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  #61  
Old 06-27-2016, 04:07 PM
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Video and radio technology is so basic to modern life a restored working set like a porthole or color roundie gets a LOT of attention from my young snowboarding friends. They often build their computers and can write/debug code so there's a certain continuity as the geek has become the cowboy of the silicon prairie. What's amazing to them is it's all pieces parts and wires, or early printed circuits a good warm breath will lift the traces from.

BUT what matters is is it cool looking and does it work. However for TVs a lot more looks cool to them as the young ones never saw anything but black plastic box CRT televisions that still litter the curbs here.

John H.
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  #62  
Old 10-05-2017, 09:33 PM
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Well I stumbled on this a little late. Hope nobody minds the bump.

I can name so many reasons why old TVs are fascinating and collectible to millenials and Generation Z. I am 18 myself and just starting college. I've "been into" and daily used CRT TVs and monitors since I was 3 when my first memories were of playing Sonic 2 on a Sega Genesis hooked up to a black Zenith set. My bedroom at home has a 26" Mitsubishi console TV, my current dorm room has a 19" Sylvania Superset.

For starters the tech behind CRTs, especially color tubes, is pretty insane. Three little guns firing electrons through a vaccum at the speed of light, guided by magnets through tiny holes to hit just the right spot so certain phosphors light up into a certain color. And it does it so fast the human eye just sees it as a solid image.

Vintage TVs had absolutely beautiful designs. They are pieces of furniture in their own right and often add flourish to a room as a conversation piece, living antique, an nostalgia-inducing reminder of our past as we continue racing towards new technological advancements. I wish 70s era woodgrain and chrome industrial design would come back in a big fashion. Way too much aluminum and glass these days. (Thanks, Apple...)

My love of CRTs is intertwined with my love of old videogames and old tech in general. Atari, Nintendo and Sega home consoles produced hundreds of legendary games that set a gold standard in a new industry and still hold up to the test of time and are genuinely as fun as if not more fun than today's multi-million cinematic fare. The classics just do not look and play as intended on modern LCDs with lag-inducing scaling and heavy post processing intended for digital images.

Almost everybody my age will write off CRTs as old news, heavy inefficent junk to dump in the landfill or use as target practice. I feel contractually obliged to keep alive a part of our history and of my childhood, if no one else will. It was the venerable boob tube that we watched man land on the moon. Television, Internet video and videogames owe their existence to them.
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  #63  
Old 10-06-2017, 01:23 AM
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^ Well said.

I haven't much of a tv collection at the moment, but I've always appreciated old things and have collected stuff from a young age. I don't know that it's nostalgia for me, but old things have always held a certain intrigue and romance for me. Maybe that is nostalgia... idk.
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  #64  
Old 10-06-2017, 07:27 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanine View Post
I almost believe me and Tom (Electronic M) are the youngest members here that are so involved with old televisions like this.

I'm 29, and I was born in 1986. My earliest memories are of that Zenith Television I still have, and use this day. Unusually my memory began to retain stuff as early as Late 1987, according to mom when
Im 16 turning 17 this month so i might youngest one on here.
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  #65  
Old 10-06-2017, 09:51 AM
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I DID manage to do a little exploration in NYC.. Big-dealed my parents into seeking out the Rolls-Royce dealership. This VERY-well dressed guy came out to"Wait" on me.. The Rolls were ALL locked up & I asked Cuthbert if I could see the motor..."I'm Sorry, SIR, we do NOT open the bonnets in the showroom.. I asked him if they had any catalogs, he produced a VERY small piece of literature, & I got the distinct impression that WE weren't really welcome in there at all..I wanted to go to the Mercedes dealership, it was 180 degrees away from R-R's place. There were 2 guys in the showroom, both were chowing down-It WAS lunchtime. I asked if I could check the cars out, & one of the sales guys said,"Knock yerself out,Kid., have yrself a BLAST"... They had all the Mercedes that they sold in the USA, & I was in, out, over & Around the cars.. They even had a 600 Pullman that had 3 doors on each side. I told them my Dad had a 250 sedan,& THAT tickled them. They gave me half-a-truckload of catalogs & brocheres,& even though it was obvious we WEREN'T in the market for a new car, they still treated me like I'd just written a check for that 600 Pullman... I WASN'T in the market right then, but I MIGHT HAVE Been at some point in my life. The Rolls' crew made me feel like the proverbial red-headed stepchild, but the Mercedes folks made me feel as if I was "Somebody"...It really would not have "Hurt" if they'd been nicer to me.. I told them of the reception I got at Rolls', they chuckled & said,"Yeah, that SOUNDS like them..."
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  #66  
Old 10-08-2017, 08:30 AM
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It STILL is Big Fun to usher a blase',smart-alec kid into the "Ship's Radio Room", & flip on my Zenith Porthole.. a number of kids nowadays claim to have NEVER seen a B/W tv, & ESPECIALLY a Porthole... It, often as not,even makes GIRLS sit up & take notice... Most young'uns will go along w/you & agree that we had a reasonable amount of goodies, even as far back as their birthday. But anything B4 that, you've GOTTA be pulling their leg..
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  #67  
Old 10-08-2017, 10:17 AM
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Very Funny, Sandy! I'm still upset that the industrial revolution started without me being on the planet.
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  #68  
Old 10-08-2017, 10:59 AM
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I'm fairly young still and I've always been into weird old crap. The tube bug bit sometime in the mid 00s, built my first tube amps during my senior year of high school/freshmen of college ('06-'08). I've restored many radios since 2013, built a nice WE91A styled 300B amp in 2014, got my first tube B&W TV in 2015....

