Anyone else has his old TV being an a.hole? ^^

[Herbarius]

So, I've a old TV set, it's from the late 80s I think, so I think some of you have even older ones, but it sure is old enough...

 

First thing, it already has all kinds of buttons instead of wheels, for tuning, switching channels, and even volume... The only wheels on it are for saturation, contrast and brightness (I'll get to that later again)... As you may have already guessed, the channel select and volume buttons are extremely worn out... It's a good thing you don't have to switch channels when you play games but if I try to adjust the volume I have to press really hard, trying multiple times before it actually works, and when it finally works, I may not realize quickly enough, so I've to repeat all that with the opposite button...

 

Now to the tuning, thankfully this works okay... Sometimes it doesn't seem to get the signal very clear, but it's acceptable for something analog. But the strange thing is one little button called "AFT"... took me a while this propably means "Automatic Fine Tuning", so yeah... I remember it worked properly way back, like 10 or even 15 years ago... But now, first it seems to work, you activate it and you'll get a better picture (except for some weird TV stations, that even get worse if you activate it, but that's the same thing it were back then), then you sit down and watch your movie, or play some game and like 15 or 20 minutes later suddenly... the picture is gone, just some "funny colors", sound is gone too, the only thing you can do is turn AFT off and on again... or better don't turn it on again, because another 15 to 20 minutes later it will happen again.

 

The controls to adjust the picture work okay too, at least at first glance... The TV seems to have a problem over-saturating some colors - and hence causing massive color bleed - but with some experience you figure out how to adjust them properly, although this means to have the saturation slightly lower you would want to - somehow there seems to be no middle ground for it, either you have slightly pale people or people with their faces being covered in pink flames... But the major annoyance is the brightness control. Yes, it works, you can turn it clockwise and it gets brighter or counter-clockwise and it gets darker, until you have arrived at your preferred level of brightness... Then you sit down, and some time after the screen suddenly gets a lot darker... or a lot brighter... What seems to happen is, the TV somehow alternates between a "brighter state" and a "darker state" on its own (sometimes that happens 2 or 3 times in 15 minutes, sometimes it stays at a constant brightness for hours)... So depending on whether it is on the bright level or dark level when you adjust your darkness, the picture will end up either much too dark or much too bright the next time it changes...

 

 

I think I should be thankful that the TV does still work and you could ask why I hesitate to buy a new one, but I don't have a lot of money and I think for what I need it works good enough (I don't watch TV very often, use it more often for games or DVDs - I've connected the DVD player to a VCR which is connected to the TV - at least as long the 2600 isn't connected). Also the TV had some more serious issues a while back, but somehow those went again on their own (at the bottom right area everything was tainted slightly purple-blueish... even if you turned the saturation way down so the picture is completely greyscale it would remain tainted that way... however, after a few weeks this problem disappeared completely and it never came back since; and yes, I am sure that no magnetic field was even remotely in the vicinity).

In my childhood I've been taught not to throw away stuff just because it's old, and I think thats a good approach and I can't understand how many people just throw away their less than 5 years old TV or something like that, which is working 100% properly, just "because it's old". I'll propably keep the TV until it breaks down completely or these issues become so much worse I can't stand them anymore...

 

 

But what I really want is YOUR stories with your TVs. Did you ever have your TVs "being rude to you"?

Edited May 3, 2009 by Herbarius

[Tom-Lynx]

I've had 27" TV's I've GIVEN away that work perfectly as I upgrade everything to LCD. And I've got the be honest, the life span of LCD monitors and TV's is turning out to be very disappointing. These things are engineered to die after a few years.

 

I bet that you can find a free tube TV if you look around.

[kroogur]

In my childhood I've been taught not to throw away stuff just because it's old,

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that logic and it is sound advice but there is a very fine line between "old" and "beaten into the ground" It sounds like your set has given you it's all

 

 

I had a small portable set that I got from my grandmother, it was about the size of a basketball and it was the perfect size to use in my VW Camper Bus.

Needless to say it was through hell and back by the time I got it and it served me well for years until the colors started going wonky, the reds got obnoxiously bright and fuzzy and it was just a mess. I took the cover of and tinkered with the adjustments and got it to look ok for at least another 6 months before a pothole sent it crashing into the fridge.

