Harveys TV Repair Shop Final Days A Short Documentary Harvey's TV an Stereo Los Angeles
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- Опубліковано 18 вер 2024
- This video is my attempt to document the final days of Harveys TV in Los Angeles.Ten days form the upload date of this video the shop you are seeing will no longer exist. The E-Waste bins will be loaded and it will be end of the line for another tv repair shop small local business. The video and interview are unprepared and a bit rough, you will need to crank the volume way up. We discuss crt sets, flat screen televisions, technical and cultural evolution. As I was leaving the autographed portraits were being packed into a box, the employee fridge was sold via craigslist with the final price decided by coin toss.
Just to clarify, the business entity now known as Harvey's TV, began in 1936 as Radio Analysis Group, and has been in operation in West LA since then. It absorbed two other radio repair businesses (Darling & Marcley, and another whose name I don't remember), and was known as Harvey's TV & Radio Analysis up through the 1970s, and then some time in the 1980s, dropped the Radio Analysis and added Stereo Repair to the name. I worked for bob in the early 80s, and will miss it! Best wishes to Bob!
kx250rider661
It is sad to see the TV repair shops go out of business and replaced with thow away crap. We use to have an old TV repair shop here in the small Texas town I live in that was owned by an old man. It was right by his house, just a small shop. He was a nice old guy and was good at repairing TVs, he even got into repairing VCRs. He told me that the last of the CRT TV sets were getting to be throw away because the parts was too high priced and hard to get for the cheap made ones from China. The old guy was helpful to people like myself that wanted to repair an old TV myself, he helped me a few times with parts and advice. It was sad to see his health and his wifes health get really bad, his son took over running the shop for a short time. Him and his wife both passed away the same week and his son closed the shop down and the same year his house got destroyed by a hurricane after his death. I was glad to see that he did not have to close his shop, he was able to keep it open until his death. The old guy loved repairing TVs, he did it for many years. Even after his health got bad, if he felt good enough and he could leave his wife alone for a little while, he would go help his son in the shop. The old man still had a very sharp mind even after his health got bad.
We need to remember those old guys that put their hearts into that kind of work. None of them were in it to get rich, just to make a living and to serve their customers. It is sad to say those days are over and we now live in a throw away society of RETARDS ! God help us !
Sad but true. Brings back memories of when I made the decision to pull the plug on my shop, but I was ahead of the curve. I got out in 2003, at 40 I was still young enough to retrain in another field.
thats what i,m in the process of doing. also at the age of 40.
I have a short documentary I made of a TV repair shop that closed in 1990. I should try to find it, (VHS tape recording) and get it up on UA-cam. It's rather bittersweet also, the guy who ran it was nearly 80 years old, and technology was passing him by.
I worked in this industry from mid-1976 till mid 1995 a week after Waco. My wife “girlfriend" and I at the time, had no idea that we were frogs in a pot on the stove. We were fortunate at the time to move into other jobs. We both worked believe it or not at the same company within a few months. I have continued in industrial electronics at the same family owned company since. She has worked for 2 or 3 companies. The days of the mid-20th century are gone. Both of our parents "dads" were of that era 33 - 34 years at the same post war job post discharge. We both have a broad intellect. And have decided that we are smarter than we ever thought. Having applied this and hard work, we remain in the middle class at middle age. Best to all readers.
I really believe that all this new shit that is happening are driving people apart, dividing at all costs, keeping the rich, rich, and making then middle class poorer!
Boy it's tough to watch, even tougher to live through. Had to close everything from Radio Sales and repair to TV and Satellite TV Antenna sails and installation. Oh well I'm over 70yrs old ! that's life. Good Video.
Sure brings back fond memories. Having spent 20 years in the TV repair business.
I realize this is a very old video. However, I find the owner’s circa-2012 perspective on the lifespan of newer sets interesting and wanted to comment since some time has passed since he made his observations. It’s now late 2019. I’ve got an LCD from 2007, two or three from 2009, and a plasma from 2010. I also still run an LCD Mac monitor from 2009. Never had an issue any of these products.
At work, I watched our television and monitor replacement costs drop dramatically around the world as we transitioned to LCD. The newer stuff lasts much longer on average and has a much lower premature failure rate. I just think the technology is better despite the products themselves being more cheaply built.
My CRT sets and the ones I remember as a kid never went a decade without needing service. I do agree that when I do inevitably have a problem getting my stuff serviced may be difficult to impossible. This kind of service business no longer exists in many areas, and as the owner rightly noted current sets are just not built to be easily serviced.
