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Old 06-26-2012, 02:12 PM
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radiotvnut radiotvnut is offline
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Location: Meridian, MS
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I think Sears marketed a knob-tuned 19" color TV in the mid '80's that had a built-in CC decoder; but, it was a very expensive TV and not many were sold. By '93, the popularity of knob tuned TV's had gone way down and the only people buying them were the elderly (who often didn't like change) and people who could not afford the more expensive remote/cable ready set. The CC mandate was the final nail in the coffin because manufacturers figured out that they could cheaply build a TV, with built-in CC decoder, that was based on a microprocessor and since the demand was already declining for knob tuned TV's, they just stopped making them. The only knob tuned TV's that I know of that were made after the CC mandate were 12" B&W sets and, of course, these had no built in CC decoder. The reason manufacturers were able to continue selling these sets was because the CC mandate didn't apply to TV's with a screen size under 13". Even at that, I don't think those 12" B&W sets were made after '95-'96. By then, one could buy a 13" cable ready/remote set for what a 12" B&W set would have cost during the mid '80's.
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