TV was never turned on since it was manufactured 40 years ago…when it finally is, the signals it was designed to receive are no longer on the air. There’s something a little sad about that.
Could have been worse - consider the millions of NOS CRTs worldwide in the early 2000s that surely ended up compacted into bricks and thrown into e-waste landfills without ever having left the box. Probably the same landfill they threw all the E.T. cartridges in. This TV missed the war it was built for - that's okay, it has a new lease on life with a dedicated nostalgist.
@@angelesc2033 ET the extra terrestrial - argued the worst game ever made for the Atari - the game was so bad they threw tons of them straight into the landfill. read up on it, its a cool story
I mean ... what are you going to do more? Use the TRS-80 or watch reruns of Leave It to Beaver? I wouldn’t feel too bad swapping tubes so it actually gets some use.
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 I guess that this TV was given to you by Mat (@Techmoan) 😉👍..... He uses his time machine to go get it of the shelf back in the 70's .. 😁
As a kid, I was given a shed to have as a workshop (with power). This was where I did all of my electronics stuff, and I picked up one of these TVs for cheap at a garage sale. I remember watching a lot of shows on it, in black & white - in the 90's, while working on projects.
@@edwin2963 Yea just like when that other asteroid hit there were probably a few dinosaurs left that wandered around dazed until they too were gone! 🦕 🦖
I worked at a retirement home that was built in 1987. I would walk through the apartments and asked the manager when the appliances had been changed to new ones and he laughed at me and said these are the original appliances from 1987. They looked absolutely like they were just manufactured yesterday and they were 35 years old! Old people go easy on things.
@@ronk9830 they sure had a different relation with tech, like it was an alien thing. I absolute dismantle and mess with everything I have, I have no remorse of breaking it, breaking means adventure trying to fix it back.
@@monad_tcp Same here, Luiz. I explore every aspect of things, often times finding features not even mentioned in the owner's manual. It makes me think of all the new features in cars. Some people are oblivious to them, and don't put any of them to use even though they paid a lot of money for them, because they're afraid to try anything.
@@monad_tcp reminds me of how even some people my own age, who are perfectly happy tinkering with broken software configs I'd never want to touch, are amazed by my happiness to dig-into some hardware with a soldering iron 😅 they're amazed I don't break any components, I'm amazed they don't break their OS!
I have a theory that this might have never been sold to the public, and was from a smaller electronics retailer, and it was kept in their warehouse till the person who gave it to you came across it from someone cleaning out said warehouse. Regardless of its history this is a very nice set indeed.
@Commodorefan64 I agree, I wonder if this was supposed to be a run of display sets that were never intended for retail sale either for consumers or possibly for business and it just ended up sitting in a warehouse and got forgotten in a dust covered box in the corner? Perhaps the warehouse owners were trying to clean house or audit and came across it decades later.
Yep, thats how i got my 25 yr old VCR NEW IN BOX, it was found in the 2nd floor "storage" space and was behind the cabinets that have been up there for 30 yrs, storing receipts and "junk", when they moved to a smaller facility and had to move all the cabinets and junk, when they moved the one cabinet, they found a VCR new in box that was NEVER opened and it looked like it FELL between the cabinets and just sat there for 25 yrs .... the way they found it against the wall appeared to have fell in there and nobody noticed or forgot about it. So i got it for free and took it home. Yea, it powered up and works.
@@ACommenterOnUA-cam Seriously nice score, and I been going back, and rewatching Miami vice, and the episode Made for Each Other(season 1, Episode 18) is about a small retail chain of electronics stores(spoofing Crazy Eddie's at the time) running accounting scams, and selling grey market/stolen merch, and with the way warehouses were packed back then to rafters with cardboard boxes also in the way it was in the show, you finding the VCR like that does not surprise me, and makes me wonder how much other new in box 80's, and 90's electronics, video games, etc.. are in some old warehouse just waiting for someone to come across.
@@CommodoreFan64 Oh yes ...Crazy Eddies ... We had one and my mom almost lost her SHIT with the manager there back in the 90's ... Something about them selling my brother a def or generic walkman and accused him of swapping it or breaking it and wanting a replacement. It got loud in that store and my mom went into bitch mode and let them have it. I think they eventually swapped it out for him but yea that store lol ... But yea what a find on that vcr. And how many more electronics are out there there just waiting to be found.
I worked for an electronics distributor and while I never found an old TV like this I would find PS1 monitors. They were 5 inch LCD monitors. I just googled it and they sell for around $160 or so. I remember finding cases of them. LOL I guess they were eventually recycled. I also found CD changers a lot, the ten disk ones I think. Inventory was always off at that place.
You know what I miss about the old crt tvs? as a kid I loved the feeling of the screen static on the back of my hand when I brushed it across the screen, and the crackle. I was an odd, odd child, I still remember pulling vacuum tubes from old abandoned TVs and radio's to throw at walls because they used to make a loud popping noise when they imploded.
The angled handle entry is likely due to the fact that a mold feature which has a inset that changes angle creates a catchment that prevents it from getting out of the mold. Any time you mold rigid plastic you have to be careful about design so you can actually remove it from the mold without making it a multipart mold with seam lines.
This, since it's a cheap television, you'd needed to add a core part to make that reverse (or even flat) angle. Look at draft angle to learn more. You can mold anything you want, but if you want to do it cheaply with a single piece mold, you need to add draft angles to everything (the steeper, the cheaper/better). This also look like a mold that could have been used for several TV sets/tube configuration since you see the outline of a mold insert that mold the relief to the tube neck around 3:15.
I got this set from my grandpa when I was a kid. He used it in a RV. And it came with a ac cable and also a car cigarette lighter plug cable, you would unplug the ac cable and plug the car cable right into the back. and I would watch it in the car on road trips lol
I had one like it in my bedroom when I was a teenager in the 80's, and I used it in my first apartment. It worked great and costs about $60. new in 1981.
18:17 the interference on channel 23 looks like it's from a digital over-the-air channel. KPXG in Portland is on UHF channel 22, so that might explain it.
Those old TVs with 300 ohm twin lead inputs were pretty bad with broadcast signal ingress. A TV station even 25 miles away would interfere with cable TV on the same channel.
Very good point -- I didn't even consider that. I get decent reception of OTA here even with rabbit ears -- although in the basement the signals aren't that strong.
