[compucat]

I thinki it is all about how hard you work it. I have always run my sets at moderate brightness and contrast just because I thought it looked better even before I knew it conserved the CRT. Rarely have I had a picture tube go bad in a set. I only remember one time and that was a 1989 Zenith that I used for twelve years or so. Now that there is no rebuilding (at least for now) I am especially careful to not put excess hours on my sets. I generally collect sets that use common parts so that I can use them as much as I like without worrying about getting parts later. This applies to both radios and TV sets. This is why my collection will never have any monetary value but I don't care about that. I like to restore, use and enjoy my sets without worrying about unobtanium parts failing. That being said, we should preserve our vintage TVs by using them frequently, operating them at moderate control settings and not leaving them on when we are not actually watching them.