Slow start up for CRT TV

[AdamAnt316]

Nah, the warm up issue was still really common long after the vacuum tube day. The kid across the street from me back in the 80's had a set his Nintendo was hooked up to that could take several minutes to turn on. Finally he was able to convince his dad to replace the set when it started taking something like 10 mins to come on. Granted, it was an old set, but not vacuum tube old. I don't think I've EVER seen a set with vacuum tubes, but the "warm up" problem was pretty universal, though not all to the degree that this kid's TV had, until the late 80's, early 90's.

30 seconds doesn't really sound so bad. Probably not that much longer than my 2011 LCD takes to do the effin HDCP handshake over HDMI with my cable box, though I've never timed it.

You'd be surprised at how long vacuum tubes were used in the circuitry of television sets. Throughout the 1970s, most manufacturers continued to produce sets which used at least some vacuum tubes in the main circuitry (usually the lower-end models), with more and more sections being converted to use solid-state components as the years went on. Tube-based TVs were still being sold as the '80s dawned, though mostly small sets with older designs (like GE Portacolor). Generally, sets which weren't fully solid-state didn't look all that different from the sets which were; probably the biggest difference being the lack of "SOLID-STATE" badging prominently displayed somewhere on the front panel.

As far as warm-up times go, I'm not sure what would cause a TV set of either tube, hybrid or solid-state circuitry to take 10 minutes to warm up. Vacuum tube filaments, whether within the circuit tubes or the CRT, typically get hot enough to allow operation within a minute or two. Most of the circuitry in a solid-state TV set comes up to operation instantly, with the only delay being the CRT filament. Some sets did employ some manner of time-delay circuitry to prevent damage by sensitive parts of the set getting 'slammed' with voltage at turn-on, though I don't know of any specific examples off-hand, and I don't think it was at all common.
-Adam

[Gentlegamer]

That reminds me of my childhood and the concept of "portable" TVs. They weren't some handheld, they just meant supposedly lighter or with a handle or hand grips. My childhood TV was a "portable" 20" that had handle on top... and probably weighed 50 pounds. I think it was a Panasonic.

Over the years, it ended up in my dad's work shed, I think my mom still has it.