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I can pretty much take everything that's been said above to explain why I like old TV's and other old electronics.
I'll add that I have no intention of spending one red cent on a new TV because I'm not that much of a TV watcher and what I do watch is usually old programming. And, I'm not going to spend mega money on something that will be in the dump in 5-7 years (or less). As it stands now, I can pick up an old CRT set for cheap or free, fix it up, and get many years out of it.
I grew up during the '80's and '90's and I remember people that still had tube type color TV's and even a few had B&W sets. Heck, we didn't have anything fancy at home. Until I was 5 years old, we had a 9" GE B&W on rabbit ears and were glad to have it. When I was adopted by my maternal grandparents at the age of 5 1/2, they had a '70's 19" RCA knob tuned color set. Around '84, my Dad bought a slightly used 19" Magnavox cable ready remote color TV from our TV repairman for $150 and we watched that set for years. By the time that set died, I had already started picking up old TV's and repairing them. Any set that was here after the Magnavox died was something that I found and fixed. As far as TV's for my room, I had that 9" GE B&W until I was a teenager. Then, I found a 17" RCA VHF-only B&W, then I got a 19" Philco-Ford B&W with UHF, and various color sets after that. And, they were all used with an antenna and, later, a VCR. We had cable at our house; but, my Dad would not let me run it to my room.
Someone was talking about TV's in school. I was in elementary school from '83-'88 and most of the TV's were 23" RCA CTC39 tube type color sets in metal cabinets and they had an assortment of A/V input jacks on the back. Program material usually came from U-matic tapes and the tape machines were either Sony, JVC, or Panasonic. Around '86-'87, the local Coke bottling plant donated a VHS VCR to the school. In the library, there were a couple of early '80's 25" Zenith system 3 color sets on the same type of metal cart with U-matic tape machines connected to them. I think I remember seeing a few old RCA B&W sets in the equipment room; but, they were never used. Most of what we watched was stuff provided by PBS. Sometimes, if we were good, our teacher would show a "normal" movie or cartoon.
In '89-'90, something called "channel one" came along. It was a 12 minute "news" program that was broadcast, via satellite, to all the schools. The company that was behind this news program donated 19" Magnavox color sets to all the schools with the understanding that the school would show this news program. There was a TV in each classroom and they were all connected to a master control center n the library. If a teacher wanted to show a film to the class, all he/she had to do was tell the librarian to show "whatever" tape at 9 AM to room 222. After those new TV's were installed, that was pretty much the end of the sets on roll around carts. Now, they probably have flat panels with full HD cable in all the classrooms. Back in the old days, the teacher had to reserve the "ETV" (that's what it was always called) at least 24 hours in advance of needing it.
As far as my current TV's, a have a wide assortment of old color and B&W sets that I watch. The only LCD set in the house is a 26" samsung that my Mother bought for her room and she thinks it's the greatest thing ever and thinks I'm crazy for not wanting to upgrade.
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