In my hometown, there are still big light up RCA and Zenith signs where the old TV store used to be. Its been closed for well over a decade, but it's still super cool to see little reminents of the old brands.
The sale should never have been permitted and imports should have been blocked from the beginning. Americans were betrayed by their own governments and now some of them even celebrate their own betrayal because they got flatter and cooler new TVs. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
I found a zenith vcr player next to the dumpster last night, and it had a ton of vhs's with it and a Panasonic Roadshow. Took em, cleaned em, and they work great lmao
some of the later model VCR's had a DVD combo in it, they where mostly made by Funai, a low quality Chinese brand, the last VCR i bought was a Magnavox with a DVD player i paid 39,95 for it at Walmart because i was in a hurry and i wanted to record something by it didn't have a VCR at the time, whiten a few months the VCR ate my tape, and later on the DVD player died, so i cut the power cord and threw it in the trash ua-cam.com/video/wQgm_iNjoYE/v-deo.html
"But obviously we're no longer watching massive tube tv's in wooden cabinets"...... But I look at mine every day....I use it as a stand for my 75" 4k TV
We got rid of our massive old tube tv and man that was hard to load into the car to take to the dump. Cool wooden TV but uhh, no one's using that anymore. And yeah it's a good sturdy stand.
The biggest tube tv I ever seen was at a friends place back in the early 2000's...it was either a 56" or 60" huge bubble front tube...it had i think 600 scanlines that were doubled through some wizardry. It was massive but at the time looked amazing when watching sports or movies on it. On a more personal note the last tube TV I had was just 36" & was a Proscan which was RCA's highend crap or at least that was how it was marketed at the time. Not sure why I decided to comment this must be because of all of the time on my hands from what is going on in the world right now.
I cant even imagine how monstrously big that tube TV you have must be for it to be wide enough to support a 75" widescreen oh my god. Probably weighs about 500 pounds to.
My father was an electrical engineer who worked for Zenith. I still remember when my father came home upset and said a bunch of Koreans came in the office and took over the place. He was laid off a few weeks later. My father passed in 2012 at the age of 70.
Mine was a Zenith house until about 1996, then Sony happened to us. RCA always struck me as the shit brand for poor people who didn't know any better. They looked worse, they were made worse, and they worked worse. Like everything American.
@@thegardenofeatin5965 I remember my now dead grandma picked up a well-used Sony Trinitron from a thrift shop back in the mid 90s. It had wax on the top where I guess someone burned a candle it had the "dials" and had to be 20-25 plus years old. But it still worked great and had a picture that was just **chef kiss** 👌. In contrast my grandparents when I was a kid back in the 80s got us a cheap fake wood RCA TV. It was ugly but it got the job done. But I hated American brands in the 90s and 2000s. They did in fact get worse and worse I only wish I'd kept one of those great Sony Trinitrons as all these years laterespecially for retro gaming they are the absolute creme de La creme.
We had 3 RCA TVs. A color knob model from the early 80s. We got rid of it around 2002 I think. It would start to get fuzzy then if you whacked it on the side it would fix it. We had a 91 very basic RCA with a remote that didn't even have a number pad on it though universal remote would work with a number pad. It lasted until 2011. We had a 94 25 in I think the capacitor blew on it twice and we were done with it. My dad had a 77 Zenith black and white knob operated TV It ran until the mid to late '90s. They got a '91 Zenith color TV to replace a JVC that was loaded with glitches. It ran around 10 to 12 years before the capacitor blew. We have two Philips CRTs around 24-25 in That still work great, about an '01 Trinitron, and a mid 2000s RCA CRT that seems very similar to one of the Philips CRTs.
@@thegardenofeatin5965 liked Zenith too, but NO! RCA was NOT a shit brand! Loved RCA! I remember an old phonograph that my parents had. Wished they’d let me keep it instead of selling it to a family friend!
A lot of it had to do with an uneven playing field. Japan's standard of living wasn't near where ours was back in the day, so labor costs were significantly cheaper. And with free trade, our companies were destined to loose. They didn't have near as much spending space for R&D as their foreign competitors. Zenith old headquarters were just about a 3-hour drive from where I was born and raised. I remember reading about their struggles and wishing that tariffs could be imposed in order to even the playing field. But of course, tariffs have unintended consequences. I'm no longer in support of tariffs. Irony has it that all the same things are happening now to Japanese companies that happened to our own companies a few decades ago. Japanese manufactures are now outsourcing production to Chinese companies.
Wrong. Apple has been innovating since the release of the first iMac, even though, some of the tech idea were stolen. It is more familiar to GlobalFoundries suing TSMC to stop the sells of their chips in the US. The only difference is GlobalFoundries was trying to compete but they were too small to keep up.
@John Chaser maybe in terms of research papers, but it's pretty hard to say that we innovate anything when there's practically no manufacturing industry in the US anymore. At least when it comes to technologies and products that make the world go round. Most of that is done by corporations overseas. The only real exception is military hardware and weaponry, which is pretty sad.
RCA actually tried a lot of things, but all on the same time with an horrible management and no focus whatsoever. They had a tape format, the CED, and even a holographic storage thing all being worked at once. That Technology Connections channel did like a four parter into the thing, but it was just a freaking train wreck in slowdown.
@@RicochetForce Those episodes were incredible. I felt especially sad for RCA when they made more progress in the CED in 1978 than they did in the 12 years prior.
