Do ya still use your old tv's?

[bgadow]

I don't won't much tv on my own (mostly its me reading the paper while my wife is watching). If something worthwhile is on I'll fire up an old set. I try to rotate. Lately it has been my porthole, because its the last one I fixed. Prior to that it was the CTC-11; Zenith 25MC30; Motorola 21" color; CTC-12; CTC-5 (in descending order)

[Jeffhs]

My Zenith Sentry 2 (1995) in my bedroom doesn't get much use except as a backup to the RCA CTC185 (1999 vintage) in the living room. I do fire up the Zenith every now and again just to see if it still works, which it did the last time I checked. The set has a beautiful picture on its original CRT--I'll probably move it to the living room if and when anything happens to the RCA, since the latter is out of warranty and may not be worth repairing again--it depends on what goes wrong with it next. (If the CRT goes, I'll junk the set without thinking twice.) I say "if and when" because the RCA still makes a wonderful picture on cable, my VCR and DVD player, and still has its original CRT. The set has almost six years on it now; the way it's going, I may still be watching it in 2009 when all TV is set to go digital. I've only had one problem with the RCA in all the (nearly) six years I've had it: the RF port on the tuner PCB snapped off the board shortly after I bought the set, and I think the jungle IC has something amiss as the tech who fixed the RF port problem (the set went to a repair shop in the next town south of here for the repair) informed me that his lab tests showed some minor problem with the chip. However, the TV still works well on cable as I mentioned, so I guess the jungle IC can't be too badly damaged.

[JCFitz]

I don't have anything real old but I use my little 1982 GE 10" tv every day while I'm on the computer and the news is on and sometimes all evening if I'm watching local programming as I don't have an outdoor antenna,DirectTv won't let me have CBS or ABC thanks to my local stations and it picks up much better than my 1985 Zenith Advanced System 3 which i use for watching DirectTv,DVDs and videos.Both sets are running strong with good color.The last one to need repair was the Zenith.2 problems.One was heat fatigued solder connections and the other was caused by a mouse that got into the set and peed on the circuit board.The strange one was the GE when I got it originally would play for a while and then the vertical would collapse.I thought it needed griplet repair which that chassis usually needs.I played it a few evenings while working on other things and one evening it didn't act up.Has been playing without a hitch for over 2 years.Never seen a tv fix itself.My uncle used a 1968 Zenith combo every day til 2000 when he got a refurbished Toshiba projection tv.He's still got a 1979 Zenith Chromacolor 23" with one knob tuning in his den.Gets used a lot.And an early 70's Panasonic in his bedroom.

Well, my daily watcher TV is a 1996 GE/Thomson set. After doing the tuner board repair and such, it has worked perfectly for the past 9 soon to be 10 years with a lot of use.

But for old TVs, I regularly use the solid state TVs I have, which range from 1972-1985. The all tube and hybrid sets I use only on the weekends, which are from 1965-1976 (Oldest one I have is from 1960, but needs restored.)
I actually got a mint '68 Portacolor earlier this year. I turn it on once a month for an hour maybe 2 at the most. I actually set the sleep timer on it to shut it down after that time. I want to be able to use it, but keep the hours low on it.

There's just something magical about watching a 30-50 year old TV that you won't get with a modern black/silver plastic box...

Am I the only one that likes that distinct smell of hot vacuum tubes?