Quote:
Originally Posted by TV Engineer
I worked for Magnavox service in the 1980s, and worked on many of these sets. There were tons in daily use in my area. They are no more or less problematic than any RCA or Zenith of the era. I will say though, they produce a superior color picture when serviced correctly. The stereos sounded amazing, and the record changers were the finest made. I never played my records on anything but a Micromatic, and they're as good as new. I see your set has remote too, and those are easily made operational by just replacing all of the elctrolytic caps in the remote chassis. It also looks like yours is the 704040 remote chassis, which included an auto off feature. It would shut the unit down after the TV station it was tuned to left the air for the night.
If I can be of any assistance, please contact me.
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I don't think the auto-off feature was necessarily unique to Magnavox. Some years ago, I had a 19" Emerson table model TV that also had the same automatic shutoff function; it would, like the Magnavox being discussed here, turn off the TV after the station the owner was watching signed off. Of course, today these auto-shutoff systems won't work, since all TV stations run 24 hours a day; they do not sign off except in case of an emergency (one of the stations in Cleveland left the air for about six hours a few months ago after lightning struck one of their antenna towers, but that was the only time in the last ten years or so I can recall that station ever being off the air any extended period of time).
My set also had a peculiar habit of shutting itself off almost every time there was a lightning storm in the area. The storm didn't have to cause a power outage; the set would shut off any time lightning struck anywhere near my house. The TV antenna was in my attic, so I was never concerned about a lightning strike on it, but the TV shutting off after nearby lightning strikes always puzzled me. Perhaps the auto-shutoff feature may have had something to do with it?