To be fair, at least for RCA, the problem wasn't a lack of innovation so much as a lack of focus -- plus some poor decision making. Though that may be the way it always goes -- a company sees way too much success (as RCA saw with radio and TV), overextends itself, and its sheer size leaves it at an organizational disadvantage when it's time to come up with the next big thing.
Yep you're right back in those '80s and '90s I used to repair the chassis for Zenith and RCA JVC Panasonic etc most of all it was always the resistor was short.
Man, I had some Zenith radios, and tvs back in the day, the name holds an aire of nostalgia for me. I love seeing the name, it just makes me feel good. even if knowing my youth like the brand has faded into history. I remember having to wait for those tubes to warm up just to listen to the radio or watch tv. Kids today will never know that anticipatory couple minutes waiting for the tubes to warm up wondering if the TV was broken, or just warming up. Or being able to warm your hands up holding them over the back of the TV when you got back inside after playing in the snow. Tubes were awesome that way.
One thing that has to be said out of all the old brands Zenith was the best as far as quality. A prime example is I just recently picked up a 1968 zenith color television and I powered it up with a few safety measures in place and for the most part it worked. All it needed was a few capacitors and adjustments. Now it’s good to go.
My old RCA radio still works like new. It was from a time when quality was king. Also, so many iconic companies were bought over and became forced to sell rebadged cheap products. From watches to technology to audio companies. Very sad.
America needs to Crack down on our trade policies. We allow any and all nations products into our market but our competition in other countries do not reciprocate.
Sony isn't even dominating in the tv market or any other markets besides consoles. If the ps4 wasn't successful they would of been bankrupt a long time ago. I believe there was a article saying Sony had a 70% of going bankrupt and it's honestly understandable.
There are still US brands. Vizio being one, and good quality too. My kitchen TV (47 inch Vizio) has been on almost 24/7 since 2009, and its working like it did 11 years ago. Perfectly. (They do still manufacture in China, there are only a couple LCD producers in the world anyways, but still.. they are an American company). They are definitely significant too. since they sold their TV sets in Japan too! A very tough market.
I have a Zenith 50" Plasma. Still works super well and beats some of those new flat screens in black levels and man is it sharp. (No pun intended) I use it on my triple "monitor" setup. With a Vizio 70" 4K as my main screen.
Not gonna lie, seeing Zenith in the thumbnail sparked my memory. One of my main CRT TVs for several years, up until the picture eventually started to warp, which was late into the Nintendo Wii's life cycle. I probably had that TV for a good 10 years before I had the picture warping issue, leading me to replace it. Otherwise it was the longest lasting and best TV I had up until that point. It was the TV that I played my Gamecube on for the longest time, where Metroid Prime first blew my mind. with a level detail I had never seen in any game until that point.
1:38 I grew up with that exact same Ethan Allen Media Centre. It was in cherry finish and my parents still have it to this day. Although the Sanyo CRT is long gone and since been replaced with a Visio Smart TV. The cabinets directly under the TV is where you put the VHS/Beta tapes. Slots are provided that slide out so you can store the tapes. And the smaller drawers next to them has slots for CDs.
Funny enough, the FCC incentivized the development of HDTV by auctioning exclusive bandwidth licensing to companies who developed them successfully first to race against Japan. Reagan (the US president) was also inspired by the first HDTVs and allocated funds for mass production. It's described well in Joel Brinkley's "Defining Vision." It's arguable that HDTV development was funneled by government intervention. If it weren't for those interventions, the development would be abandoned in favor of priority industries including radio and analog broadcast channels. Without the incentives to develop HDTV in its time, we likely wouldn't see successful mass-marketed HDTV development till the far future.
@@voidless1 Yup, as said in the video: Once we see an industry as mature here in the states that shit is left to molder. We're far too conservative across the board, and that leads to the desperate flailing we see from our companies as they realize (far too late) that they have neither the innovation, skill, or production facilities necessary to compete globally. A lot of the stuff we take for granted these days was the result of the government offering a swift kick in the ass with incentives.
RCA tv's were great back in the day. My dad got our first colour TV in the early 70's and it lasted over 20 years. I got one in 95 that worked until the digital broadcast standards. My first RCA LCD died in under 6 months, the replacement barely made it a year.
Japanese companies paid for selling well below cost to Americans by selling well over a reasonable margin to customers in Japan where foreign competition wouldn't be a concern. This allowed them to squeeze American brands to death and then raise pricing to normal margins once the competition died.
Get a clue, the US has helped and worked with many Asian nations, but Chy-Nah is the Worlds biggest theft of intellectual property and worst counterfeiters in HISTORY. Most international laws the CCP blatantly ignores and thumbs its nose to constantly. Seriously get a clue, or you and your children's future will be gone forever.
Did you know that Zenith made computers? In the early days of the PC, Zenith partnered with the electronic kit company Heathkit, at first to create a series of TVs you could build at home, then IBM PC clone kits. Since the PCs were also available pre-built that made every Heathkit store a Zenith PC store. Unfortunately there were not enough stores to put a dent in the PC market or save the already struggling Heathkit. They both soon closed down.
@@aytviewer2421 maybe English speaking Canada, Quebec is officially a French speaking province and they plan on keeping it like that as long as possible.
