89 Magnavox Console TV

[liammc00]

The TV Works very well except for the tuner all i get snow no matter what i connect to it like my VCR or NES. The TV has composite inputs so i can still use the TV i was just course what might be wrong with it. also the TV has been at a repair shop back in 1992 be the original owner. I got the TV about a year ago from a nabore who passed on. in his finished basement there were three CRT TV still hooked up and were in use. A junk 90s Zenith, mid 90s Magnavox TV, and the 89 Magnavox Console TV.

[radiotvnut]

Most likely, the tuner itself is bad and some of those had an IC in the tuner that would fail. To my knowledge, nobody is rebuilding tuners anymore, so you're probably better off using the composite inputs, even if you have to use a switch box that will allow multiple sources to be connected to the set.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Most likely, the tuner itself is bad and some of those had an IC in the tuner that would fail. To my knowledge, nobody is rebuilding tuners anymore, so you're probably better off using the composite inputs, even if you have to use a switch box that will allow multiple sources to be connected to the set.

What ever happened to television tuner repair shops like Castle, et al.? Castle used to advertise quite a bit in TV repair magazines like Electronic Technician (to name but one; there were many others) in the 1970s. However, I can't believe these shops went out of business with little or no warning when TV went digital ten years ago. Is there something about today's digital TV tuners which has made them unrepairable if they go bad? Integrated circuit chips, after all, can be replaced if and when they fail. If the tuner in this TV has a bad IC, I would just replace the chip and be done with it. The set will work again and its owner will not have to buy a new one.

Using a switch box to select inputs if an external tuner is used will work, of course, but this adds another switch the set's owner will have to deal with. Many people today are still not able to adjust their HDTVs when the sets are working well, as complicated as the procedure is for some TVs; another switch will just make matters worse for some people. Case in point: I use an RCA universal remote with my 32-inch Insignia HDTV and LG DVD player; the setup works very well, but I sometimes press the wrong buttons on the remote, as I am 66 years old and my eyesight isn't good; never has been, since I was born with a brain injury which messed up everything, including my right eye (!), on the right side of my body. That is, I can eventually set my TV so it works well enough to watch, but it isn't easy, especially since the labels on the menu for my universal remote (as they appear on the TV screen) are almost too small for me to read.

BTW, It is for this reason I have activated every automatic picture adjustment function my TV has, so all I need to do is press one button on the remote to turn the set on, press the channel +/- button to navigate to the on-screen channel guide and use the guide to find what I want to watch, use the volume and mute buttons to control the sound, and press the power button again when I am finished watching TV. To use my DVD player, I just press "DVD-blu-ray" on the remote, then press the power button again. When done, I simply press the power switch again on the remote, which shuts the DVD player off.

Recently, I had to replace the RCA universal remote I was using with my entertainment system. The new one, which is identical to the one I had, works very well, but it does not have a function selector button for my VCR as did the previous remote. The old remote had a function button labeled "VCR-DVD-Blu-ray", where the same function button on the new one is labeled "DVD-Blu-ray", with no mention whatsoever of video cassette recorders. (RCA's engineers must feel VCRs are all but obsolete in this age of DVD/Blu-ray players.) Because of this, I must use the original remote which came with my Panasonic VCR. It works well enough for my purposes, but I wish the new RCA universal remote (model RCR-313BE) had a VCR function button as well.

I suppose the "DVD-Blu-ray" function button could be programmed for use with VCRs (there are device codes in the instruction manual for this as well as for DVD players), but if the button is programmed this way, it cannot be used for any other function or device.

[Electronic M]

You know if it has composite inputs and you have a VCR and older game consoles that only have RF out you can use the VCR to tune in the game console output and convert it to composite video and audio for the TV. Back when we had cable and the boxes only had analog RF or HDMI, a couple of composite monitors had the VCR RF tuner trick to give them what they needed.

These 80s consoles don't have much value even when working perfect so may as well employ the lowest effort fix.

[liammc00]

The TV is still working fine except for the tuner and forgot to add a picture of the set. The set is now in new in my new place set and is being used in the den. I have a 2015 Panasonic DVD( out of all the modern DVD players in my opinion the Panasonic ones are the best and I got mine at Kmart), a Nintendo Wii, and a Zenith VCR.

[Hawkwind]

8 years ago my roommate had one. It would receive/playback stereo audio from the tuner but the video input was mono. thought that was odd..

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

What ever happened to television tuner repair shops like Castle, et al.? Castle used to advertise quite a bit in TV repair magazines like Electronic Technician (to name but one; there were many others) in the 1970s. However, I can't believe these shops went out of business with little or no warning when TV went digital ten years ago. Is there something about today's digital TV tuners which has made them unrepairable if they go bad? Integrated circuit chips, after all, can be replaced if and when they fail. If the tuner in this TV has a bad IC, I would just replace the chip and be done with it. The set will work again and its owner will not have to buy a new one.

We used Castle, PTS, and several other of their competitors for years. When tuners were mechanical, it was far easier to send them out for rebuild for $7.95 than to do it ourselves. They would come back repaired, tank-dipped cleaned, lubed, and aligned. They were literally as close to new as you can get without buying a new tuner.

I never sent them an electronic tuner however as it was cheaper to do the electronic ones in house. I must have changed a hundred NAP scaler ICs in those tuners for us and for other shops in the area. The chips were only a couple of bucks when bought in quantities of 10 or more.

And yes, those tuner companies pretty much disappeared in a hurry if they didn't get into other things like module rebuilding (which extended their time a few years - like PTS for example). We used to do a hundred VCRs a week, and then they pretty much dried up within a year or two at the most. Things in electronics move quickly.

John