1965 Zenith Black and White Television Resurrection  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Homer J Simpson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 13, 2016, 01:43:58 pm
content: If you are into the older tube stuff this guy has a lot of content.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw2SbtOH0K9AjQTbIRI6cqA

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2016, 02:44:40 pm
content: That was an interesting watch. It's incredible to see the quality and serviceability that went into things back in the day. Now everything is built down to a price, so the companies can bring in more profits. But to be fair, the average person would probably throw out even those TVs when they stopped working. Though they also had repair services back then and it was worth while to get it fixed.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 14, 2016, 03:17:25 pm
content: Quote from: Red Squirrel on May 14, 2016, 02:44:40 pmI wholeheartedly agree. I think these days though, I'd argue that some consumer gear is easier to fix than before. Take the television for example: CRT tubes scare the hell out of me (having being zapped before) however I'd have no problems pulling apart and poking around a modern LCD. It's (mostly) low voltage stuff and you probably wouldn't bother replacing an individual component, you might just order a replacement cable assembly or board.That said, buying quality from the start is my motto. No point in buying a cheap Chinese unit when you have to throw money and replacement parts at it down the track.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2016, 03:24:09 am
content: I saw this video before. This guy is nice, but as with all EE people I find joy in listening to them talk and poke around old tat. I understand a few things, but I am not 1:1 with him.

author: Cubdriver
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 15, 2016, 03:29:11 am
content: With the condition it was in I was truly shocked to see it turn on and pretty much come back to life with so little repair. It seemed to have a damned good picture, too. Impressive little old set.-Pat

author: PartialDischarge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2016, 04:46:07 am
content: Quote from: Homer J Simpson on May 13, 2016, 01:43:58 pmThat parachute jump advertisement is fantastic!

author: MrSlack
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2016, 08:46:35 am
content: I'm genuinely surprised that was salvageable based on the state of it. Not sure I'd trust it not to burn the house down after a week though.New stuff usually isn't that difficult to fix. I've fixed 6 modern LCD televisions and there's virtually nothing to go wrong in them. Usually power supply problems by the looks. My main set, a 3 year old 40 inch Sony Bravia EX, came off eBay for £0.99 as dead (joy to consumer rights not applying to business purchases and market saturation!) and it was a 20 minute drive to collect it and the fix consisted of a new capacitor and fusible resistor. Total fix cost £3.63 and an hour of work.

author: N2IXK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2016, 03:17:11 pm
content: Zenith was the last holdout against the use of PC boards, until the early 1970s, when they started making modular solid state sets. They always had the highest build quality of any mass market TV, at least until they moved their assembly plant to Mexico, then were taken over by LG.Interestingly, they did have a technique for somewhat automating the point-to-point chassis wiring. Connections were made using insulated terminal strips with holes on the underside of the chassis, which component leads were inserted into by hand. The terminal strips had hollow "spikes" on the topside of the chassis, which allowed the inverted chassis to be run through a wave soldering process similar to how a PC board would be soldered. These spikes were also handy as test points for troubleshooting without having to pull the chassis from the cabinet.

author: John Heath
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2016, 09:04:51 pm
content: I agree , nice video. Brings back old memories. Did you do the drop test off the roof to see if that Zenith quality is still there?

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2016, 11:22:48 pm
content: Anyone who feels that quality was always better in the good old days ought to look up Muntz televisions and read the Wikipedia article on "Madman Muntz".One reason we think quality was better back then is that only the survivors are seen today. The duds have long since disappeared into a trash heap.

author: LabSpokane
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2016, 12:51:52 am
content: TVs were not better in the old days. They were flaky, unreliable junk.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2016, 01:48:39 am
content: This is a good example of how point to point wiring was favored for reliability and servicability. You won't lift any pads on that monster!

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2016, 10:41:13 am
content: Quote from: Red Squirrel on May 14, 2016, 02:44:40 pmBad move. As of 10 years ago, a working console or low boy TV would fetch $2K here in Melbourne. A non-working one would fetch $1K. Very collectable, especially amongst the cafe-latter retro yuppies.Walk into an electrical goods store and asked for a "low boy TV". The salesperson would not have clue what you were asking for.Walk into a video store and asking about "Do you have beta?". They might look it up and answer, "Sorry, we don't have that movie".Walk into a music store and ask if they have sell cassettes. May younger people might not even know what a cassette is.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2016, 05:29:10 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on May 16, 2016, 10:41:13 amThe hard part would be finding a video or music store. The days when you could simply walk into one in any town are gone: Amazon and Netflix have put most of the chains out of business. The few stores that remain are certainly going to know what Betamax and cassettes are, because rare and unusual items are their reason for still existing. But comparing Beta to cassettes is strange, because prerecorded Betamax releases petered out in the mid-1990s, but prerecorded cassette tapes are still a huge industry.Over 73,000 albums or singles were released on cassette in the last 6 years.https://www.discogs.com/search/?q=&format_exact=Cassette&type=all&decade=2010This is an increase of about 50% over the years 2000-2009, and there are still 3.5 years left in the decade.