Zenith TV's for the longest time were considered the best of the best back in the day. I had a 19" inch Zenith, that ran 7 days a week for about 6 hours a day for over 20 year's and that thing was still working just fine when I got rid of it, because the port's on the back simply became incompatible with modern electronics and game systems. The TV didn't even have RCA cable connection's or a coax input either, since when it was made, those things didn't even exist yet. So I had to use converters just to hook up basic cable. It was a fancy TV though. It was so advanced that instead of using a remote control, it just used your hand to physically change channels by turning a dial. And it had a port for rabbit ear antennas and even had a spiffy VHF/UHF option. I remember Zeniths headquarters in the Chicago area. Zenith was also Foxconns first ever customer when they decided to switch from quality TV's, to junk TV quality when Zenith started to struggle financially. I guess a LG is as close as you can get to a Zenith these days. I remember when LG first started selling TV's here in the states. It was right after Zenith stopped production in the late 1990's.
It's not just American companies. Nintendo is infamous for suing and taking down videos if you use their IPs. Lets Plays, music, fan games, rom sites - hell, they even sued an 8-year-old child for making his own Mario halloween costume. Funny, since Donkey Kong is a ripoff of two _American_ IPs: King Kong and Popeye. The original Donkey Kong game was reworked after they were no longer able to use Popeye characters. Mario is Popeye, DK is Brutus and Peach is Olive Oil.
@@kingdavid7516 Nintendo recently also sent out copyright a claims over Mario 64 pc port after a bunch of people remade the game to work on pc. I have no problem with companies defending copyright, but the worst part is there is literally nowhere Currently that you can buy the game. So Nintendo just took down a game that wasn't charging any money to be played and isnt being sold by Nintendo out of spite.
At one point I had an old Zenith TV with built in Rabbit Ears. It was probably the coolest TV I've ever had. Didn't always have the best picture but I got WB49 (now known as CW I think) and that worked for me 😁
@@richmahogany1 I don't like their instruments personally because thin necks cramp up my hand but probably ibanez.... The Japanese are at it again. Fenders are only really a good value used, and that's just because of the quantity out there.
No mention of the japanese "dumping", selling tvs at or below cost in the US? It's one of the major reasons how the gained an initial toehold in the US market. Go read about the Japenese Television Cartel on Wikipedia, they have a decent article on it.
I just bought a surge protector and one of my must haves was for it to be made in America. But after 2 hours of searching I gave up on that. I found one brand and I think they were more commercial. The ones I looked at costed in the $300 to 500 range
Unfortunately that's not how a lot of countries work. Welcome Nationalism's brother Protectionism, where a nation props up obviously dogshit companies that can't innovate or compete. All so politicians can please xenophobic voters who demand everything be made in their own country.
those were mostly hand built down in Texas, they had petty good build quality and often lasted quite a long time. They were expensive at the time but from people I heard that bought them, they were worth it. Ironicly, later on, they'd outsource their TVs to companies like Toshiba and Panasonic and just did what JCpenny and Radioshack did. We had a Curtis Mathes dealer here in my town in the mid 80s till around 90ish and we bought our first VCR from them. A rebranded 2 head JVC for $300 in 1986.
Yep, watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on a brand new Curtis Mathes Set - I remember my Father grumbling that he bought a brand new color tv to watch the event in black and white...lol
@BULLYFACE MEDIA Zenith has a much better name and logo than LG. If LG truly owns the brand, then they should dust it off and create a line of Zenith branded tvs. I would definitely buy a Zenith flat panel and doubt I am anywhere close to the only one. TVs are pretty bland these days too. If Zenith would make customisable and replacement bezel plates with classic wood trim and other colour options, I believe Zenith can definitely hold its own and stand out in the marketplace. Why is this not a thing already‽
My parents had an old RCA floor model tv they got brand new in the early 80s and used it all the way to 2007! I got an RCA in 2005 and it only lasted 5 years. So their quality definitely went down hill. I also have a Magnavox that I got in 1994 and never had an issue with it other then adding a digital tuner to it. Still works to this day!
Now the only Japanese brand TV i see in America is Sony. Everything else is either Samsung or LG, nothing else. Back in the 90s, there were so many choices.
I had a 13" RCA TV that had A/V input when I was 10. I gamed on that little screen for years until I gave it away right before High School when I inherited a 32" Toshiba.
Topic suggestion: Talk about sore eyes and drug addiction 🤩 man, you look terrible today 🤣🤣 Alcoholic? Yes! Anonymous? No! Keep up the good work Guys, I love your channel.
Zenith's R&D did innovate, but marketing and legal weren't interested. They released the ATSC standard briefly before dying, as a final goodbye. Goodbye Zenith, we didn't deserve your proprietary remote batteries only sold at Sears for way too much.
Excellent video, great overview of some of the major events that were behind the revolution in television manufacturing. Nice job! (and great speaking voice!) ~
2:43-2:59 In Japan you can find someone who has created a product for just about everything. It often makes you wonder, “how could that possibly be profitable?”, this answers the question -maybe it isn’t, but the Japanese are going to try anyway.
Today, RCA exists as a brand name only; the various RCA trademarks are currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment and Technicolor, which in turn license the brand name to several other companies including Voxx International, Curtis International, AVC Multimedia, TCL Corporation and Express LUCK International, Ltd. for their products.
Saying RCA died because it didnt innovate is literally the opposite of the truth; they innovated too much. Go watch Technology Connections' video series on the CED. Its a freaking vinyl record that plays video!
I suspect a big reason companies like RCA and GE didn't just copy the Japanese and make the far superior transistor TVs is that those companies had big investments in the manufacturing of vacuum tubes so a switch to transistors would have cost those manufacturers a lot of money. The Japanese companies like Sony on the other hand didn't have as much direct investment in vacuum tube manufacture (and were buying their tubes from someone else) and could more easily switch to transistors as the price came down (Sony for example not only made the first mass-produced transistor radio but they were also making the transistors themselves, meaning it was easy to use those same transistor manufacturing facilities to make transistors for TV sets later on)
You didn't even touch on all the work zenith did to create the HD standard. They held most of the patents for HD broadcast equipment and transmission. It drove them into bankruptcy. That's why LG swooped in and bought the company.
