Found this "capehart" in the alley today

[wa2ise]

once-famous TV manufacturers' names on them -- RCA, Zenith, GE, Magnavox, et al. -- but don't let the name fool you. These are simply offshore-manufactured sets. The famous name is, almost literally, slapped on them to fool the buyer into thinking he or she is buying a quality TV.

30 years ago when I worked for RCA Labs we called RCA "Relabeling Corp of America" as we slapped "RCA" labels on Japanese VCRs.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

30 years ago when I worked for RCA Labs we called RCA "Relabeling Corp of America" as we slapped "RCA" labels on Japanese VCRs.

RCA did that? I could see something like this happening after RCA was bought out by Thomson in the late '80s and '90s, but not in the early 1980s. I was very surprised to find this out, but maybe I shouldn't have been, as this may have started just after Thomson took over RCA's television/video plant. I have an "RCA" branded Thomson-built color TV with the infamous on-board tuner, and yes, I did have the set repaired twice, at my expense, for the same problem (broken antenna connector). The ground points around the tuner were resoldered after the second repair. The TV has continued to operate flawlessly since, although it is now in storage after being replaced with a flat screen almost 18 months ago.


I know there have always been private-label TVs (I had one that burned up after just three years), but to put RCA badges on cheap offshore-made VCRs...... I wonder who actually built those VCRs in the first place. I do know that "GE" branded VCRs were made by Panasonic in the mid-'80s; I had one that lasted six years before the heads wore out. Today I have a true Panasonic VCR that has lasted over 10 years, with no problems whatsoever -- though I had a Panny VCR before that one that ate a tape and had to be nearly wrecked to get the cassette out.

Too bad, since that VCR had VCR Plus and would have been a classic by now. Today's DVRs do not have anything like the VCR Plus system, to the best of my knowledge; in fact, the entire system must have been scrapped and forgotten, as I no longer see VCR Plus codes in my newspaper or in TV Guide magazine. I would think today's DVRs would have something similar, in addition to all the other bells and whistles most of them seem to have.



However, as to "RCA" branded cheap offshore-made VCRs, I don't know. Could have been manufactured by literally any one of 1001 offshore companies.