I'm Pissed Off

In 1950 or 51 my parents bought a 1950 Zenith tv console with record player and am-fm radio. I know they paid a lot of money for it and had to save for a long time. I watched this tv as a young boy and for years. In later years they got a color tv and this one went into their basement rec room. Eventually it quit working but was used as a bench, and fortunately was not thrown away. When I was in my 20's my father was going to toss it in the garbage but I was playing with a lot of electronics at the time and I fixed it with some tubes and if I recall, some new filter capacitors. It worked for several years after that. Eventually I inherited it when I got my own place, and I replaced some tubes and used it for a few years until I got a color tv. However, I kept this set and intended to completely rebuild it. Its been in my basement for years and I could never toss it. A few years ago I plugged it in and the radio worked fine, record player worked (but who uses records any more), but the tv had a noticable hi voltage leak, so I shut it off. Since then I have planned to restore it as an antique. It has lots of memories attached. I do believe the tv portion needs something more than tubes by now, but I planned to restore it anyhow. That was until recently when I found out they are going to completely eliminate analog tv stations and switch everything to digital. That's why I am pissed off. Even if I restore this old tv, there will no longer be anything to watch on it. I know there will be converters for newer tvs, but I doubt it will work on an old set like that, since there are no input jacks. It looks like anyone that collects antique tvs will no longer be able to watch them. As always, the government is screwing up our lives, but thats nothing new. Hell, tv frequencies have been the same ever since the beginning of tv itself, but now that we entered the 21st century everything is changing so fast one can no longer keep up. This really does piss me off. Maybe it's my age, but why cant they just leave things be. Pretty soon anyone over the age of 12 will be obsolete and rendered useless. New technology is great for those who want it, but why cant they leave the old stuff alone. It's history and it's well established and is part of our culture. Cant the government just leave us alone for once and stop screwing up our world. I'll admit that when color tv first came out I thought it was the greatest thing, but now it's fun to see an old B&W tv still working.

You can see a picture of this tv here:

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By the way, this console has a special plug for "video phone". This was way ahead of it's time, and never was used. It's a great set and a nice cabinet either way, but I guess there's no sense fixing the tv part anymore.

Alvin

Reply to
alvinamorey
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They will work the same way as they do now with cable. A simple 75ohm antenna to coax adapter.

Reply to
Brian V

It would not be at all difficult to hook up a VCR or DVD player to it. Many shows from the dawn of the television age are available on tape and disc.

Those old tube sets were prone to cracked solder joints due to the wide temperature swings generated by the tubes heating and cooling. Paper caps also dry out over time.

Reply to
salty

Will it get channel 83?

Can't use an RF modulator?

Is this useful for anything? Maybe those baseband inputs you need.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

...

Use an external tuner, moron.

Reply to
AZ Nomad

i don't know what's worse, spammers or pricks like you?

Reply to
jthread

here:

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Alvin,

If you like TV, get yourself infront of an HD TV that picks up HD over the air. you'll stop compaining in a hearbeat. the quality difference between tv and HDTV is amazing! I'm glad the switch is on, and I wish that the Canadian Gov was moving in the same direction. your old TV will still work in range of Canadian TV stations, they are not switching yet.

Reply to
Zephyr

Hey, you hooked a bunch of people with your troll! (God, I hope it was a troll...)

Reply to
Toller

It helps if you have the correct information, rather than going on what you think you know. You will be able to hook up the digital-to-analogue converter to an existing analogue tv by a number of options. One option is to use an antenna adaptor connected to the old fashioned antenna flat-wire connector.

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Sorry to spoil your 'piss me off' mood.

Reply to
Dave Bugg

You can always use the TV for playing VCR tapes or DVDs. The hi-def screens are so much better than CRTs. That's progress. I'm sure you can recycle the cabinet and use it for a piece of furniture.

Reply to
Phisherman

Is this the console that was blonde in color. It had double doors in the front that were bent. The speaker was downward mounted on the bottom right. The FM dial was vertical on the left with the record player, TV on the right.

You didn't have one of these, did you?

Reply to
tnom

I just noticed the Link, Duh..... Not the same. Your console is older.

Reply to
tnom

As you said: "Who uses records anymore?"

Well, who uses black-and-white TV?

Donate the thing to the Smithsonian and take a tax deduction.

Reply to
HeyBub
[snip]

[snip]

Yes, it's better. I can look at a HD picture and it's perfectly steady, unlike NTSC which is always wiggling around like you're drunk. Also, the color is much better.

BTW, one of the first things I saw in HD was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the first movie). It has some really nice outdoor scenes.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

With no indication of WHO you're talking about. Maybe you just don't like people...

Reply to
Harry

And maybe you are a moron.

Reply to
Toller

Nope

If you missed this link in my original post, heres a picture of one. I like this website, it's got pics and info for almost every tv ever made.

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Someone suggested removing the innards and using the cabinet. I came close to doing that once, but am glad I didn't. I want it original, and I love old tube stuff. Thats when they really built stuff. The main problem with that stuff are the old caps. I actually did remove the record player years ago and put a modern record player in it, but I kept the old one, and now it's back.

That small round picture was actually quite clear for it's age. This was a well made set.

Reply to
alvinamorey

Actually I have lots of records, but I wont play them on this old player because the needle was heavy and hard on them. I still play records at times but use a modern player with light stylus.

Since all I watch are old westerns and other older stuff, much if not most of its in B&W anyhow. It's just that I now watch on a dvd or vcr.

The younger generation seems to think anything old is junk, however being old myself, I appreciate the stuff, and it was quality made too. Thats why this old set can still be usable with a few repairs after 60 years. You wont find any of todays stuff still working in 60 years.

Our younger generation seems to think everything needs to be replaced every 2 to 5 years, and that's exactly what the manufacturers want. But I'll leave all the debt to them, and many of them will never get out of debt. Myself, everything is paid for except my last phone bill.which I forgot to pay last week. I appreciate this old tv which I watched as a child, as well as I still use my 8 year old computer with Win98. I dont need to keep up with the Jonses to prove anything to anyone.

Reply to
alvinamorey

Some of us want to move ahead. Just like computers, indoor plumbing and central heat.

When that TV came on the market, some idiot probably complained it was going to ruin radio and progress should be stopped. Bring back vaudeville!

I love my HDTV

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I have all of the above (plus a wood furnace) !!!!! And I was one of the first people to have a computer back when they were all run on Dos. I like the computer but I dont need to upgrade every year. My win98 works fine and is far less trouble than any newer OS. Actually this computer came with Win2K installed but I hated it so I downgraded to what I liked.

I wish they would bring back vaudeville, its better than most of the garbage they call tv and movies today. I remember when tv had humor unlike today when we have all these "reality" shows that mostly suck. Soap Operas that are not worth the electricity to run the tv, Violence, more violence, and even most of the so called comedians these days are not funny at all. The Craig Ferguson is one prime example. After watching about 10 of his shows, I have never laughed yet, not even one small chuckle. I stopped watching him after that. It's no wonder we have so many problems in society. Give me the good old days when people were free and happy, and cared more for each other than trying to impress others with what they own.

Great, now tell me how many years will you be in debt for it, and what high interest you have to pay? I like my $89 - 20" flat screen crt color tv that I bought about 2 years ago and is all I need. Of course in a little over a year it will go blank. We dont get cable here in the rural areas. But I still have my dvd and vcr. Mostly just the news and weather I will miss. Of course if I find one of them converters for $20 or less, I may get one. Of course one means I will have to keep moving it from set to set, and the vcr tuner still wont work without yet another converter.

Reply to
alvinamorey

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