When I was a very young kid in the early 80s, a 25 color TV was considered a big screen and there were many smaller screen B&W and color TVs in use as main sets (most of what I was seeing back then were non-remote sets). Then, the 27 and 31 sets came out; but, you were really uptown if you had one of those and I dont recall knowing that many people who owned them because they were very expensive. We knew one person that had a big front projection TV (the ones with the curved screen that bolted to the front of the set). Then, larger screen rear projection TVs came out and Ive never seen one of those that produced a picture to my liking. Back then, it wasnt uncommon to pay $300 for a basic 13 color TV and $350-$450 for a basic 19 TV and basic floor models were in the $600-$800 range. I just saw a commercial for a 43 Samsung LCD TV for $299 and a 56 LCD for about $100 more. I anticipate new TVs to get even cheaper and as they get cheaper, the quality will likely go down (just like what happened with the CRT sets). Many of those $300 13 TVs and $400 19 TVs of the early-to-mid 80s were well built and still work today (Im watching an 89 GE 19 right now that works fine). In 87, Dad bought a 13 Emerson knob tuned color TV in a woodgrain plastic cabinet for $149 and for the time, that was a cheap TV. That set worked fine for us and was still working when I sold it circa 98, after my Father passed away. After seeing that $299 43 Samsung TV commercial, it makes me less interested in trying to fix that dead 43 Samsung from 2011 thats sitting in my basement because I probably couldnt get enough out of it to make it worth my effort. I also remember when VHS VCRs were expensive, costing hundreds of dollars (if not over a thousand for the early units). We got our first VCR in 86 and it was a Matsushita-built Magnavox with a 15-position pushbutton varactor tuner with the little levers and thumbwheels that were used for setting channels. Fast forward to the 2000s and I bought one of the last gasp Funai-built stand-alone VCRs for $39.99 and I was tossing it in the trash 3 months later when it started stopping on its own and ate one of my good tapes.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 23:23:50 +0000
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