VINTAGE Zenith Royal "R" Chassis 19R20 TV

[Steve D.]

Eric,
My daily watchers are a '90 RCA 27" in the bed room that has that infamous tuner problem but using the vcr tuner it still produces a great picture. and a '95 RCA 31" in the Liv. Rm. that always and still does deliver great pictures. I suspect RCA in the last 5 or six years really slipped. Especially since they sold (whored out) their name to Radio Shack whose RCA line is total crap. Anthony, I guesss if Zenith said: "The poor quality goes in before the name goes on," wouldn't sell many sets.

Steve, I think your suggestion for Zenith's slogan is very true now. I bought my Zenith this past spring, remembering Zenith's quality of the past (our first color set was a 69 model which was still working as late as 1981, although it did like periodic visits from the repairman--but it was on a lot. I also had a 71 Zenith Space Command (19") in my bedroom for a long time--again a better set than the ones Zenith puts out now) My current Zenith's picture always seems too dark (anybody know if there is a way to get the picture brighter by defeating the on-screen menus?--Unless I set it to custom and turn the brightness all the way up, the color looks dull and the picture is generally dark.

Eric C
Tweed, ON

Originally posted by Steve D.
Anthony, I guesss if Zenith said: "The poor quality goes in before the name goes on," wouldn't sell many sets.

Ya think? LOL

Anthony

[Chad Hauris]

Eric, that problem sounds like the infamous Zenith weak CRT although I think the worst of that problem was in the early 90's. You can try boosting the screen control to get a little more brightness.

Also I have not seen an ad sponsored by Zenith or any other TV maker in a long time. Only TV set advertising I have seen has been in appliance/department store sales circulars. National Geographic and other magazines used to have lots of ads for Zenith, RCA, etc. Also I remember ads on TV for TV sets, VCRs, etc.
Come to think of it I also have not seen any ads even for new products such as DVD recorders.

[bgadow]

I have watched a few tv shows lately which opened with a quick message at the bottom which basically said that it was brought to you in HDTV by Zenith (or something similiar). The only other tv ads that come to mind from recent years are for the Philips hang-on-the-wall tv sets. I'm too backward technologically to know the proper name for that kind of set!

Today crt tv sets are just a commodity & aside from a few Japanese makes the brand doesn't amount to a hill of beans, IMO. You could buy an Apex or a Zenith or anything in between & I doubt there would be that much difference. If I had to replace my 12 year old US built Sylvania I think I would just look for a used set. (if I was single I would just move one of the roundies to the living room but my wife won't go for that!)

I know what you mean with your comment about your roundie. If I had one, either a roundie color or b&w console would be my daily watcher in the living room. As I write this, I am seriously considering relegating my Zenith to the kitchen (where I don't watch much TV), switch my 1998 Panasonic to the bedroom, and move my 1990 RCA to the living room. It has the best picture, and besides, if I don't use it too much, my Zenith might last longer--long enough to still have a viewable picture by the time the set gets to be say 5 or six years old.

Eric C
Tweed, ON

[Wedweb]

Maybe one of you will be interested in this Zenith, saw it on ebay.

Bo

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3269692094

[Eric H]

Dan, did you ever find any knobs for that set?

I was going through my junk and found one just like the one you have. Looks like it fits one of those flat shafts.

Let me know if you want it.

Eric