I've also been into Sony Walkmans and on Tapeheads since '09

The next step is to get a color roundie.....
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  #69  
Old 10-08-2017, 11:24 AM
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They REALLY think I'm blowin' Smoke up their behinds when I tell 'em that my RCA AR-60 was $495 in 1935,when you could buy a new Ford V-8 that year for $650. Or that my Rohde & Schwarz EK-07 cost the German Gov't some $6000 in the mid Sixties... I'll tell 'em they can HAVE the EK, but they gotta move it by themselves, no help allowed.At its 150 LBS, & the fact its on the bottom rung of a shelving unit, nobody has ever seriously TRIED to move it. I Picked it up solo when I 1st got & I saw moons, stars, planets, & damn near dropped it, I've NEVER done THAT again..
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  #70  
Old 10-08-2017, 05:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Freon View Post
Well I stumbled on this a little late. Hope nobody minds the bump.

I can name so many reasons why old TVs are fascinating and collectible to millenials and Generation Z. I am 18 myself and just starting college. I've "been into" and daily used CRT TVs and monitors since I was 3 when my first memories were of playing Sonic 2 on a Sega Genesis hooked up to a black Zenith set. My bedroom at home has a 26" Mitsubishi console TV, my current dorm room has a 19" Sylvania Superset.

For starters the tech behind CRTs, especially color tubes, is pretty insane. Three little guns firing electrons through a vaccum at the speed of light, guided by magnets through tiny holes to hit just the right spot so certain phosphors light up into a certain color. And it does it so fast the human eye just sees it as a solid image.

Vintage TVs had absolutely beautiful designs. They are pieces of furniture in their own right and often add flourish to a room as a conversation piece, living antique, an nostalgia-inducing reminder of our past as we continue racing towards new technological advancements. I wish 70s era woodgrain and chrome industrial design would come back in a big fashion. Way too much aluminum and glass these days. (Thanks, Apple...)

My love of CRTs is intertwined with my love of old videogames and old tech in general. Atari, Nintendo and Sega home consoles produced hundreds of legendary games that set a gold standard in a new industry and still hold up to the test of time and are genuinely as fun as if not more fun than today's multi-million cinematic fare. The classics just do not look and play as intended on modern LCDs with lag-inducing scaling and heavy post processing intended for digital images.

Almost everybody my age will write off CRTs as old news, heavy inefficent junk to dump in the landfill or use as target practice. I feel contractually obliged to keep alive a part of our history and of my childhood, if no one else will. It was the venerable boob tube that we watched man land on the moon. Television, Internet video and videogames owe their existence to them.
I'm glad to see more young people get into this. I'm the same way. I was born in 1966 and would like to preserve some things from my childhood. I'm watching my 1982 Zenith as we speak and it has been in use since I was 16. I have nothing against flat screens, they have their place, they are good for limited spaces and so on, but I like the old tube TV's. I do have a flat screen but it was my mother's, she passed away 4 year ago and while she was sick, my aunt, her sister, bought her flat screen.
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  #71  
Old 10-08-2017, 09:24 PM
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One thing that people will maybe miss is curling up on their Mama's lap & watching the big 21"-24" Zenith B&W set in the corner. No A/C back then, but you DID get a nice "Homey" smell when the Zenith was on, & for about 1/2 the year, you were kinda GLAD for all the heat it put out.My Mom wouldn't smoke w/moi curled up in her lap, wished I'd done that more often, we might have gotten to keep her a bit longer COPD/Emphysema got her eventually...
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  #72  
Old 10-09-2017, 10:10 AM
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I like the Rolls/Mercedes story. Mine is Porsche. I tried to buy a Porsche 911 when
I got tenure. I visited the dealer and loooked and looked at it. They were uninterested.
I asked if I could sit in it to check the driving position. NO!! "You can drive it when you
buy it". No, I said, I don't need to drive it, just check the sitting position. "NO!"