I had this EXACT tv growing up as a kid. It was the B&W set that was old and my parents gave me to play around with. It's SO amazing to see a complete one! Adrian, please take care of it!
These are called "GE Performance Television" - You can find lots of photos of them if you Google image search that term. I had one of these when I was a kid as my first TV. The coloration on mine was way different though, the speaker grille was too. Mine had a manufacture date of September 1976 and I got it from a yard sale in the early 90s. I think those are all 12" display size. I remember really liking the separate power and volume controls, as well as the little shunk noise from the sliding power switch. I ended up passing it down to my little sisters when I got my first color TV and they used it for several years until it went pop and died one day. ☹
heh, when you said "my first TV" I assumed you meant you got it around the time it came out. lol Because my parents had this one as a spare TV in the mid to late 70s and it was fairly new when I was watching it! -in particularly I remember Adam West "Batman" re-runs, the "Monkees", and "School House Rock" on Saturday mornings, which had just come out, and stayed on air for a couple of decades at least.
Seems to be a common thing for people on UA-cam to make wild claims about vintage items for click bait these days. This thing definitely is not NOS but it is low hour and in nice shape. I had an earlier version of this same TV although mine still had some tubes in it. Like others, mine went "pop" one day and got tossed in the trash. You could get these for $40 or $50 brand new back then. Kids rooms, garages, kitchens are probably where a lot of these saw use.
Amazing. This TV brings back memories. My folks had one just like it on their kitchen table. You're right about the handle. But, if I recall correctly, the center of balance of the TV was such that you fingers would be more or less horizontal after you picked it up. After you lifted it, the bottom of the TV would swing forward a bit.
I seem to remember the opposite, the bottom would "swing" backwards, but I was just a little kid with tiny hands, and it would have been a very clumsy endeavor to move it, no matter how the handle was designed.
I think this is the exact model I had as a kid (I'm 41 now). It got GREAT reception. It met its end when I accidentally pulled it off of the hamper in the bathroom. I used to watch TV when taking a bath (far enough away).
I got this exact same tv around 1980. Same color and everything. If I remember correctly it had a label saying it was manufactured in 1979. I used it until the mid to late 1990’s. When you turned it off the picture shrank in size on the screen. Eventually the VHF knob cracked and the slide on/off switch didn’t work all the time. Great little tv. Thanks for the video. Lots of great memories.
Used one of those back in the day for my zx81…back then I was happy to get anything. Did a lot of programming on that machine. Many upgrades like memory, keyboard.
Regarding why someone might have a GE TV that they never used -- back in the day, GE used to sell refurbished goods to their employees, these were known as Class (single letter) products. For the life of me, I can't remember the letter now, I knew it 50+ years ago. Anyhow, the Class "n" products were often better than new, because they had been individually touched/serviced, so the employees snapped them up and they were great bargains. So perhaps an employee bought a "spare" TV at the Class "n" sale (they only happened once or twice a year) but never needed the spare TV.
He, that is interesting and certainly plausible. The history of the TV is unknown so perhaps it was boxed and when it was brought in to be ewasted, it was unboxed and this is what I ended up with.
I worked at a Zenith facility in the Chicago area a bit over 30 years ago. We also had an "employee store". The new sets were a tad cheaper than the appliance superstores. The real "deals" were the slightly used sets pulled from production and tested for a length of time. Those were sold without packaging, so I had to buy a new set to send to my parents in NY State.
I had some ex-GE colleagues when I worked in Syracuse nearly 40 years ago. I think they called the sets pulled from production and tested "Class X" products.
My family had one of these in the 70s and I took it to college in the late 80s. Somewhere around here I even have a photo of me in my dorm room with this TV in the background. What was great about this set was that from my hometown of South Bend, Indiana, the built-in antenna could be aimed to pick up Channels 9 and 32, and a very ghosty 44, out of Chicago. None of the other TVs we ever owned could do that. Ours had an earphone jack, which I used to record some early-1980s TV sounds onto cassette. Sure wish I knew what happened to that cassette.
The spot shows just how much capacity is in that tube electrically and also how much thermal mass the cathode heater has - cause when I have my patchwork of CRT info in the right place, the dot should disappear when either the acceleration voltage drops under a critical point or the cathode cools down enough to no longer emit electrons. I am willing to bet that this set was not winning any energy saving ribbons even back in the day 😅 But vintage tech isn't supposed to be a daily use device anyhow. 👍
Such sets were in deed popular in those days. I had a similar 12" B/W set made by Philips, probably got it in the mid seventies. Later I replaced it with a slightly larger color set.
My Grandma had one very similar in her bedroom, she had two beds in there we used to all us kids lay on the second bed and watch it. This was the early 80's. We didnt care it was black and white, it was just cool to have a tv we could watch what we wanted and the adults watched the living room tv. Back then you had to fight to watch what you wanted, not like nowadays where everyone has their own in their hands.
I bought a GE black and white TV in 1980. It went everywhere with me. It worked well in 2020 when I turned it in for recycling. I was sad to see it go.
Reminds me when I found a late 60's TV that was NOS. It had Tubes (More like compactrons) but I never got it up and working. Was before I knew that Caps had a life span.
In the early 80's, we only had one television in the house. I remember it had problems and my grandparents borrowed this type of b&w GE set to my parents so we could have something to watch. I also remember that the little GE could bring in the UHF channels with it's own antenna better than our early 70's Quasar color tv that had an antenna on the roof.
🤔😉😀😀👍👍👌👌👍👍 Those old CRT's are amazing... Pity that we forget about them day by day... I don't have CRT's collection but I do have nice collection of vintage phones and have plans to make some videos about them...
@@Okurka. VCRs weren't out til I was a teenager. Not cable TV either. Do you remember getting three VHF channels, a public station and about three UHF stations? Now that was low quality video.
I just learned something today! I didn't know that the "No user serviceable parts inside" had this history, thanks! I have no need for a test pattern generator but I want that device for some reason! :D
yeah, before the 80s, there was the idea that anyone should be able to bring expensive items (like TVs and radios) to any repair shop they want. And any person who gained a fair amount of knowledge should be able to go into business as a repair-person (although a repairman might dedicate themselves to a single brand). "Right to repair" was just assumed as a matter of course. But over time "protecting the public from high voltage" turned into making electronics impossible to repair.