I miss those old large wooden console TVs. I wouldn't want to use one today because they're energy hogs, but I would love to have one unplugged in my house for its looks.
Riley's segues continue to confirm that he's Linus' padawan
I have a bad feeling about that.
If he's not getting the master rank, he'll turn to the dark side, becoming a sith lord.
Wait isn’t it spelt Segway
László Szerémi He’s got his own channel with James. Isn’t that already Master Rank?
@@nullskull-everything5495 Segway is the company that made the vehicle
@@nullskull-everything5495 no
In my hometown, there are still big light up RCA and Zenith signs where the old TV store used to be. Its been closed for well over a decade, but it's still super cool to see little reminents of the old brands.
Until about 15 years ago, there was still a Quasar sign on display until a storm destroyed it. I wish I could have gotten it before it was destroyed.
USA: Sells TV licenses to Japan
Japan: Improves and sells them legally
USA: "I will never forgive the japanese!"
Japan: Takes a huge chunk of the market share
USA: "HOLLY SHIIIIT"
Japanese sign the treaty to never start a war. Little do they know, they started a war on marketing instead.
The sale should never have been permitted and imports should have been blocked from the beginning. Americans were betrayed by their own governments and now some of them even celebrate their own betrayal because they got flatter and cooler new TVs. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
Same thing happened with car markets. Companies licensed their tech hoping for a big payday, but fucked themselves in the long run.
Is that a JOJO reference?
I recommend watching channel Technology Connections. You'll be surprised how many of topics mentioned here were mentioned in his video in detail.
I was about to do the same. Great channel
glad to see im not the only fan ! that is also here
I love that channel!
Superb recommendation
His Laserdiscs video is flyyy
I found a zenith vcr player next to the dumpster last night, and it had a ton of vhs's with it and a Panasonic Roadshow. Took em, cleaned em, and they work great lmao
you are one lucky boi
some of the later model VCR's had a DVD combo in it, they where mostly made by Funai, a low quality Chinese brand, the last VCR i bought was a Magnavox with a DVD player i paid 39,95 for it at Walmart because i was in a hurry and i wanted to record something by it didn't have a VCR at the time, whiten a few months the VCR ate my tape, and later on the DVD player died, so i cut the power cord and threw it in the trash ua-cam.com/video/wQgm_iNjoYE/v-deo.html
but.. why bother. It was probably in the dumpster because the internet exists now.
@@user-hp4vg3ek2y sell it for a pretty penny in 50 years
The other use of alcohol 😁
"But obviously we're no longer watching massive tube tv's in wooden cabinets"......
But I look at mine every day....I use it as a stand for my 75" 4k TV
Nice! Best of both worlds in my opinion!
My uncle has a MASSIVE crt TV. Like, massive. He still uses it.
We got rid of our massive old tube tv and man that was hard to load into the car to take to the dump. Cool wooden TV but uhh, no one's using that anymore. And yeah it's a good sturdy stand.
The biggest tube tv I ever seen was at a friends place back in the early 2000's...it was either a 56" or 60" huge bubble front tube...it had i think 600 scanlines that were doubled through some wizardry. It was massive but at the time looked amazing when watching sports or movies on it.
On a more personal note the last tube TV I had was just 36" & was a Proscan which was RCA's highend crap or at least that was how it was marketed at the time. Not sure why I decided to comment this must be because of all of the time on my hands from what is going on in the world right now.
I cant even imagine how monstrously big that tube TV you have must be for it to be wide enough to support a 75" widescreen oh my god.
Probably weighs about 500 pounds to.
Hear that INTEL
🤣 🤣 🤣
Hahaha exactly what I thought 😂
Was just about to say that! XD
Not even a relevant comparison...
For example GE is an extremely diverse Billion dollar company, they just stopped making TV's.
@@probablynotabigtoe9407 I mean Intel's basically the same as ge in that regard
I'm addicted to these tech history video you guys are making.
OneStepForward same. Love it.
You need to warch videos of carryminati
If you like old TV and analog video in general, Technology Connections has several great series
same, love to learn. Mind as well learn while being entertained!
@@TheShitSmith Is that the guy who made 40 minute video about a toaster or 5 parter about RCA attempts to release videodisc?
My father was an electrical engineer who worked for Zenith. I still remember when my father came home upset and said a bunch of Koreans came in the office and took over the place. He was laid off a few weeks later. My father passed in 2012 at the age of 70.
We used to have an RCA. Had an integrated VCR that ate tapes every couple of tapes...
Mine was a Zenith house until about 1996, then Sony happened to us. RCA always struck me as the shit brand for poor people who didn't know any better. They looked worse, they were made worse, and they worked worse. Like everything American.
@@thegardenofeatin5965
I remember my now dead grandma picked up a well-used Sony Trinitron from a thrift shop back in the mid 90s.
It had wax on the top where I guess someone burned a candle it had the "dials" and had to be 20-25 plus years old.
But it still worked great and had a picture that was just **chef kiss** 👌. In contrast my grandparents when I was a kid back in the 80s got us a cheap fake wood RCA TV.
