TV from 1975, as I have a soft spot for TVs from the 1970s. Although it is essentially useless on its own ever since the DTV transition of 2009, I have an RF modulator so I can use it with an old PC to watch old TV shows and my vintage video game consoles, as well as a converter box for live TV. Only main issue is converting 16:9 content for a 4:3 screen ratio. My old TV is best for standard definition content, and my old video games, as they look sharper and crisp than it does on an LCD. Many light guns will only work on CRT technology.
Nowadays, most content is now designed for a 16:9 resolution instead of the old 4:3 resolution. At some point, you'll need various converters to be able to watch new content properly, especially now that HDMI is the dominant video connector for modern A/V electronics such as Blu-Ray Disc players, and Android TV boxes.
If your vintage TV sets have at least composite video inputs, you can purchase an HDMI to composite video converter, just be sure it has the ability to scale to 4:3. Otherwise, you'll need to add an RF modulator to convert the signal yet again. I would strongly recommend purchasing a Chromecast so you can watch youtube videos on your vintage TV sets, as mainstream TV is simply boring nowadays, and you can find most of the old content on TH-cam.
I still prefer my vintage electronics, but the inevitable is inevitable, and we have to adapt to it, and we can adapt our vintage electronics to keep up with the times, such as my trusty Pioneer SX-3500 stereo receiver from 1980 that now has a bluetooth receiver! We can show greedy companies we can defeat their "planned obsolecense" by adapting our vintage stuff.
Joseph Beasley go to Japan then.
i will if you buy my a ticket.
Joseph Beasley obvious wannabe troll who is insecure about his weak masculinity.
I am a fan of vintage electronics and I do see the point being made, new products are less serviceable than the old vintage stuff. And, unfortunately, some of them are junk. I just repaired my old Silvertone radio record player unit, built around 1947, one I have owned for at least 20 years, if not longer. It is simple, basic and easy to work on. However, I also think there is a place for modern electronics. The advances in technology mean that our modern devices have capabilities that go far beyond the older electronic devices. I have a Samsung 46" TV, just a regular not a smart TV. I think this TV is at least six years old and since my wife and sister in law are home all day, the TV is on all day. This set has been dead reliable and the picture is absolutely stunning. It was expensive when I bought it but it has had a lot of use and I think it was a worthwhile purchase.
I am not happy that we have become a throw away society but a lot of the modern electronic devices are so inexpensive, even the decent stuff, that it doesn't make sense to repair them so I guess that is the new reality. In the mean time I will repair the vintage electronics I own and enjoy them.
I think the high heat produced by these TV's has a lot to do with it.
I still choose CRT (tube and transistor driven) over modern LCD displays for many of the reasons you mentioned. Older CRT sets are much more easily serviceable and when they break, well I have a fun weekend project and an opportunity to learn something new. It is the same reason why I collect older computers, record players/turntables, amplifiers, and now radios. One rant I have about LCDs is that I can see the dot pitch on most panels when I am 5 feet away from the panel. They also make digital artifacts more apparent than what CRTs do as well. I don't mind seeing scan lines, but if it looks like I am looking at a dot-matrix print out of the image (technically, I kinda sorta am even with LCD, but you get what im saying), it bugs me to death.
My mother has a Sony NSX-40GT1 Google LCD Television from 2010. It still works perfectly to this very day. Never needed a repair.
Great video and I agree with you! I'm an Electronics/Avonics Technician for the Navy and have my own business repairing consumer electronics. I have a Sony 36" WEGA (CRT) that's now 15 years old and I have not had to do any repairs. I've only had to adjust the convergence using the internal diagnostic and remote control. I too have worked on numerous LCD and Plasma TV's that a lot of the times it's bad caps but I've also had ones with major problems that's not worth repairing.
Hey Larry, do you have a website I can go to for your repair services? I have a ton of questions about Sony Trinitron Tv internal service adjustments using the remote control. Thanks...
Vince
I don't have a website yet. I'd be glad to help. Can you post your email here and I will send you my email address?
I Larry, Vince Hee, I tired to send you a message on my damn iphone but didn't work. If you can read this my personal email address is
felixvince54@yahoo.com
I have a ton of questions about my Sony Trinitron CRT 32" TVs internal service adjustments.
Vince
Hee should have read " Here "
felixvince54@yahoo.com
all lower case and no spaces in between.
Vince
Thanks, I'll check them just to make sure they are OK.
I've heard of a few technicians doing work on those surface mounted boards; but, I don't have the equipment and SMT is a little too small for me to comfortably work on.
I fired that TV up tonight and it has a very bright raster and the CRT test very strong. Not bad for a 51 year old TV.
I bought my SONY 40" HDTV from Wal-Mart in 2011. Still works as well as the day I bought it. Never had a problem with it. The ZENITH console TV my dad bought in 1973 was constantly in the repair shop.
