The law suit RCA vs. Zenith; 1953 stolen technology

[John Folsom]

The CBS 205 is a stunning performer with its 19VP22 CRT. Ironically, though, the IF/Video/Chroma processing elements were direct copies of the CT100 design, undoubtedly licensed from RCA. This, along with the superior 19VP22 accounts for the excellent performance of the set. And you got to give CBS high marks for their cabinet styling. Very stylish, no? CBS did use a different tuner, and designed their own horizontal and vertical sweep and convergence components, except for the yoke, which RCA supplied.

[oldtvman]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Did Motorola ever produce a color set with a decent picture?
I remember in the 70's working on some of their 1960's & 70's sets and they seemed pretty awful then.

All the years I serviced I never seen a decent picture on a Motorola set. The pictures lacked detail and always seemed to proceed a very orangy red. Not until Matshushita bought Quasar did any type of quality start to show up.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Steve McVoy

Interesting observations about the 19VP22. I am not impressed with the picture on our Motorola with the 19V, and find it worse than the 15G sets..

Sounds like one could build a Frankenset with the Motorola deflection and high voltage sections, and maybe the convergence circuits, and use the better CBS IF strip and color demodulator circuits to drive the CRT.

To simplify things, forget the IF and tuner, and make it an NTSC monitor, as over the air and soon cable NTSC is no more.

[DavGoodlin]

Motorola experiences I had with the TS-914, 918, 938 WID were an easy to fix set.
It was easy to wiggle and adjust without a mirror on the WID sets.
Also seemed to avoid most costly or catastrophic failures. The Kinescopes (23EGP22,
25XP22)were a bit short of Zenith, but certainly outlasted GE, Philco and Mags.

The front ends just never seemed that great and required relatively strong signal for a passable AGC response. Nothing like the wireless products and emergency radios.

They seemed to copy Zenith and Admiral in many ways. But, I must admit, I could never get them to look sharp and with true-color. RCA and Zenith looked the best.

[DavGoodlin]

Motorola experiences I had with the TS-914, 918, 938 WID were an easy to fix set.
It was easy to measure, wiggle and adjust without a mirror on the WID sets.
Also seemed to avoid most costly or catastrophic failures. The Kinescopes (23EGP22,
25XP22)were a bit short of Zenith, but certainly outlasted GE, Philco and Mags.

The front ends just never seemed that great and required relatively strong signal for a passable AGC response. Nothing like the wireless products and emergency radios.

They seemed to copy Zenith and Admiral in many ways. But, I must admit, I could never get them to look sharp and with true-color. RCA and Zenith looked the best.

[julianburke]

I worked on many Motorola color sets in the '60's as we specifically only did warranty work on Zenith and Motorola. I must say that as much as I hated them, the 23EGP22 sets (when working properly) had a nice rich color. They also had a first with the "Colortone" control on the front with the color controls. It changed the tracking of the tube to move the monochrome picture from a sepia to a bluish screen (w/B&W in the middle) much like the computer monitors do now. The reds were OK in the EG but not as nice as the sulphide 21FB's of the time.

Today you are really hard pressed to find any example of a 23EGP22 complete set. They are very rare because they disappeared quickly from time of manufacture. Their CRT's were a disaster on top of a very short life span with fewer that were converted to a 25XP22. It took me 15 years to find a nice one for my collection. I don't know if it has any emission until I get other projects out of the way but I will need all the luck I can get.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by julianburke

They also had a first with the "Colortone" control on the front with the color controls. It changed the tracking of the tube to move the monochrome picture from a sepia to a bluish screen (w/B&W in the middle) much like the computer monitors do now.

This control was on some of the chassis that used the one-tube color section ("SODPIL" - self-oscillating, detecting, phase injection lock). It was needed because in this cost-cutting design the demodulator outputs were direct coupled to the CRT grids rather than keyed-clamped like the RCA designs. So, adjustment was needed to get proper tracking. Some even cheaper chassis deleted the customer adjustment. Most people could not adjust their color sets when they had two color controls, and these sets had three.

Unfortunately, this was NOT like a computer monitor color temperature adjustment, since it was varying the DC bias, not the RGB gains.

[ohohyodafarted]

Originally Posted by julianburke

I worked on many Motorola color sets in the '60's as we specifically only did warranty work on Zenith and Motorola. I must say that as much as I hated them, the 23EGP22 sets (when working properly) had a nice rich color. They also had a first with the "Colortone" control on the front with the color controls. It changed the tracking of the tube to move the monochrome picture from a sepia to a bluish screen (w/B&W in the middle) much like the computer monitors do now. The reds were OK in the EG but not as nice as the sulphide 21FB's of the time.

Today you are really hard pressed to find any example of a 23EGP22 complete set. They are very rare because they disappeared quickly from time of manufacture. Their CRT's were a disaster on top of a very short life span with fewer that were converted to a 25XP22. It took me 15 years to find a nice one for my collection. I don't know if it has any emission until I get other projects out of the way but I will need all the luck I can get.

Julian, If your 23EG is no good you might try looking here....

http://antiquetvguy.com/Web%20Pages/...or%20Sale.html

[julianburke]

Julian, If your 23EG is no good you might try looking here....


Thanks Bob, I'll see what I can do with him as it wouldn't hurt to have a spare. J.

http://antiquetvguy.com/Web%20Pages/...or%20Sale.html[/QUOTE]