It was ugly but it got the job done. But I hated American brands in the 90s and 2000s. They did in fact get worse and worse I only wish I'd kept one of those great Sony Trinitrons as all these years laterespecially for retro gaming they are the absolute creme de La creme.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I have a Sony trinatron
We had 3 RCA TVs. A color knob model from the early 80s. We got rid of it around 2002 I think. It would start to get fuzzy then if you whacked it on the side it would fix it. We had a 91 very basic RCA with a remote that didn't even have a number pad on it though universal remote would work with a number pad. It lasted until 2011. We had a 94 25 in I think the capacitor blew on it twice and we were done with it.
My dad had a 77 Zenith black and white knob operated TV It ran until the mid to late '90s. They got a '91 Zenith color TV to replace a JVC that was loaded with glitches. It ran around 10 to 12 years before the capacitor blew. We have two Philips CRTs around 24-25 in That still work great, about an '01 Trinitron, and a mid 2000s RCA CRT that seems very similar to one of the Philips CRTs.
@@thegardenofeatin5965 liked Zenith too, but NO! RCA was NOT a shit brand! Loved RCA! I remember an old phonograph that my parents had. Wished they’d let me keep it instead of selling it to a family friend!
A lot of it had to do with an uneven playing field. Japan's standard of living wasn't near where ours was back in the day, so labor costs were significantly cheaper. And with free trade, our companies were destined to loose. They didn't have near as much spending space for R&D as their foreign competitors.
Zenith old headquarters were just about a 3-hour drive from where I was born and raised. I remember reading about their struggles and wishing that tariffs could be imposed in order to even the playing field. But of course, tariffs have unintended consequences. I'm no longer in support of tariffs.
Irony has it that all the same things are happening now to Japanese companies that happened to our own companies a few decades ago. Japanese manufactures are now outsourcing production to Chinese companies.
If you're not going to use tariffs to balance trade, how would you do it?
When Zenith took the Japanese company to court, I was like, hmmmmmmmmmm, this looks familiar.
APPLE
@@sharoyveduchi steve job
@@gurung1812 he's dead bro
I just wanted to mention that Zenith's logo looks pretty sick. Not that i'm biased or anything.
Wrong. Apple has been innovating since the release of the first iMac, even though, some of the tech idea were stolen. It is more familiar to GlobalFoundries suing TSMC to stop the sells of their chips in the US. The only difference is GlobalFoundries was trying to compete but they were too small to keep up.
The japanese brands that improved the TVs pulled the biggest uno switch ever
And that is why I love east Asian nations because they always innovate and create something new.
@John Chaser invent on lawyer? That's fair.
@John Chaser maybe in terms of research papers, but it's pretty hard to say that we innovate anything when there's practically no manufacturing industry in the US anymore. At least when it comes to technologies and products that make the world go round. Most of that is done by corporations overseas. The only real exception is military hardware and weaponry, which is pretty sad.
@@Thuazabi Western innovation is in software at the moment, hence places like Silicon Valley
@@Thuazabi the government still spent billions on private manufactures for military equipment. They don't make weapons in house.
RCA actually tried a lot of things, but all on the same time with an horrible management and no focus whatsoever.
They had a tape format, the CED, and even a holographic storage thing all being worked at once.
That Technology Connections channel did like a four parter into the thing, but it was just a freaking train wreck in slowdown.
That episode was incredible.
@@RicochetForce Those episodes were incredible.
I felt especially sad for RCA when they made more progress in the CED in 1978 than they did in the 12 years prior.
@@mihirmutalikdesai It's wild how after a certain point companies either stopped trying or didn't know HOW to move forward.
To be fair, at least for RCA, the problem wasn't a lack of innovation so much as a lack of focus -- plus some poor decision making. Though that may be the way it always goes -- a company sees way too much success (as RCA saw with radio and TV), overextends itself, and its sheer size leaves it at an organizational disadvantage when it's time to come up with the next big thing.
1:36 mark sounds like Simpsons Hit and Run sound effect when tokens come out of objects.
Hell Yeah. Was a great Game. Member? D:
Nice video, am now a huge fan
JumpVelocity Thanks I appreciate that! Haven't uploaded anything on this channel in years. Checkout my other channel if you want -> @mikee81293
I loved that game! So underrated!
Nick Slouka Amen!
0:04 I AM ROMANIAN AND NEVER THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE SHOWN ON TQ
adevarat lol
Tell us more about it please. Many of us aren't aware of that event.
@@ryangonzales7716 oh boy , here we go again
Buckle up
I'm from Moldova so i have no idea what happened there.
@@ryangonzales7716 I'll take a seat in the corner. Just inc things get good.
Yep you're right back in those '80s and '90s I used to repair the chassis for Zenith and RCA JVC Panasonic etc most of all it was always the resistor was short.
Man, I had some Zenith radios, and tvs back in the day, the name holds an aire of nostalgia for me. I love seeing the name, it just makes me feel good. even if knowing my youth like the brand has faded into history. I remember having to wait for those tubes to warm up just to listen to the radio or watch tv. Kids today will never know that anticipatory couple minutes waiting for the tubes to warm up wondering if the TV was broken, or just warming up. Or being able to warm your hands up holding them over the back of the TV when you got back inside after playing in the snow. Tubes were awesome that way.
Hell yeah
Well my guitar amp has at least four power tubes and quite a few preamp tubes as well
One thing that has to be said out of all the old brands Zenith was the best as far as quality. A prime example is I just recently picked up a 1968 zenith color television and I powered it up with a few safety measures in place and for the most part it worked. All it needed was a few capacitors and adjustments. Now it’s good to go.
