Making A TV Worth Watching

Photo Source: Teknynja.com

A few short days ago, I posted a topic "TV: Back When It Was Worth Watching". In said post, it was mentioned that the progress of the electronics seemed to have a reverse affect on the exterior design. So, what we end up with is something of a backward world. Beautiful on the outside, and dull on the inside, or beautiful on the inside and dull on the outside.

With this topic in mind, I've done a bit of sniffing around on the net, and I have found the following articles to try and balance the weights between the 2 worlds. One of the articles is a DIY and the other is a reference to a TV tech that might offer the option your looking for. If not, he may at least have the information you need to get what you want out of your old TV.

Other than converting your old Mid-century refrigerator TV into a fish tank or a dog bed/house, I found very few Retro TV Conversion DIY's. However, I did find this one. Teknynja.com has posted a two part post on the retrofitting of his MCM Cabinet TV. Teknynja's first post "Vintage TV Mod, Part I" and their second post "Vintage TV Mod, Part II" are where you will find the DIY retrofitting process. Only thing is, as of recent, the second post doesn't have working photos on the post. At least, not for me. So, that is a bit of a bummer. There are holes where knobs should be and a few other details, that You will see. It does, however, look like a decent tutorial on the actual conversion process of the TV into modern technology. Therefore, with a little extra work, you could have the retrofit done and finish out the cabinet a bit more.

Thru my searching, I also found this post, "Fair Lawn man retrofits vintage televisions with modern technology" about a man in New Jersey who has a TV Repair and retrofitting store/operation. He is said to convert mid-century TV's into modern technology beings. This article states that he has limitations as far as what he can retrofit, but that anyone can call and request a quote or ask about the set they have, are looking at getting, or would like to get. So, if you're in the market for a vintage TV and want to look at having the internals modernized, you might find this place worth the call. It seems that they may actually have some TV's already retrofitted for sale as well. However, this article is a bit old, and I have not called. So, I will leave it up to you folks to let me know how this turns out.

Please understand that I have not tried either of these options. I have not tried calling the TV store, nor the DIY Retro TV conversion.