A key factor driving the disposable mentality is the rate at which the technology standards are changing. My stuff is all 720 or 1080p. Now companies are starting to offer 8K at a lower inflation-adjusted price point. I don’t remember advancement being nearly as rapid or as impactful in the television / display space prior to about the last two decades or so. The justification to repair isn’t there - certainly not now in my case. This isn’t true with everything around the house, but with many electronics it is. If we approach some limit and innovation in this space slows down, maybe the mentality will revert back to repair versus replace. In the meantime, I agree we have a disposal problem and need to come up with better methods to funnel old materials into new products rather than plant more landfill “farms.”
In the end, it is indeed sad to see these businesses go.
Sad.
I have been a TV/stereo tech for over 30 years. It's like Harvey and I said almost exactly the same words.
The 70 year old shop I worked in folded in 2014.
I remembered one shop closed down because business was so bad he had 35 tvs and test equipment he had to throw out i took the whole lot. My dad and Mom was some what mad. I had almost every part for any audio and video equipment. I had one of the old record changer and tube amp when it went i fixed it with parts from marty and roberts tv shop that went belly up. I had every part that amp needed. Marty and roberts closed down in 1986. I had a backup tv when my mom and dad needed one till they could find a tv. They got one a mga worked for many years
Part of the problem with people today I can sum up in one word...hypocrisy. Throw the stuff away after a year or two but everyone is concerned about the environment and landfills getting filled up. You can't have you cake and eat it too!
Sad thing is, a lot of those folks sincerely believe that "buying new" is somehow more ecologically sound than keeping the existing stuff running.
+Jerry Carriera
A throw away society definitely is not sustainable.
Jerry Carriera Its built to fail . The repairs are more or close to what it cost to buy a new unit . I fix a lot of things around my house , if I can't fix it I get a new one. Can't call anyone in for tv , stereos etc
My dad closed his in 89 and i remember tube\hybrids still coming in towards the end of the 80s.
Sadly I'm also considering closing my doors after 24 years in this business, but seeing how I still have customers who need help with antennas, hookups, and simple operator errors, it's kept me afloat a little longer than I expected.
This brings tears to my eyes....lost my TV shop in 2010 to digital & flatscreen JUNK TV's! I even tried to make a living after that doing antique electronic restoration as that was something we featured in our shop and we sold a few restored sets here & there, but not enough to live on nor to pay the bills, so had to close after running out of $$$. THEN, after that, a "friend said I could store all my parts, test equipment & left over inventory there in his basement & as soon as I moved down South he sold it all & then died a year later! So I definitely feel the pain of this video!
Interesting video I liked how you asked all the right questions. I repair TVs as one of my trades and I can definitely tell you that TVs are so disposable today. Lead free solder is one of the problems.
it's a real shame old repair shops like this are closing down all over
Having worked in the service industry, it's horrible. Computers, TV's, stereos, appliances, etc, all super cheap, but super unreliable. I honestly would pay more to know it has more quality and easier servicing to it (Like Sears when they used to post diagrams in their owners manuals) When I bought my house, they told me my furnace is old and should be replaced due to age. I asked why, "Well, it could just break" was the answer. I know they wanted to sell me a new furnace. And yes, mine did break after a year, but it was a cheap and easy fix for a new blower motor, I have it up and running again, and still strong, and still reliable. But the, "replace it cause it's old" "Oh now the warranty is up, and this part that is unnecessarily computer controlled has died, and the price is 1/3 the cost of a newer furnace, so might as well just get another new one again" cause I have had that happen to friends.
I keep everything I can, I am very anti-disposal. While most things I have are "Disposable" junk. I have kept them all running. I love videos like what Shango posts, because most people consider these older things junk, and folks with knowledge like Shango are slowly dying off. I am amazed with what he can do, and for someone getting more and more into tube equipment, it's nice to watch other professionals work.
Ironically higher quality consumer electronics would also be good for the environment. Fewer plastic devices thrown away.
i agree
It's so true about today's disposable society. My parents probably owned over the span of 40+ years 2 TV sets. The only TV's in the 1970's that could have been considered "disposable" were those little portable B & W televisions but even they lasted forever under normal usage too. Heck I have old radios that are still working after 50-60 yrs. My Realistic Clarinette 102 all in one stereo receiver, record changer, Cassette & 8-track player is 35 yrs old and still works perfectly!
The thing is now adays all those devices are in the palm of the hand . This does and hurts so many things, repair shops, families, friends, spending time with people we love, and hurting the environment. The last time I was on the city bus, it was so fucking quiet even though it was packed, every person on there had headphones in and was staring at their phones... I was at a Burger King the other day and seen a couple texting each other back and forth instead of using their mouths to talk to each other. What has the world come to?
One of my sidelines for a while was purchasing flat panel TV's known not to work. Provided the screen wasn't cracked of course. Pay a few bucks to keep it out of the landfill. Re-cap in some cases (okay...more often then not....) VR's seem to be the 2nd leading failed points. My rule used to be try and double the money on a 'flip'. (20 for a TV...up to 30 in parts... And attempt to sell for $100 or so.) Sadly the cost of a new flat panel set went to the point no one wanted a repaired used set. Why bother when you can purchase a "new" one for only 30-50 bucks more with a 'warranty'. Sense my day job is repairing arcade games and equipment I'm doing okay. But I've seen this disposable society coming for a long time.
