Zenith 14DC15 Tube Color Television Resurrection

[@ecamormex]

It's incredible how you take a piece of junk and give it new life. These poor TVs would've just kept rotting, but it's cool to see them do their thing once again. Very inspirational.

[@SpeakerFreak95]

That is absolutely amazing how that Zenith bounced back like it did! This is a totally watchable set, and I would definitely watch it! I need to find one of these, and replace my flatscreen with it!

[@ddorfpunk]

good idea. dont give china crap a chance

[@justsumguy2u]

I've had unrestored, all-original Zenith radios from the 40's that still worked fine---higher quality components. Kudos on saving that set from the landfill and putting it back into service.

[@FennecTECH]

like they said "the quality goes in before the name goes on" Zeeniths were some of the best sets back in the day and it shows today by the fact the things still workk and onlyu need minimal repair

[@ReallifeBambiDeerattheFarm1]

Wow! From trash to treasure! We had one of those Zenith sets when I was growing up. I think it was from this era, early 70's. Use to be fascinated by the glowage of the tubes, and the heat was terrible. It died in the middle of a broadcast of "The Sound of Music" in the mid 80's. It's replacement, a Magnacrap, was just that. A heaping pile of dog crap. It would buzz loudly when text would pop up! Excellent resurrection and kind-of restoration of this set.

[@eaglevision993]

How can that little TV survive like that in such a harsh environment? Zenith is really awesome, just the right TV you need in a fallout shelter....but then again, there would be no station and left and that little Zenith would still be going strong with nothing but static....Wish we had these tube sets in Germany, really like them.

[@cameraguy4767]

Four out of five mice prefer Zenith television sets.

[@audiobuff77]

Ha Ha funny!

[@_Ramen-Vac_]

how did they get IN there?? magic.

[@rosieokelly]

Clearly a tribute to Zenith build quality..good it didn't have that open top ventilation to be a dirt catcher...thoroughly enjoyable!

[@RODALCO2007]

Plug and play, great quality Zenith set that is responds on the cold start. Those circuit boards are of interesting design with those posts upwards.

[@teacfan1080]

Just as you said, "it's a Zenith". They put the quality in it alright. From a dirty, rusty thing left for dead now has a second life in the house! My dad was a Zenith person in the 60's & 70's and into the 80's as well. The rat/mouse probably knew Zeniths were good too and make good nest protection.

[@tinicum54]

70's Zenith tv's are around when I started my career, 1974. Back when calculators cost over 100 bucks and math was done on paper or with a slide rule. Sony and Toshiba followed around that time. Those Zenith sets had excellent pictures when operating properly.

[@HiFiasco]

I've done a lot of good work with that Beltron. The cleaning and rejuvenation function has saved CRTs I had written off otherwise that the old B&K wouldn't rejuvenate. That relatively benign cleaning function is priceless. On the other hand, I melted a G1 aperture wide open with the manual rejuv function once while I was learning to use it.

[@shango066]

I wondered where you went

[@appealingpit]

My dad had a few zenith tv, lasted forever. The CRT just gotten worn out. Still amazing how survived that time of its desert life.

[@jerrycarriera8648]

"The quality goes in before the name goes on." A testament to American made quality!

[@SuperJeremi10]

good job brought it back to life i have an old ge porta color tv child hood tv im 26 tv has been used as my main tv for the past 15 year here lately ive been having issues with the coloring i finnally found someone to take a look at it bad news the picture tube is reaching the end of the line i had it rejuvenated it ran great for another year and it started doing the same thing again i would love to find another tube for it.

[@78recordrepair]

Its kinda funny. I'm watching a video about a TV found in the middle of the desert on a monitor I found in the trash.

[@PilotInCommand777]

I am a perfectionist and I have to say, You did a nice job on this tv! WoW!

[@audubon5425]

I remember Doug saying that was the last tube chassis Zenith marketed.

[@Moonwalker917]

It's quite interesting to see tubes, transistors and ICs in the same everyday device

[@maxhifi1232]

This chassis is the first vintage tv I ever worked on, I've owned mine 22 years. The color circuit is a pain in the ass, I spent a lot of time on it and it never looked perfect like an RCA. Even changed the crystal. Bulletproof in most other ways never changed a capacitor but other tubes have failed.

[@mrbreez33]

Good work,Good work!! Now I want to restore an old Television.

