GE PortaColor Commercial
 

I just discovered this TV commercial for the PortaColor (HE chassis), done by Jackie Gleason.


https://youtu.be/Z0zXofruat0

Awesome. Neat to see PortaColor still advertised. And they were very legendary as the first inexpensive Color TV set built.

My first color tee-vee was a GE PortaPotty. It wasn't the greatest performing set, but it gave me many years of reliable service. :yes:

Did you connect a Commode-Door 64 to it? :D :D :lmao: :D :D

Wow .I could not make out the set.I wonder how many tape copy generations on that video was made.

It says it's from 1973; I'd be curious to know what kind of tape it was originally recorded onto.

GE Portacolor
 

Another portacolor from bandersentv on Youtube it's from 2015 but Bandersentv , i believe, is a member here but i'm not sure . anyway i present you his video about portacolor
https://youtu.be/-dRL0ar3F0g

Probably magnetic tape. Scotch, masking, packing, first aid, label, and duct tape aren't use in recording. :D:D:D:D :lmao:

My first tv station (a RCA model station) used one of these in the late 60's as a jeeped-up color monitor for their RCA 2" tape machines. RCA Broadcast News mag photo attached. The station was too cheap to buy a TM series monitor. I found it in storage and took it home in the early 70's and used it for years.

Porta-Potties don't get much respect today, but the one we had was a trouper. My dad got it for Xmas 1965, it ran a good 16 hours a day from then til about 1973, when he got a big Trinitron. IIRC, it only had used up a couple tubes & STILL had a decent picture. The way we had our house laid out, a Porta-Potty was about all that we could put where it was.

I have three Porta-Colors, one probably built the last year of production, one built a year before the last and one built in late 1973. This one has the HD chassis and uses the low focus volts CRT. The picture quality isn't as good as the HE's, but decent. :thmbsp:

What was the final production year? I don't have a definitive answer to this.


Thanks!

The H-4/HE Chassis was in production in late 76 / early 77, making them the last true tube Porta Color.

If you want to count the JA/QA solid state stuff (also marketed and labeled Porta Color) then it goes into 1978/79.

After depleting distributor stock of the JA/QA/QB, GE went on to produce the AA, AB and AC chassis portables at the Portsmouth Plant, but they weren't marketed as Porta Colors, rather "Performance TV" or Performance Television. The tagline "GE, we bring good things to life" was used in commercials circa 1982, featuring at least one 13" AA set, along with GE appliances and audio products. It lasted until 1988 or so.

Porta-Potties were also one of the few truly reliable GE TV sets built too. Save for the first rebranded Roundies. Porta-Color was tank tough, and many still work.

I know of two GE PM chassis sets that are working as new, with only one ever being serviced. The GE PC/PM chassis sets, after a replacement 100uf/50V vertical cap, do run for years. Hitachi CRTs in some go soft on green, but still adjustable for a proper gray scale. Note: Never sell a GE set to a guy in his 80s that will live to be 99 this year.....:D Aside from occasionally reprogramming his Zenith Digital converter box to have only Grit/MeTV,and two others, his 19" sets have given him no trouble.

That said, my PortaColor (H3 chassis) is still up and running with only one tube ever replaced - before I trash picked it in 2007......