Made in China, expect good service for about 5 to 3 years or less, this is why I kept my old flat screen crt lol
@radiotvphononut Mine lasted three years before it started having problems.
Always consider gutting a flat panel LCD TV and installing the generic universal TV tuner and display controller board, and replacing the lamps or existing LED strips with 5050 LED strip light and diffuser, the upgrade will probably last 10 years or more, parts around maybe $60 tops.
The best dig to ana box that came out during the transition was the zenith dtt900. It has a strong signal detector, easy add channel option. That important for muti directional signal sources. No rescanning for antenna rotation.
Panasonic would be my first choice, followed by the other brands if I couldn't find a Panasonic. Cheap and reliable? There's no such thing. The Panasonic TV's will probably cost $200-$300 more than a wal-mart TV; but, you'll stand a better chance of it lasting longer than a year or two and you'll also stand a better chance of being able to get parts for it. None of them are going to last 20+ years like the old CRT TV's did. I figure 6-8 years for a "good" TV and 1-3 years for a junk brand TV.
Last thing i bought from Wallmart was a Hi-8 Movie Camera.. It still works.. I would never buy an LCD TV or something.. Quality is better than Quantity,, I still have an old Sony Tv from 1979.. Found side of the road for free.. back in 2006.. Color isnt as good.. I hardly watch it.. but It still works..I More geared to radio.. and my 8 tracks and Vinyl...
I know how you feel. This is why I choose to use an old tv like the one I use. I used to have a 40" LCD Samsung as seen in my older videos. But that failed from capacitor issues and it blew out the main board. I have since fixed it but I gave it to my dad since he wanted a big screen.
My grandma's goldstar TV fell on the floor from the table face first. It was a ceramic floor. It still worked perfectly.
I hear the life of TV's now is just around 2 years ... designed this way ($$$)
As well as all appliances.
Umm. No.. most consumer electronics are meant to last 5 to 10 years. (if properly taken care of)
@@ajtstvandmusicarchivechann1585 No. I have gone through four dehumidifiers in 10 years.
@@KameraShy you have to think that dehumidifiers run 24/7. Plus I was talking about a tv not s dehumidifier
I had a Philips TV that just went out a few weeks ago. I had it for about the same length of time as the owner of the TV you're speaking on in the video & it now does the exact same thing! My mom said I should get it fixed. I told her the same thing. It would be too expensive to repair. I'd be better off getting a new one. I'm now using my Sony TV I keep in my living room. It's still a flat screen but a little older than my Philips TV. The picture isn't as great as the Philips, but it's not bad at all. I also still have my first TV I've purchased for myself. It's the all black TVs that was very popular prior to the flat screen TV's. It still works too! My son uses it to play videogames. Beautiful picture & surround sound. They don't make em like that anymore!
Not to mention that modern tv sets use microprocessor and logic array chips that can't just be replaced without being programmed first. Good luck getting a programmed chip or finding the software to program it yourself.
I used to work in a repair shop...one day a Zenith tv came in and it was 23 years old, the customer told us that was the first time it had ever been in for repair. We fixed that old Zenith and it's probably going to work for another 10 years.
When I used a CRT TV, a 1970s Zenith TV I bought from a TV repair shop and after about 3 years, it failed and the repair guy I took it to seemed to be having problems getting parts for it. After getting repaired once, it failed again about a year or two later and I just eventually got rid of it. I kept it a long time with it not working, but eventually decided it wasn't worth repairing and then got a 1992 Zenith Sentry 2 console stereo TV from my grandparents to replace it. And now that one is having problems, even though I got an LG 47" TV, which I think are better than that Sanyo there, because it's lasted 5 years now. I don't think a Sanyo is a good determiner of how long an HDTV lasts.
SANYOs are not very good TVs, but I agree, older TVs were better.
my mom had one 6 years and it still works.
I was a consumer electronics tech up until about '99, and also noted the decline in quality. One pet peeve was with the VCRs, which became utter disposables. For awhile, I suggested fixing old Panasonic or Hitachi units, instead of purchasing a new one. Some of those old units would last forever.
I totally agree with You .... and most likely your set in this video have a few bad capacitors in the power supply.. this problem occur very often today also in good brands... cheers ( I would check all the round "cans" in the left board.. especially the black ones at the top)
I have a LCD from 2006 that still works.
This is one reason why CRTs did it better. Yes, they had consumed more power, were heavier and bulkier than the modern flat screen, but way more reliable than today's TVs. Or even anything made today won't last that long, generally. TBH flat screen tvs don't appeal to me.
Nice vid! I completely agree!
I had to fix my 42in Sanyo recently, as You can guess, it was the caps, they used those crappy G-Luxon caps so I replaced them with panasonic low ESR caps and it's been perfect ever since. It pisses me off that for just a couple of $$$ or £££ all this hassle could have been avoided.