 

With the recent glut of CRT televisions at the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores I have got a couple good sets it's a gamble sure as I have gotten a few duds but if the price is low enough it's worth it.

 

Cool topic!

[Ian Primus]

I've had more problems with newer TV's, to tell you the truth. My old sets behave themselves. I guess it's because they know I know how to fix them, and that keeps them in their place. Those young wippersnappers just like to act up for the attention.

 

Also, people tend to give me their broken TV's, because I fix them - so I wind up with more than the usual share of broken sets. And, I pick up free TV's when I find them at the curb. The funny thing is, that the older the set, the more likely it has been that it works just fine.

 

I've got this one set, late 90's, that likes to fold up at the top. I've changed every cap in the deflection circuit, and checked all the voltages with the schematic, and still - folds up. I bought a new deflection IC (stupid integrated junk), and need to replace it and see if that fixes it.

 

I had another late 90's set that would always stay on channel 3. (supid digital tuning). You could type in another channel with the remote and it would go there. You could tell it to scan channels and it would add them. But if you turned it off and back on again, it would stay stuck on channel 3 until you scanned all the channels again. Bad NVRAM chip. But it's a special chip, with combined functions. Not worth fixing. I think I gave it to someone that only wanted it to play video games on.

 

The TV I use here in the computer room was made in 1976, and works perfectly.

 

The TV in the bedroom is an early 80's set I found at the curb - it had color bleeding problems until I cleaned all the controls. Works fine now.

 

In the basement I've got a console color set from the early 60's. It has a 21" round color picture tube. That one I had to replace a couple burned resistors and a couple tubes - but it works really well too now. That one gets cranky at times - but hey, grampa is allowed to do silly things on occasion

 

-Ian

[Chickybaby]

I have found the cable company really being aholes and cutting 2 pbs channels that I woudl watch programming with Bean on. All tato has is basic cable in his room and in the last 2 weeks 6 more channels have disappeared. I am guessing they are trying to force people to switch to digital. No cable though anywhere else in the house, lol, except in his room.

 

TVs have been fine though for the most part. The one thing I have found people leaving behind is old TVs and monitors at shows when they run out of room. Between that and 2 of them I found at the curb that work just fine, I think I have 4-5 now not counting my Dads after giving a couple away. I still have my original first TV from when I was 14 ( a little 13in. one) as well as Tato having a really old one from the 50s or 60s that still works. If I feel inspired I'll post a pic later of that one.

[kroogur]

I had to get a HDTV because some text is illegible on the screens of my older sets when i play certain games on my XB360, I have 2 RCA sets one from the late 80's and one from the early 90's both work great for my older systems and my dad has an old Philco portable from when he got back from Vietnam i'm trying to get my hands on that one!

[STICH666]

I have a 37" 1989 Sony Trinitron XBR. The ultimate classic gaming TV. First off it's huge. Second its screen isn't too round so newer games look great but it also isn't too flat so Zappers still work great. Third it has 3 Composite/S-video so I can have everything hooked up at once without going overboard on switchers. Ok now to the issues I've had. I need to post this picture to explain so sorry if it seems I'm spamming this. Well at the bottom of my TV is that black display case. Well as a kid I of course ripped out the irreplaceable magnets that close the doors. Then the whole power supply blew up during the 2004 blackout. $200 later the freaking image starts jumping all over the place. You have to rock it in order for the image to stay still.

 

Edited May 3, 2009 by STICH666

[Herbarius]

I guess it's because they know I know how to fix them, and that keeps them in their place. Those young wippersnappers just like to act up for the attention. icon_smile.gif

 

Also, people tend to give me their broken TV's, because I fix them - so I wind up with more than the usual share of broken sets. And, I pick up free TV's when I find them at the curb. The funny thing is, that the older the set, the more likely it has been that it works just fine.

 

Yeah I thought about whether I could repair my TV, after all it propably is just the control pad that needs some fixing, some new microswitches (or maybe some tinfoil is enought ), a new potentiometer for the brightness I guess... About the AFT I don't know, but that's not that much of a problem.

However I don't dare to take the TV apart... I fear it would never work again if I even try to fix it. You see, I'm a "technical person" when it comes to theory, but if I have to do something myself, such as soldering, I usually suck...

[nathanallan]

If you don't feel good about fixing it, then please don't, that thing is lightning in a bottle, literally. IMHO it seems like the switches, right on target.

