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Our 'new' one is a 48" Hitachi that must be at least 12 years old.
The "old" in the bedroom that it replaced has to be about 20 years old.
Got a 42" flat screen LG this past year for our other house and I suppose the picture is better but not enough to make us even think about replacing the Hitachi.
you "suppose" it might look better? you might as well get a black and white tv if you dont think there's a huge difference between a new tv and one from 12 years ago
Don't knock those tube TV's, I predict there will be a market for them for people who live frugal.
Last time I went to Saint Vincents -- they had a number of them. And yes -- I'd bet the frugal are buying them.
Our old Sony lasted *us* 15 years -- we got free at a property we service, left out for someone to take. We have no idea how old it really was.
We kept saying we'd replace it... and we often looked. But just couldn't... until the Sony gave it up. Then we had no choice, but we'd been looking so long we knew where to go.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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TV
Don't they take POWER
I think they may waste a lot of time too...
I guess 30+ yrs of evening shift must have cured at least one habit...
BTW:, I'm lost in a game of trivia... movies (last I went to see was 'Raiders' circa 1980, I slept through much of it, 'cept that rock rolling thing near the beginning)
In 1980 I bought a Sears brand TV. I never turned it off. I like to sleep with the TV on at night and leave it on during the day as company for my dog(s).
That TV lasted 28 years without needing even one repair. When it finally died, I bought two Samsung flat-screens...a 48" for the bedroom and a 52" for the living room. Both died of capacitor failure right after the one-year warranty expired.
I replaced them with 52" Sony flat-screen TV's. I hope they'll last more than a few years.
That old Sears TV wasnt very pretty on the outside -- but, if pretty is as pretty does, it was beautiful on the inside.
I still have a LOT of tube TVs. I do a TON of recording for my classes and research, and so over several years bought a bunch of those little 13" TV/VCR combo units. (Some of them are actually expensive on ebay -- as in, more expensive than when I bought some of them new! There must still be a market for them.)
I probably have 12-14 TVs in my house although some are only used for recording/archiving stuff to DVD for my work. Ironically, I almost never watch anything in "real time" -- I record a bunch of stuff and watch it later although I usually have ESPN or CNN on for background noise.
My oldest TV is from 1987 (I think!). It's so old it doesn't have a remote; it has those round dials that you turn to change channels. (I'm laughing as I type this!) I haven't used it in awhile but will be setting it up in my basement as the "monitor" for my recording/archiving. (Have to use it with an RF modulator since it of course doesn't have any RCA inputs or outputs! It can still be hooked up to a VCR though ...)
My second-oldest TV is from the early '90s. It's a GE and still going strong. In fact I have it set up in the family room of the house I just moved to a couple of months ago ... it's a 27-incher. Its remote also still works.
My third-oldest TV is from 2002 -- a present to myself when I bought my first house (the one I just moved from). It's a Panasonic and is 32". I had it in the living room of my old house (in a huge armoire) but now that and the armoire are in the master bedroom. (The movers just loved bringing both of 'em up to the second floor!) I could not move the TV myself -- it's too heavy. I have it hooked up to a VCR and a DVD player so it's still very functional.
All of those TVs still work fine at 25 years old, almost 20 years old, and 10 years old, so it's hard for me to justify buying new ones ... although I will be replacing the 27" incher in the family room with a 47" HDTV some time this year. I already bought an entertainment center for that room and the 27" tube TV looks kinda silly sitting there in it. :-)
Honestly, the biggest problem I find with older TVs is the lack of connections for components. I had to buy an RF modulator to hook up a DVD player to the GE 27" TV in the family room. Then again, it cost less than $10 and was a cinch to set up ... so again, hard to justify getting rid of anything.
When I was looking at armoires on Craigslist I noticed a lot of people selling them WITH the tube TVs!! I have also seen some very creative uses for all those armoires that used to hold bulky TVs (e.g. one was converted to a wonderful kitchen center with a pot rack, etc. -- loved that idea!).
)When I was looking at armoires on Craigslist I noticed a lot of people selling them WITH the tube TVs!! I have also seen some very creative uses for all those armoires that used to hold bulky TVs (e.g. one was converted to a wonderful kitchen center with a pot rack, etc. -- loved that idea!).
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I want to clarify the terminology here. According to a friend who is a AV guy and installs such for a living...
Flat screen TV: Tube TV with a flat screen instead of the rounded , older style
I just made by own flat screen the other day, what I did was took my older model tv that has one of those backs that stick out real far and unhooked everything.
Then took a small saw and cut the large back off and was able to replace all the wires as they were. Cheapest flat screen tv you can find these days runs around $1500. Well, I showed them and made my own
1) Why get a new TV when the old one works great? Many of the "early adapters" (who gave me their old televisions) are on their second or third flat screen.
2) With the amount of heat that the flat screens throw off, it is really hard for me to believe that the old ones use more energy. Ditto as the friends in #1 saw their electric bill go up.
3) For all the so-called improvement in the video technology, I really don't see much difference between the CRT and flat screen except in reading text along the bottom on ESPN. I find that I can enjoy TV as much on the old set as the flat screens.
4) 90% of the time, I don't WATCH TV. It is on in the background while I am working on the computer. Modern television shows are like cotton candy. They really don't require a lot of attention.
The only annoying thing (besides moving the buggers) is that shows are made for widescreens now. There are words we can't see on the screen. Slightly annoying.
Love the dog bed in the old tv. I'd like to grow a garden in ours!
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