“CHAINA”
Zenith was my favorite logo out of those three
My old RCA radio still works like new. It was from a time when quality was king. Also, so many iconic companies were bought over and became forced to sell rebadged cheap products. From watches to technology to audio companies. Very sad.
America needs to Crack down on our trade policies. We allow any and all nations products into our market but our competition in other countries do not reciprocate.
Intel better be listening....
This comment is underrated
They're just coasting on normie brand recognition measuring overall PC power in "i number" and Apple's need for Thunderbolt.
So true
Zenith has died...
*Looks over at old Zenith monitor sitting on desk*
Sony isn't even dominating in the tv market or any other markets besides consoles. If the ps4 wasn't successful they would of been bankrupt a long time ago. I believe there was a article saying Sony had a 70% of going bankrupt and it's honestly understandable.
There are still US brands. Vizio being one, and good quality too. My kitchen TV (47 inch Vizio) has been on almost 24/7 since 2009, and its working like it did 11 years ago. Perfectly. (They do still manufacture in China, there are only a couple LCD producers in the world anyways, but still.. they are an American company). They are definitely significant too. since they sold their TV sets in Japan too! A very tough market.
Westinghouse, RCA, Magnavox, Element, Emerson are all American TV brands that still make TVs.
"People dont watch big tube tvs in wood cabinets anymore"
*looks up from bed.*
“What happened to American TV Brands?” ....I was literally asking myself this same question a few days ago. NO JOKE!!
"we're... Moving to TikTok." - Riley Murdock
Which is also in CHY-NA.
I have a Zenith 50" Plasma. Still works super well and beats some of those new flat screens in black levels and man is it sharp. (No pun intended) I use it on my triple "monitor" setup. With a Vizio 70" 4K as my main screen.
"you must innovate"
Intel has left the chat.
Not gonna lie, seeing Zenith in the thumbnail sparked my memory. One of my main CRT TVs for several years, up until the picture eventually started to warp, which was late into the Nintendo Wii's life cycle. I probably had that TV for a good 10 years before I had the picture warping issue, leading me to replace it. Otherwise it was the longest lasting and best TV I had up until that point. It was the TV that I played my Gamecube on for the longest time, where Metroid Prime first blew my mind. with a level detail I had never seen in any game until that point.
The picture warping was probably due to failing caps. The tube itself was still fine though… probably.
Wow, I was watching the New Jordan Docuseries yesterday "The Last Dance" and saw a Zenith TV, and I thought what happened to that brand.
1:38 I grew up with that exact same Ethan Allen Media Centre. It was in cherry finish and my parents still have it to this day. Although the Sanyo CRT is long gone and since been replaced with a Visio Smart TV. The cabinets directly under the TV is where you put the VHS/Beta tapes. Slots are provided that slide out so you can store the tapes. And the smaller drawers next to them has slots for CDs.
Zenith the prime candidate where I got most of my gaming started. Along with the phat ps2 ofcourse
I've still got an old Magnavox DVD/VCR combo unit. The DVD player doesn't work anymore but the VCR player still functions.
and that's precisely how the free market is supposed to run.
Funny enough, the FCC incentivized the development of HDTV by auctioning exclusive bandwidth licensing to companies who developed them successfully first to race against Japan. Reagan (the US president) was also inspired by the first HDTVs and allocated funds for mass production. It's described well in Joel Brinkley's "Defining Vision." It's arguable that HDTV development was funneled by government intervention. If it weren't for those interventions, the development would be abandoned in favor of priority industries including radio and analog broadcast channels. Without the incentives to develop HDTV in its time, we likely wouldn't see successful mass-marketed HDTV development till the far future.
@@voidless1 Yup, as said in the video: Once we see an industry as mature here in the states that shit is left to molder. We're far too conservative across the board, and that leads to the desperate flailing we see from our companies as they realize (far too late) that they have neither the innovation, skill, or production facilities necessary to compete globally. A lot of the stuff we take for granted these days was the result of the government offering a swift kick in the ass with incentives.
RCA tv's were great back in the day. My dad got our first colour TV in the early 70's and it lasted over 20 years. I got one in 95 that worked until the digital broadcast standards.
My first RCA LCD died in under 6 months, the replacement barely made it a year.
seeing ceausescu as a romanian on ltt was such a bruh moment XD
Japanese companies paid for selling well below cost to Americans by selling well over a reasonable margin to customers in Japan where foreign competition wouldn't be a concern. This allowed them to squeeze American brands to death and then raise pricing to normal margins once the competition died.
"Look, Asian company sold more than us. Let's bring them to court for whatever reason." - every US company.
It works some of the times, which to a company means it works every time, even when it doesn't.
You can't compete with slave labor. Here here, let's have a toast to suicide nets and 16-hour work days.
Get a clue, the US has helped and worked with many Asian nations, but Chy-Nah is the Worlds biggest theft of intellectual property and worst counterfeiters in HISTORY. Most international laws the CCP blatantly ignores and thumbs its nose to constantly. Seriously get a clue, or you and your children's future will be gone forever.
@@jackiescum5438 and people dont care and buy cheap stuff. Maybe if you give them more money?
It was over dumping.
Did you know that Zenith made computers? In the early days of the PC, Zenith partnered with the electronic kit company Heathkit, at first to create a series of TVs you could build at home, then IBM PC clone kits. Since the PCs were also available pre-built that made every Heathkit store a Zenith PC store. Unfortunately there were not enough stores to put a dent in the PC market or save the already struggling Heathkit. They both soon closed down.
0:31 "Here in North America"
Canada: Yes, I'm North America
Yes it is, except Vancouver and Toronto. Those are Asia
I always thought of Canada as the 51st state! AND the best state at that!