[@retrovac99]

Kinda funny to see this TV, which has been abandoned for at least twenty years, suddenly powered on and thrown into the twenty-first century with the news.

[@Madness832]

A few weeks ago, I found the most unusual Zenith telly. A 19" tabletop from the 80's, it's has a large back-lit LCD display which does a clock & the channels. But the unit also has built FM AND AM tuners. Was REALLY dirty, inside & out, suggesting that it may have been exposed to weather, but after cleaning it out & spraying the picture controls, I found that it works quite well. Unknown model number since the data stickers are worn off, but there's 1988 date-sticker on the CRT.

[@rpm1200]

Cool. Maybe a hotel TV, a lot of those had radios built in.

[@iceberg789]

video ?

[@retromania4213]

Greetings from Russia. It is very surprising and interesting that the TV itself survived and no one destroyed it for copper.

[@glenz1975]

I take my hat off to Zenith...Amazing considering the conditions the set had spent time in and just comes right up. A modern BPC set wouldn't even stand up to this.

[@rsattahip]

Those old Zeniths were the best of their time. Easy to work on too.

[@douro20]

A shop close to me where I buy a lot of my tubes has bins full of miscellaneous untested TV-specific tubes. It could be worth getting a new CRT and purity rings for it.

[@PapiDoesIt]

Back then the quality went in before the name went on. That's the exact model we had in the living room when I was in first grade. Watched lots of cartoons, Laugh In, and Ultraman on that model. I have no idea what happened to it.

[@GrandsonofKong]

I can imagine some little Field Mouse in the desert with a picture of this from an old newspaper and saying "This is where my great-great-great-great-great to the eight power grandfather was born".........

[@sirmugman]

that was until the he forgot how to get out, for days he walked around that insides trying to think were he got out, when he did he died from the light and lack of small space and yes you've been reading this in a morgan freeman voice

[@GrandsonofKong]

Or Patrick Stewart's

[@wgrantha4438]

I had a zenith tv that was from the late 70s and I had it in the house for years and when I opened it up it had a mouse nest.

[@MrDoneboy]

Get your cats ready to stand watch, and remove the mouse nest!

[@robinsattahip2376]

Of course, it still works, it's a Zenith.

[@mr.grumpygrumpy2035]

These vintage Zeniths are amazing. My aunt had a Telefunken set that would break if one just got near it.

[@FishinChickin]

“Don’t be vague, Ask for Sprague”

[@Moletastic69]

Best KZbin channel ever. Thanks again, Shango066!

[@MsCori76]

Thankyou for the info on Analog & Digital. I get 212 channels on FOXTEL by satellite subscription here & we are starting to get channels you have like Fox News, daystar which are new ones & channels we've had for awhile are Hallmark, Universal, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Boomerang. The list goes on & not many Aussie channels either. LOL I could have free to air channels but still need to fix my antenna issue & then I'll have more channels! It's true what you said about those cheap set top boxes, I've thrown a lot out because they didn't last & I've noticed they overheat easily or decide not to search channels anymore. Anyway, you did well on the Zenith. 👍🏻😀😘

[@Rangerman9404]

I have that same Apex converter. One of my friends is using it to run a late 90's Sharp TV. He actually had to replace the filter capacitor in it; I think they made those boxes shitty on purpose so you'd end up buying a flat screen HD set anyways

[@MsCori76]

Yeah & you can buy them for around $10 now from cheap discount stores & your local supermarket now. LOL We find crap loads of them at our local tips because they are cheap crap.

[@Rangerman9404]

The guy who's borrowing mine has actually recapped 2 of those boxes, my Apex and Radio Shack's version of it. Ironic that the TV's they were designed for would outlive them.

[@jasonthejawman5442]

Another Awesome TV Saved great Job...

[@cpronikkor2603]

The quality goes in before the name goes on!

[@markmarkofkane8167]

What a beautiful tv, imagine what it was like when brand new!

[@steviebboy69]

What a nice old tv considering its history, wow was it picking up an old commercial at the end. rib eye steak 5.77 a pound, thats about 25 bucks a kg here , and the grapes are about 10 bucks a kg. things must be cheap in USA or very expensive here in Australia.

[@kg4yhr]

another great video as usual nice little hybrid set 73 sir and look for me on 20 meters soon

[@AMStationEngineer]

That console color is referred to as "medium argent". I remember seeing it on some Zenith sales literature from way back when.....

