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poll: tackiest brand names/worst brands TV/VCR/stereo etc?

W

William R. Walsh

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi!
ToteVision

....is actually still around today and did sell at least one good product.
(They could have sold others, but this is the only one I've ever seen or
used with their name on it...) I have a ToteVision VCR that belonged to my
grandparents, who gave it to me when the picture lost all color. I cleaned
the heads and have replaced the rubber parts now and then and it just keeps
going. Not bad for a budget 2 head machine built in '89 by Goldstar. I've
only ever had the one complaint with it--low audio when recording, but it
has had that problem since day one. Playback is fine.

http://greyghost.dyndns.org/av/vcr1.jpg - although, that picture makes it
look worse than it does. When I actually dust things, the unit still looks
pretty well brand new.

(Oh, and did I mention that I actually found the name to be kinda cool
sounding? Implies portable TV to me, which seems to be their business
nowadays.)

William
 
W

William R. Walsh

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi!

I've found the recent string of Hitachi-LG CD/DVD drives that identify
themselves as "HL-DT-ST xxxxxxxxxxxxx" drives rather entertaining.

It's not a particularly strange name like others have mentioned, but I'd
still love to know what (if anything) it might stand for...and when you
consider that many drives have quite a descriptive ID string, it is odd.

William
 
I

ivan

Jan 1, 1970
0
b said:
Fair comment. For example the name Sonitron: Opening up such a VCR (in
the 80s), I discovered it was a Sanyo (Fisher) clone. (in those days
Sanyo still made some respectable low to mid-price goods). However,
you can't deny that the name sounds tacky, (almost trying to evoke
Sony) and as such deserves a place on the list!
Ben

'Pacific' is a name I'm beginning to see more of, sold by Asda (Wal-Mart)
although I haven't had the back off one yet, but picture wise, the ones I've
seen so far, appear to have given a pretty good account of themselves.

I automatically assumed from from your original list that you were based in
the UK, however looking at the receiver fitted with the flimsy looking two
pin plug, I'm now not so sure.
 
K

Ken G.

Jan 1, 1970
0
YES Samscum .. You guys dont see all the samscum junk because people
throw it away before they pay high repair prices .
Their tv sets have some sort of wierd low quality picture and all the
buttons have slow respond times .
I worked on a number of their big screens where the seal on the tubes
failed & leaked coolant fluid all over the circuit boards down and made
puddles on the floor . Their camcorders last about 3 months then break
.. try taking one of those apart .
I have had several of their new 36``? wide screen tube tv sets with
fried horizontal transistors and a fried capacitor or strange other
circuit problems .
One of my shop friends down town signed up for their warranty service ..
it took them 6 months to get around to returning his call . Last i heard
their method of repair was to send all the boards the model you are
working on to yo to have you try them till you find the bad one & return
the rest .

Their are many very cheap brands out there but at least their tv sets
have a normal picture .. samscum is the worst !
 
B

b

Jan 1, 1970
0
ivan said:
'Pacific' is a name I'm beginning to see more of, sold by Asda (Wal-Mart)
although I haven't had the back off one yet, but picture wise, the ones I've
seen so far, appear to have given a pretty good account of themselves.

Yeah. Picked up one of their 40 pound dvd players to leave at my
folks' place - seemed ok but then, I only used it once in the space of
a year. As for their other products - can't say.
I automatically assumed from from your original list that you were based in
the UK, however looking at the receiver fitted with the flimsy looking two
pin plug, I'm now not so sure.

I live in Spain but am from the UK. And , yes, the spanish /european
plugs are terrible! In my unbiased objective humble opinion, the UK
3-pin system is the best in the world ;). And you, are you another
ex-pat from UK but living in Berlin?

regards, Ben
 
I

ivan

Jan 1, 1970
0
b said:
Yeah. Picked up one of their 40 pound dvd players to leave at my
folks' place - seemed ok but then, I only used it once in the space of
a year. As for their other products - can't say.