@@squirlmy That's not it. Anyone could take out the vacuum tubes and go test them out even at grocery stores. That warning is because you could no longer take out the tubes (since there was none) and go test them out yourself, it has nothing to do with repair shops.
@@williamsquires3070 He is referring to the host of the UA-cam channel Lazy Game Reviews (LGR), a gaming and retro computer channel that also sometimes covers other tech like vintage TV’s, though mostly on his second channel LGR Blurbs.
The speaker has a date code of week 38 of 1980, so this could be an '80 or very early 81 set. Yeah, this TV looks like it was just taken out of the box. That's crazy clean inside.
Nice find. It reminds me very much of my first TV I bought as a child in 1982. As you mentioned, the price of them went way down around that time and I was able to buy one new somewhere between $40-$50. Wasn't long though until I moved to color as sometime in 83, my dad gave me a 19" color tv to stop me from tying up the living room set when I wanted to play my video games in color.
I was 11 in 1982, while my father did help me pick a good one out, it's no lie, though I fail to understand why you're accusing me of doing so, though if it's because I look too young, I'll take that as a compliment. 😀
I can still remember the buzzing sound and the warm dusty smell coming through the vents when I put my face over it. There was something comforting about the warm glow I saw inside through the vents on top.
This TV would work in some locations here in Brazil, as some regions still have the analog transmission signal. I would love to see you play Atari 2600 on it.
That is the same TV we had when I was kid. Interesting to see it still in mint condition. We would often cycle the power on it to see if we could get the white dot that would appear when it was shut off to appear as bright and as long as possible. :) Later in the early 80's is became our primary monitor for the Sinclair ZX-80.
This make and model was in my parents bedroom in the 80's and then mine in the 90's. I remember watching star trek and and 'In Living Color' but in black and white. Weird flashback...
Ah, more CRT content! Love it! Never seen such a clean tube so far in real life. But then again, I don't tend to look for b/w televisions and are always out for some small color tubes. The design of these, however, like this one shows, was just pure awesomeness :-) Thanks for sharing!
I bought that same TV in the Fall of 1980 for my college dorm room. Funny that you talk about them being cheap - that one really wasn't, or at least it didn't seem so to me at the time. It was $129.99 at Kmart, which would be well over $400 today. I remember that vividly because it was a lot of money and I hated having to call my dad to ask if it was okay to purchase and to make he'd cover it since my old tv died. It was a reliable little set that we used for decades. I'm not sure if it may still be in storage at my parents' house. Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
The fork terminals would break off. Then you'd have to put the copper wire under the screw and still that would break off. The little lead would get shorter and shorter to the point where you'd have to get a new one. In the meantime you have to deal with a lousy picture with just one lead connected.
SO many memories! I have not been able to repair mine but it is the first TV I watched a Chicago Cubs game one. Thanks for showing this perfect conditioned one!
I had an uncle that made a cloth cover for his tv when it wasn't in use, he believed that sunlight and indoor lights could degrade the screen over time, plus he said keeping dust out of the cabinet would prolong it's life. All his TV's were old but they looked new like the one in this video. When he eventually bought a VCR in the 80's he was even more concerned about dust, he would clean the entire VHS cassette before he uncovered the VCR to put the tape in.
As a kid we owned this exact model TV except the back shell was a deep red. I remember that slanted grip. What I also remember was for a short while, when it was new, there was a slender piece of plastic adhered under the top lip. Black. About 4 to 6" long, 1/2" wide, 1/8" thick. It separated and we never glued it back on. It was just enough to provide the added grip. The fact that it was glued on makes me wonder if was an afterthought maybe after people complained.
My parents had a 9" GE color TV in the kitchen in the early 1980's . The case was much more square, and had lots of fake woodgrain. It had two rod antennas, with a UHF "bowtie" antenna that clipped onto one of the rod antennas. It also had the service manual in a plastic cover that snapped into the main case on the back. I remember watching a few key world events on it, like the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake as it was happening (we thought that we were going to watch the World Series as we did dishes after dinner 😂 )
I have something similar in my vacation home earlier this year I put my Pac-Man plug-in play on it using an RCA converter box now I want to take that thing and put it in my room at home but for some reason I'm not allowed to oh well. Eventually I'll probably find another one somewhere near cuz my vacation home is out in New Hampshire and I'm in Pennsylvania and riding all the way back in the car is probably going to jazz it up a little bit cuz it's not in great shape anyway. Playing Pac-Man and galaga on that thing was pretty cool though.
i had a 9 inch tv similar to that as a kid that appears to be even older than that one because it didn't have any connections for vcr or anything. it was only able to use the antenna for local channels. Definitely brought back memories seeing something like this.
I think that's the same little TV I had in my room as a little kid. I don't remember what happened to it but when I had it I was able to watch cartoons when I wanted (when they were on, old people get what I'm saying) and it was a happy time.
If you need that crt for the computer absolutely do it. Imo. I'd wager the tv was a door prize and sat in the basement because "perfectly good tv can't throw it out". Exited to see more of the that trs 80. Loved the videos on the drives :)
Indeed, that's very true. I could see this as a raffle prize or a doorprize that someone didn't really need. Amazing to hold onto it for so long, but I guess people stick stuff in basements and they can easily sit for 40 years.
Back in the 70's you learned one thing about portable TV's - never trust a plastic carrying handle. I did one day, taking a customer TV upstairs to the workshop, the handle gave way, the TV bounced all the way down two flights of stairs to the bottom, and i got well chewed out over it, we had to buy the customer a new TV. I learned electronics and TV servicing the hard way, trial and error. Glass valves were the best, much easier to fix, and practically indestructible, you could get a glass valve so hot the glass would soften and the vacuum suck it in, and it would still work afterwards. I also remember selenium rectifiers, you knew when they had failed the moment you walked into the house, they stank of rotten fish. And you knew when a set has been in a house with a smoker, the EHT stages would be covered in thick sticky nicotine tar.