[@AiOinc1]

Personally, I find the Beltron to be more readable than the Super Mac, but seeing as the Super Mac is *significantly* more capable, I'm sure you'd much prefer to use that one. Rock on, I don't have much experience with vacuum tube equipment, so I always find these videos to be very interesting to watch, especially the resurrection videos, which probable take more work, but I always love to see an old piece of junk come back to life, even with a previous owner's dimwitted repairs or significant damage. Keep up the good work!

[@Rockyracoon4114]

I love your videos i would like to see you get that dirt filled philco ford table top working

[@MichaelBeeny]

I think if I lived in the USA I would not have TV. I don't know how you guys put up with it! I thought New Zealand TV was crap!

[@MsCori76]

I'm in Australia & it's bad too.

[@arongooch]

It certainly is rubbish in Australia. That's why I only watch KZbin from now on. Way better content.

[@MsCori76]

Aron Gooch true.

[@teacfan1080]

Same thing for me. I cut cable a little more than a month ago. KZbin is my primary source today.

[@Synthematix]

youtube will actually learn you something TV will not, its all BS

[@jasonthejawman5442]

DTV I still have my original DTV Converter box Digital Stream DTX9950 - great Job on this zenith TV

[@davidcollins1853]

Nice! wouldn't mind having one of those sets.

[@herbertsusmann986]

Nice save! Goes to show that dirt must not be too conductive!

[@greenaum]

Do you ever show your face in your videos, Shango? Electronics or exploring ones? It's interesting to see the development of TVs through the years, really quite a short period, historically speaking. The old RCA KCS96 I watched the other day had a noticable different construction, chassis-style (I forget the proper name for it). There's no PCB (far as I can tell). The components are just mounted to a frame, and wires soldered point-to-point between them. Worked well enough on early radios with a few thermionic valves (or "tubes", as Americans call them). But then when circuits started to get complicated, the method hit it's limits pretty soon, so they had to go on to PCBs. Designed and routed by hand of course. Nowadays there's probably a more sophisticated circuit in one TV's remote control than there was in an entire shop full of TVs back in the 60s. Modern PCBs are multi-layer, and are basically just computers. Computer with RAM for the frame buffer, and the mix of analogue and digital circuits to drive the LCD or plasma. Do modern TVs use a custom chip for the MPEG decoding? I remember, back in the 1990s, you could buy MPEG decoder cards for things. For PCs, for one, but also the failed 3D0 console, and I think a couple of other things that plugged into your TV. Eventually, not too long after actually, MPEG decoder chips, and the cards that mounted them, became obsolete pretty much overnight. As soon as computer CPUs had enough power to decode MPEG-1 in software, in real-time at full speed. Ah! I remember it well! It was the Intel Pentium 133. AFAIK the first CPU with the power to do it. On Windows 3.1 probably. Prior to that I remember, not long after installing my first CD-ROM drive (which lasted YEARS!), playing a short video from a CD mounted on a computer magazine. Wasn't MPEG or full-screen, but was audio with soung, and I was amazed! Blown away! Just that it was possible. A few years after I got a Pentium 233 second-hand and was in bliss! About time, my 486-DX4/100 wasn't cutting it on the 28.8Kbps Internet. So, er, yeah, modern TVs are just monitors. A panel driver for LCD or plasma. An analogue tuner front-end. Then a computer running fairly straightforward software. I once chatted with one of the guys who was writing the code for one of the early Digital TV decoder boxes. The boxes in question sold millions. Pretty straightforward method, really. Used one of the SHARC series chips the Sega Saturn used. The CPU ran an operating system, and the main application was the TV watching one. It took input from the tuner (which the software could set to whichever frequency). The input was a multiplex, the data for 5 or 6 simultaneous TV channels, all on a single frequency, taking turns one channel, then the next, then the next. In data packets with a header. You checked each packet's header. If it said "BBC2", and the viewer had chosen to watch BBC2, then you took the packet, opened it up, then sent it's data to the MPEG decoder. If the packet was for some other channel, ignore it, wait for the next one. Some packets could contain special data, with whatever special exceptions needed coded in. Was pretty simple really, n'est-ce pas? The MPEG decoder in this case was a separate, dedicated MPEG decoding chip. I think these days they'd just do it in software on the main CPU. Anyway, yeah...! From crystal set radios and Marconi's first transmission, to digital TV and orbiting TV satellites. Things came a long way in the 20th Century.