I live in Spain but am from the UK. And , yes, the spanish /european
plugs are terrible! In my unbiased objective humble opinion, the UK
3-pin system is the best in the world ;). And you, are you another
ex-pat from UK but living in Berlin?
Electrical goods prices still seem to drop almost by the day, for instance I
recently saw an angle grinder complete with two cutting discs retailing at
£7.99...12 months ago I paid £5 'each' just for the discs.

Also if one shops around, it's possible to find twin speed videos for around
the £30 mark, and only last week, my brother bought a DVD player in
Woolworth's for twenty-five quid.

I'm resident in the UK, what made you think I live in Berlin?

Mind you the way things have been going over here for the last few years,
and with my mortgage paid off, I dream about selling up (before the the
crash!) and buying something cheaper abroad and then living on the money
thats left over, unfortunately however it will have to remain a dream, as my
wife is so attached to her family that's it's a total non-starter.
 
B

b

Jan 1, 1970
0
saw this header which confused me! must be a server or something.
 
B

b

Jan 1, 1970
0
[email protected] (LASERandDVDfan) wrote in message
Another set of names come from those wonderful people who make those greatest
high end speakers that are sold out of the back of white vans. :p
Grafdale, ripoff of Wharfdale
Paradygm, ripoff of Paradigm
Acoustic Response, ripoff of Acoustic Research
Dahlton, Dogg Digital, and Theater Research are also other brands that are sold in the back of vans and are utter pieces of crap. ()snip)

I remember that affair well! One day years ago at university ,passing
through the campus after returning from the town, having placed an
order for a pair of wharfedale floorstanders at the local HiFi shop I
was approached by some dodgy characters in - wait for it - a white
van. Poor sods really picked their moment! Faces fell as I told them
where I was coming from, and tried to convince me that the ones I had
ordered "were Ok but what we got here is the real shit, know what i
mean?" they then spun me some ridiculous story - "speakers reduced in
price from 800 pounds , yours for 150 to clear them out, the boss
wants his warehouse emptied" etc. I said "no" and left them to it.

Week or two later on BBC watchdog or some similar programme, lo and
behold I saw a trading standards report on the scam, they got a pair
of these speakers from a disgruntled duped customer and ran an
analysis on them. They came to the same conclusions as you said -
pieces of crap with awful response curves, sensitivity, phasing,
soundstage, build, crossovers...you name it. In fact I 'm fairly sure
I still have a video of the programme somewhere.....

b
 
L

LASERandDVDfan

Jan 1, 1970
0
I remember that affair well! One day years ago at university ,passing
through the campus after returning from the town, having placed an
order for a pair of wharfedale floorstanders at the local HiFi shop I
was approached by some dodgy characters in - wait for it - a white
van.

Heheheh.

Although, these days, they'll drive anything that can hold product, from a
beat-up Chevrolet Astro all the way up to a pristine Lincoln Navigator.

Or, for Europe, from a beat up Ford Transit to a pristine Range Rover.

It is shocking that this appears to be a worldwide affar. Apparently, it
started here in the 1970s in the States and then spread to other countries over
the years.

There have been instances in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Japan, and I
think even in Germany with possibly many other countries.

And, I am also sorry to say, that this foul business will most certainly not go
away for quite some time. There are too many greedy suckers who think they
will be bagging themselves a good deal, and the business runs to the point
where the authorities can do almost nothing about it.
Faces fell as I told them
where I was coming from, and tried to convince me that the ones I had
ordered "were Ok but what we got here is the real shit, know what i
mean?" they then spun me some ridiculous story ... >I said "no" and left them
to it.

Great feeling to dodge a bullet and look good in the process, yes?
Week or two later on BBC watchdog or some similar programme, lo and
behold I saw a trading standards report on the scam, they got a pair
of these speakers from a disgruntled duped customer and ran an
analysis on them. They came to the same conclusions as you said -
pieces of crap with awful response curves, sensitivity, phasing,
soundstage, build, crossovers...you name it. In fact I 'm fairly sure
I still have a video of the programme somewhere.....

I'd love to watch that, although the video would have to be sent through the
net. I'm afraid I don't have the capability to play PAL recordings.

