So we get home from dinner with the in-laws last night. I'm looking forward to watching an ep of SGU (a Christmas present). I turn on the ancient Zenith console and POP! There goes the tube...
Now, with me out of work, it'll be tough convincing the wife to pick up an LCD, even a Walmart display model Vizio. And I'm halfway through Lego Batman! :-)
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So sorry about that, Jeff.

My sister was part of the county that had a surge last week that blew out her meter and just about every electronic item in the house, computers, tv's, coffee maker, etc. The only thing that survived was her 1980 console tv. :-)
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We had an outage here on Tuesday: garbage truck knocked over a pole and took out power for about 2,000 people.
My console wasn't quite that old. I think I've had it about 18 years.
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Sorry about your loss brother. Any chance of doing some CPR and bringing it back to life???
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heck out Craigslist on their free stuff- sometimes people give away their old tv's.

For example:

http://oneonta.craigslist.org/zip/2135233562.html
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To quote Johnnie Winter, you're tube is blown! They got to haul your tube away!
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Dude, get SOME kind of replacement. You need to finish Lego Batman!!
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Something defnitely blew. Assuming I could even find parts, it's probably not worth the repair cost.
I was actually looking at that earlier. But, SWMBO seems amenable to TV shopping. Just need to find a cheaper set with enough inputs for Wii, PS2 and DVD player; and RCA audio outs so I can hook up to my Pioneer stereo (almost as old as the Zenith was).
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Swmbo?
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She Who Must Be Obeyed :-)
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She Who Must Be Obeyed, aka my wife... :-)
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The real question for you is, what size are you looking for, and what kind of budget are you trying to work on?
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Got a 26" Toshiba LCD for Christmas. Was told it was under $300.
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A tube tv? WOW- that must have heated the room as well! If it was just a tube these are easy enough to replace if you can find a replacement tube. I remember the days when you could go to a Lafayette Radio store and check your tubes and buy replacements. I think they went out of business in the late 80s.

The other thing about those old units is that- like old cars- there isn't a ton of stuff crammed in there so finding and replacing stuff is easier.

Having said all that- just get a new tv, brother!
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Problem solved. We ended up picking up a Vizio 37" LCD from Wally World. Only one component input, so I'll hit Monoprice for a component switch.
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Really old TVs had replaceable vacuum tubes. He's probably talking about the picture tube (which is the glass you are viewing on those old sets). If the picture tube goes out it's not worth fixing.

That said, could be something as simple as a fuse. Still, if you got 20 years out of it that's about all you can expect. Try getting that kind of mileage out of a plasma tv.
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Yeah, I think it was the picture tube, something to do with vertical hold/alignment. I had a 1" high image across the entire width of the screen.
The timing was just a little inconvenient, just a few days after Christmas. You're right, old TVs are like old cars, built solid. I think I'll be happy if I get half the lifetime out of this new LCD. SGU does look awesome, though... :-)
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