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Cursed TV set manufacturers

My folks bought a 19" B&W Magnavox in 1954. The picture tube went out just after the one year warranty was up (and I can still hear my father cursing about that) but the replacement tube lasted until the early 90's.
 
I heard from some folks at Best Buy that some Vizio sets are cursed.
 
What happens if someone watches a cursed TV station on a cursed cable company using a cursed TV and a cursed universal remote? And what if this takes place in a cursed market?
 
Avid Listener said:
What happens if someone watches a cursed TV station on a cursed cable company using a cursed TV and a cursed universal remote purchased at a cursed retailer? And what if this takes place in a cursed market?
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Fixed.
 
I've heard not so good things about newer Sharp TVs. My parents bought one new last year and it broke quickly. They ordered a replacement (which was a "refurbished" TV) and it didn't work at all! After this, they decided to buy an LG and they've been happy since. However, they have a Sharp TV they bought in 1992 and it still works.
 
I bought my first TV about 1970 - one of those ubiquitous (at the time) 12 inch black and white portables you could get for under $100, then my first color TV - a 19" RCA in 1975. Over the years, I've had a number of used and new color sets - bought a Philips 42" HDTV at Costco in late 2008 for what was a great price at the time -$999. I could replace it for half that price now. Recently bought a smaller HDTV for the bedroom for around $250.

Not a single one of these TVs have been "cursed" - all worked perfectly, though I did have one set repaired - a Sony Trinitron once in the early 80s. I don't think anybody repairs TVs any more, do they? It's cheaper to buy a new one.

Televisions are a great example of a changing technology that has been very reliable - at least since the late 60s.
 
I still have a 45" rear projection (Sylvania) that works perfectly. It has had one repair since purchase in 1987, a sound board and it still has the best sound I have ever heard out of any TV. Obviously it now needs its converter box but still runs fine.
 
Any TV not made by one of the major brands is going to be pretty bad. My friend had a Westinghouse and it broke in less than a year. I know someone that had a similar fate with their Polaroid TV. Stick with Sony, Samsung, or LG.
 
ansky212 said:
Any TV not made by one of the major brands is going to be pretty bad. My friend had a Westinghouse and it broke in less than a year. I know someone that had a similar fate with their Polaroid TV. Stick with Sony, Samsung, or LG.
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You are aware that most no-name TVs are made in the same factories on the same assembly lines by the same workers and robots as the name brands, right?
 
I had a 52'' projection TV from Magnavox, probably around a 1991 model. After about 2007 or 2008, the picture started to die off and I threw it out when we moved to Bellevue in 2011. DLP TVs suck as well because the bulb wears out and is really expensive to replace (about $250-300).

-crainbebo
 
In the 90s, the folks-in-law bought a couple of identical 19" RCA TVs. RCA, manufactured by Thomsen in Mexico. Both sets developed the same problem of a shrinking screen. At first, a Fonzie fist judiciously applied would fix it. But over time it would just get worse and worse until it graduated to boat-anchor status.

Suspect there were some cold-solder points that were made by someone on the line that day.
 
Haven't there always been "cursed" set makers? If this were being written back in 1950 (probably as a mimeographed newsletter) you'd have set owners kvetching about their Teletone, Hallicrafters, Pathe', Bendix, or FADA* sets. Big and small companies both turn out some lemons; CBS was in the set business in the 50's and early 60's and their TVs (and phonographs) had a reputation for truly awful quality.

* Named for their founder, Francis A. D'Angelo, who started out making crystal detectors in radio's caveman days...
 
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thomwim said:
What happened to Zenith? They made my grandparents' TV set.
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Korean company Lucky Goldstar (who now goes only by LG) bought them in the 90s. LG still slaps the old Zenith logo on a few products.
 
My brother and I bought our parents a 25 in. RCA in 2000 when they moved and it only lasted a year, probably because of a power surge. After that we bought a Sanyo that is still working fine.
 
I've seen a lot of Zenith tube TVs from the 90s and early 00s and Phillips TVs as well, in hospitals and motel rooms. Even in 2014 some motels still haven't upgraded from the 1997 tube TVs with analog cable, to flat screens.

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
I've seen a lot of Zenith tube TVs from the 90s and early 00s and Phillips TVs as well, in hospitals and motel rooms. Even in 2014 some motels still haven't upgraded from the 1997 tube TVs with analog cable, to flat screens.

-crainbebo
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no point in upgrading from a tube TV that still works when many hotels and hospitals don't offer any HD channels beyond whatever the local cable system has in clear QAM
 
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