Another thing I've heard about these white van speakers, they may not have
serial numbers tagged on the product or labeled on the packaging.

And, of course, common sense dictates that buying speakers out of a van from
real pushy people telling an ethically questionable story should be avoided at
all costs. - Reinhart
 
J

Jason D.

Jan 1, 1970
0
Samsung is far worse than all those put together
Samsung?

When you are authorized shop for the Samsung, gets all kinds of info
on their website (Yes, I wish it came on CDs and paper (used to) and
more training manuals especially for their monitors, TVs, DVD. etc.
Then you usually are doing ok.

So far they make so many stuff and is doing fine. Right now I got a
industrial quality samsung projector monitor (takes VGA signals) used
in the game cabient for Andamira here for repair.

What a MASSIVE dual power supplies and one humgous flyback
transformer. :) Oh, have to turn THAT on with a tv remote. Oh yes,
pull out light box like RCA of old. :-( ) I'll take few pictures of
it.

Cheers,

Wizard
 
C

Chaos Master

Jan 1, 1970
0
rm -rf /home/Ken G.:
Their are many very cheap brands out there but at least their tv sets
have a normal picture .. samscum is the worst !

I have not seen a Samsung TV here in Brazil, in the last 3 years or so.
But the last time I saw one, the image looked good.

(this is a post from someone that used a 10-year old Semp Toshiba TV, then
bought a new LG TV and is quite happy)

[]s
 
L

LASERandDVDfan

Jan 1, 1970
0
http://greyghost.dyndns.org/av/vcr1.jpg - although, that picture makes it
look worse than it does.

Yep. It's a GoldStar all right. All the way down to the "HQ" logo. That
particular chassis was also distributed under the Sears, Roebuck and Company.

BTW, check the mode switch. Other problems to look out for: capstan motor and
idler assembly causing a slow rewind condition with some cassettes.

As for low audio level for recording, that was also a problem with a linear
stereo Sears machine, OEMed by GoldStar, that I have which is collecting dust.
(Oh, and did I mention that I actually found the name to be kinda cool
sounding? Implies portable TV to me, which seems to be their business
nowadays.

Also true. You can tote a ToteVision anywhere, heheh.

BTW, I am sure a lot of people remember Bell & Howell. My how they have
fallen, from making some high quality film projectors all the way down to
making cheap and crappy electric shavers advertised on infomercials. -
Reinhart
 
M

Michael A. Covington

Jan 1, 1970
0
Often, "off-brand" machinery of any type is simply last year's model of a
name brand. I remember around 1970 opening up a Lafayette (house brand)
cassette player and finding Pioneer parts. Other Lafayette tape recorders
were Sony's previous year model.

And some name brands (e.g., RCA) no longer correspond directly to any
manufacturing facilities -- they are just names that have been sold.
 
P

Proprclr

Jan 1, 1970
0
Oh, come on! You can't recognize quality from such brand names as Panaphonics,
Magnetbox, and Sorny? ;-p


That's one brand. It was also known as GPX, whose products were typically sold
at corner drug stores here in Florida.


Another brand, which I think could be Japanese. Their quality is okay, for a
budget brand.


I've seen a Crown CD player. There is also a company called Crown that makes
some of the finest professional grade amplifiers. However, the two companies
named Crown are unrelated.


This brand seems to be vaguely familiar.

Others:

ToteVision
Broksonic
Lasonic
Coby (talk about a cheesy name,heheheh.)
jWin


Konka is based in China, Hong Kong if I'm not mistaken.

Funai is another brand that I think is located in China, although I've heard
from another that they are based in South Korea. - Reinhart


A couple others to look out for would be Shail(sp?) and Lax-Max.

I bought a pair of dollar headphones made my Shail, and when
the headseats broke (which didn't take long), I decided to use
the wires for scrap. Imagine my suprise when I stripped the wires and
found that they were insulated by a coating rather than regular insulation,
and the strands were *very* thin. ARGGGHHH! It's nearly impossible to
strip the coating off the wire strangs, so naturaly, the whole thing was
useless junk.

