[Jeffhs]

We had different makes of TVs at home when I was growing up. My folks' first set, after they were married in 1955 (the year before I was born), was an RCA 21" console (almost like polaraman's RCA!) which they bought used; then they got a Crosley Super V 21" blonde console several years later. The Crosley was put downstairs in the basement along with the RCA (which had long since bitten the dust) in '65 or so and was replaced by a Silvertone 17" all-channel portable the same year.

We went through several makes of TVs by the end of the '70s, but I was always partial to Zenith (though I had a Sears Silvertone color roundie fron 1970-73 and some other brands before coming back to Zenith in the late '70s). Had an old Zenith 23" console I picked up from the trash in the late '60s which was missing all its tubes but two (CRT and HV rectifier), but it was worth the time and money I put into it to get it working again.

I had two Zenith 13" color portables in the late '70s-early '80s that worked very well on antennas and also on a cable box, but I left them behind when I moved (see below for the story of another of my Zeniths).

I also had a 12" Zenith monochrome portable from 1978 until 2000 which never gave me five minutes' worth of trouble. (That was Zenith years before they started going downhill.) I'd still have that set today, but I put it out with the trash after I moved to my apartment because I had no room for it (with two color sets in the place), and also that the Zenith didn't work worth a hill of beans on its monopole antenna (I now live in a village which is right on the edge of the Cleveland stations' coverage areas, some 45 miles from the transmitters). Couldn't put up an outside TV antenna here if I wanted to (lease restrictions), which is why the apartment building in which I live is wired for cable. Also, sometime in the '80s the detented UHF channel selector broke and jammed on channel 69 or something like that, so I couldn't get the CBS station in Cleveland on that set anymore since the station had moved to channel 19 in the mid-'90s.

I bought a Zenith integrated stereo system (am/fm/8-track/phono/cassette) in 1982, which I had for 17 years. Left it behind as well when I moved; bought a new up-to-date bookshelf stereo by Aiwa.

I no longer have any sort of "brand loyalty" to any make of TV manufactured today, although I am still partial to older Zenith radios (I have two, both from the '50s). I would not own another Zenith TV, however, after reading the horror stories, in this forum and elsewhere, about the reliability problems with these sets and their CRTs. I'm not so sure I'd get another RCA either, again after having read about the problems with the on-board tuners (and having had mine repaired twice for such a problem; however, I think it will run for years now, since the connections around the tuner were resoldered when the RF port was replaced two years ago).

If I were to buy another TV set tomorrow, it would probably be one of the better Japanese makes such as Sharp, Toshiba, JVC or Sony. An old friend of mine has three Toshiba color sets in his house and hasn't had much trouble with any of them, that I am aware of. He told me the reason he is so loyal to Toshiba is, now get this, so he can use the same remote with any one of them. The picture quality on his sets on cable is great (I saw the reception on the set in his living room last year), so this could be another reason he is partial to this brand of TV set. TV owners are generally a loyal bunch; when they find a brand they like and that works well, they stick with it for years or decades.