Currently the wife and I are doing vintage audio at this point. Finding stuff at flea markets and swap meets. We've had good luck with repairing old tape equipment and receivers. Yeah it takes a long time to locate spare parts LOL! But at least it's keeping stuff out of the landfills.
You have my sympathies, I am a former radio/tv engineer in the uk. I qualified in 1998 and enjoyed 10 years of CRT service. Now it is a throw away society. My mother has only just had an LED tv last week. I removed her still working 28inch Toshiba TV (20yrs old+) and used it for spares as I do Ham radio projects. After 3 years college and trainee work too!! I am now an EMT ! I still have fond recollections of being in the 'shop and field calls.
reminds of my grandfathers store from the 1930s to about 1980. The advent of "shopping malls" is what put his store out of business
Truly excellent documentary Shang. Very well done. Around my area here in Mexico there are still a few service shops around that appear to have a fair amount of business, I don't know what the still upcoming LCD/flatscreen take over will end up doing to them though. Entire board replacements here uncommon and techs will work right down to the bone even on annoying surface mount tech. A lot of the young generation doesn't really have a throw away mentality like in the US though.
"These days youre lucky to have a tv last a year" bro ive had my hd samsung for like ten years. Still going strong.
Yep, so true. My Pioneer Kuro TV is still going strong after 11 years.
Yes,LCD & Plasma TVs lasted long but the new led TVs lasts 2 to 5 years max. My TV repair business is doing well in south Africa.
Around '94, I bought a two-head Magnavox VCR for $149.99; and, at the time, that was considered a cheap VCR. I got about ten years out of that one. It was replaced by a last-gasp stand-alone Funai-built Emerson that cost $39 from China-Mart. It barely lasted the 90-day warranty before it died and the whole thing was all plastic and weighed about two pounds. Since then, I've picked up older models that are much better. I'm also not impressed with the later DVD/VCR combinations.
My grandma's Samsung LN52B630 is from 2009 and still going strong, it replaced a mid 1990s Magnavox that was still working when they upgraded. The only time the Samsung gets a rest is when my grandma isn't home or the power is out, other than that it's always on. Must be some kind of miracle.
I managed a TV repair shop in los angeles...we closed 5 years ago. I recall one customer bringing in a Zenith TV for repair that was 23 years old. It was the first time it had needed repair...of course the customer wanted us to fix it. The old sets were good quality and I often tell people to fix their older tv's but sometimes they just want to buy a new one.
I have a flat screen TV that I have used a lot and it is now 8 years old and still going strong. I don't know where this guy is getting his durability numbers but they are wrong. I have another later model flat screen that is almost 4 years old and its still going strong. I watch it every night after work. I play video games on it for hours at a time and it is still working fine. I have two flat screens I use for work both are about 3 years old and I use them every business day for 10 hours a day and then at night for an additional 8 hours. Still going strong.
Nice but very sad video. I've owned my own TV repair business for 19 years now and everything Bob says about the industry is 100% on the money! After 2000 , the Chinese made electronics flooded the market and its never been the same since. I'm not sure how long I can stay in business either.
I remember in high school, in the late 1979’s, shop teachers tell us to learn TV repair. We were told we’d make a good living and never be out of work.
There used to be many repair shops in my town & they all stayed busy. There was also a time that I could sell just about any type of working TV, color or B&W, that I got my hands on and I was able to get decent $ for them. Now, it's hard to get more than a few $'s for any CRT TV. It doesn't help that a local retailer is advertising a 32" TV for $249. I remember when 19" knob tuned color TV's cost more. Many of those older TV's are still going, while the $249 special will be junk in 1-2 years.
I live in Guyana we still do repair here but it seems that it started to fade out people instead of repairing they just prefer replacing it I got people that brought unit to my shop some time they just leave it there it got to the point where it's mostly replace no repair
I'm LUCKY to have a 1949-50 12" Zenith "Porthole" TV...Works fine...Had it gone thru, but there really wasn't all that much wrong w/it. Hard to imagine one of these hi-falutin' Video Display Devices still workin' 63 yrs down the road...
True Story. I have worked at our family business doing consumer grade electronics repairs now for over 15 years. We are going through the same situation as Harvey. Economy, changing demands of the younger generations, low longevity of current products being produced, all of it has had to have us prepare to close our doors in the near future. I'm preparing to take the family business to the house garage to try and scrape up what work I can out of what is left of the market. However there is still a demand for onsite installations and service which will be a relatively viable source of work for a while yet. The best thing service techs can do is evolve their skills to adapt to changing demographics of the marketplace. not easy to do but it is possible. Best of luck to all the electronics service tech out there young and old.
