Last summer I began watching the YouTube channel Born2beRad. While the host was talking about his favorite physical medias, I could see a small tube TV in the background silently playing a movie. I really liked the idea of placing a small TV/ DVD combo unit in the corner or on a shelf and playing random movies on mute. It's the media equivalent of a lava lamp.
I revisited my old haunts and came up empty handed. After a few weeks of no luck, I decided to use what I already had at home.
This trio is on a book case in our basement. I've written about the 13" Panasonic TV before. Char used to use it for playing Animal Crossing on the Game Cube and later on the 360. She has since moved on to the Switch. I like the Panasonic DVD player because when you first turn it on the words "Welcome to DVD World" scroll by on the display. I often say back, "Why, thank you." A friend at work gave me the JVC VCR.
I could use a blu-ray player with the CRT TV, but I'd have to change the player's output resolution to 480i and I didn't want to think that hard. DVDs look great on this old TV as it is.
I had a lot of fun in December playing muted Christmas movies like How the Grinch Stole Christmas along with various Christmas LPs. It was like giving the film a new soundtrack.
I probably would have kept these three in action for quite some time, but I think I found a replacement. I had an appointment last Wednesday, and that gave me a few hours to kill before I picked Char up from school. I got to go thrifting at time when I'm usually working. That's when I found this.
It's an Emerson TV/DVD combo with a 9 inch screen, and it stands proudly at 12 inches tall. This CRT is exactly what I have been looking for. The size was right, the price was right ($15), and it had been well taken care of. The only problem was there was no remote. Usually this is a deal-breaker for me. Experience has taught me that buying the missing remote can easily cost three times what I paid for the player. This time I ignored my own rules of thrift.
I discovered that if I played a movie and the DVD's menu selection was already highlighting "Play," then I'd be good to go. I could press the "Play" button on the unit, and the movie would fire right up. I was out of luck if anything else was highlighted on the menu.
Find what type of device you want to control (DVD), find the brand name you have (Emerson), follow the steps for entering the first code (241), and then press the power button the remote. If your device turns off you're golden. If not, then repeat these steps with the next code.
Pro tip: Try adding a 0 in front of the code number if none of the listed codes work. My correct code is 0247.
It works!
It took me awhile to discover that I had to press the "Menu" button twice before trying to navigate the DVD's menu. If I didn't, then I'd switch the screen from DVD to TV static and have to start all over and watch the introduction programing again. Irritating.
Using the Gemini remote did allow me to change the display language from Spanish to English. That was nice.
So, I now had a basic, working remote for the TV. I could have stopped there, but I went shopping to see if I could find the correct remote.
See what I mean about finding the exact remote that you need being expensive? It was time to do some more research.
The CRT Database states that my CRT, "Requires a compatible remote with a "Picture" button in order to access picture settings (Emerson, Sylvania, Symphonic, Magnavox).
Hmmmm... a "compatible" remote? Let's look for similar remotes from those other brands mentioned...
To make a long story short, I bought a Magnavox remote for my Emerson TV.
The Magnavox remote is a little discolored from age, but that's okay. So am I. And for once a remote was actually cheaper than the player's price (by ten cents). The button layout was exactly like the Emerson's. The function names were slightly different: "Standby/On" vs. "Power,"ect... but I had hopes this wouldn't be a waste of time.
It wasn't. Every button on the Magnavox eemote works with the Emerson TV. I'm stoked to have a fully working TV/DVD combo. Thanks, CRT Database!
It's another mixed match that works just fine.
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