I'm just glad that my B&O Avant will be easily repairable if it goes down.
I like vintage stuff too but I gotta say I have 4 of these modern TV's the oldest being over 12 years old and it still works with no issues (Samsung). Never had a problem out of any of them. Yeah, they are fragile but luckily no mishaps. And the picture in HD is outstanding, especially on Blueray. And yeah, they are nothing I would ever want to work on. If one goes out I'll just get another one. Definitely not like the old days where you had plenty of room to work and parts to swap out.
My Sony Bravia from 2007 is still going strong. Never have had any trouble from it. It's built really well!
Sam Gates Sony 40 inch 2 grand 12 yes old... People still say wow how much was your TV it looks more natural but of course these people are coming from the cheap ask Tv like this guy purchased and to think my Tv 12 years old and the contrast ratio is better than theirs that they just bought recently because they're buying no name Walmart junk I bought my TV at Best Buy I think I've gotten my money's worth and I guarantee you it'll probably last another 5 to 7 years by then I'll buy a 4k set 80 inch top of the line and will probably be the last TV all ever buy
Sam Gates awsome!
thecooldude9999 I'm posting this using a 45" LG LCD TV I bought new back in 2007. I did have to replace a few cops on the power supply board at about 2 yrs though.
LG is made in south korea and seem to have decent build quality, better than chinese stuff I see, they still cheaped out on capacitor costs though.
My sister has one just like mine. The capacitors went out on the 3.4v rail and blew a tiny surface mount transistor that regulated that voltage. 15 cents a piece but you need magnification and hot air soldering to replace tiny little parts like that easily.
Most of the flat screens I have looked at were power supply issues, occasionally the power supply takes out more components when the caps die.
thecooldude9999 I have a Sony Bravia 1080p from around the same year and it is still going strong too. It even hooks up to all the new stuff like Xbox One and PS4. Even going from 2007 to 2015 you can say they don't make them like they used too..
Last time I fooled with it all that old C-M needed was a yoke cover - she had a nice bright raster.
My off brand Digital Lifestyles 42 inch LCD TV I found by the dumpster in August, 2010. They used cheap CapXon capacitors in their power supply which gave out. I got another revised power supply from their service department for free (!) and the set is still working fine almost 5 years later.
I recently found a Samsung 50 inch 1080p plasma at the curbside. It was built in September, 2007. Totally dead, all the power supply needed was a 12 Amp ceramic slow blow fuse. It now works beautifully. Although all the capacitors look fine, I do plan to replace some of the capacitors in the power supply that I've read are problematic.
Regards, Tom
I'm with you on this. The older t.vs were just better built even the gray plastic crap units.plus I believe that once the s#&t hits the fan and you can't get the new flats anymore people will buy the old ones just to have something to watch. You never know with our economy lol .great video
***** Sanyo is actually a respectable brand, not some generic shit like "Element" or "Onn".
Long ago A friend had a 19" RCA he used as a monitor for his Apple ll Plus. That TV fell forward like you explained The only damage was a loose yoke. We aligned the yoke as best we could eyeball. Then glued it in place with some flooring adhesive. Try that on your flat screen! Well that set became mine and I used it for at least another four years. The only problem I ever had was watching the Love Boat sail up hill! I guess our calibrated eyeballs weren't calibrated enough when we glued the yoke
I can and have bought new multi uf metal can caps and old horizontal countdown ic's for my old tv, but many newer sets folks ask me to fix parts are unavailable.
For example Trinitrons are always blowing smps power supplies. The same parts in the various different sets seem to constantly go out. And guess what, the parts all seem to be house marked and house manufacture, especially tiny multi-tap transformers. I too keep fixing my old crt set(s). Last time it was a few caps in the horizontal driver circuit I caught when they went way out of value. My cost?, around $5.00, mostly shipping.
My friend, that's only a metter of substitution of all electrolytic capacitors on the PSU and the set will be good as new. If you use good branded capacitors it may last for 5 or 6 years. Old school TVs last 15 or 20 years without any problem, and sometimes working in conditions much harder than now-a-days.
That's about right. All I usually watch are tapes and DVD's of older TV shows. I do watch the news; but, for the most part, broadcast/cable TV could vanish and I wouldn't miss it.
I have a 1988 27" Sony Trinitron that was passed down to me - it has never been repaired and works perfectly.
I have a 2009 sony bravia television that was fixed under warranty and is still going strong
Yeah but it can't beat my 45 year old Philips K9 which has never been repaired and is still going yet your flatscreen will barely even make 10 or 15 years old
Realgroovy24 I have a 1961 Magnavox record player 4 speed that is still going strong with a tube amp.