In the late 1990's I saved a 1979 GE model like that. Used it as a tv upto 2007. Ealier, as bedroom tv. Later in the kitchen. By the the year 2022, it is a kitchen item
I had this very same set in my bedroom from the mid to late 90s when I was a teenager. It was a great little TV. I vividly remember watching WCW Monday Nitro and playing PlayStation on it. The black and white picture certainly added to the atmosphere while playing Resident Evil. Good times. I miss that TV. Sadly, I don't remember what happened to it after I got a 13" color Philips TV/VCR combo.
@@mrpopsicleman That is not what you said. You said it "was the very same set." That is pretty definitive. Keyboard warrior, so brave as you cower behind your keyboard.
@@Capecodham Yup, that's exactly what I'm doing. Boy, you really called me out. I tip my figurative hat to you. From this day forward, let it be know that I am a "keyboard warrior" because I worded a sentence incorrectly. I shall henceforth live in guilt and shame. All hail @burt2481 for taking the time to reply to a year old post and call me out for my insolence.
The date code and origin of manufacturing on the tube (Japan, 1970s), build quality of the set, and the date and location of assembly (El Salvador 1980) makes me wonder if someone had a glut of black and white tubes and this set was built to move old components before they were "worthless." The fact that this one sat unused sort of speaks to that!
Growing up my family had this same EXACT TV sitting on our kitchen table. Ours dated back to the late 70s early 80s at the latest, if I'm not mistaken. This is a beautiful example!
Fun video. I had a 12 inch black and white TV in my bedroom as a kid. That's where I would go to watch things my parents weren't into, like Doctor Who.
For those who may not have that much experience with them... CRTs are *dust magnets*. When they're running they build up a static charge that attracts dust to the screen, the vents, the interior, pretty much everywhere. That's one reason why it seems like it was never even turned on.
Pretty similar to a TV I bought in 1983 for my ZX Spectrum 16K. I was in the UK so mine was 625 Line and UHF only of course and you had to tune it to channel 36 to use on computers or video recorders.
The CRT was king because there was nothing else that would display a picture. Bulky, heavy and dangerous, now that LCD screens no longer need fluorescent tubes for a backlight, high voltage is no longer required for television.
Very cool. Although, I find myself more intigued by the VG91. I guess I missed that video. A very cool tool, for sure. I picked up a BK PRECISION 1211E NTSC PATTERN GENERATOR last spring -- a nifty little hand-held unit for generating various signals and test patterns and outputting RF, composite and S-video. But the VG91 is a whole other story. 😃
The set you have was built here in Portsmouth Virginia. Alot of women in the area worked at that plant in the 60s,70s, and early 80s including both my grandmothers and my mother.
Had one when I was 10. Used to cover it with a blanket and watch it when I was supposed to be sleeping. The Tonight Show, David Letterman, Taxi. Thanks for the memories.
This is exactly the kind of TV set a movie studio might want if they were making a show set in the 70's. You need a set from the 70/80's that looks brand new
![Adrian's Digital Basement ][](http://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AIdro_k7CrQRe71qN6c0Ua7A1P_I8KkxjqLa70u0zYeCvdvnKw=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)
TV was never turned on since it was manufactured 40 years ago…when it finally is, the signals it was designed to receive are no longer on the air. There’s something a little sad about that.
Could have been worse - consider the millions of NOS CRTs worldwide in the early 2000s that surely ended up compacted into bricks and thrown into e-waste landfills without ever having left the box. Probably the same landfill they threw all the E.T. cartridges in.
This TV missed the war it was built for - that's okay, it has a new lease on life with a dedicated nostalgist.
@@gastonbell108 what’s et cartridge?
@@angelesc2033 ET the extra terrestrial - argued the worst game ever made for the Atari - the game was so bad they threw tons of them straight into the landfill. read up on it, its a cool story
@@edwin3928ohd They were found buried in the desert a few years back I do believe.
@@edwin3928ohd Damn, have a link on this topic?
Why tf they produced sooo many copies of the same fkn game
This was my first TV. My parents gave it to me as a gift back in 1984 in my own room. Wow has this taken me back, thanks for sharing.
I vote to keep the TV set intact as is. I suspect you’ll encounter another one for parts.
Yeah for not I stuck it on a little side table in my living room. It's a cute thing!
Yes, pleeeeaseeee!
I mean ... what are you going to do more? Use the TRS-80 or watch reruns of Leave It to Beaver?
I wouldn’t feel too bad swapping tubes so it actually gets some use.
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 I had not now put power to it😡😡
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 I guess that this TV was given to you by Mat (@Techmoan) 😉👍..... He uses his time machine to go get it of the shelf back in the 70's .. 😁
As a kid, I was given a shed to have as a workshop (with power). This was where I did all of my electronics stuff, and I picked up one of these TVs for cheap at a garage sale. I remember watching a lot of shows on it, in black & white - in the 90's, while working on projects.
Then an asteroid hit and all the CRTs went extinct. There is not a single one left in the wild!!
@@metatechnologist read your comment while looking at my old CRT television lol
You were a lucky kid😀
@@metatechnologist Big lie.I still have a Jvc crt which has outlived my flat screens!
@@edwin2963 Yea just like when that other asteroid hit there were probably a few dinosaurs left that wandered around dazed until they too were gone! 🦕 🦖
I worked at a retirement home that was built in 1987. I would walk through the apartments and asked the manager when the appliances had been changed to new ones and he laughed at me and said these are the original appliances from 1987. They looked absolutely like they were just manufactured yesterday and they were 35 years old! Old people go easy on things.
They probably never touched them, just watched the same channel all the time. Wouldn't want to "break" it by changing the channel. 😀
@@ronk9830 they sure had a different relation with tech, like it was an alien thing. I absolute dismantle and mess with everything I have, I have no remorse of breaking it, breaking means adventure trying to fix it back.
@@monad_tcp Same here, Luiz. I explore every aspect of things, often times finding features not even mentioned in the owner's manual. It makes me think of all the new features in cars. Some people are oblivious to them, and don't put any of them to use even though they paid a lot of money for them, because they're afraid to try anything.
@@monad_tcp reminds me of how even some people my own age, who are perfectly happy tinkering with broken software configs I'd never want to touch, are amazed by my happiness to dig-into some hardware with a soldering iron 😅 they're amazed I don't break any components, I'm amazed they don't break their OS!
"40 years old! This must be from the 60s! :D"
-my brain
*checks current year and does math*
Oh... oh no.. I've aged...