 

I don't have anything from back in the day, sadly, that I owned back then. But I did manage to rescue a 1986 Quasar Supracolor from 1986 from the copper stripper guy. I paid him the amount he would have gotten, $15, for it. Works flawlesslt, and he told me that the person that owned it tossed it because it isn't digital ready. I told him, "It's Atari ready, though!"

[kaishaku]

We had a crappy RCA from the early 90s where basically the very first time you would try to press any of the buttons on the TV, they would get stuck in. Eventually they all just snapped off and I would just stick a pen in and press the microswitch behind where the button would have been manually.

 

The remote always worked -- but the remote on that TV was a pile as well. I would have to squeeze hard on the top of it in order to get it to work. Of course we got a universal remote to replace it, but that TV was unique in that it had "menu" and also "settings" (or something like that), and in order to program the channels you'd need to go into *settings*, but every universal remote in the world only had "menu," so we had to keep the POS remote around as well for every time the power went off and it forgot what the channels were.

 

Here's the other fun thing: during the entire course of its life that TV would never tune any channels between 10 and 24. Eventually its tuner stopped working entirely so we plugged a VCR into the component jacks and used the VCR as a tuner.

 

I was happy to finally throw that thing in the dumpster.

 

Apparently I didn't learn my lesson because I later bought a 12" RCA to play video games on in my room and that thing broke just over a year after I got it, right as soon as it knew its warranty was up.

Edited May 3, 2009 by kaishaku

[Herbarius]

Of course we got a universal remote to replace it, but that TV was unique in that it had "menu" and also "settings" (or something like that), and in order to program the channels you'd need to go into *settings*, but every universal remote in the world only had "menu," so we had to keep the POS remote around as well for every time the power went off and it forgot what the channels were.

In my experience universal remotes are working less well than they should... Even for TVs that are officially supported by it, there are some buttons that are left out or something... Also what is written on the buttons and what they do often doesn't match up (except for the very simplest stuff, like the numbers), so you have to learn what is what... They propably should give the user the possibility to reprogram it himself (not just selecting one of several dozens profiles), so he can fix some stuff up... but as 99% of the people buying it wouldn't even begin to understand what's that about this propably isn't going to happen.

 

My TV originally had a remote, too, but that was dead even when it was still my parents' TV... I once tried an universal remote my sister bought for her TV on my TV and it worked, later I bought one myself (unfortunately not the same model) and it refused to work with my TV. (I could have switched with my sister, but at that point her universal remote wasn't at all in "mint condition" anymore... yeah that cheap stuff, falling apart if you look funny at it)

Edited May 4, 2009 by Herbarius

[Segataritensoftii]

I remember my brother having a Trinitron that usually took something like hundreds of tries pushing the power button just to turn on. I'm glad we got rid of it.

Edited May 4, 2009 by Segataritensoftii

[Video]

Unless you got some really off the wall brand, I would be willing to bet that you could buy a universal remote and program it without to much troubles. Of course, that's just something else to loose, but still.

 

I got an old 13 inch 80's something or other that I used since I got it way back when, it's new enough to have the buttons to, but I've never had problems with that. What I do have problems with is, the tube I guess is going out. It is cold and requires warming up before working properly, during the winter, you can just about forget getting a perfect picture. But when you first turn it on, it's uber wavy and even scrolls and such. When it warms up it's good, but like I said, it takes a while.

 

I got a new LCD that I use mostly, and after seeing the nice clean clear picture, and the ease of all digital controlls, I don't think I'd use an old Tube set for anything other than older games. It's pretty nice, but I don't know about the longevity of LCD. It seems to me the technology is just to new to really know, and going on experiance with older stuff (like Gameboy) I'dsay it probably doesn't last all that longg. I'd get 10 or so years out of it, probably, but I bet I can't count on it for much more.

[gdement]

I had an 80's Toshiba TV since I was a kid. It finally got thrown out a few years ago. I think it still worked, but it only goes up to channel 48, has no AV inputs and nobody wanted it anymore.

Weird thing about the channels, after 48 then it would skip to 93. (?)

 

I now have found the perfect TV for old video games:

A 2005 Toshiba CRT, very little use on it, one of the last good-brand CRT's to be built. Picture is bright and like-new, and best of all it has a full set of AV inputs: composite, S-Video, and even component - on a small CRT. Awesomeness.

