[Jeffhs]

I have a ten-year-old Zenith Sentry 2 19" table model TV, which was a birthday present in 1995. The set still works great; I have had absolutely no trouble with it in all that time--not even the CRT. This set was made during the period when Zenith was having quite a bit of trouble with the CRTs in the sets of that vintage, 1992-98 or thereabouts, but I have since found out that the defective tubes were made in Zenith's USA plant in Melrose Park, Illinois. My set was manufactured in Mexico; at the time the CRTs coming from that plant were better and much more reliable than the ones from the Chicago-area facility. Why this was I really don't know. All I know is, as I said, my own Zenith's CRT is as old as the set and still makes as good a picture as when the set was new. The only problem I can see right now, if one can call it that, is that when I plug the set in (I keep it unplugged when I am not using it), I hear a slight crackling noise for a second or two, almost like high voltage crackling on the CRT, but this noise only occurs when the power cord is plugged into a wall outlet and before the set is turned on. I don't recall when this started, but I'm not concerned because the picture, sound and everything else are excellent, considering the set's age. Considering as well that Zenith was still Zenith (but going downhill fast) in the mid-'90s (I don't think Gold Star bought out the company until near the end of the decade), I'm not surprised my set still works as well as it does. I do feel, however, that it is unrealistic to expect today's Zenith-branded Gold Star TVs to last anywhere nearly as long. At this early stage of their development, plasma and LCD TVs still have flaws and bugs, not the least of which are short display life (I've read on RCA's/Zenith's websites that most LCDs/plasmas only last two or three years and have a projection lamp which must be replaced, at great expense, every so often) and in some cases lower brightness and detail problems (some owners of FP TVs have reported artifacts and slow response times of their sets' pictures) that CRT sets just don't have. The reason: CRT televisions have been around well over fifty years and are an established, tried and true if you will, technology, whereas LCD and plasma flat-panel televisions have only been with us a few years. By the time these FP sets have been around a few more years, I think the bugs will have been worked out, but until then I really wouldn't trust an LCD or plasma FP to give me as good a picture as either of my CRT sets do today. The year 2009 is still a ways off, but if either or both my CRT-based sets are still working at that time, I'll still be using them, with digital cable (I've had digital cable on the RCA set in the living room over a year and like it a lot, especially the additional channels I get such as the National Geographic Channel and NBC Weather Plus among others). I'm not cheap, but then again neither are today's large-screen FP TVs. If and when the day arrives when I can get a 25" FP set for well under $500, I'll consider buying one, but not before. I realize small screen FPs (13-15") are available today for under $500, but I don't want a digital set smaller than my CRT sets.

BTW, to the person who mentioned his family's 1968 RCA that burned: Wow! That must have been something, especially if the fire scorched a wall in the living room. And after just two days, yet! What the heck happened? That TV must have had one or more very serious design problems (or some nitwit at the factory jumped a fuse or put an overrated one in the power supply) if it caught fire that soon after it was put into service. I had relatives who bought a Zenith Chromacolor II 25" console in 1967; the set worked, and well, for about six months, then the CRT screen cracked diagonally. They had the set repaired under warranty; that was the last problem they had with it until some time in the '80s, when it was replaced by a GE 19" table model with remote. They kept the Zenith as a second set.