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Old 12-13-2014, 11:51 AM
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jsowers jsowers is offline
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Location: Lexington, NC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronic M View Post
If a VCR can tune more than the local channels, then you can tune the TV to the RF out channel of the VCR, connect the VCR RF out to the TV, and watch all the analog channels you can get on the TV through VCR...It also adds remote channel control if you have a newer VCR. I do this with all my vintage sets, and can attest to how well it works.
It should not be too hard to fix that set if the CRT and flyback are still good. Since GE liked to use as few parts as they could that means there is less to go wrong, troubleshoot, and replace...
Yes, I have done the VCR thing with that TV many times with a couple different VCRs over the years, to make it able to tune above channel 13. It worked very well. Playing tapes on it would sometimes yield the retrace lines at top, but cable channels were perfectly fine. I've had cable since 1988 and using a VCR was the only way I could get all the channels without the ugly converter box until I finally got a cable-ready TV.

I should have also said I have an entire working chassis and tuner from another KE chassis GE, but a 25" model. It has all the same tubes--all those Compactrons and likely the same flyback, but I haven't compared them. So I even have spare parts. But working on that monster is something I never liked doing. It's in a TV-stereo cabinet now and hard to remove. I've replaced the diodes in the power supply twice when it was hit by lightning (the instant-on always got hit) back when we still used it daily.

Back to Rudolph, thanks, Ampico-kid, for the info on the DVD including the commercials. I'll have to look for that. I didn't know the commercials were originally B&W because in 1964 we had a 1962 GE 19" portable as the family TV. I have a vivid memory of watching that TV intently in 1965 when the new fall season premiered in color, which in those days was a major event. I was 7 years old--what did I know? I thought that the shows would be in color on the B&W TV. I was one disappointed little boy!

When we finally got the color TV, it was glorious to watch those same shows like Rudolph, Charlie Brown, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella in color. Children today will never know that thrill.
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