Color TV Today and Tomorrow

[old_tv_nut]

... from the perspective of December 1963

http://www.bretl.com/tvarticles/re1263/re1263.pdf
(2.1 MB)

Also a reminder that more articles can be found at:
http://www.bretl.com/tvarticles/tvarticles.htm

[drh4683]

Great article. I enjoyed reading that very much. I liked how the article was indicating that color was something just wasnt going to catch on in the early days and that RCA did all they could do to keep the concept of color TV alive with all the promotions etc. while everyone else was giving up by the late 50's. Then Zenith came in and woke up the entire industry, shocking RCA when they introduced their first color sets in 1961, the 29JC20 chassis.

I read an article from around 1957 somewhere about Zenith just stayed low durring the early color years and that they were in the background with their own R+D, refining color TV while all the other manufacturers were out cutting each others throats. Zenith basically waited introduction on the color TV when they knew they would have "The best one out there". This was the typical mindset Zenith's then president Eugene F. McDonald. If it wasn't the best, don't make it. He is responsible for the tradition of untouchable quality that made Zenith famous for so many years. Im sure Zenith blew the competition away like they expected when they introduced their 29JC20 chassis.

[rca2000]

And it is STILL one of my favorite sets too. Since it is in a climate--controlled area--it seems to be holding up well. Last time I had it on--it still worked, though the red gun IS getting pretty weak in the crt. I just love that big chassis with those 3DG4 rects too. Directly across from that set...is a 1964 Zenith 25LC20 combo, that has a good tube--but with bad cataracts.

One thing the article, which I also have the same magazine issue of, did not mention--that has been said to have contributed to color's acceptance in about 1961-63...was Disney and "the wonderful world of color". According to a presentation at the ETF--Disney's 1961 decision did a lot to get stations--and consumers''to go for color". And now...since maybe the mid--to late-80's TV set advertisements do NOT usually say "color tv" since that is a given.

Also--Sony, of course...DID go ahead and take up the "chromatron tube" idea--and turn it into the "Trinitron", still a "mask type" tube, but with a radically different style of gun and HV convergence too. I have read that the amount of R&D required to bring the trinitron set to market by 1968, was a lot or expense for Sony...and had it failed...Sony would have too. Of course...we ALL know how that turned out.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Thank you for the link. I bought Radio-Electronics magazines for years beginning in the mid-1970s, and the same author (David Lachenbruch) had a column in every issue, called Looking Ahead. He always discussed new technology in video, such as video-disc players, and "hang-on-the-wall" TV sets, which were always "going to be available in about ten years". Well, the disc player finally arrived in 1978, and look where we are now with flat-panel TVs being the only kind you can buy (except projectors).

[old_tv_nut]

Here are TV Guide's thoughts about the upcoming change of Disney to NBC and color.