You need to change the spot killer capacitor in that set. Otherwise, it's immaculate inside. What a rare find !!
Watching an old black and white TV in 3040 x 1440 on something that's not plugged into the wall is awesome
I watched the launch of the space shuttle Columbia on a TV like this one that we had on our kitchen table. I was late for school that day. Worth it. 📺
I have a theory that this might have never been sold to the public, and was from a smaller electronics retailer, and it was kept in their warehouse till the person who gave it to you came across it from someone cleaning out said warehouse. Regardless of its history this is a very nice set indeed.
@Commodorefan64
I agree, I wonder if this was supposed to be a run of display sets that were never intended for retail sale either for consumers or possibly for business and it just ended up sitting in a warehouse and got forgotten in a dust covered box in the corner? Perhaps the warehouse owners were trying to clean house or audit and came across it decades later.
Yep, thats how i got my 25 yr old VCR NEW IN BOX, it was found in the 2nd floor "storage" space and was behind the cabinets that have been up there for 30 yrs, storing receipts and "junk", when they moved to a smaller facility and had to move all the cabinets and junk, when they moved the one cabinet, they found a VCR new in box that was NEVER opened and it looked like it FELL between the cabinets and just sat there for 25 yrs .... the way they found it against the wall appeared to have fell in there and nobody noticed or forgot about it. So i got it for free and took it home. Yea, it powered up and works.
@@ACommenterOnUA-cam Seriously nice score, and I been going back, and rewatching Miami vice, and the episode Made for Each Other(season 1, Episode 18) is about a small retail chain of electronics stores(spoofing Crazy Eddie's at the time) running accounting scams, and selling grey market/stolen merch, and with the way warehouses were packed back then to rafters with cardboard boxes also in the way it was in the show, you finding the VCR like that does not surprise me, and makes me wonder how much other new in box 80's, and 90's electronics, video games, etc.. are in some old warehouse just waiting for someone to come across.
@@CommodoreFan64 Oh yes ...Crazy Eddies ... We had one and my mom almost lost her SHIT with the manager there back in the 90's ... Something about them selling my brother a def or generic walkman and accused him of swapping it or breaking it and wanting a replacement. It got loud in that store and my mom went into bitch mode and let them have it. I think they eventually swapped it out for him but yea that store lol ...
But yea what a find on that vcr. And how many more electronics are out there there just waiting to be found.
I worked for an electronics distributor and while I never found an old TV like this I would find PS1 monitors. They were 5 inch LCD monitors. I just googled it and they sell for around $160 or so. I remember finding cases of them. LOL I guess they were eventually recycled. I also found CD changers a lot, the ten disk ones I think. Inventory was always off at that place.
You know what I miss about the old crt tvs? as a kid I loved the feeling of the screen static on the back of my hand when I brushed it across the screen, and the crackle. I was an odd, odd child, I still remember pulling vacuum tubes from old abandoned TVs and radio's to throw at walls because they used to make a loud popping noise when they imploded.
The angled handle entry is likely due to the fact that a mold feature which has a inset that changes angle creates a catchment that prevents it from getting out of the mold. Any time you mold rigid plastic you have to be careful about design so you can actually remove it from the mold without making it a multipart mold with seam lines.
Moldy! Thanks!
This, since it's a cheap television, you'd needed to add a core part to make that reverse (or even flat) angle. Look at draft angle to learn more. You can mold anything you want, but if you want to do it cheaply with a single piece mold, you need to add draft angles to everything (the steeper, the cheaper/better). This also look like a mold that could have been used for several TV sets/tube configuration since you see the outline of a mold insert that mold the relief to the tube neck around 3:15.
Never thought I`d get nostalgic over static on a TV!
I got this set from my grandpa when I was a kid. He used it in a RV. And it came with a ac cable and also a car cigarette lighter plug cable, you would unplug the ac cable and plug the car cable right into the back. and I would watch it in the car on road trips lol
I had one like it in my bedroom when I was a teenager in the 80's, and I used it in my first apartment. It worked great and costs about $60. new in 1981.
18:17 the interference on channel 23 looks like it's from a digital over-the-air channel. KPXG in Portland is on UHF channel 22, so that might explain it.
Those old TVs with 300 ohm twin lead inputs were pretty bad with broadcast signal ingress. A TV station even 25 miles away would interfere with cable TV on the same channel.
Very good point -- I didn't even consider that. I get decent reception of OTA here even with rabbit ears -- although in the basement the signals aren't that strong.
I happen to be a fan of a show that's been running since the 60s, so I'm considering buying one of these older TVs to watch the older episodes on
I had this EXACT tv growing up as a kid. It was the B&W set that was old and my parents gave me to play around with. It's SO amazing to see a complete one! Adrian, please take care of it!
Same here.
You had the EXACT one? You the TV shown was yours?
wow this brings back memories as a kid. I remember those dials having to fiddle with the tuning ring to get the fuzz out.
These are called "GE Performance Television" - You can find lots of photos of them if you Google image search that term. I had one of these when I was a kid as my first TV. The coloration on mine was way different though, the speaker grille was too. Mine had a manufacture date of September 1976 and I got it from a yard sale in the early 90s. I think those are all 12" display size. I remember really liking the separate power and volume controls, as well as the little shunk noise from the sliding power switch.
I ended up passing it down to my little sisters when I got my first color TV and they used it for several years until it went pop and died one day. ☹
heh, when you said "my first TV" I assumed you meant you got it around the time it came out. lol Because my parents had this one as a spare TV in the mid to late 70s and it was fairly new when I was watching it! -in particularly I remember Adam West "Batman" re-runs, the "Monkees", and "School House Rock" on Saturday mornings, which had just come out, and stayed on air for a couple of decades at least.
My 1st too
Seems to be a common thing for people on UA-cam to make wild claims about vintage items for click bait these days. This thing definitely is not NOS but it is low hour and in nice shape. I had an earlier version of this same TV although mine still had some tubes in it. Like others, mine went "pop" one day and got tossed in the trash. You could get these for $40 or $50 brand new back then. Kids rooms, garages, kitchens are probably where a lot of these saw use.
Color was starting to dominate the market by 1976 and by 1980 black and white was rare.
Amazing. This TV brings back memories. My folks had one just like it on their kitchen table.
