Nowaday names don't mean much

[peverett]

One that is still around that is a bit supprising is the Hoffman TV people(Easy Vision).

http://www.hoffmanvideo.com/aboutus.asp

Of course, they do not manufacture TVs anymore.

One of my radio friends said this about Philco:
"The quality fell out before the name went on" Fitting for the 1960s GE tvs also.

I sometimes think that our memories about quality are a bit selective. I have a four year old Toshiba color tv that has given me no trouble. I had a Mitsibishi for 14 years prior to that that worked fine until a lightning bolt got it. My mother had a Korean(Goldstar, I think) made color TV that lasted 12 years without trouble. How many of the 1960s tvs, especially color TVs, could boast this kind of service? The cabinets are not as nice as back then, but the electronics are far better. How many of us like the crappy wafer tuners from the 1960s which never worked correctly after a year or two. These were even used by Zenith in some sets.

I enjoy restoring the old TVs and radios to working condition, but am the first to admit modern electronics is far better.

One final comment is that a modern piece of consumer electonics equipment is just ike the cars mentioned by doctorbongo. The components come from all over, including the US, no matter where the company headquarters are.

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by peverett

One that is still around that is a bit surprising is the Hoffman TV people(Easy Vision).

I checked the Hoffman website and came away with a chuckle. Check their timeline feature.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by peverett

I sometimes think that our memories about quality are a bit selective. I have a four year old Toshiba color tv that has given me no trouble. I had a Mitsibishi for 14 years prior to that that worked fine until a lightning bolt got it. My mother had a Korean(Goldstar, I think) made color TV that lasted 12 years without trouble. How many of the 1960s tvs, especially color TVs, could boast this kind of service? The cabinets are not as nice as back then, but the electronics are far better. How many of us like the crappy wafer tuners from the 1960s which never worked correctly after a year or two. These were even used by Zenith in some sets.

I enjoy restoring the old TVs and radios to working condition, but am the first to admit modern electronics is far better.

Rather an unfair comparison don't you think? I should hope that reliability would improve as electronics moved to low-heat solid-state, ICs, and so forth. Actually, when you consider that the last of the "true" Zenith sets (Chromacolor/System 3) are in some cases over 30 y/o and still produce a sharp, clear picture that rivals or exceeds many new CRT sets, I would say the bar hasn't been moved very far.

If those same engineers were designing sets today, thirty-years later, we would already have compatible HDTV and for all I can guess, smell-o-vision!

Instead we have commodity-type sets that work pretty decent, but don't excel in quality, or advancing the state of the art.

[Chad Hauris]

The state of the art has been advanced though with flat panel type sets, DLP, hard disk video recorders etc. 25 years ago these kind of sets were still just science fiction...even with their shortcomings there has been a lot of advances in TV technology and I do think they are continuing to improve them.

The thing about most modern electronics is that most of it does work very well and often for a long time before needing major repairs, however it is difficult/expensive to repair them due to cheaper construction, specialized custom-made parts, etc.

[tgunner]

What would you rather have? A 60's style $400 new set that needs $50-100 repairs every 5 years to keep going, or a $250 modern set that goes 10-15 years without issues? I personally take the $250 one, even if it must be sent to the re-cycler after those 10-15 years.

[Richard D]

A $250.00 modern TV that works for 10 to 15 years without issues? Maybe because I live in the lightning capitol of the US or Florida Power & Light is just sending spikey voltage jumps, but even with a $90.00 UPS to protect them I find most of the Recylcer / Throw away TV's I have tried in my and my family's homes do not work without issues for 5 years. I know we have to move foward, however it seems that it is harder and harder to buy real quality electronics any more. Large screen LCD's have pixel failures, DLP and others need $240.00 lamp replacements, and plasma had or has burn in issues. Bah Humbug.

[oldtvman]

Originally Posted by peverett

One that is still around that is a bit supprising is the Hoffman TV people(Easy Vision).

http://www.hoffmanvideo.com/aboutus.asp

Of course, they do not manufacture TVs anymore.

One of my radio friends said this about Philco:
"The quality fell out before the name went on" Fitting for the 1960s GE tvs also.

I sometimes think that our memories about quality are a bit selective. I have a four year old Toshiba color tv that has given me no trouble. I had a Mitsibishi for 14 years prior to that that worked fine until a lightning bolt got it. My mother had a Korean(Goldstar, I think) made color TV that lasted 12 years without trouble. How many of the 1960s tvs, especially color TVs, could boast this kind of service? The cabinets are not as nice as back then, but the electronics are far better. How many of us like the crappy wafer tuners from the 1960s which never worked correctly after a year or two. These were even used by Zenith in some sets.

I enjoy restoring the old TVs and radios to working condition, but am the first to admit modern electronics is far better.

One final comment is that a modern piece of consumer electonics equipment is just ike the cars mentioned by doctorbongo. The components come from all over, including the US, no matter where the company headquarters are.

I have never questioned the reliability issue, but rather the difference between different manufacturers of color sets back in the 50's and 60's, of course any solid state device would run cooler than it's tube based counter-parts, but beyond that once you got past the RCA and Zenith brands back then both picture quality and set design were sometimes questionable.

Back then you could cover up everything but the picture and the color and tint controls and for the most part I could tell by the performance what kind of design it was ie: Zenith, Rca based technology or Magnavox and so on.