80's Sharp Linytron Score - Videokarma.org TV - Video

jstout66 · #1 08-02-2014, 06:14 PM

Picked up this set for free today. Not sure of the model # as the back tag is missing. I would guess it to be mid 80's vintage. Pretty basic set with no OSD, and a pretty simple remote ( which doesn't even have mute) The power button on the remote is combined with a 3 tier volume level. Great pix on it tho! Not what I normally "collect", but it was going to get pitched, soooo....

Jon A. · #2 08-02-2014, 06:51 PM

Very cool, definitely something I would have grabbed as well. I would say early 80s. Not very common I would think, those ultrasonic remotes rarely show on eBay.

Sandy G · #3 08-02-2014, 09:38 PM

Neat !

Username1 · #4 08-02-2014, 10:16 PM

YEA ! ! ! A SHARP ! ! ! THE BEST TVS ! ! !

GOOD FOR YOU ! ! ! !

.

Robb · #5 08-02-2014, 10:41 PM

Never seen this one.

jstout66 · #6 08-03-2014, 08:17 AM

I've been running it this morning... damn it's got a GOOD picture for being such a BOL set. It may be older than I think due to the Ultrasonic remote, but in comparison, my 81 Zenith 19" (TOL) has an IR remote, cable ready, OSD, and built in Spacephone and weighs a ton.

Username1 · #7 08-03-2014, 08:32 AM

If you find the sharpness, and focus knobs you will get an even better picture
if you tweek the focus, and set the sharpness to something less than overkill....

I have found on lots of 80's - 2000 crt sets, even the ones with the hated black
plastic cabinets, if you open them up, and find and adjust the focus, and possibly
even touch up the convergence if the white glue has dried and cracked, the
set will deliver an unbelievably sharp (pun intended) picture....

I don't think it was a BOL set, Sharp did not have tiers to their line through that
time period. The features of each size tv was pretty standard through the line.
The difference was in the cabinets. Many of those years also came with wood
cabinets of various qualities. Along with the cabinet upgrade, was often aux.
video and audio inputs to make them compatible with their Optinica (sp) High
end audio line. They were all STK IC chip audio outputs, so Hi end as far as
those chips went.... But they did sound good.... Rocked the TV Shop good ! !

I think yer lucky to have gotten the remote...... Very good find....

.

jstout66 · #8 08-03-2014, 08:46 AM

HA! The sharpness IS on "overkill" haha. The picture is so sharp, it kind of hurts your eyes. Greyscale and convergence are dead on.
Too bad you're not close. You could have the TV. I usually don't go for that "new" but with that simple remote, I just HAD to.

zenith2134 · #9 08-03-2014, 09:33 AM

One day I'll post pics of my Sharp TVs. I actually have quite a few like this, one with composite ins and outs, and one with OSD and remote. The others are plain jane. All have Toshiba Blackstripe picture tubes, which explains the great contrast. All free from CL

Jon A. · #10 08-04-2014, 01:10 AM

Three-button ultrasonic remote, just like my Chromacolor in that way, gotta love it. I don't think the Space Command 500 was around for that long.

TVTim · #11 08-04-2014, 04:47 PM

What a cool set. I have a 19" table model that I got for five buckaroos. Love it. Although mine has a full remote to it.

Username1 · #12 08-04-2014, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jstout66

HA! The sharpness IS on "overkill" haha. The picture is so sharp, it kind of hurts your eyes. Greyscale and convergence are dead on.
Too bad you're not close. You could have the TV. I usually don't go for that "new" but with that simple remote, I just HAD to.

Thank you ! If I were close I'd be happy to take it..... And very proud to have it....
Who knows maybe someday..... I have a number of Sharp sets of the late 70's and
Early 80's. As I said before I worked at one of their farmed out factory service centers
just across the line from the NJ headquarters..... I should take pictures....
They are not doing all that well, who knows....

I have good memories of my first and only TV shop job just out of HS. Back then
my boss picked the sets he worked on, He liked Sharp, Panasonic, Sanyo,
(Which I also like a lot) Magnavox, and RCA, which he was authorized service for
all those brands. He hated Sony, he said they were a birds nest inside and
their circuits were just barely on the edge of not working. He did let me
see a few Sonys and they did look like there was no planning on the board
layout, or where wires came off the board. Panasonic, Sanyo, Sharp, WOW he
is right, the difference is night and day..... I have respect for a nicely made
product, so I like Sharp. My boss told me all kinds a good stuff about the company,
I met a lot of the big wigs, we went for training on their VCR's and paper print
calculators. We use to clean and repair them too.... Let me tell you back then
the VCR manual was as big as a phone book.... I wish I had a few of the VCR's
and those books.....

Me and two other guys in my BOCES TV school class were hired to work on the
Sharp stuff from the factory, and Yorks and LLoyds clock radios we got by the skid
load weekly. Once in a while when we were caught up I would work on walk in's and
I was the guy that would go out to pick up Magnavox returns to Caldor, and after George
went back to Cuba I was then handed the keys to the '69 Cutlass which was the
service vehicle for house calls..... Mostly a house call was goin out to old lady's
houses to push the auto color button, or pick it up and take it back to the shop....
It was all warranty work. Worst I had to do was modify IF boards on some
Panasonic sets that made noise with white writing on the screen when hooked
up to cable.... That was an hour or so.... Imagine- A kid right outa high school
Soldering on people's carpets.... HA HA HA......

Just one kids story of being brought out the the edge of the pier and pushed in....

.

N2IXK · #13 08-05-2014, 07:40 AM

Those sets actually made a good picture when they worked, but my memories of Sharp sets from the 1980s mostly involved replacing countless flybacks that arced through and caught fire on the "H" and "J" series chassis. Usually the flyback took a bunch of other parts with it.

Apparently there was a class action suit and part of the settlement involved free repairs of affected sets. Sharp provided free "meltdown kits" containing the flyback, HOT, LV regulator SCR, and a handful of resistors and caps. The shop I worked at was ordering these kits by the dozen at one point.

Jeffhs · #14 08-05-2014, 10:25 PM

I had a Sharp b&w 12" tube-type portable in 1970. The set produced a good picture while it was working, but it lasted only three years before developing a tuner problem. I was able to work around it by propping up the VHF tuner shaft with a screwdriver. The set finally quit for good in 1973.

Jeffhs · #15 08-05-2014, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jstout66

Picked up this set for free today. Not sure of the model # as the back tag is missing. I would guess it to be mid 80's vintage. Pretty basic set with no OSD, and a pretty simple remote ( which doesn't even have mute) The power button on the remote is combined with a 3 tier volume level. Great pix on it tho! Not what I normally "collect", but it was going to get pitched, soooo....

It's interesting to me that your TV's remote does not have the mute function. Most TVs with ultrasonic remotes did have the mute feature, either as a fourth position of the volume stepper relay (mute, low, medium, high volume), or as a completely separate button on the hand unit. This interests me because the first TV remote control by Zenith, the ill-fated and short-lived "Flash-Matic" of the mid-1950s, did have a photocell that activated the mute function when the ray-gun style controller was pointed at it. Why Sharp decided not to include sound muting on some of its Linytron TVs, however, is a mystery to me.

Linytron (which I think stands for in-line color CRT) sounds like it must have been one of Sharp's premium sets of the '80s, so it should have had all the bells and whistles, including mute and OSD.