I feel your pain. I did exactly that, set up a shop at home, but there wasn't enough business to keep me going so I learned a new trade and went back to work.
Now electronic repair is more of a hobby for me.
Well once everything goes completely wireless (which is happening right under our nose with subliminal messaging ) there won't even be the need for service techs to hook up wires anymore. All the customer will have to do is plug in the mains cord and that is it....
Wireless? You're joking right. I work in telecom / isp, an I can tell you that wireless issues are the biggest headaches. Too many devices and not enough bandwidth. Doesn't matter how big the pipe is all the noise from all these devices slow things down. Even the 5ghz band is getting satsurated now and things will only get worse.
I had a debate with my house mate about this subject and he is stuck in his ways about it. Everything wireless and he won't buy it if it has a cord or something you have to plug in (besides chargers) I personally think it is the most retarded gimmick I have ever seen in my life. Even if he is sitting at his computer desk, he had to have the wireless keyboard and mouse and everytime I walk in there I get a screaming headache from all the damn signals flowing though that room. Bluetooth, RF, WiFi and what ever else these toxic devices have to offer! Just saying...
Shango my plasma tv was hit by lightning, i think the capacitors are bad how much to replace?
Nice video. So sad to see a business be closed by new technology. We do, sadly, live in a throw everything away culture now. Even cars are getting that way now. Looking around the shop, I saw a few things I either did have or once had. The stereo with the turntable turning, I have. The old RCA monitor, I have. One of the VCR/DVD combo's I used to have.
Last year my CRT TV stopped working. VCR was failing, speaker was fading and the color was as if you were looking at a ghost. It was 17 years old. Even the universal remote and a dvd player that was connected to the TV stopped working. So I threw everything out and never replaced them. It was in my bedroom. The only TV that a still have is a 2011 Akai TV. It's still going. I have a smart box, VCR and Blu-ray player connected onto it. I did recently replaced the old Blu-ray player because nothing came up on screen, only sound
it's sad to see the electronics repair field die this way. I have worked in electronics repair field for over 20 years and loved working in small family run shops. The jobs for skilled guys who know electronics are drying up. What's left is a few factory assembly line test jobs where you push a button all day
It's sad. We had several TV/Radio/Stereo repair places that were really good, and they all pretty much went belly up. It is true that we are becoming more & more a "throw Away" society. It's not worth repairing many times due to the hourly labor cost.
Yeah and it is always about the new thing that is coming out a month after the previous new thing. I remember the rapid groth of cell phones and computers. It seemed like every two to three months there was a new one coming out. Just completely kills the repair industries...
You cannot blame it mainly on a "throw away" society. These TV/Radio/Stereo repair places began pricing themselves out of existence starting in the 1990s. When my TV repairman told me I was going to be charged $600 just for the labor before even fixing my TV, I turned him away and simply bought a new TV with that money.
We have been in the electronics business for almost 40 years. Sept 1973. We have seen the loss of more and more money just trying to keep the doors open. People keep purchasing newer less reliable products and when they break they just put it in the landfill. The time to close the doors and just work from home looks like it is on ots way!
A very sad EOL video. I like your PBS documentry style of presenting this video. There aren't too many of these shop left in Ohio either. There is a fellow 8 miles south of me that probably won't last too much longer. He was a HUGE RCA dealer. Not anymore, mostly LG, Crosley, Toshibia. Still I love to go and talk radio with him. A lot of knowledge will be lost when he passes.
TVs in the 70s-80s were very expensive because they were mostly built in the USA, I paid $550 for a 19" Zenith Color TV in 1983, that's equiv to $1400 today. The old CRT TVs were repairable, and it was cheap to do that, so people had them repaired for under $100 in most cases, or changed-out the tubes, rather than throwing them away.
Before you go beating yourself up about "today's throw-away culture", it was about economics back then, as it is now. People throw TVs away now because it's often an expensive hassle to have them repaired, and you can buy a new 40" China set at Wallyworld for $149.
Lucky if it lasts you a year... My family has bought like 5 - 6 flat screens and none have failed yet. oldest one is from 2007
***** "boughten" yikes...
MuscleDad420 Ok ok Sorry. ' ' Bought ' '
tru or u can spind 1000+dolers for a tv that whont die under 5years....thats just sad
Correct. The Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) for current generation flat screens definately surpasses the CRTs of yore. There is no doubt todays tech (in general) is more reliable than the heat producing "bottles"
A lot of computer repair shops have gone belly up for many of the same reasons, personally I couldn't take it any longer because of the crap that passes for laptops these days. If it is Apple then it is going to be hell to repair one way or the other and almost everything else is just cheap plastic.
They could make an electrolytic capacitor to last many years at one time . Manufacturers are building in components they know will fail quickly and are too close to their operating limits to be reliable , the general idea is to sell another television as fast as possible.
