Quote:
Originally Posted by Dj3928
(Post 3244470)
One of my future TV Restores. Any tips, comments are appreciated
1951 RCA TV , Doing an Analysis and a CRT Test ?
https://youtu.be/bP8KTvXwbNM
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Good luck. You will have a TV to be proud of once you restore it to its former glory. This was probably one of RCA's best b&w televisions of the early 1950s. Your set reminds me of a similar 12" RCA console TV in the basement of our church in suburban Cleveland in the 1970s (the set was probably donated to the church by a member at the time). The TV in our church basement (actually, the storage room in the back of the building) worked amazingly well for its age; I used to watch it when my dad would go to evening church functions. The TV picked up all three (at that time) Cleveland TV stations very well using rabbit ears on top of the set, despite the fact the stations' transmitters were some 15 miles from our church, which was in an eastern Cleveland suburb.
I hope you don't have to replace the CRT in your set, as this tube could very well be difficult to find in this age of HDTV. Your best bet if you do have to replace the tube for any reason would probably be to find a junked TV with a good CRT.
Again, good luck in restoring your 1951 RCA TV. As I mentioned, these were probably the best TVs RCA made in the 1950s, and are well worth the efforts made to restore them. Today's flat screen HDTVs, while producing a much better picture (not to mention better sound if a sound bar or an external amplifier or sound system is used) than the older ones, cannot hold a candle to 1950s-'80s NTSC televisions. I had several CRT TVs in the '70s, which I was able to restore just by replacing weak tubes; one of my favorites, which I enjoyed immensely and hated to give up when I moved in the early 1970s, was a Zenith 23" console, with a 6BN6-6BQ5 sound system and a 6x9 oval speaker in the base of the cabinet below the CRT. I enjoyed the sound of this TV so much I patched an FM tuner into the audio system, which is one of several reasons I hated to give up the set when I moved; one other was the picture quality, which was very good even for a TV made in the early '60s (1963, IIRC).
They certainly don't make TVs like that anymore. My current entertainment system consists of a 32" Insignia flat screen HDTV and an LG DVD player, controlled by an RCA RCR-313BE universal remote, all housed in a repurposed wooden microwave oven cart. This system runs rings around any of the old CRT TVs I had years ago, as well it should. I wouldn't go back to a CRT TV; these sets were very good in their time, but "their time" is over now. It's the 21st century, and HDTVs rule the roost, like it or not. These new HDTVs are not as sturdy by any means as the old CRT sets, but they make a good picture (mine does, on Spectrum "streaming" cable service).
Handle these sets carefully, and you will have a TV which will give you an excellent picture for years, if not a decade or more. I bought my Insignia 32" TV at least five years ago; it still works as well as it did the day I bought it. Its predecessor, an Insignia 19" HDTV, is at least ten years old and, the last time I tried it (at least a year ago), it still works. It is presently in storage in my bedroom, to be used as a standby set if or when my 32" Insignia TV fails for any reason.