You're right about the handle. But, if I recall correctly, the center of balance of the TV was such that you fingers would be more or less horizontal after you picked it up. After you lifted it, the bottom of the TV would swing forward a bit.
I seem to remember the opposite, the bottom would "swing" backwards, but I was just a little kid with tiny hands, and it would have been a very clumsy endeavor to move it, no matter how the handle was designed.
This appears to be my wife and I's first tv! We married in 1976.
I think this is the exact model I had as a kid (I'm 41 now). It got GREAT reception. It met its end when I accidentally pulled it off of the hamper in the bathroom. I used to watch TV when taking a bath (far enough away).
We had a TV repair man and I haven't heard of a TV repair man for years. Do they still exist ?
I got this exact same tv around 1980. Same color and everything. If I remember correctly it had a label saying it was manufactured in 1979. I used it until the mid to late 1990’s. When you turned it off the picture shrank in size on the screen. Eventually the VHF knob cracked and the slide on/off switch didn’t work all the time. Great little tv. Thanks for the video. Lots of great memories.
You got this exact same tv around 1980? Your name is on it?
A TV like that one brings back some memories. That one does look like it's never been used or definitely used very lightly. Great find.
Outstanding. 52 years old and I thank you for transporting me to 1980.
Used one of those back in the day for my zx81…back then I was happy to get anything. Did a lot of programming on that machine. Many upgrades like memory, keyboard.
Regarding why someone might have a GE TV that they never used -- back in the day, GE used to sell refurbished goods to their employees, these were known as Class (single letter) products. For the life of me, I can't remember the letter now, I knew it 50+ years ago. Anyhow, the Class "n" products were often better than new, because they had been individually touched/serviced, so the employees snapped them up and they were great bargains. So perhaps an employee bought a "spare" TV at the Class "n" sale (they only happened once or twice a year) but never needed the spare TV.
He, that is interesting and certainly plausible. The history of the TV is unknown so perhaps it was boxed and when it was brought in to be ewasted, it was unboxed and this is what I ended up with.
Then along came Jack and put the neutron to it.
I worked at a Zenith facility in the Chicago area a bit over 30 years ago. We also had an "employee store". The new sets were a tad cheaper than the appliance superstores. The real "deals" were the slightly used sets pulled from production and tested for a length of time. Those were sold without packaging, so I had to buy a new set to send to my parents in NY State.
I had some ex-GE colleagues when I worked in Syracuse nearly 40 years ago. I think they called the sets pulled from production and tested "Class X" products.
TV like this had personality and self respect
My family had one of these in the 70s and I took it to college in the late 80s. Somewhere around here I even have a photo of me in my dorm room with this TV in the background. What was great about this set was that from my hometown of South Bend, Indiana, the built-in antenna could be aimed to pick up Channels 9 and 32, and a very ghosty 44, out of Chicago. None of the other TVs we ever owned could do that. Ours had an earphone jack, which I used to record some early-1980s TV sounds onto cassette. Sure wish I knew what happened to that cassette.
The spot shows just how much capacity is in that tube electrically and also how much thermal mass the cathode heater has - cause when I have my patchwork of CRT info in the right place, the dot should disappear when either the acceleration voltage drops under a critical point or the cathode cools down enough to no longer emit electrons. I am willing to bet that this set was not winning any energy saving ribbons even back in the day 😅 But vintage tech isn't supposed to be a daily use device anyhow. 👍
The sticker says "28 watts avg". I realize it's only a 12" set so it could probably get by with less, but still, hardly a space heater.
My grandmother had this exact same TV in her eat in kitchen when I was growing up. It sat on top of the "portable" dishwasher. remember those?
Such sets were in deed popular in those days. I had a similar 12" B/W set made by Philips, probably got it in the mid seventies.
Later I replaced it with a slightly larger color set.
Gotta love the thinking that went into that fuse placement.
My Grandma had one very similar in her bedroom, she had two beds in there we used to all us kids lay on the second bed and watch it. This was the early 80's. We didnt care it was black and white, it was just cool to have a tv we could watch what we wanted and the adults watched the living room tv. Back then you had to fight to watch what you wanted, not like nowadays where everyone has their own in their hands.
I bought a GE black and white TV in 1980. It went everywhere with me. It worked well in 2020 when I turned it in for recycling. I was sad to see it go.
It appears like a time traveller dropped off a new TV to you from the 70s Adrian! 😁
Reminds me when I found a late 60's TV that was NOS. It had Tubes (More like compactrons) but I never got it up and working. Was before I knew that Caps had a life span.
Awesome! I noticed that fuse before you pointed it out and was like "uh...what the heck?"
Interesting you can see the dust fly off the set when he turns it on for the first time. Static electricity is fun!
Oh, I didn't know that's the reason for the "No serviceable parts inside" thing, it makes a lot more sense now!
In the early 80's, we only had one television in the house. I remember it had problems and my grandparents borrowed this type of b&w GE set to my parents so we could have something to watch. I also remember that the little GE could bring in the UHF channels with it's own antenna better than our early 70's Quasar color tv that had an antenna on the roof.
🤔😉😀😀👍👍👌👌👍👍 Those old CRT's are amazing... Pity that we forget about them day by day... I don't have CRT's collection but I do have nice collection of vintage phones and have plans to make some videos about them...
Thus far, the only crt in my collection is a Macintosh classic. I enjoy looking at it
What do you mean by phones though? Actual phones or mobiles?
I bought an eMac because I missed crt's, it's my gaming rig! Leazy retrogaming with a real MT32...
I grew up with CRTs and VCRs; they were horrible devices that produced low quality video.
@@Okurka. VCRs weren't out til I was a teenager. Not cable TV either. Do you remember getting three VHF channels, a public station and about three UHF stations? Now that was low quality video.
I just found a new favorite channel! Subscribed.
I just learned something today! I didn't know that the "No user serviceable parts inside" had this history, thanks!
I have no need for a test pattern generator but I want that device for some reason! :D
yeah, before the 80s, there was the idea that anyone should be able to bring expensive items (like TVs and radios) to any repair shop they want. And any person who gained a fair amount of knowledge should be able to go into business as a repair-person (although a repairman might dedicate themselves to a single brand). "Right to repair" was just assumed as a matter of course. But over time "protecting the public from high voltage" turned into making electronics impossible to repair.
