Quote:
Originally Posted by miniman82
Rear projection with CRT's is obsolete, rear projection with DLP is debatable considering the wide range of flat panels available today. What will differ is the price you pay per sq inch.
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You are absolutely correct. RPTVs using CRTs are obsolete these days, and it isn't worth having one of these sets repaired anymore. It's better to junk the old RPTV and buy a new flat screen, as the latter have come down in price and continue to do so, considering that UHD and 4K are beginning to catch on. H. H. Gregg and other places now have 32" HDTV flat screens for under $200, so, again, it is hardly worth it to have an old, obsolete RPTV repaired.
It makes even more sense to get a modern HD flat screen to replace an older set when you consider that today's FS TVs deliver much better picture quality than the RPTVs ever did. I remember reading somewhere that, while rear-projection CRT TVs were good for what they were in their day, nowadays modern FS sets will run rings around them.
I cannot imagine why anyone would want to put hundreds of dollars into repairing a 32-year-old RPTV when the person could get a modern 32-inch or larger flat screen for the same money, or even less. RPTVs like Zenith's Space Screen 45 were good for what they were, given the state of the art at the time (early 1980s), as I mentioned, even though their advertisements for them (there is one on YouTube) would have one believe that these sets were the greatest thing to come along since color TV itself.
However, I think the disappearing screen was the SS45's real selling point. Zenith, in the ad I mentioned, stated "By remote control, the screen rises from the fine furniture cabinet. . . . Space Screen 45. More than three times the area of a 25-inch screen, yet the picture is sharper than ever before in home projection TV. And only Zenith has a screen that disappears. . . . Only Zenith has it."
In 1983, when Zenith meant Zenith and their TVs were still made here, the claim that the sets made the best picture possible in home RPTV may have been true, but today, that set could not hold a candle to any modern HDTV flat screen. That is, RPTVs were the first attempt at very large screen TV, with the SS45 being one of the first if not
the first sets to use the then-new technology. It was the best the industry could offer to the public at the time, but as time went on better things (such as DLP and later LCD flat screens) came along, rendering CRT-based RPTVs obsolete.
As with any new technology, these then-new RPTVs had problems. Zenith's Space Screen 45 may have had a good picture for its time, but the motorized drive mechanism that raised and lowered the screen would fail after about a year or so of use, depending on how much the set was used. Some set owners got around this by fixing the screen in the viewing position and unplugging the drive motor, continuing to use the TV until it developed more serious problems.
The SS45 was sold for only one or two model years, probably due to the problems with the motor drive. In homes with no small children, the drive mechanism in these sets
might have lasted somewhat longer than a year, but in homes with kids who became fascinated with the disappearing screen (they would constantly push the button on the remote to see the screen go up and down, probably when their parents weren't looking), the drive may have failed quite a bit sooner, due to worn-out gears and even burned-out drive motors (those motors were not meant to run for any extended length of time).