My oven is also from the 1970's or early 80's and its fully electric still in good condition
Awesome stuff: Someone brought me a dead flatscreen TV. It worked when they last used it several years ago. Stored it away. Took it back out. Dead. Has nothing wrong with the power supply. It just does the same thing: Screen comes on for a second - shuts down. The weird thing is there is no battery backed Real Time Clock or any other way the TV knows it's old and not supposed to work anymore. But the engineers must've found a way...
What I also like when they switched from CCFLs to LEDs... CCFLs need high voltage to drive them. LEDs don't. Low voltage power supplies are usually more reliable (and won't fry your measurement equipment). So what did they do? Put all the LEDs in series, just so that there is a need for a high voltage power supply again. Also, if one LED goes out... and you can't tell me that wasn't intentional.
I know, parallel LEDs need more current, ergo thicker wires. But not much thicker! Like what 1 cent per TV?
Just playing a little devil's advocate here, but I once dropped a 40" LCD TV through the top of an Ikea TV stand. Sure, Ikea's stuff is about as tough as cardboard, but that was still a heck of a fall for a TV to suffer and not take any damage at all.
Every consumer product ever made has been built to a price point. You can only ever pick two from 'high performance,' 'high durability' and 'low cost.' I'm not letting manufacturers off the hook for using crappy components or having poor build quality; I am saying it's not a new phenomenon. I'm pushing 40 now, and I remember my parents fixing or replacing dead TVs many times over the course of my childhood. The first TV we owned as a family used to blow a tube at least once a year. Obviously, the whole reason that set was made to be easily serviced was because it needed a whole lot of it.
I agree with you. We just got rid of a china junk tv. It died after 5 years of service. I will not spend that kind of money again for any flat panel. We acquired 2 sharp crt tv's from a friend who had up graded. and we have just as good if not better picture quality than the flat panel which claimed to be 1080. I have a done a lot of research on flat panel tv's and come to the conclusion that all of them are junk and you would be lucky to get 5 years of service.
I still have my Radio Shack 19" Stereo TV portable monitor from 1986. Silver cube with two stereo audio video line inputs and multiple comb filters. No expense spared. $600 back then (more than new 25" consoles) and works great to this day. One speaker is quiet until you turn up the set to higher volume for a minute or so. Got a bad capacitor in the amplifier I suspect. My first TV that cost a ton of money. Still works :)
I have a flatscreen from Panasonic called Panasonic Viera. Its close to 15 years old and still works fine... One thing to mention. Before you go to bed. Turn the power switch on the front of the tv OFF. You will extend the life on the flat tv a lot. My tv is as i said close to 15 years old and works perfect today. No dead pixels, no error... I agree, stick to the well known brands when you buy a tv today... Eks: Panasonic, Toshiba, philips and so on... Nice review :-)
Hi,
We have 7 LCD monitors around our home and they all work fine. A few have been working for over 5 years. However, I agree, the newer monitors are usually not cost effective to repair.
Question... I am considering restoring a vintage TV for fun. If you had to chose one and one only set, which would you go with? I use to repair my parents RCA CTC35 set when I was in college.
Regards,
Glenn
DSM Labs
I'm with you on the CRT or cathode ray tube TVs. I rather have one of them then a black plastic crap LCD any day. I had a little 19 inch CRT but the coax cable broke in the back of it and I threw it away I did not have RCA on it so I had to throw it away. My dad had a Sony TV wants when he lived in his apartment years ago we had a thunderstorm and lightning explode the Transformer and fried the power pole outside. The power went out and it blew out the TV. It didn't matter if it was on a surge protector I think the storm blew out the surge protector blowing out anything on the surge protector. The TV was destroyed and we have to well I thought get a new one but my dad fixed it himself and it still works till this day. if you asked me if he had a CRT it would not have broke like his LCD Sony
My Zenith 13 inch color TV built in 1992 lasted me until Zenith stopped manufacturing TV sets and then it finally gave up the ghost.
You have some good points, I have a good CRT TV from the 1990s and I would not be surprised if it still works in the 2030s/2040s maybe even the 2050s.
I was finding quite a few CRT TV;s sitting on the curb, but nowdays they are getting hard to find the recycle guys grab them up. Salvation Army still has some or I see ads in the paper for sale. I picked up a working Toshbia and connected a converted box to it and it has a great picture, beautiful color. In los angeles I can watch 5.2 they show lots of old tv shows.
We used to have an old push mower (probably a Briggs and Scrap iron), which had the same problem. To stop the engine, you would have to pull the spark plug out. Touch it wrong, and you'd get a nice little shock!
I found a Heavy LG flatscreen outside it works! DVD player is located in the base except i cant get my DTA cable box to work with the tuner. the tv has an analogue tuner its from 2005
+Raymond Leggs replaced the main board for 49.00 tried to put in new tuner but the pins broke, and there were burnt places on the board anyway. LG parts are easy to find
If you did get a new set, what would be the best bet for the money? (not too expensive.)