I absolutely HATE how the flat screen TV has made the western world a throw away society ,I can remember one little strip mall having a butcher shop ,a dress shop ,a candy store ,a tv/HiFi repair shop ,a shoe repair shop ,at the end of the little strip mall was an auto repair facility .
In my town in the 1990s we had no less than 7 electronics repair techs who could effect repairs on McIntosh HiFi and Curtis Mathis televisions ,the 2 best electronics made in America ,McIntosh is still making HiFi gear while Curtis Mathis went under decades ago ,I have been forced to buy my own tube tester and variac to learn how to repair my vintage electronics when not that long ago the electronics technician would drive to our homes ,I had a pair of JBL speakers refoamed right In my living room ,now JBL won't even repair any speaker made before 2010 ,thank God that McIntosh still honors repairs & warranty work on every piece of electronics they've made since 1949 ,the last US based electronics company making world class electronics and hifi equipment that's world renowned as being the best In HiFi .
I've been a tube tv/HiFi enthusiast since the 1960s ,In 1999 I became so satasfied with my all McIntosh & Curtis Mathis entertainment systems that I took 15 years to just enjoy music ,imagine my horror when I came back to the hobby in 2015 to find every tech I knew had passed away & the business closed ,I blame the plastic flat screen TVs that cost as much as buying new vs repair ,I hate living in an America controlled by idiotic millennials who believe climate change is gonna kill everybody yet they run to buy a new smart phone every 3 months .
I see a 1975 Sony TC-756 Reel to Reel behind that Panasonic. Specs on that Sony unit are outstanding. Just second best to Revox Studer A-700 at about half the price. The clear coat on the circuit boards of that Sony need to be washed off with alcohol as the clear coat became conductive. The internal bias levels cannot be adjusted to meet the spec. The left channel bias affects the right channel and visa versa due to the breakdown of the clear coat. This is a factory defect and not due to time.
Thankfully I'm 61, I got to live much of my life in a better time.
When I worked at american TV service in New Brunswick NJ back in the early 80's we always had tube sets come into the shop for repair. Maybe this was just on the east coast.
I like your video that brings it home as to what's happening to the repair industry. However, I don't like the fact that a once thriving industry is being forced to shut down due to greedy "big business" and the throw-away mentality of most people today. There are 3 repair shops left in my area. One only does warranty work on new junk. The other two repair out of warranty stuff; but, I don't see how they're able to hang on. One of them told me that he rarely ever has a CRT TV come in for repair.
@ 06:13, lots of nice old beefy flybacks in those bins!!!!!!!!!!
I have saved a lot of TVs in dumpsters. The main reason people throw away is because service technicians charge way too much regardless of scope of the unit problem. How can you charge someone $80 to troubleshoot $120 TV? That’s why people tend to buy new unit. TV technicians should find a way to work with customers such as free troubleshooting and other form of discounts.
I used to work as a tech at a computer store and saw a similar decline in business right around the same time (2005-06). That year must have been the tipping point between the cost of fix vs. replace in many industries. Biggest problem as others have said are getting replacement parts, its pretty clear manufacturers don't want you to fix it! Not surprised to see bulging SamWHA capacitors in a TV, they are all garbage. All over saving a few cents over a quality part.
Are y'all gonna defrost that freezer before you sell it...😀
i miss my valve tv
I've owned a 2nd generation LCD TV for around 10 years with heavy day to day usage (8+ hours a day, every day) and it has no signs of breaking anytime soon
I always thought when the 1990s started, it was the end of the TV repair business. With new TVs being priced cheaper by the year. And the astronomically high labor cost charge (repair charge not included), these businesses price themselves out of existence. Last time I wanted to have my TV fixed, the shop was going to charge me $600 and thats only for the labor! This is $600 back in 1990! I turned him away and just bought a new TV with that money.
Don Knotts , love him.
I have a Samsung computer monitor LED with TV integrated TA350 bought in 2008 and is still working like new.
I would love to have a good turntable. I would ask, but I am broke. No money around here. Good luck guys.
Ya know I got to thinking after my first post. I have 4 picture tube TV"s and they work great with the DTV boxes. My oldest is a 1989 GE and it's going strong. I have a stereo that's 57 years old and still works. My point is why in the HELL would someone buy todays crap and get 1-4 years max out of it ? I know that the new era tv's have a beautiful picture but unless it comes with a bulletproof warranty that Walmart or other electronic reatilers can't dodge I won't be buying one !
EXCELLENT!
strange thing is here in the UK the TV repair trade died at least 15 years ago some years before your decline - I really hate the throw away world -- very sad film - another set of skills lost forever :(
I love working on vintage stereo equipment but I had to change my career.
Awesome Video!!!
They're going to the scrap yard for 37 cents/pound, if not sold by this week.
