Looking on a Russian old electronics site, I found this:
http://www.rw6ase.narod.ru/v/viguli/viguli59.html
It had an 35 cm (14") screen, F.M. radio, record-player (pick-up). It had 62 kgs, a power consumption of 160 W on tv and 100 W on radio. The price was 420 rubles (a Soviet worker would probably had an imcoming about 20-30 rubles per month... ).

In Soviet Russia, TV watches you?

:D

Back during the Cold War, we heard all about evil godless communism, and that their color TVs only had red phospers... :D

Here is another Russian set I came across:

http://molotok.ru/catalog/lot/14590614/

Here’s an English translation of the Soviet-era entertainment center referenced by Telecolor. This translation is courtesy of a colleague of mine at the office, Ms. Victoria Smith…

Combined set (TV-radio) “Zhiguli-59”
Manufacturer: Kuibyshev Plant “Ekzun” (Ekzun = “Screen”)
Model Year: 1959


TV-radio “Zhiguli-59” is a floor combined set which consists of 3rd class TV based on a 35LKB2 kinescope receiving five TV channels with FM reception. At the beginning of 1960, reception was for 12 TV channels without FM reception. FM reception was now in a 2nd class radio receiver. The set also has a 2nd class record player. The TV has a sensitivity of 200mV. Picture size is 220 X 290mm. TV power consumption is 160 watts, in other uses 100 watts. Sound is reproduced via four speakers in the front and on the sides. The weight is 62kg. Price was 420 rubles. Pictures of the modernized TV-radio were sent by Yegor from Bryansk City.

My old electronics tech. professor found this quote in the local newspaper and posted it on his office door. I think it came from national columnist L.M. Boyd:

Soviet televisions reportedly have a tendency to catch on fiire.

Only when their motors ran hot. :arrow:

I seem to recall that a "nationally well-known consumer magazaine" (Which is quick to sue whenever they're quoted from...) said much the same thing back in the 1980's about a line of color sets made in the U.S.A.


"My old electronics tech. professor found this quote in the local newspaper and posted it on his office door. I think it came from national columnist L.M. Boyd:"

Quote:Soviet televisions reportedly have a tendency to catch on fiire.

Ees strongk, like Trectorh...

Many years ago, I 've heard that soviet TVs were designed to explode, if an specific signal was sent for them, a signal that was suposed to be sent from somewhere inside the USSR... this exploding device inside the sets was suposed to be used in case NATO soldiers invaded the territory of the USSR. If they entered houses and apartments the communist government would send the signal for the sets to explode, killing the enemy soldiers.

I don't know if such a device actually went into production, but I am sure as hell that they at least considered the idea.

Here is another Russian set I came across:

http://molotok.ru/catalog/lot/14590614/

Its really interesting how the design of the Russian set is so similar to an American set. Inside and out. Looks like that could be a 10BP4 sitting in there with a bunch of old RCA metal envelope octal base tubes. The two capacitors look differen than anything I have seen. Thats about it the only "foreign" looking thing I see.

RW6ASE is apparently the ham radio call sign of the site's owner. It is interesting how things come out when you use a Web site to translate from Russian to English. One page says he "collects lamp tape recorders and radioreceivers". A "lamp tape recorder" would probably be a VCR, I expect.

Back during the Cold War, we heard all about evil godless communism, and that their color TVs only had red phospers... :D

And in the western world, the red guns were the first guns which became bad due to the low senitive red phosphors...

And you really think this is funny?
Yeah, Russians still drink vodka and play balalaika all day long, and there are bears on the streets of Moscow.
Wake up! This is 2007, not 1977. And average worker's salary was (at that time) about 100-150 roubles a month.
And Soviet TVs (as well as stereos and such) where very reliable (mostly). Which doesn't apply to my old RCA TV which spent most of it's life in a repair shop.

And you really think this is funny?
Yeah, Russians still drink vodka and play balalaika all day long, and there are bears on the streets of Moscow.
Wake up! This is 2007, not 1977. And average worker's salary was (at that time) about 100-150 roubles a month.
And Soviet TVs (as well as stereos and such) where very reliable (mostly). Which doesn't apply to my old RCA TV which spent most of it's life in a repair shop.

Yes, although we were originally talking about a set made in '59, right? (Not that L.M. Boyd or anyone here could possibly have been wrong.) We may well be off-base on some info, but I don't think any insult to the Russian people was intended here, nor did I see any projections from the Soviet erra onto modern Russia anywhere in this conversation. I'm sure they make fun of the communist erra much more harshly than we have! I personally work closely with a number of Russian natives, and have no problem with them.

This was not going in the direction of current politics until your post, so can we please keep it that way?

In 1984 I spend one week in the USSR, in Moskow. I have seen there color tv sets, mostly Radugas, hybrid sets and solid state. The picture quality was OK. Fourteen years before, the Sovjet color TV sets had problems with reliable color tint and with shunt regulators.

- Eckhard

Wasn't elimination of phase (tint) errors supposed to be one of the goals behind the development of SECAM? I mention this as SECAM was of course the color system used in Eastern Europe until quite recently when there was a big switch-out to PAL! As a missionary serving in Austria back in 1980, I only got to see color TV behind the "curtain" when visiting Prague (Praha). (The hotel we used in Budapest only had an obviously elderly (It looked like an American set from the mid 1960's!) B&W set of the 19" variety which made a weird long-duration "zaaapppp" noise every few minutes!) The set in the hotel lobby looked OK to my fellow missioners, but I saw not only serious color registration errors but a definite lack of sharpness. When we got back home to Vienna (Wien), looking at our National color set (We also had two Hornyphon B&W sets...) really brought this to light. And, both sets were supposedly 625 lines. But, watching the 1980 Summer Olympics live in both Prague and Vienna showed a noticeable difference. What we saw in Prague was not unlike an NTSC VHS tape recorded at the "SLP" speed... 240-260 lines of resolution or thereabouts...



In 1984 I spend one week in the USSR, in Moskow. I have seen there color tv sets, mostly Radugas, hybrid sets and solid state. The picture quality was OK. Fourteen years before, the Sovjet color TV sets had problems with reliable color tint and with shunt regulators.

- Eckhard

RW6ASE is apparently the ham radio call sign of the site's owner. It is interesting how things come out when you use a Web site to translate from Russian to English. One page says he "collects lamp tape recorders and radioreceivers". A "lamp tape recorder" would probably be a VCR, I expect.

The idea conveyed by the "lamp" translation is probably "electronic tube"
I've heard a lot of people call tubes "bulbs".

BTW, IIRC, I think there were some Soviet made TV sets made to the NTSC standard that were exported to Cuba.

RW6ASE is apparently the ham radio call sign of the site's owner. It is interesting how things come out when you use a Web site to translate from Russian to English. One page says he "collects lamp tape recorders and radioreceivers". A "lamp tape recorder" would probably be a VCR, I expect.

"lamp" = "tube", I think - doubt he collects tube VCRs :)