1980s Television Experts:

[podor]

It's kind of funny how LG (Goldstar) and Samsung have really changed their reputation. My dad fixed TVs for a living, and both were pretty much the bottom of the barrel. Now, they are top of the line. Good management.

[Sargeguy]

If I were going to salvage an old TV I would look for a fancier brand like a Curtis Mathis or Zenith

[compubit]

Kept it unlisted 'cos of it playing Top Gear on Dave, yes, we have a TV channel called Dave, and no I don't know why!!

Just like we have radio stations called "Alice" or "Jack FM" or TV channels called "E!" (US) or "A" (formerly in Canada). It's a unique name, and using "Dave" implies it's probably a channel target to men.  There was probably some marketing guy who came up with the idea and some exec liked it.

Jim

[andre_janew]

If I were going to salvage an old TV I would look for a fancier brand like a Curtis Mathis or Zenith

Yes!  Those brands are of a much better quality than the Goldstar brand.

[twocvbloke]

The irony is, LG owns Zenith now...

We never had the Zenith brand in the UK, so I don't know their level of quality, we had brands such as Pye, Decca, Baird, JVC, Ferguson, Philips, etc., then latterly Sony, Samsung, Goldstar and whatnot from the Japanese companies...

[Sargeguy]

Of course you could always get a Stromberg-Carlson!  They ceased production in 1957 but had some pretty fancy TVs during their heyday

[TelePlay]

Is a 1985 Goldstar valuable at all? I found this one while looking through some stuff at my Grandma's house.

Depends what you want to do with it. I don't think you could get $5 for it anywhere. Thrift stores won't even take them anymore as donations. I bought a nice Toshiba color set for $10 a year ago and works well, with a converter box, to this day (it's a small set that fits into our kitchen nicely).

I bought a brand new Quasar B&W set in 1983. It was made in Taiwan in April of 1982. The company I was working for used them as monitors for the product we made and they changed to something else so they sold out their inventory to employees. I think I paid about $80 back then, a bit high but Quasar was a good unit, IIRC.

It is still my daily viewer in my office sitting on top of a filing cabinet which puts it above my desk top computer display. Have to use a converter box with it and it is only B&W but I'm only listening to it and catching the video of anything important. The B&W is more grey and grey these days so it may be nearing its end. If it didn't work, I'd toss it.

If your grandmother's works and you have a need for it somewhere, and want to buy a converter for about $40, it's worth something to you, and that's about it.

[JorgeAmely]

I've wanted to have a TV with knobs on, but, all I have to do is put Top Gear on and I have what I want...

Top Gear UK has been cancelled.

[twocvbloke]

Top Gear UK has been cancelled.

Temporarily, the british TV license payer has paid for the cancelled episodes, so they better well bring them back or else there'll be the need for mass refunds to all license payers...