I was thinking that my TV set is about to go, and that’s nice cause, if it has to go it’s just in time, since I’ll have to get a digital tuner anyway.
I bought my TV in September of 1995 so it had a long life, but I’m sure there are other perfectly good working sets out there.
So the question is what is the oldest WORKING set you know of? Does your grandma have an old set from the 60s without UHF that still works? Just wondering? Only thing is it has to work and get TV signals.
I have a 12-inch black & white TV from 1986 in the bedroom. I watch TV in the bedroom once a week at most, which is probably why it’s lasted so long.
I have a 20" Sony I got in 1992 that still works fine. It’s in the back bedroom and I don’t have cable hooked up to it, but there’s a DVD player. I also have a 9" B&W Hitachi from about 1971 or so. (When was Kolchack: The Night Stalker on?) Still works, but the picture’s slightly fuzzy. I think the gun needs to be focused.
You may be interested in the site for the MZTV Museum of Television.
The Early Television Museum has restored-to-working sets going right back to the 30-line Baird Televisor of 1930.
I personally have seen a one-off Emerson demo model from 1939 in operation. It used chassis and tubes by RCA, the chief maker among the few operating at that time.
Thanks for the sites info, cool information
I have a 13" color TV from 1989 that still works. The picture is fine, and though the picture is a little dark, I recall turning down the brightness back in the early 90s and just don’t have the remote I need to access the menus.
I have a 5" bw TV from 1986 or 1987 that not only still works, I have it hooked up to a DTV converter so it will continue to work even after analog disappears.
I have a 1949 Hofman 12” TV and radio that my parents bought new. It still worked (although had some problems with the tuner being dirty) the last time I tried it, although that is about 20 years ago. It has just been in storage since then, so there is a good chance it would still work.
It looks almost exactly like the one in the ad linked below, the one marked “12 1/2” television and AM/FM radio". The doors are long gone, and most of the knobs are missing, but it’s still in one piece.
Oh pooh. My 1948 Pilot TV-37 still brought in a signal when I put it into storage a few years ago.
the tuner can be cleaned with tuner cleaner. My dad did this regularly to the family glow-tube.
Oh, and I have a 1975 Mitsubishi 13" color TV that survived a 4 foot drop.
I have an old 10" Zenith that I saw the Challenger explode on. It doesn’t tune above 13. And it will. Not. Die. So, 1984 or so.
True. I cleaned it several times, replaced tubes, even R&Red some of the caps during the time it I had it every day use, about 1970 to 1974.
It had been in regular use from the time it was new until about 1966, when it finally died (again) and was deemed not worth fixing, then put in a closet. When I got my own bedroom a few years later, I pulled it out and was told I could have it if I could make it work. I did.
Mom & Dad bought 20 in Montgomery Ward TV sets for themselves, my brother & myself in December 1985. Mom’s is still working fine, never been serviced.
She must have been serviced at least twice if you have a brother. What that has to do with the TV, I don’t know.
d&r quickly
Not that tech savvy dopers need reminding, but old TVs will need a converter box from next year.
Get your government coupons here.
A friend of mine has a great collection of vintage TVs. The oldest ones he keeps in working order are his Philco Predictas from 1958. He has one especially rare model where the tube is separated from the chassis by a long cable. He also has a 1930s mechanical TV, but without an image source, there’s little reason to try to get it working.
Not working any more but our family’s vintage-1964 vacuum-tube powered 12-channels [del]plus UHF [/del]*, black and white Magnavox TV set was still technically working when my parents finally pitched it in 2001.
The channel-turner knob rotated a 13-sided drum, each surface of which had a series of little raised contacts that the electricity flowed through and I guess it had resistors or something, different for each one, that controlled what it actually tuned in when that set was in play. At any rate, they would corrode, my Dad would occasionally pull that mechanism and use an emery board to polish them shiny again and it would work better, but it got to the point that they had lost critical height and the only way they would tune in stations was if you kept your hand on the channel knob and put a little torsion on it.
EDIT: I remember now, it did not even have UHF; it had a place for an optional UHF know but this particular set was not so equipped, it was just a blank metal placeholder disk where the knob would have been.
I still have a Panasonic Pop-Up Portable TV I bought in 1978 - and the sucker still looks great in glorious black-and-white!
It also has an AM/FM tuner. Used to be perfect to plug into the lighter in my car and take along a TV.
Mom and dad have a Hitachi they bought in 1980 that works swimmingly - it’s in their basement and when I stay there I go watch it late at night - works great and has never needed repair.
I have a TV that I got 12 years ago that works perfectly well too.