@@aytviewer2421 maybe English speaking Canada, Quebec is officially a French speaking province and they plan on keeping it like that as long as possible.
@John Doe Hey what's that smell? Oh, just the reek of racism. No wonder I wanted to hurl.
@@FreeManFreeThought Enjoying the racism of low expectations there bub?
If you were a school kid in the 2000s, Zenith tvs on rolling carts for movies/videos was a vibe
0:04
Oh wow, I never would've thought I'd see this here.
Ce vremuri... :))
Zenith TV's for the longest time were considered the best of the best back in the day. I had a 19" inch Zenith, that ran 7 days a week for about 6 hours a day for over 20 year's and that thing was still working just fine when I got rid of it, because the port's on the back simply became incompatible with modern electronics and game systems. The TV didn't even have RCA cable connection's or a coax input either, since when it was made, those things didn't even exist yet. So I had to use converters just to hook up basic cable.
It was a fancy TV though. It was so advanced that instead of using a remote control, it just used your hand to physically change channels by turning a dial. And it had a port for rabbit ear antennas and even had a spiffy VHF/UHF option.
I remember Zeniths headquarters in the Chicago area. Zenith was also Foxconns first ever customer when they decided to switch from quality TV's, to junk TV quality when Zenith started to struggle financially.
I guess a LG is as close as you can get to a Zenith these days. I remember when LG first started selling TV's here in the states. It was right after Zenith stopped production in the late 1990's.
When you take someone to court
The American way to solve things
It's not just American companies. Nintendo is infamous for suing and taking down videos if you use their IPs. Lets Plays, music, fan games, rom sites - hell, they even sued an 8-year-old child for making his own Mario halloween costume. Funny, since Donkey Kong is a ripoff of two _American_ IPs: King Kong and Popeye. The original Donkey Kong game was reworked after they were no longer able to use Popeye characters. Mario is Popeye, DK is Brutus and Peach is Olive Oil.
@@kingdavid7516 Nintendo recently also sent out copyright a claims over Mario 64 pc port after a bunch of people remade the game to work on pc. I have no problem with companies defending copyright, but the worst part is there is literally nowhere Currently that you can buy the game. So Nintendo just took down a game that wasn't charging any money to be played and isnt being sold by Nintendo out of spite.
King David Nintendo also made save data modification illegal in Japan.
At one point I had an old Zenith TV with built in Rabbit Ears. It was probably the coolest TV I've ever had. Didn't always have the best picture but I got WB49 (now known as CW I think) and that worked for me 😁
The last nail in RCA’s coffin was needlevision aka CED disc.
*laughs in Marconi*
Technology Connections and Techmoan did phenomenal videos on that format.
SolarstrikeVG
They did indeed. I was longer aware of the format since I am a huge Laserdisc fan / collector.
This brought back memories of watching the jungle book on vhs on our zenith TV, in the old house I lived in till I was 6. Good ole days.
"Good times won't last if you don't innovative"
* looks at Gibson *
Gibson is more of a quality control and overpricing issue. They're charging way too much for products that are diminishing in quality.
@@stephennettles2309 still rockin tho. 498t for bridge 🙂
who's the best price to performance these days?
@@richmahogany1 I don't like their instruments personally because thin necks cramp up my hand but probably ibanez.... The Japanese are at it again. Fenders are only really a good value used, and that's just because of the quantity out there.
No mention of the japanese "dumping", selling tvs at or below cost in the US? It's one of the major reasons how the gained an initial toehold in the US market. Go read about the Japenese Television Cartel on Wikipedia, they have a decent article on it.
Awww, you've got the "big boy stache" starter pack!
hair grows out of our faces and we as humans are particular about it...
I’m watching his glow-up. Or “beard-up” if you will
This explains a lot. My grandparents’ Zenith CRT TV sits in their basement. They got a HDTV in 2011 because their CRT was near death.
4:00 Tick-tock? Is that a reference to Intel's old strategy?
I just bought a surge protector and one of my must haves was for it to be made in America. But after 2 hours of searching I gave up on that. I found one brand and I think they were more commercial. The ones I looked at costed in the $300 to 500 range
The same thing that happened to everything that used to be “Made in America” 😂
We had a nice floor model Electrohome television growing up. A 26" screen enclosed in a 48" box that weighed about 100lbs, maybe 150lbs.....
"innovate or die" - capitalism
tell that to trump and the oil companies
Unfortunately that's not how a lot of countries work. Welcome Nationalism's brother Protectionism, where a nation props up obviously dogshit companies that can't innovate or compete. All so politicians can please xenophobic voters who demand everything be made in their own country.
4:29 Translation = A hand-phone connector with an adapter for hi-fi stereos & audio equipment.
"Curtis Mathes, the most expensive television in America - and worth it".
those were mostly hand built down in Texas, they had petty good build quality and often lasted quite a long time. They were expensive at the time but from people I heard that bought them, they were worth it. Ironicly, later on, they'd outsource their TVs to companies like Toshiba and Panasonic and just did what JCpenny and Radioshack did. We had a Curtis Mathes dealer here in my town in the mid 80s till around 90ish and we bought our first VCR from them. A rebranded 2 head JVC for $300 in 1986.
Best TV I ever owned.
Those were cheaply built like Philco. Zenith and RCA and Motorola were the high end stuff.