It also doesn't have that annoying blue-screen "feature" when there's static. If I have a weak signal, this TV lets it go through.

 

If I needed a big-screen TV, then I'd want one of those HD CRT monsters, but for a smaller, portable television this thing is perfect.

 

 

 

I got an old 13 inch 80's something or other that I used since I got it way back when, it's new enough to have the buttons to, but I've never had problems with that. What I do have problems with is, the tube I guess is going out. It is cold and requires warming up before working properly, during the winter, you can just about forget getting a perfect picture. But when you first turn it on, it's uber wavy and even scrolls and such. When it warms up it's good, but like I said, it takes a while.

I don't know much about TV repair, but given the age and the temperature sensitivity, there's a chance this could be a simple capacitor problem. Caps go bad with age, and when they go bad they tend to perform better after warming up.

Edited May 5, 2009 by gdement

[kevincal]

I have a 19 inch samsung tv from the early or mid 90's. It produces a fantastic picture, but whenever I plug or unplug the cables in the back, it screws with the picture. Theres some kind of wiring issue... Annoys me because the screen does this weird little flicker, and I always have to jostle around the cables to get it to stop...

[ApolloBoy]

A 2005 Toshiba CRT, very little use on it, one of the last good-brand CRT's to be built. Picture is bright and like-new, and best of all it has a full set of AV inputs: composite, S-Video, and even component - on a small CRT. Awesomeness.

It also doesn't have that annoying blue-screen "feature" when there's static. If I have a weak signal, this TV lets it go through.

Do you know what the model number is on that TV? Sounds interesting.

[mbd30]

I had a 27" Samsung bedroom TV that finally crapped out after about 10 years. I still haven't decided on a replacement.

 

My consoles are SNES and Genesis, and I'm not sure how compatible they are with HDTV's. Longevity is another issue. My old Samsung was around $200 and it lasted a decade.. I'd hate to spend $600+ on a new TV and have it go bust in less than half that amount of time.

[Video]

I had an 80's Toshiba TV since I was a kid. It finally got thrown out a few years ago. I think it still worked, but it only goes up to channel 48, has no AV inputs and nobody wanted it anymore.

Weird thing about the channels, after 48 then it would skip to 93. (?)

 

I now have found the perfect TV for old video games:

A 2005 Toshiba CRT, very little use on it, one of the last good-brand CRT's to be built. Picture is bright and like-new, and best of all it has a full set of AV inputs: composite, S-Video, and even component - on a small CRT. Awesomeness.

It also doesn't have that annoying blue-screen "feature" when there's static. If I have a weak signal, this TV lets it go through.

 

If I needed a big-screen TV, then I'd want one of those HD CRT monsters, but for a smaller, portable television this thing is perfect.

AwEsOmE!! I'd love to get my hands on one of those, that sounds very cool.

I got an old 13 inch 80's something or other that I used since I got it way back when, it's new enough to have the buttons to, but I've never had problems with that. What I do have problems with is, the tube I guess is going out. It is cold and requires warming up before working properly, during the winter, you can just about forget getting a perfect picture. But when you first turn it on, it's uber wavy and even scrolls and such. When it warms up it's good, but like I said, it takes a while.

I don't know much about TV repair, but given the age and the temperature sensitivity, there's a chance this could be a simple capacitor problem. Caps go bad with age, and when they go bad they tend to perform better after warming up.

Yeah, I may see about getting it fixed, with the millions of hours of Atari played on that thing, it's more sentament than value, but I really do like the picture on the thing.

[gdement]

A 2005 Toshiba CRT, very little use on it, one of the last good-brand CRT's to be built. Picture is bright and like-new, and best of all it has a full set of AV inputs: composite, S-Video, and even component - on a small CRT. Awesomeness.

It also doesn't have that annoying blue-screen "feature" when there's static. If I have a weak signal, this TV lets it go through.

Do you know what the model number is on that TV? Sounds interesting.

I just checked, it's:

 

14AF45

 

 

I was just reading reviews of it on Amazon, and was reminded of one flaw. You really need the remote for this TV. Without it, I don't think it's possible to switch to the AV inputs. I don't remember for certain, and unfortunately don't have it hooked up right now.