So I left and came back a few hours later with a certified check to them for the
sticker price plus tax. I showed it to them and they STILL said "NO". Amazing!
So I bought a Corvette. They had let one of my students drive me around in it ...
I demurred as it had been a few years since I drove a stick shift. But ... this was
a dealer in St. Louis, across the street from the then-factory. Our local dealer had
acted very snooty too, but would have sold me an automatic, just not a stick shift.

I sold the vette 12 years later and paid for a month long vacation in Papua New
Guinea with the proceeds (sold privately to a porn dealer!)
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  #73  
Old 10-09-2017, 10:49 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandy G View Post
They REALLY think I'm blowin' Smoke up their behinds when I tell 'em that my RCA AR-60 was $495 in 1935,when you could buy a new Ford V-8 that year for $650. Or that my Rohde & Schwarz EK-07 cost the German Gov't some $6000 in the mid Sixties... I'll tell 'em they can HAVE the EK, but they gotta move it by themselves, no help allowed.At its 150 LBS, & the fact its on the bottom rung of a shelving unit, nobody has ever seriously TRIED to move it. I Picked it up solo when I 1st got & I saw moons, stars, planets, & damn near dropped it, I've NEVER done THAT again..
If I ever end up in your neck of the woods you gotta remember NOT to try that stunt with me....At least if you wanna keep your EK. I've had 2 Sony widescreen CRT sets (a 30"@148LBS and a 34"@208LBS) in the last year, and was able to move both on my own....The 'little one' I could lift and move anywhere by myself except stairs narrower than the front of the set (most stairs)....Must have walked 150' with it without issue. The big one I was able to lift from floor to the top of the poor unfortunate 1971 Zenith console that has become it's stand. I can walk (in Dr. Strangelove German accent: Mine fuhrer I can vwalk!) with the big one if it is at ~chest height before I pick it up...Otherwise I need some unfortunate object to rest it on soz I can readjust my posture/purchase. I was able to do all that without seein' the lucky charms cereal mellers spinnin' round me.

The active TV collector fitness regiment: If it does not kill/injure you, it WILL make you STRONGER.
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Last edited by Electronic M; 10-09-2017 at 10:54 AM.
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  #74  
Old 10-09-2017, 12:47 PM
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When I got the EK,that was before I had my stroke, B4 I fell/was pulled down my back stairs by a VERY exuberant Dobermann,& screwed up my meniscus & quadricept, & I just WAS almost as strong as a bear... When I was10-11, I could pick up my mom, plant her on my hip, & grin at her as she squalled for me to "Put Me DOWN !!", as I stomped thru the house... She'dfuss & fume,I'djust grin at her & go,"Aww, Winifred,HUSH !" If me, my dad,or my sister ever called her "Winifred", that was sort of HER cue to pay attention to what we were saying...If we called her "Winnie", she paid almost no attention at all, but "Winifred", she'd straighten up & fly right. Her best buddy always called her "Winifred" if she wanted Mama to pay attention, guess that's where WE picked it up from... That little girl, Bethany, that I ran around with, she had a Father, but not a Daddy, he apparently NEVER ever"Woolled" her,, I'd sling her over my shoulder, while simultaneously smackin' her on her Behind.., singing,"Oh-Wee oh, Oh-WEE-Oh.. She ate that kind of stuff up..She's 25 now, too big for me to horse around with, & ever since I boogered my knee up,I never know when it is gonna show its arse,& just collapse... Bethany has 2 young 'uns, a boy who's 4, & a girl who's 2 & a half, despite how much I'd LOVE to"Rough House" w/them, I wouldn't try for fear of possibly hurting them...It AIN'T worth it...
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  #75  
Old 10-09-2017, 05:14 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronic M View Post
The active TV collector fitness regiment: If it does not kill/injure you, it WILL make you STRONGER.
Word up! I've pushed four big TVs ~7 clicks home on a trolley, brought 19" sets and a U-Matic home on buses as well as doing a lot of other heavy and awkward work on my own. I've gotten hit with the "You're going to injure/kill yourself" chestnut a few times but I'm still standing and feeling fine. I rarely even get sore after such a job, temporarily weakened after bearing an object's full weight for too long but that's it. I've gotten worse from carrying groceries, darn bag handles will dig into my fingers and cut off the circulation leaving a spot where I can't feel much of anything for days/weeks at a time.
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