The last tv set Made in U.S.A./the influece of Asian made tv sets

[mrjukebox160]

Here ya go.

[Telecolor 3007]

@ bgadow : but the rest of semiconductors, the circuit boards where Made in U.S.A.?

[centralradio]

Not to sound like anti American but those American made TVs looks like they were designed by drunk engineers as you see the rats nest of wires and idiot house numbered stamped parts.Some were not bad and some were a disaster to work on.

Thank goodness for Panasonic/Sony/Toshiba came in to clean up the rats nest of wires and easy parts numbering systems. And also more reliable then the American sets.I'll take any vintage Sony, Panasonic or Toshiba over a Zenith,Sylvania or RCA any day.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by centralradio

Not to sound like anti American but those American made TVs looks like they were designed by drunk engineers as you see the rats nest of wires and idiot house numbered stamped parts.Some were not bad and some were a disaster to work on.

Thank goodness for Panasonic/Sony/Toshiba came in to clean up the rats nest of wires and easy parts numbering systems. And also more reliable then the American sets.I'll take any vintage Sony, Panasonic or Toshiba over a Zenith,Sylvania or RCA any day.

Depends on the vintage....Many tube and hybrid color Japanese sets were a cramped pain in the but to work on, with as bad or worse a rats nest as any American made color set of the time....Whats more parts and connections were often hidden and or buried under other parts and connections.....One of the more annoying examples I can think of is my early 70's Panasonic 6 tube hybrid....I've been putting it it off since it had lytic type hum in the sound, and the main cans on the chassis may as well be a permanent part of the chassis....They are packed in on all sides such that I can't remove them without basically tearing the chassis in half and disconnecting tons of soldered wiring...I can't recall if I can even access the terminals, but I KNOW they did not leave me enough room near them to mount new ones....So if I need to replace them I'm going to have to get VERY creative and or work VERY hard...I'd rather do 10 similar cap jobs on Service Saver Zeniths, RCA tube/hybrid sets, or Admirals of the day...

[KentTeffeteller]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Depends on the vintage....Many tube and hybrid color Japanese sets were a cramped pain in the but to work on, with as bad or worse a rats nest as any American made color set of the time....Whats more parts and connections were often hidden and or buried under other parts and connections.....One of the more annoying examples I can think of is my early 70's Panasonic 6 tube hybrid....I've been putting it it off since it had lytic type hum in the sound, and the main cans on the chassis may as well be a permanent part of the chassis....They are packed in on all sides such that I can't remove them without basically tearing the chassis in half and disconnecting tons of soldered wiring...I can't recall if I can even access the terminals, but I KNOW they did not leave me enough room near them to mount new ones....So if I need to replace them I'm going to have to get VERY creative and or work VERY hard...I'd rather do 10 similar cap jobs on Service Saver Zeniths, RCA tube/hybrid sets, or Admirals of the day...

Agreed highly, and schematics, service manuals, parts and service support from the manufacturer was way better from the USA manufacturers than the import sets of the era. Panasonic and Sony were OK, but parts were slower to get, and service support slower in coming when these sets were new, and reasonably recent. This aspect got better by the middle to late 1970's.

[Telecolor 3007]

Originally Posted by centralradio

Not to sound like anti American but those American made TVs looks like they were designed by drunk engineers as you see the rats nest of wires and idiot house numbered stamped parts.Some were not bad and some were a disaster to work on.

Thank goodness for Panasonic/Sony/Toshiba came in to clean up the rats nest of wires and easy parts numbering systems. And also more reliable then the American sets.I'll take any vintage Sony, Panasonic or Toshiba over a Zenith,Sylvania or RCA any day.

You're talkin about tube/hybrid sets or also solid state ones?

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Depends on the vintage....Many tube and hybrid color Japanese sets were a cramped pain in the but to work on, with as bad or worse a rats nest as any American made color set of the time....Whats more parts and connections were often hidden and or buried under other parts and connections.....One of the more annoying examples I can think of is my early 70's Panasonic 6 tube hybrid....I've been putting it it off since it had lytic type hum in the sound, and the main cans on the chassis may as well be a permanent part of the chassis....They are packed in on all sides such that I can't remove them without basically tearing the chassis in half and disconnecting tons of soldered wiring...I can't recall if I can even access the terminals, but I KNOW they did not leave me enough room near them to mount new ones....So if I need to replace them I'm going to have to get VERY creative and or work VERY hard...I'd rather do 10 similar cap jobs on Service Saver Zeniths, RCA tube/hybrid sets, or Admirals of the day...

Yes those Japanese set had their share of rats nests.Probably had the same drunk engineers designing them.I remember those Panasonic's since my late sister had one.One good thing even with the rats nest in the Japanese sets is they used the standard Jedec part numbers then the crap house numbers the US TV's used.

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

You're talkin about tube/hybrid sets or also solid state ones?

