[Jeffhs]

I did a search for "AOC" and found that the company is still alive and well, making flat screen TVs and computer monitors. I see AOC monitors advertised in the Best Buy ad flyers in my Sunday paper as well.

I did not realize that AOC made the chassis for TVs sold under the DuMont brand as well as Capehart. Again, it is another case of Chinese/offshore junk with once-famous American brand names on the cabinets. Heaven help anyone who purchases one of these, thinking they are buying an excellent television (since DuMont was TOTL in its heyday), only to find out that their "DuMont" set burned up after only six months to a year, or even less. I once had a small (12") b&w tube-type portable TV that worked well for three years after I bought it, then it started smoking; out to the trash it went. The brand name was Kenco (house brand of the now long defunct Kennedy and Cohen discount store chain), but under that Kenco label was the name "Broadmoor"; the latter was the company that probably actually built it.

By contrast, the set which replaced the Kenco portable, a 12" solid-state Zenith b&w portable set, lasted 22 years (from the day I bought it in 1978 until the year 2000) and it was still going strong when it was replaced in 1999 with an RCA CTC185 color set. The CTC185 went for over a decade before being replaced with my present flat screen TV, and still works to this day. I also have a 17-year-old Zenith Sentry 2 which still works and still has its original CRT.

Go figure...or maybe not. The foregoing just goes to show how quality in televisions, computer monitors and everything else these days has gone out the window. What really gets me is when I read on FP TV manufacturers' websites and even the consumer advocate sites all the complaints being registered against these FPs with once-famous names, some of which sell for $1k or more. I read horror stories on these sites all the time in which people tell of spending $1k or more for a large-screen flat panel TV, only to see the set break down within a year or less, and the repair parts are no longer available (NLA) or the parts are available, the TV is fixed and it works, but the set breaks again shortly after being repaired; by now the owner often feels the TV isn't worth repairing again, so out to the trash it goes. The really sad part of this is that, in many cases, these people discarded or have otherwise gotten rid of their old CRT TV when they bought the new flat screen (and they cannot afford a new set), so when the new set breaks down they are without television -- as I also read (all too often) on these consumer websites.

Will we ever again see the day when TVs will last more than just a year or two (or until the warranty expires), as TVs used to last years ago? As I have stated in other posts, most people simply cannot afford to buy a new TV every couple of years. If this trend continues, as I also stated previously, many if not most flat screen TV manufacturers will find themselves out of business -- forever and for good.

I realize slap-dash assembly and use of low-quality parts in many if not most of today's flat-screen TVs is the so-called "new normal" these days, but still I think it is ridiculous. What wouldn't I give to go back to the old days, when one could buy a TV with confidence that it would last 15-20 years or more? My grandmother had a 1951 GE 16" console b&w TV that lasted 20 years, until she bought a color set that lasted, now catch this, three decades (the color set actually outlived her). She didn't use the color set much (just for news, sports, MASH, and religious programs), but still, for the set to last 30 years with no trouble whatsoever (it finally burned up in 1985) is downright amazing.

No TV made today could or would ever match that record of reliability, and we may never see the day when a flat screen bought new in 2012 is still working 30 years later. (I certainly don't expect mine to last anywhere near that long.) The LCD display panels in Zenith and other flat screens are rated for 60k hours of life to half brightness, based on eight hours of use per day; well and good, but the electronics will poop out, either on their own or due to power surges, lightning strikes, etc., long before the panel does.

Oh well.