[@shango066]

لا لا لا لا لا

[@georgegonzalez2476]

There is a big difference between blleeding and convergence. Bleeding is when the grid is overdriven into grid current and the signal stretches to the right, usually equally all over the screen. Convergence is a beam alignment anomaly and usually varies a lot from top to bottom.

[@TerryMcKean]

I was wondering if you were able to piece the tube layout back together at all after removing the rat's nest and digging through it to look at what the rat used to line her nest with. Awesome picture on it after your worked on it...nice job. :-)

[@sirmugman]

i love these, you need to do more just be like "hay guys i'm off out somewere that isn't anywere i can say to stop ppl from getting this good stuff or the stuff i leave behind, i'll then transport it home and try to fix it no mattter the condition!! am i crazy or just like trying to fix 30+ year old tv's that have been left for dead for years in some place"

[@pafoofnic]

When America was great! "The quality goes in before the name goes on."

[@KennethScharf]

You're luck the rodents didn't chew up the wiring and eat the capacitors. Those Zenith's are like Timex watches, take a licking and keep on ticking. KZbin is picking nits if they block your video's for copyright. As long as you only show small bits and pieces of stuff for the purpose of demo-ing the TV you should fall under fair use. They'd have a point if you showed entire episodes of stuff. We got two free Magnavox brand set top boxes with our FCC coupons. They seem to work reasonably well. I also have one of those cheap (ebay) mini yagi tv antennas in the Attic with a built in rotor, but I just set and forgot it since most of the local stations come in from one direction, and the rest are strong enough to make it off the side. It's really only a rotatable folded dipole on VHF, and a short yagi on UHF, but it has a build in pre-amp. Works good enough for when Direct TV goes out.

[@douro20]

I thought LP stations weren't allowed to operate on VHF anymore. See if you can find a Channel Master DTV converter; it might change your opinion on those $45 DTV converters a bit.

[@scottjohnston804]

Am I the only one that wants to take this unit outside, turn on the compressor and blow a sandstorm in the backyard? Incredible that this unit works with min efforts, hose it down with contact cleaner and it's good as new.

[@scottjohnston804]

I get that it works, but it you cleaned the tubes and tube sockets, would the set work better? Seems to work with the older radios I have got running.

[@linandy1]

Well, that was a fun to watch video

[@supyrow]

Nice work! fuckin zenith , cant kill em!

[@robertdemaio6483]

Great old sets

[@DrewskisBrews]

Don't be vague, ask for Sprague!

[@HDXFH]

That works well so far!

[@terabbs]

Not bad for a sun backed TV. I don't think even the 80's tv will survive that.

[@MrUbiquitousTech]

Looks good, nice save!

[@theretrogeek2281]

Nice set,worth saving..👍🏻

[@TonyFleetwood]

that mouse had good taste

[@mikekeech9718]

Hello great video on this Zenith TV. Say just what kind of CrossHatch Generator is that.

[@norbs]

If a consumer electronic last that much I wonder if the military stuff even break

[@peterfolchi1032]

Could you by chance make a video on that apex converter box thing I am quite interested on what's inside.

[@iceberg789]

wow, how did they make those circuits with floating components like that. they just look like jungle to me ! and it was weird to see solid state ic along side tube. was it common in early colour tvs ?

[@PaulWannenburg]

Nice set great entertainment

[@dirkbonesteel]

shango066 SILVER PAINT to match industrial silver on TV or even Nissan rims use a silver metalic then CLEAR coat semi-gloss. It comes out perfect, besides toning down gloss it mellows the actual silver tone

[@bairfamilyfarm1336]

Gosh I wish analog tv was still around.

[@martinda7446]

I know its obvious, but did the red bloom improve with lowering color control?

