Vintage colour tv anyone?

[MikeS]

UHF Converter

My grandparents had a 1950's Sears Silvertone B&W swivel console with just VHF. They attached a UHF converter on the set so Grandpa could watch the bullfights on Los Angeles' Spanish-language station (channel 34). Of course, he also loved Roller Derby and Lawrence Welk. I loved to watch the bullfights (mainly because they showed English language commercials dubbed in Spanish, and they were interesting to watch). They finally succumbed to a new color TV in the late 1960's, but I'll always remember that old blonde wood Silvertone.

 

[cornutt]

My dad had a 25-inch RCA (1970 model IIRC) with a click-click UHF tuner. Each click selected a span of three UHF channels, and you then used the fine tune for that group to tune to the specific channel. If there were two UHF channels in the same group, you were SOL (although the FCC didn't usually allocate UHF channels that close together). This model was an instant-on, too; it kept the tube heaters lit all the time, unless you unplugged it. Great for keeping the room warm in the winter.

I don't think many sets were made with this type of UHF tuner. The FCC made click-click UHF tuners mandatory sometime in the late '70s, but that time period coincided with the introduction of electronic tuning.

 

[whirlaway]

Zenith

Thats a nice set,but pic tube will have to be replaced.The glass on the front is coming unglued from the pic tube.Used to happen to the round sets also.Its tempered glass and it took the place of the external glass like you see on 40s and 50s TV. The first color sets also had the thick glass outfront and metal pic tubes with glass bonded to the neck and front of the tube.The very early ones like the 15inch RCA have lost their vacuum,but the 21 inch seem to have held up better.Bobby

 

[cadman]

No need to replace that tube, cataract surgery is par for the course for collectors on these color sets. Not recommended for the novice, however!

I recall some TV's, especially motorized tuner sets where there was only one turret, made after the '64 era that required UHF, having additional spaces on the tuner that allowed inserting a UHF or VHF coil strip for whichever couple of UHF stations might be in your area.

Actually, our '76 RCA behaved like this, though you preset the UHF station for channel A, B, C, etc. from behind a trim panel on the front. You'd also set the motorized tuner to bypass the unused locations.

 

[whirlcool]

Now if you really want to talk vintage TV.....

Take a look at this!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8159406.stm

 

[beadsobleach]

1965 RCA Victor New Vista

I bought a 1965 RCA Roundie back in the 70's, developed the cataracts in the late 80's, still worked great, New Vista Color...

 

[norgeway]

Round tube Rectangular tube...

Motorola invented the first rectangular tube color set,it was introduced in 1964,NO ONE had one except Motorola until 1965, Did you know, Zenith did not introduce a color set till 1962, they would not use the R C A chassis,they designed there own circutry for there first color set,NO ONE made color tubes but R C A until Motorola introduced the rectangular one in64,R C A had the market sewed up till then,all manufacturers used liscense built R C A chassis and R C A 21 inch round tubes.

 

[beadsobleach]

Wow, I got color TV

I had a 1964 RCA roundie, I bought it in the late 70s, it worked great for several years, actually used my 1981 RCA Selecta-Vision VCR with it. It was great to watch classic compatible color programs with....

 

[cadman]

Well, I know Philco had a rectangular tube in '56 on their "Apple" prototype and I swear there was another manufacturer in the 54/55/56 timeframe that had a 15" true rectangular tube (not a mask) but can't put my finger on it right now. Setting up convergence on a round tube is tricky enough!

What I find so interesting is when color was really heating up here in the mid 50's, LOTS of manufacturers designed their own color chassis', Sylvania, Westinghouse, Philco, etc. Even some of the economy brands had versions. Some made it to light of day, but being so new and so expensive, only RCA, being the giant they were, stuck it out through the end of the decade and made due with slow sales and slim profits. It wasn't until the 60's that we saw a return to individual designs as costs began to plummet and more and more programming went full-time color.