More likely Solid State sets.The hybrids were a mess including the overseas sets..GE comes up on the top of the list.The GE Port a Color I have here was my late step dads set which is the only reason I kept it.The Motorola works in the drawer were great except for the board connections.

[KentTeffeteller]

Originally Posted by centralradio

Not to sound like anti American but those American made TVs looks like they were designed by drunk engineers as you see the rats nest of wires and idiot house numbered stamped parts.Some were not bad and some were a disaster to work on.

Thank goodness for Panasonic/Sony/Toshiba came in to clean up the rats nest of wires and easy parts numbering systems. And also more reliable then the American sets.I'll take any vintage Sony, Panasonic or Toshiba over a Zenith,Sylvania or RCA any day.

Most professional TV repair technicians would heavily disagree with you too. Most of these repair technicians chose Zenith for many years as their best set reliability wise and their easiest serviced set. And RCA also were pretty serviceman friendly. Sony sets had very expensive spare parts, difficult support from Sony, and much more difficult to repair back in the day, compared to most other set makers. davet753's perspective agrees with most every veteran repair technician I have known of. Zenith, RCA, and several other major American brands of sets had very good manufacturer support on training technicians, spare parts availability, technical support, etc.

[davet753]

Originally Posted by KentTeffeteller

Most professional TV repair technicians would heavily disagree with you too. Most of these repair technicians chose Zenith for many years as their best set reliability wise and their easiest serviced set. And RCA also were pretty serviceman friendly. Sony sets had very expensive spare parts, difficult support from Sony, and much more difficult to repair back in the day, compared to most other set makers. davet753's perspective agrees with most every veteran repair technician I have known of. Zenith, RCA, and several other major American brands of sets had very good manufacturer support on training technicians, spare parts availability, technical support, etc.

That reminded me of something: technical support.

I remember going to one-day tech training sessions every time RCA came out with a new chassis. They would hold a class and invite all the authorized service center tech's to come and learn about the new designs. These classes were great for understanding the latest engineering. They also mailed out technical support bulletins that were a very valuable tool. Of course, we received an envelope of microfiche literature at regular intervals (microfiche.....God, that brings back memories).

Zenith used to do tech classes through their local distributor, but not as often as "dealer shows" for the sales end of the business. Graybar (and later on Cain & Bultman) was the local Zenith distributor, and they were always ready to facilitate technical assistance through their contacts at Zenith in Chicago. They also had a warehouse stocked with replacement parts. Whether a module, CRT, or a simple part, there was no waiting.

Phillips had the best tech support program in the biz. We could call the service division in Greenville, TN and a factory technician would answer the phone and take the time to help you troubleshoot a problem. I always found them to be the friendliest, most knowledgeable guys you could ever ask for. Parts orders were received the day after ordering, and their prices were reasonable.

My experience of import brands never came close to the level of support domestic manufacturers offered.

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by KentTeffeteller

Most professional TV repair technicians would heavily disagree with you too. Most of these repair technicians chose Zenith for many years as their best set reliability wise and their easiest serviced set. And RCA also were pretty serviceman friendly. Sony sets had very expensive spare parts, difficult support from Sony, and much more difficult to repair back in the day, compared to most other set makers. davet753's perspective agrees with most every veteran repair technician I have known of. Zenith, RCA, and several other major American brands of sets had very good manufacturer support on training technicians, spare parts availability, technical support, etc.

I agree with you.My friend who is going to be 98 years young this month which I used his shop's name for my user name serviced Zenith sets for over 40 plus years and said they were the best sets made.He also serviced Sylvania,RCA to name a couple of US made TV sets he serviced in his shop.He was not a fan of the Japanese sets.He will kill me over what I said earlier about the US sets..LOL......................

My late friend fixed Sony ,Panasonic and other Japanese sets across town in his shop.

There was another shop in town that fixed Magnavox but I did not know him good.The same goes for a Motorola/Quasar shop in town too that I did not know him good..

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by mrjukebox160

Here ya go.

Good tangent there! Zenith and some others like Fisher needed long-lived tubes for their high-fidelity console "stereos", so they went to Amperex and Mullard for tubes

This applies to some of the TV's too. A good example is the 6EH7, 6GJ7 and other frame-grid tubes made in Europe that Zenith, RCA, Motorola and others used. Japan supplied some tubes to manufacturers in the 1960s as well.

[KentTeffeteller]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Good tangent there! Zenith and some others like Fisher needed long-lived tubes for their high-fidelity console "stereos", so they went to Amperex and Mullard for tubes

This applies to some of the TV's too. A good example is the 6EH7, 6GJ7 and other frame-grid tubes made in Europe that Zenith, RCA, Motorola and others used. Japan supplied some tubes to manufacturers in the 1960s as well.

It wasn't as much long life as it was low noise and hum. Some tube types were European only for the best performance and lowest noise/hum, some of the USA counterparts had industrial/military versions for that purpose, often different types.