Still a mystery to me

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

This bluish-white 9300k, what I call "TV white", was the standard in consumer TV sets for a number of years, it seems.

B&W TV sets seemed to be roughly like that color as well. Somewhat bluish white. Maybe the TV manufacturers figured that people expected TV to always look like that, especially when watching a B&W broadcast.

[marty59]

Originally Posted by oldtvman

I guess my point was if any of us owned a color set in that era would we be able to get a great color picture on any of those sets, and my gut feeling is we could, even considering all the variables listed above. I've had any number of early color sets and for the most part they were all capable of producing a good picture.

I started out as a teen in the seventies and it was not uncommon for ten year old sets to still be in operation. In fact, my CTC-16E which I still have came to me used with a bad CRT and I replaced. It went with me to tech school and my roomates/visitors always marveled at how well that set played. Being a TV person I always knew how to keep it touched up but for the most part it was quite reliable.

[rca2000]

I had and USED, as a daily driver a couple of the roundie color sets, when I was in my teens. The first one, which I had for a couple of years--was a Zenith 25MC33 set, that had a bonded by rauland tube, and only a tiny 3x5 speaker--BUT it had VERY nice sound and INCREDIBLE color !! I watched a good number of shows on that tv in 1981-82 including 2001, Coma, Captain America II, Dark Star, Mission impossible and many series on then. It worked VERY well--after I changed the arcing damper tube, it had bad, when I found it by a dumpster after school, sometime before Christmas of 1980. After a "friend" conned me out of my 12CB12 set--the 25MC33 went in its place.

[Red Raster]

Probably the biggest variable for good color performance would be the signal source.From rabbit ears to roof top antennas you could expect interference,
ghosting and a weak signal. All or any of these plus more will render the best color set from being irritating to unwatchable (the work of the devil)
More variables 300 ohm wire, corroded breaking connections, movement by wind or other malicious actions usually needing repairs on a roof top in below zero F.

[etype2]

In the mid 50's to late 50's people would say "to expensive", " not enough color shows", "breaks down to much", "the color is off". That what I heard folks say back then.