Not sure about TVs only lasting 1 year. Modern TV sets with SMT boards, tantalum and/or solid capacitors, LED backlit LCD screens, microprocessors. no thermal drift issues or flyback transformers, RF coils,tubes etc.. will easily last decades now.
My dad had an old gen samsung that was an early LCD with CCFL that had the bad caps that got swapped out for 80 dollars (labor parts) still going strong.
Your joking right. Decades? Wishful thinking. Seen more bad panels than I know what to do with. I only work on vintage audio these days. At least there Is money in that.
They could last as the tech is there but the build quality isn't and they are made to fail to drive sales.
Don't agree about "made to fail', but they are definitely "built to a price point". When you build cheap, to hit a certain market demographic, you forfeit quality and reliability.
This video is so telling, and factual in that the entire economic structure of the Great Capitalist Country we live in is disposable.... I hate politics, and I am not sure of when "IT" happened, or which party was responsible (maybe both?) for selling this country out. Unfortunately, manufacturing is dead in the states.. How can American companies compete with overseas companies when the average overseas worker makes $30.00 a week? This global economy is making the few very rich and slowly starving the average American. I was expecting to see some 6BQ5 output tubes, or maybe an old console radio in this video.... Now I'm just depressed.....
VCR's sold for around $1000.00 in 1980 and an average repair was around $200.00' by 1995 VCR's were so cheap all we were offering was a cleaning service, $20.00 while you wait if it got the picture back, no you couldn't leave it, you had to wait. (having dumpsters full of VCR's was no good. ....
The USA will not recover if products are not made and backed here!
R.I P.
The like is for the video report.
The only way to survive is to rebrand end diversify bisnes
cool refridgerator
I have the same Sony rear projection TV that was seen in front area of the store! At least if it was the 53 inch model. Just replaced all 3 picture tubes, cleaned it and replaced most capacitors just for good measure. I hope to get another couple of years out of it. Just use it as a second TV so it is only used randomly now since I don´t watch that much TV anymore. The content is just awful and I generally stick with the older shows and news.
eaglevision993 bhyg Okay Google I need to see the final days of Harvey's TV repair please
This is so annoying. A lot of good points in this video. This new generation is so fucked up, seeing 3 year olds packing around tablets and smart phones. Everything is being replaced by these two devices and good people like the gentleman in this video are having to close shop because everything is disposable and glued together now adays. If something goes wrong with the majority of stuff nowadays it is not repairable and it is painful to watch. These new sets are a different story though. Had a samsung monitor for my computer for a few months and one day it just wouldn't turn on. Blowen up caps and fuse was blown, freaking bullshit.
A sad day. The last TV shop closed here in 1994. if it wasn't for me and a couple other diehards, no one would work on any old equipment. I do work on FP TV's and yes, they get more unreliable each year. Some parts are NLA after 1 year. Just throw it away. Wasteful.
It's really sad. I was in electronics repair until 2000. Everything selling too cheap, Made In China, companies not manufacturing, just re-branding or selling their name. Worked on a lot of tube and hybrid TVs through the mid 80's then quit working on TV's and did audio and VCR's.
Are they still here?
At 1:58, that's the sony reciever that I'm still using
Just to clarify, the business entity now known as Harvey's TV, began in 1936 as Radio Analysis Group, and has been in operation in West LA since then. It absorbed two other radio repair businesses (Darling & Marcley, and another whose name I don't remember), and was known as Harvey's TV & Radio Analysis up through the 1970s, and then some time in the 1980s, dropped the Radio Analysis and added Stereo Repair to the name. I worked for bob in the early 80s, and will miss it! Best wishes to Bob!
i could fill a container with that hi fi gear.
It's hard to see these kinds of places close, but when the cost of many repair(out of warranty) estimates are 95% of the price of a brand new unit, it's not hard to see why the old sets are tossed. I recall back in the early 90's(before talking to me) my grandmother paying $95 just to find out her old RCA was not repairable......
Exactly. TV repairshops price themselves out of existence when the 1990s started. I can still remember 26 years ago when my repairman was going to charge me $600 just for the LABOR. $600 in 1990. And he did not check what was wrong with my TV yet and what he charges on the specific repair! I turned him away and bought a brand new TV that was less than $600. Never looked back.
GransonofKong. You missed the point, in 1970 you bought a console Television for $600 dollars and you repaired it you didn't throw it away, this is because in 1970, $600. Dollars is now equal to nearly $4,000. In today's money and people had to finance anything that large of a purchase. Today s throw away s are dirt cheap , and people walk around with hundreds of dollars in there wallets like it's nothing. You will always pay big money for high quality product. The old saying " You get what you pay for" Will always hold true. " Electronics Engineer Over 50 years with Zenith" We Engineers Rule !!