@@squirlmy plus miniaturization (solid state + small parts), using brittle flex cables everywhere and the cursed glueing is also agains easy repair
@@squirlmy That's not it.
Anyone could take out the vacuum tubes and go test them out even at grocery stores.
That warning is because you could no longer take out the tubes (since there was none) and go test them out yourself, it has nothing to do with repair shops.
@Dukefazon, you think like me. Sees a piece of equipment that is of no use and thinks “ wouldn’t it be cool to have that”.
Clint has spoiled me into thinking new old stock means an unboxing (and a sniff test lol)
Who’s Clint??
@@williamsquires3070 He is referring to the host of the UA-cam channel Lazy Game Reviews (LGR), a gaming and retro computer channel that also sometimes covers other tech like vintage TV’s, though mostly on his second channel LGR Blurbs.
Haha, I remember LGR's sniff tests. Haven't watched him in ages.
That size TV was often used in RV's/travel trailers due to the small size. So it may have been in an unused RV in storage for a long time.
Maybe channel 24 is a strong digital TV broadcast station in your area and it's interfering with the tuner?
We're wondering that as well. With the last repack, KATU is on 24, KOIN is on 25, and he was seeing poor picture quality on both yet 23 was fine.
The speaker has a date code of week 38 of 1980, so this could be an '80 or very early 81 set. Yeah, this TV looks like it was just taken out of the box. That's crazy clean inside.
I literally had the exact model TV in my parent's kitchen growing up. Watched many a Saturday morning cartoon on it.
Nice find. It reminds me very much of my first TV I bought as a child in 1982. As you mentioned, the price of them went way down around that time and I was able to buy one new somewhere between $40-$50. Wasn't long though until I moved to color as sometime in 83, my dad gave me a 19" color tv to stop me from tying up the living room set when I wanted to play my video games in color.
Bought a tv as a child in 1982?!! What a fake lie!😀😀
I was 11 in 1982, while my father did help me pick a good one out, it's no lie, though I fail to understand why you're accusing me of doing so, though if it's because I look too young, I'll take that as a compliment. 😀
What an opportunity to be able to evaluate this old of a CRT that hasn't been used and at 18:23 I get Fallout Pip Boy vibes!
God, you make me feel old! I had that exact same model of TV during my college days! I bought it second-hand for $30.
I can still remember the buzzing sound and the warm dusty smell coming through the vents when I put my face over it. There was something comforting about the warm glow I saw inside through the vents on top.
Wish we could turn back time, to the good old days.
This TV would work in some locations here in Brazil, as some regions still have the analog transmission signal.
I would love to see you play Atari 2600 on it.
I was thinking the same thing. :) Hey! How about a Colecovision?
That would be sweet!
That is the same TV we had when I was kid. Interesting to see it still in mint condition. We would often cycle the power on it to see if we could get the white dot that would appear when it was shut off to appear as bright and as long as possible. :) Later in the early 80's is became our primary monitor for the Sinclair ZX-80.
That is the same TV we had when I was kid? You know that you put your name on it?
This make and model was in my parents bedroom in the 80's and then mine in the 90's. I remember watching star trek and and 'In Living Color' but in black and white. Weird flashback...
Ah, more CRT content! Love it! Never seen such a clean tube so far in real life. But then again, I don't tend to look for b/w televisions and are always out for some small color tubes. The design of these, however, like this one shows, was just pure awesomeness :-) Thanks for sharing!
You sir are an outstanding QC tech. Very interesting as this would have been a set I could have afforded in 1980 or 81.
I would Watch a bunch of Twilight Zone episodes on that just for the nostalgia before gutting it!!
wouldn't you have to find an old VCR and old Twilight Zone videotape? Or else some pretty heavy duty digital converters, probably more than one.
Prime example how a 30 yr old TV still powers up and works where todays flat screen tv goes to shit in 3 yrs ...
I bought that same TV in the Fall of 1980 for my college dorm room. Funny that you talk about them being cheap - that one really wasn't, or at least it didn't seem so to me at the time. It was $129.99 at Kmart, which would be well over $400 today. I remember that vividly because it was a lot of money and I hated having to call my dad to ask if it was okay to purchase and to make he'd cover it since my old tv died. It was a reliable little set that we used for decades. I'm not sure if it may still be in storage at my parents' house. Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
I had that TV as a kid!!!! It's been so long since I seen 300ohm Rabbit Ears antenna screws. Oh the memories!!!
The fork terminals would break off. Then you'd have to put the copper wire under the screw and still that would break off. The little lead would get shorter and shorter to the point where you'd have to get a new one. In the meantime you have to deal with a lousy picture with just one lead connected.
@@kilwala2242 Had that issue with my Atari 2600 TV/Game switch box that used the 300 Ohm leads.
My first entertainment center was one of these tv’s and an AM/FM transistor radio. Brings back memories.
SO many memories! I have not been able to repair mine but it is the first TV I watched a Chicago Cubs game one. Thanks for showing this perfect conditioned one!
we must fix that spot!
Oh no! the spot!
I had an uncle that made a cloth cover for his tv when it wasn't in use, he believed that sunlight and indoor lights could degrade the screen over time, plus he said keeping dust out of the cabinet would prolong it's life. All his TV's were old but they looked new like the one in this video. When he eventually bought a VCR in the 80's he was even more concerned about dust, he would clean the entire VHS cassette before he uncovered the VCR to put the tape in.
As a kid we owned this exact model TV except the back shell was a deep red. I remember that slanted grip. What I also remember was for a short while, when it was new, there was a slender piece of plastic adhered under the top lip. Black. About 4 to 6" long, 1/2" wide, 1/8" thick. It separated and we never glued it back on. It was just enough to provide the added grip. The fact that it was glued on makes me wonder if was an afterthought maybe after people complained.
My parents had a 9" GE color TV in the kitchen in the early 1980's . The case was much more square, and had lots of fake woodgrain. It had two rod antennas, with a UHF "bowtie" antenna that clipped onto one of the rod antennas. It also had the service manual in a plastic cover that snapped into the main case on the back. I remember watching a few key world events on it, like the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake as it was happening (we thought that we were going to watch the World Series as we did dishes after dinner 😂 )
I have something similar in my vacation home earlier this year I put my Pac-Man plug-in play on it using an RCA converter box now I want to take that thing and put it in my room at home but for some reason I'm not allowed to oh well. Eventually I'll probably find another one somewhere near cuz my vacation home is out in New Hampshire and I'm in Pennsylvania and riding all the way back in the car is probably going to jazz it up a little bit cuz it's not in great shape anyway. Playing Pac-Man and galaga on that thing was pretty cool though.