[@greenaum]

Aren't all electrolytic caps doomed to fail eventually? These ones must surely be on borrowed time. Isn't it worth replacing as many as you can? I suppose it depends how much use you want to eventually get out of it, if it's going to be used a lot, or just kept in a cabinet (or on a shelf, or in the attic, cellar, etc...) What do you do with all these old TVs? If it were me I think I'd get an RF modulator and use it to connect a video source to them. There's still many devices you can get that produce a composite video output. Or, instead of a modulator, is it possible, and as simple as it sounds, just to bypass the TV's RF tuner, and feed composite to the stage just after that? Maybe a Raspberry Pi, or something similar, you could mount it inside the TV's case. Give it Wifi or Ethernet and you'd have a media station to watch video on your home network. You could even do a VNC, remote desktop access, to run a PC on one of the old TVs. I just think if you're going to fix up all these great old TVs, you should have the opportunity to use them. Even if it's just occasionally, for fun. As a spare video player for when friends with kids visit, or have it running a SNES emulator, or whatever.

[@BretFrohwein]

Very nice!

[@scratchback2001]

What about using a Rejuvenate unit to fix the cathode outputs?

[@emorris272]

We get pixelation on our cable system, although it has improved a great deal. Digital still has problems. Will it ever be perfect? Don't know!

[@sherry-ml7zw]

turn it into a gaming tv set for your man cave ....

[@Idelia412]

Zenith had a saying "The Quality goes in before the name goes on. "

[@kyoudaiken]

In Germany DVB-T was designed to take advantage from the formerly ghosting. They delay it and get bits that where destroyed back from the reflected signals. DVB-T2 does have better modulation and demodulation, they even can get 64 MBit/s per channel, packing 4 stations into one 64 MBit stream in there which makes 6 MBit per station, which is enough for H265/HEVC. But what does that bring you, when the contant is bullshit all night and day long? My TV is now KZbin. That's all I need.

[@makomk]

I think some of the newer American digital TV receivers are meant to cope better with multipath than the old ones, but it's not designed in like with DVB. Different priorities.

[@sherry-ml7zw]

can i ask u can a antenna connect to a cable box bring in higher up channels...

[@SuperRinghio92]

Good job !!!

[@chrisa2735-h3z]

I have a similar set I found on the side of the road near where I live.

[@ArcadeMachine15]

You couldn't get the convergence any better?

[@rickjohnson1632]

The quality goes in before the name goes on

[@Jimmyhaflinger]

is the original speaker still good?

[@izools]

I don't understand why US TV manufacturers were using vacuum tubes in an IC era? an actual DIP IC in the same set as tubes? I don't get it.

[@MrUbiquitousTech]

Because tubes are cooler.

[@Synthematix]

And the shango066 video addiction continues, mate you are worse for my health than smoking haha, yet again another great video! you got any hifi repair videos in the pipeline mate?

[@SquantoTerror]

23:00 Polishing the TURD.

[@animalcorvair]

all i would buy was a zenith ..that tuner looks like a hot rod

[@hannonm]

"LOL its a zenith whatda expect!" give her a good cleaning .

[@Synthematix]

shango spray the frame with a coat of GREY car primer then two coats of battleship grey satin

[@X5Industries]

how many channels were you able to get back before the digital switch?

[@cttv90108]

I haven't counted but there were probably 30 or more in Los Angeles if you include uhf and vhf.

[@jacobs.preciado1889]

I noticed this point on screen is for a broken cable , change the cable to conect from converter to tv

[@HDXFH]

Dust and dirt maybe interfering with High Voltage

[@wdavem]

Cool! It just freaking works! That this is a Zenith and it still works like that makes me a little more confident about the number of remaining hours left on old professional gear where they also sourced parts that good. As long as there is a way to verify that the picture quality is close enough to as good as it could be for the purpose its going to be used for I know I'm not gong to worry about breaking anything by scrubbing it unless when it heats up it makes the room stink of animal waste. I'm guessing that was a mouse by the size of the hole but the only reason that could possibly matter here is that I make the guess that mouse pee seems to be more corrosive then rat pee but really who cares. Obviously you know exactly what you are doing and green fluffy copper parts aren't exactly hard to miss. I have to note that I am comparing pet rat pee with wild mouse pee so that ain't science.

[@h0w17z3r]

Do you ever sell these units?

[@MiddleGeorgiaAirplaneSpotting]

16:05 Windows XP?

[@HDXFH]

Lol someone logged in there xD

[@EvertvanIngen]

How come you never use a aircompresser to blow the insides clean?

[@shango066]

Why do i care if the inside is clean if it works well? Why take any risk of damage

[@EvertvanIngen]

True, it gives (I think) a character to the image on the tube. Your awesome man, also the HAM radio video's are really enjoyable :D