@@MoniqueFromPlymouth read my reply to grandsonofkong
@@MoniqueFromPlymouth we were forced out of business buy cheap labor and poor quality junk from China. You need to read the book by Curtis Philip called " The fall of the American Electronics Industry" it maybe to complex for your level of education, but give it a try, you might learn something.
Tony Louis | Sorry my friend. But it is really YOU that has a lot to learn. Sometimes you DON'T get what you pay for and all of us have experienced THAT. Thanks for the reply anyways.
Hard to build a legacy off of throwaway garbage. Sad to see these places disappearing.
I believe with heating, you could empty the caps and replace the dielectric oil, and rejuvenate the old caps to more sensible values. just saying, possible.
+Paul Hiiginbotham Then how do you suggest sealing them back again? Have any plans to weld the blown aluminum containers. Also the dielectric liquid is so critical, many cap producers can't get the formula right to make them dependable like Nippon Chem does.
If you were the last person on earth and had nothing to do.maybe
Thats a sad story.......
Its an old video, but nothing has changed......TV repairs these days is only really done for restoration purposes....collectors.....its really just a novelty now.......... still some work in Audio, especially high end audio, but just like this video shows, its becoming harder if not possible to make a living fixing home electronics anymore......
Carphonics Sight & Sound, an electronics repair shop in Charlotte NC, that Iv'e done business with since 1982 closed it's doors in Twenty Fourteen. I don't know if Steve, the owner decided to retire, or did they not get enough business. Flat panel TV's this day and time are made to last not much longer than a year, and then they are either recycled or become landfill waste. North Carolina now has a state law that bans electronics from landfills. Planned Obsolecense is bad for our environment because it wastes our natural resources, and generates more solid waste. It's on those grounds, that the Federal Government needs to put there foot down on Planned Obsolecense! We need a government angency called the "Federal Quality Control Division", FQCD, to regulate manufacturing. They need to put tight restrictions on the use of plastics and other cheep materials, and require that things be made with greater repairability.
Many manufactures see "Planned Obsolecense" as a way to get more resale, and make more money. It's not! It's greedy, and it's a way to ultimately ruin a companies reputation! Look what happened to Packered Bell Computer!
It pisses me off that the world has become a though away society. Not only is it bad for businesses such as this, but also crap for the environment. It also screws with the heath of people in third would country's that the old crap is dumped in. I always make an effort to fix my stuff, however that is just me. I have always liked taking everything apart.
I Hear What You're Saying,
A "*Throw Away Society".
it's always sad to see a place like that go. That guy had alot of stuff, did alot of it go to the curb? If so, I hope someone got it before the trash guys did.
I witnessed the end of Euclid Radio in Ohio (electronics parts store)...opened in the late 40's/ closed around 2002. Same reason--nobody repairs stuff anymore, hence no need for parts.
ciro589m 5:50 Sony XBR sats!
:O
I want to go hereee
ciro589m Ive been to LA before but not nere here
The store owner is a really nice guy, but that line about the flat screens not lasting more than a year is bullshit. The other thing about the circuit board going and just throwing it out doesn't make sense either. People bring their laptops and phones in for repair all the time.
Sounds like he is a little bias towards the newer technology. These TV's last longer than a year. I have had my Samsung LCD for 10 years and it works great. My mom's Sony is 8 years old, on 15 hours a day and works perfectly as well. The thing with these new TV's is they are more reliable than the older sets......when they break people just throw them away and get a newer one, mainly because they are so cheap now. People repaired the older sets because the price stayed about the same and the price adjusted for inflation was more than sets today.
i have a flat panel tv that i bought in 2010 still going now in 2015
same thing happened in the uk,like this guy i gave up when digital came in,the money fell out of the market,throw a way society destroyed it
I don't know what this guy is talking about. The modern TVs only last 1-2 years? Really? I have 3 sets going on 5 years already without a single glitch.
but it will never last as Long as the sets from the 50s up to th 80s they where build to last you a life time
My sony bravia lcd is now over 7 years old and its on every day all day, as i said you get what you pay for.
Nothing lasts a lifetime they all fail somewhere
My Samsung is 10 years old and my moms Sony is 8 years old, both work great. The Sony at my moms house is on 14+ hours a day. We have several newer sets on the wall we use to let patients know when they are up and they have been very reliable, they are on 24/7. Older sets were not more reliable, they were more serviceable, but they were not more reliable. You were lucky to get 5 years out of a set from the 70s before it needed to be serviced. There were lots of repair shops because TV's broke down a lot and they were expensive to repair. The most reliable sets are the fully solid state from the early 80s. I have a RCA from 1982 and it still works as good as new. The volume switch will break before anything else. 90s to early 2000s TV's were junk, but the sets today are reliable. When they break people just buy a new one because they are so cheap.