Actually had this same model when I was a kid. A great video! Thanks for sharing!
i had a 9 inch tv similar to that as a kid that appears to be even older than that one because it didn't have any connections for vcr or anything. it was only able to use the antenna for local channels. Definitely brought back memories seeing something like this.
I think that's the same little TV I had in my room as a little kid. I don't remember what happened to it but when I had it I was able to watch cartoons when I wanted (when they were on, old people get what I'm saying) and it was a happy time.
Yaaaaaaaay CRT stuff again 😍
If you need that crt for the computer absolutely do it. Imo. I'd wager the tv was a door prize and sat in the basement because "perfectly good tv can't throw it out". Exited to see more of the that trs 80. Loved the videos on the drives :)
Indeed, that's very true. I could see this as a raffle prize or a doorprize that someone didn't really need. Amazing to hold onto it for so long, but I guess people stick stuff in basements and they can easily sit for 40 years.
Back in the 70's you learned one thing about portable TV's - never trust a plastic carrying handle. I did one day, taking a customer TV upstairs to the workshop, the handle gave way, the TV bounced all the way down two flights of stairs to the bottom, and i got well chewed out over it, we had to buy the customer a new TV. I learned electronics and TV servicing the hard way, trial and error. Glass valves were the best, much easier to fix, and practically indestructible, you could get a glass valve so hot the glass would soften and the vacuum suck it in, and it would still work afterwards. I also remember selenium rectifiers, you knew when they had failed the moment you walked into the house, they stank of rotten fish. And you knew when a set has been in a house with a smoker, the EHT stages would be covered in thick sticky nicotine tar.
Keep it as it is. Great antique.
In the late 1990's I saved a 1979 GE model like that. Used it as a tv upto 2007. Ealier, as bedroom tv. Later in the kitchen. By the the year 2022, it is a kitchen item
I’ve taken many TVs apart over the years, but, to be honest, that is THE first TV I have EVER seen that did not have a boot on the high voltage lead.
When I was a little kid, I was scared of a glowing television set in the dark. It just freaked me out.
Me too, I had a Tandy computer with green CRT screen. Scared the hell out of me at night, I thought it would explode
What a great little TV set, my 80s b&w set is completely worn out
The TV looks like it came out of the box a few days ago. Not a single dirt in it. Pretty amazing
Tube testing stations nearly went the way of the dodo when solid-state CRTs (both color and black and white picture models) became mainstream...
I remember tube testing stations well. Starting to feel old...
I had this very same set in my bedroom from the mid to late 90s when I was a teenager. It was a great little TV. I vividly remember watching WCW Monday Nitro and playing PlayStation on it. The black and white picture certainly added to the atmosphere while playing Resident Evil. Good times. I miss that TV. Sadly, I don't remember what happened to it after I got a 13" color Philips TV/VCR combo.
You had this very same set? Amazing how did you know did you put your name on it?
@@Capecodham The same model, smart ass.
@@mrpopsicleman That is not what you said. You said it "was the very same set." That is pretty definitive. Keyboard warrior, so brave as you cower behind your keyboard.
@@Capecodham Yup, that's exactly what I'm doing. Boy, you really called me out. I tip my figurative hat to you. From this day forward, let it be know that I am a "keyboard warrior" because I worded a sentence incorrectly. I shall henceforth live in guilt and shame. All hail @burt2481 for taking the time to reply to a year old post and call me out for my insolence.
@@mrpopsicleman You deleted one of your replies, ashamed were you not?
You also said this:
Jason Sikes
burt2481 The same model, smart ass.
The date code and origin of manufacturing on the tube (Japan, 1970s), build quality of the set, and the date and location of assembly (El Salvador 1980) makes me wonder if someone had a glut of black and white tubes and this set was built to move old components before they were "worthless." The fact that this one sat unused sort of speaks to that!
I had a hard time back in 2014 when people were throwing thier TV's out on the curb and/or recycle programs. I respect your passion and good review!
Growing up my family had this same EXACT TV sitting on our kitchen table. Ours dated back to the late 70s early 80s at the latest, if I'm not mistaken. This is a beautiful example!
Fun video. I had a 12 inch black and white TV in my bedroom as a kid. That's where I would go to watch things my parents weren't into, like Doctor Who.
For those who may not have that much experience with them... CRTs are *dust magnets*. When they're running they build up a static charge that attracts dust to the screen, the vents, the interior, pretty much everywhere. That's one reason why it seems like it was never even turned on.
Man this brings back memories. My parents had this tv in the kitchen when I was growing up!
Pretty similar to a TV I bought in 1983 for my ZX Spectrum 16K. I was in the UK so mine was 625 Line and UHF only of course and you had to tune it to channel 36 to use on computers or video recorders.
The CRT was king because there was nothing else that would display a picture. Bulky, heavy and dangerous, now that LCD screens no longer need fluorescent tubes for a backlight, high voltage is no longer required for television.
Very cool. Although, I find myself more intigued by the VG91. I guess I missed that video. A very cool tool, for sure. I picked up a BK PRECISION 1211E NTSC PATTERN GENERATOR last spring -- a nifty little hand-held unit for generating various signals and test patterns and outputting RF, composite and S-video. But the VG91 is a whole other story. 😃
The set you have was built here in Portsmouth Virginia. Alot of women in the area worked at that plant in the 60s,70s, and early 80s including both my grandmothers and my mother.
I never thought I would one day look at a TV and think it was beautiful.
GE shut down the College Park Portsmouth VA plant in 1986 where this was assembled.
Had one when I was 10. Used to cover it with a blanket and watch it when I was supposed to be sleeping. The Tonight Show, David Letterman, Taxi. Thanks for the memories.
This is exactly the kind of TV set a movie studio might want if they were making a show set in the 70's. You need a set from the 70/80's that looks brand new
I had that model tv for years from the 70's through the 80's in my bedroom.
What a great set !....cheers.