I’ve been thinking about my 15-year-old Sylvania recently. It still works *fine, but I’d be curious to know how long people’s TV’s normally last before they die of something. I kinda feel like I’m lucky to have gotten this much life out of it.
So, how long did your TV last (long or short) before it died? (not counting stuff like lightning strikes, house fires, or kids pouring Coke into the back).
*It does have this goofy sensor that automatically adjusts color intensity according to light levels. The brighter it is, the brighter the picture. The darker it is, the more subdued the colors. When it’s completely dark (except for the TV), it’s completely B&W!
My family got our first TV in 1953. We kept it until about 1970, and passed it along to my sister. Of course in those days, you could replace individual tubes, so by the time my sister got it, the only parts of the set that were actually 17 years old were the cabinet, knobs and some wires.
TV in kitchen was bought in 1978. B/W, picture somewhat faded, but watchable. No repairs that I recall. 4 sets in house, only 1 new enough to have a newfangled “remote control”, 2 don’t even have 75 ohm jacks. I am a pack rat.
I have the TV I got for my bat mitzvah, it is now 13 years old (ready to be bat mitzvah’s itself!)… it followed me to college, 1st apartment, 2nd apartment, etc. It’s a Toshiba, in case you’re curious.
We are still using a '83 Zenith color TV that works great. It doesn’t add much to our room decor – it has a lovely wood-grain plastic case that looks (when compared to sleek new TVs anyway) like it is way too big for the 19" picture tube. It even has a remote (a big, boxy one) that still works.
There’s a Panasonic in my bedroom which was handed down from one of my sisters 6 years ago. Even though it’s probably close to 20 years old, it still works fine. I did have to fiddle with the knobs so the picture wouldn’t be washed with red. There is a 75 ohm jack, but its a male instead of a female, and the twin-lead screws hook to that.
I still have a 12"/30cm Quasar color TV that I bought in 1976 – $210 at Two Guys in Amherst, New York. It has separate VHF and UHF knobs (with detents for the UHF channels, which was quite rare then), and can tune past channel 69, all the way to channel 83. Use the fine tuning knob, and you’ll pick up audio from analog cell phone calls.
With the exception of a blown fuse, the set has operated flawlessly since I bought it, although the volume control and the analog VHF tuner needs some cleaning. I imagine it’ll still keep on churning on until HDTV completely replaces NTSC in North America.