Quite sad and depressing esp since I have just started my own business repairing electronics gear. I think the key to keep going here is to diversify. I repair alsorts, car key fobs, guitar amps, car instrument panels, pretty much anything electronic. I do repair LCD TVs (have stopped on plasma,s there dead and gone now) but don't get many to many requests for smashed screens. I do find the new LED backlit ones are falling over left right and centre, so maybe repairing the backlit strips (buying replacements from the manufactures is way to expensive) is a way to go, even salvaged ones on Ebay are stupid expensive. The advance in the tech in this stuff is scary, I'm 52 and boy have I seen some changes, first mobile could display one line of text... Here's the thing though..beyond 4K and OLED where's it going to go? Nowhere, I think the manufacturers are driving themselves headlong into a brick wall, they won't be able to sell new stuff because it just won't have anything new and exciting to offer. 3D on a TV is pointless huge screens done that, smart...done...OK Colour holographic 4K might come along... Smelly Vision? I think we are reaching a plateau, more leisure time, less working hours, global economy getting bogged down, flooded with inexpensive stuff. It's gonna fail and the the TV/phone/computer/car you own suddenly has new value, you will need to keep it because others are unavailable or massively expensive... Watch this space.
Pete Sapwell the
Pete Sapwell
I got into TV and audio repair in 1988 Baltimore, MD after I got out of the Air Force and could not find a job thanks to Ronald Reagan and the fall of the "Evil Empire". 1999 I went to work for another small shop in Dover, DE and after about a year I saw my first Plasma TV. $15,000 this thing cost. We used to get good money to fix them. Now 51 y/o and laid off from the Dover shop with no option but to open my own shop in this bad market. No shop had retirement plans.
James Staton by x-ray
James Staton v
It is really hard to go into a electronic store and NOT notice one of the new TV's. Who would not want something that looks so good ? I wish someone had come along and warned me. IF OLNY someone had said, they do not last. Perhaps explained how cheap they are made. How expensive the parts can be. That is if you can get them. IF Only someone had thrown up a red flag or two. Perhaps I would not have one sitting in my living room. And I mean it just sit's there.
I have a Panasonic, Super-Flat TV....(big 32" glass CRT picture tube). I have been running it on average 7 hours a day for 17 years. The picture looks as good as it did when new. When it breaks I will look for another one just like it
One good thing has happened everybody is running out and buying these POS. And Good will is full of some nice TV's $25 or so for a 32 TV is a damn good deal. I got 4 of them so far. When the wife got her income tax check she went out and bought a 32 led HD TV. It lasted almost 4 months before needing to be repaired. What a pain that has been. Got it from Walmart. We had to box it up and ship it back to Samsung in NJ. They said we might get it back in 4 to 6 weeks.
***** When the TV signal was changed nation wide people were dumping their big old CRT TVs like crazy. I could drive around on trash night (Boston suburbs) and see at least 10 of them w/in a 15 minute drive. In fact I still see a lot of them on trash night. Many people dumped them even though they worked fine...just needed a converter. If I had the room I would have taken every 32 inch set I saw. Being in a one bedroom condo I wasn't able to do that. If I had a house I would have filled my basement with 32 inch sets
inkey2 by
....." BY "......what?........do you mean buy, by or bye?
I had a TV repair shop that I closed in the early 2000's.
Stuff just got too cheap to justify repairing. :|
btw: How much for the Coke fridge? :D
what s gunna happen with al the flat panels
It was June 4, 2009
can i buy one? its sad to scrap the or give the away to peeple so the have a second life :D
It's not really fair to blame the "younger generation" for something that is not of their design. They are unwitting consumers being subjected to products designed with obvious planned obsolescence to perpetuate a cycle of endless sales and profits from disposable products. The consumer does play a role, but they are hardly to blame for the decisions of the major electronics manufacturer's design, manufacturing, and business decisions. And the reality is most of them are acutely aware of the situation and aren't happy about it, either. They don't want to generate the waste, they don't want to buy disposable crap, and they would prefer to have options to buy reliable products that will last, but the market isn't giving them any other choice than to buy what's available.
I'm sad about the state of the electronics service sector, and the state of things in general as mentioned above, but people need to be aware of what's really going on, rather than placing the blame where it's doesn't belong. The major issue is planned obsolescence and we as consumers really need to refuse to accept this as a industry wide business model. It's not just electronics, it's in everything we buy. In addition to planned obsolescence, there are products that are even purposely made to be disposable, by making them in ways that that can't be taken apart without breaking them, and going as far as companies refusing to provide any type of service manuals or aftermarket parts.
The other issue, which is harder to offset, is the fact that modern electronics are a completely different beast than what they used to be and serviceability is just not as possible as it used to be. Another aspect of that is technology is evolving at an exponential rate and devices are being rendered obsolete in a very short time.
Hey, i am 13 and i like vintage TVs because new ones are just crap so don't blame me
hope they didnt toss all the test equip