Yep, watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on a brand new Curtis Mathes Set - I remember my Father grumbling that he bought a brand new color tv to watch the event in black and white...lol
I miss Zenith and their VCR's. Had one a long time ago and it looked so cool. Never could figure out what the "I can talk" thing was referring to.
the rule of 3 in comedy means you should have mentioned yourself last when listing people who like to hold onto power.
it is possible to learn this power ?. I only knew about the rule of 2.....
"Increasing shareholder value by cutting R&D is very important to us and has no downsides" - CEOs of these companies
The internet killed this brands
The internet : Laughs at the remaining brands
Subbed to this channel some time ago, really enjoying the quicky tech video's ... 😈
"y Zenith has died"
Me: *watching this through a zenith tv*
@BULLYFACE MEDIA lol
@BULLYFACE MEDIA
Zenith has a much better name and logo than LG. If LG truly owns the brand, then they should dust it off and create a line of Zenith branded tvs. I would definitely buy a Zenith flat panel and doubt I am anywhere close to the only one. TVs are pretty bland these days too. If Zenith would make customisable and replacement bezel plates with classic wood trim and other colour options, I believe Zenith can definitely hold its own and stand out in the marketplace. Why is this not a thing already‽
Had a Zenith dam thing seemed to last forever, definitely one of the best I've owned
"speaking of tiktok, you can watch all those videos with this headset etc..." lost opportunity
My old zenith tv still works.
Sounds a lot like American car companies during the same time.
where other countries took American technology and "improved" upon it and took credit?
My parents had an old RCA floor model tv they got brand new in the early 80s and used it all the way to 2007! I got an RCA in 2005 and it only lasted 5 years. So their quality definitely went down hill. I also have a Magnavox that I got in 1994 and never had an issue with it other then adding a digital tuner to it. Still works to this day!
When he said “China” it sounded exactly the same way as Trump does lmao
You beat me to it, but I still commented before reading yours. :)
P Lindsay Dammm
I'm pretty sure that was his intent.
Is there any better way to say it?
Justin Hulet Most likely was written on the script he used😂
Electrohome and Citizen were purchased by CWD. I used to work for CWD. The brand names are licensed out - the last time I heard.
"Chaynah".. Lmao I'm dead
Now the only Japanese brand TV i see in America is Sony. Everything else is either Samsung or LG, nothing else. Back in the 90s, there were so many choices.
Intel will probably get into this list too lol
3:19 I did a bit of digging, and (unless I'm mistaken) while Curtis does own some of the RCA brand, the TV brand was sold to ON Corporation.
That Tik Tok one made my heart stop for a sec....guys, you can't do such things, that's not funny ^^
I had a 13" RCA TV that had A/V input when I was 10. I gamed on that little screen for years until I gave it away right before High School when I inherited a 32" Toshiba.
Topic suggestion: Talk about sore eyes and drug addiction 🤩 man, you look terrible today 🤣🤣
Alcoholic? Yes! Anonymous? No!
Keep up the good work Guys, I love your channel.
Zenith's R&D did innovate, but marketing and legal weren't interested. They released the ATSC standard briefly before dying, as a final goodbye. Goodbye Zenith, we didn't deserve your proprietary remote batteries only sold at Sears for way too much.
I am speed
Ishan Sharma ok
me too
Excellent video, great overview of some of the major events that were behind the revolution in television manufacturing. Nice job! (and great speaking voice!) ~
The way he said “China “ tho
2:43-2:59 In Japan you can find someone who has created a product for just about everything. It often makes you wonder, “how could that possibly be profitable?”, this answers the question -maybe it isn’t, but the Japanese are going to try anyway.
Rileeeeeeeey!! Yaaaaaaaay!!!
I bought a lot of RCA electronics back in the day. For a while they were actually very good quality, but that began to change over the years.
Wow, when you mentioned moving to Tik Tok I was just about to unsubscribe. Good one though, you almost 'didn't' have me'.
tiktok > youtube > twitch
Diego Forlán ah yes, comparing different mediums with Boolean operators. Very nice.
Daniel Kaschel still valid based on context kid
Finally, a mention about Romania in a tech video!!
Jesus, don't drop me that tiktok bs my guy.
Today, RCA exists as a brand name only; the various RCA trademarks are currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment and Technicolor, which in turn license the brand name to several other companies including Voxx International, Curtis International, AVC Multimedia, TCL Corporation and Express LUCK International, Ltd. for their products.
Saying RCA died because it didnt innovate is literally the opposite of the truth; they innovated too much. Go watch Technology Connections' video series on the CED. Its a freaking vinyl record that plays video!
My first PC was a Zenith, back in 1986. Good times...good times. Oh, and I still have it, along with an old RCA and Zenith TV. All still work, too. :)
I suspect a big reason companies like RCA and GE didn't just copy the Japanese and make the far superior transistor TVs is that those companies had big investments in the manufacturing of vacuum tubes so a switch to transistors would have cost those manufacturers a lot of money.
The Japanese companies like Sony on the other hand didn't have as much direct investment in vacuum tube manufacture (and were buying their tubes from someone else) and could more easily switch to transistors as the price came down (Sony for example not only made the first mass-produced transistor radio but they were also making the transistors themselves, meaning it was easy to use those same transistor manufacturing facilities to make transistors for TV sets later on)
after 4 years of watching techquickie, I just got the guts to subscribe, GG me
You didn't even touch on all the work zenith did to create the HD standard. They held most of the patents for HD broadcast equipment and transmission. It drove them into bankruptcy. That's why LG swooped in and bought the company.
I miss those old large wooden console TVs. I wouldn't want to use one today because they're energy hogs, but I would love to have one unplugged in my house for its looks.