Here's a link to the Philco's Apple prototype. -Cory

http://www.myvintagetv.com/philco_apple_receiver.htm

 

[whirlcool]

Here is another Philco Prototype color tv from 1953, and the tube was made by Sylvania.

http://www.myvintagetv.com/philco_color.htm

 

[jetcone]

What a neat TV Rick

My family also Canadian also spells it the right way.

Whirlcool, our 1968 RCA was a tube set, and boy WHAT COLOR that had, I still remember how vivid The Tonight Show was!

 

[whirlcool]

Jetcone:

It's funny that you bring up how colorful things were when you watched television in color. I felt the same way. In fact, watching "The Price Is Right" the other day I took note of how colorful the set was. It's a painters palette of colors!

We have a 1969 Zenith 12" B&W portable set we have in the garage that I use sometimes when I am out there. Believe it or not is still works! I haven't purchased an ATSC tuner for it yet though. The last time I watched a show on it, I thought how strange it was that this was the way we actually watched television before color.

 

[nanook]

Zenith Color

It should be noted as Norgeway correctly pointed out, Zenith did indeed design their own circuitry, as they did not want to license RCA's design. As a result, Zenith's color de-modulator circuit was a poor substitute to RCA's and as such produced inferior color.

It was a stupid decision, as Zenith, in all other ways, made a very fine television set - oh yeah - except for their ingenious but ultimately stupid Space Command wireless remote control. Ingenious in that it required no batteries; stupid in that all their remotes only allotted three sound levels, seemingly none correct. And their pinnacle remote, the Space Command 600, five-function remote (whoops, that's seven if placed in mute) was a bit of a joke even back then as the added two functions - the tint up down control, moved in steps, again often none correct. Also, common to all units, the relatively small spring wires, supporting the tuned rods which provided the individualized signals for each function, often broke, rendering one or more functions intermittent or useless.

But it was part of an exciting new technology back then and who am I to complain? (Color de-modulator circuit, notwithstanding).

 

[whirlcool]

I don't know, but IMHO I always found 1964-1970 RCA sets to have a overall green tint to the picture and the color often is garish. Maybe it was the color company producing the show that did it?

I know shows with "Color By DeLuxe" often were grainy with crappy color, where shows that were "Color by Pathe" or "Color by Technicolor" looked much, much better.

I found Zenith sets to have much subdued colors and IMHO more natural.

But then again it could be that the people with the RCA sets didn't know how or were too lazy to adjust the color. But RCA did sell a ton of sets.

Where I grew up most people had either RCA or Zenith sets with the odd Admiral, Magnavox, Motorola or Sylvania set.

FWIW we now have a Sony Wega set and it seems to have the best picture of all.

 

[jetcone]

Allen

much to my nephews chagrin, I still enjoy B&W shows & Movies! They can't get their heads around it! I think they would be stumped with a rotary phone too!

 

[danemodsandy]

When Colour TV Was New....

....A lot of people turned their colour controls up to the max or close to it - like, "I paid for colour and I wanna see COLOUR!" My dad, who was with RCA, once told me that you could tell on a service call who'd had their sets a while and who was a new owner - recent purchasers tended to have the colour turned way up, and older owners usually opted for a more natural-looking setting.

Jon - I personally do not think children should be allowed to watch anything in colour until they're around sixteen, so that they will grow up with a proper appreciation for the beauty of black-and-white. ;-)

 

[rickr]

Anyone want this old TV? If not, it's off to the scrapper for it...

 

[oldappliancenut]

to bad

its so far away I would take it

 

[captainmoody]

Anyone in Rick's area interested in a '56 Frigidaire Range? Or a 1971 GE Filter-Flo?
If so, I will give both away free for the transportation of his tv to Detroit!

 

[cornutt]

Tint

I should mention for the youngsters here, that back in the day, tint control was not automatic. Because of the way the color NTSC signals work, the tint would drift around and periodically you'd have to get up and adjust it, unless you wanted everyone's face to look like they were sunburned or seasick. (That's why the high-end Space Command that nanook mentioned had a tint control on the remote.) A thing called the "VITS" system fixed that problem in the early '80s.