I've also taken apart earphones from those "torch radios" (that tune with
a singe "scan button"), you see at 99 cent stores, and not only were the
wires the same thin "painted" type, but there was only *one* (1) strand
for one of the poles! Talk about cheap!
 
P

Proprclr

Jan 1, 1970
0
David said:
By far the worst name would have to have been: Broksonic, pronounced
Broke-Sonic. Would be kind of like naming a car No-Go.

Maybe "broke" stands for "will last forever, and never break" where
the device is manufactured :)
 
P

Proprclr

Jan 1, 1970
0
Yep. It's a GoldStar all right. All the way down to the "HQ" logo. That
particular chassis was also distributed under the Sears, Roebuck and Company.

BTW, check the mode switch. Other problems to look out for: capstan motor and
idler assembly causing a slow rewind condition with some cassettes.

As for low audio level for recording, that was also a problem with a linear
stereo Sears machine, OEMed by GoldStar, that I have which is collecting dust.


Also true. You can tote a ToteVision anywhere, heheh.

That name, is so......1980s. (sorry, someone had to say it :)
BTW, I am sure a lot of people remember Bell & Howell. My how they have
fallen, from making some high quality film projectors

I once got a Bell and Howel "Film-o-sound" projector from school.
If I remember correctly, it was a slide projector that had a
audio tape deck built in to it (I think it also had a built in screen).
I never got the thing working, but I'm sure it was one of those
automatic projectors where the film strip advances when a unique
signal (sounds like a low fluttering chirp) is picked up on the tape.

A bit off topic, but does anyone remember this device that I used
when in elemetary school? It was a unit that looked like a really
bloated portable television set. It had slide show "cards" with a
plastic frame that you would stick into the front, right hand side of the
unit. The slide came with a 12" phonograph record with a very strange
looking groove lay out*, that you would insert in a slot above
the screen. There were a few large buttons (4, I think) directly
below the screen, and the record would play, and show a multiple
choice question or pictures, and the record would instruct you to
press the button for your answer. Depending on what button you pushed,
a different track on the record would play, indicating whether
you got the answer right or not

*the record looked like a normal phonograph record, except that there
were little "boxes" all over the surface of the record. I think that
there were sort of like switch rails, that allowed the needle to
jump to a different track, depending on what the child selected.
Scince the unit didn't have a regular tonearm, but a sort of servo and rod
set up for the needle, this would make sense.
 
P

Paul of Dayton

Jan 1, 1970
0
I remember seeing "Panasony" somewhere long ago...

PoD
 
C

Chaos Master

Jan 1, 1970
0
rm -rf /home/Paul of Dayton:
I remember seeing "Panasony" somewhere long ago...

Recently, I saw "TOKAY" brand (in a post on a Brazilian forum).

[]s
 
B

b

Jan 1, 1970
0
Paul of Dayton said:
I remember seeing "Panasony" somewhere long ago...

These hybrid names need a thread of their own. I have seen imitation
duracell batteries as follows: DURAKING, POWERCELL,
DURASELL,POWERKING, PANASHIBA, PANASOANIC...
and a crude playstation imitation (didnt use discs, used ram
cartridges like the old nintendo system) : POLYSTATION. It looked
similar cosmetically but what a surprise when you lifted the lid!
Ben
 
C

Chaos Master

Jan 1, 1970
0
C:\> DELTREE /Y b:
and a crude playstation imitation (didnt use discs, used ram
cartridges like the old nintendo system) : POLYSTATION. It looked
similar cosmetically but what a surprise when you lifted the lid!
Ben

Those "POLYSTATIONS" are often sold here in Brazil. On the box (some boxes
looked rather like real PlayStation ones), there were a lot of lies about
features that it boasted.

[]s
--
Chaos Master®, posting from Brazil. REPLY TO GROUP!
MSN: [email protected] http://marreka.no-ip.com
"When a person turns to wrong, is it a want to be, belong?
Part of things at any cost, at what price a life is lost?"
Mozilla for Brazilians: http://www.mozilla.org.br
 
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