[Coco] Re: Scopes (Was: CoCo RGB video timing and levels)

[Rogelio Perea]

Neil Morrison wrote: 

> I'm seeing a lot of eBay sales from "closed TV repair businesses". End of an
> era?  As an old tube radio repairman I'm still a little surprised, but the
> equipment is so cheap and reliable now it really shouldn't be a surprise. I
> still have a 19" RCA (Penney's branded) which I bought in 1982 and which
> still works OK (I tweak the color pots very occasionally). Not like the old
> days when I scheduled 4 hours to set up a customer's new color TV in their
> home.

Perhaps is the traditional TV Repair Shop that is "going". You're right, the classic CRT TVs are so cheap that it is most cost effective to replace them than to repair. Back in 1985 I scraped my funds to buy me a 9" B&W TV set for my CoCo, I remember the thing cost me something around 75 or so dollars, which was a lot back then for an always broke student with one too many expensive hobbies to feed (my CoCo, drums, guitar, camping). I still have that set, I don't know what I am going to do with it, perhaps set it as a surveillance monitor... these days I can buy three 13" color TV sets with composite video inputs for less than $200... almost the same price as the old B&W TV back there.

I think that as far as the TV repairman field goes, it is shifting into the flat LCD and Plasma TV units... those require service and the trend is only on the rise. Also, many buyers face a wall when setting up their gear... perhaps that's one niche that can also be worked on.


-=[ Rogelio ]=-