13" Samsung color TV from August, 1980
 

Here's a TV that I sold someone, probably 20 years ago; and, they gave it back to me today. It's a 13" Samsung color TV from 1980 and is the oldest Samsung set that I've seen. I'll have to pull the back and get a look at the chassis and I don't remember the details from 20 years ago; but, I seem to remember it being better made than the later models that are a few years newer. I remember the flyback transformers liking to go up in smoke in the newer ones; but, this one must have been a good one. The last time I saw it on, it still had a bright CRT; but, I could tell that it needed some capacitors.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...psowmu2b6f.jpg

I remember those. The first Samsungs & GS TV's were
pretty poor clones of Hitachi & Panny. After a few yrs they
were not so bad being SS sets. If they had been tube
jobs they would have been total trash.
I do remember FBT's & vert outs being the big problems.

73 Zeno:smoke:

When the flyback went in a Samsung or GS, it usually wasn't quietly and it stunk up the room. Once, I let my neighbor had a mid '80's 19" Samsung. After a few days, he was watching it. Suddenly, the horizontal fell out of sync and the picture pulled in on the sides. Then, BANG! The flyback blew up and stunk up his house.

Wow - I didn't realize Samsung was selling receiver sets under their own name that early.

Obviously I can't speak to the picture quality, but man I love the overall look of that thing. Especially the wood grain handle and Color/Tint sliders.

Here's the inside:

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...psb6yszifr.jpg

The Samsung line wasn't the most desirable at the time, especially their VCR's. I found, the TV's weren't that bad, except for flyback failure.
How they improved their product! Now, their TV's are some of the most desired sets sold.
It's amazing, how most of the Korean products evolved.
Hyundai and Kia cars, are having a good reputation, as well. :thmbsp:

Out of all the flat screens that I've had apart, the only two that I was able to fix without much trouble were both Samsung sets. One had bad solder connections on the power supply board and the other one (the one in my living room) had a bloated capacitor in the power supply. My Mother has a 5-6 year old Samsung in her room and it's never given a moment's problem.

Looking at my set, the chassis looks fairly clean; which, means it probably does not have a ton of hours on it. Also, the flyback looks to have been sourced from Matsushita.

That is really clean. Almost looks like it is new.

I guess they didn't want to follow Admiral that closely.