1967 RCA "Mural" tv

[captainmoody]

Here is the RCA Mural tv that I recently picked up. Very clean and nearly all original it is also one of the harder to find sets with wired remote control and CTC 27 chassis. I like the better pc boards that they installed in these as they didn't have the problems becoming brittle in later years. This one was most likely used in a hospital. What is also cool is that the entire remote unit including the pc board and relays is out of a non wired version! Only things missing are the semiconductors. Many years ago, My boss made one of these ultrasonic instead of wired by installing the appropriate transistors, etc. along with the transducer pickup.
I will leave this one alone though and maybe someday will be able to find the wired remote.

[Sandy G]

At least one went to a motel-I remember seeing it in a Howard Johnson's in Winston-Salem North Carolina back about 1970. Thought that was a funny name-"Mural TV". I was on spring break, & my dad took me w/him on a short business trip. He did that a lot, I got to see a lot of the southeastern US that way. Wish I coulda gone w/him more...Thanks for the memories, & congrats on a nice score !! -Sandy G.

[Chad Hauris]

There's also RCA Lyceum TV, which was primarily for schools.

[tv beta guy]

Captainmoody: Great score there.

Chad: I had one of those RCA Lyceum TVs. Got it from my high school. All tube set with line level video and audio inputs and lighted dial tuner.

[Chad Hauris]

I think RCA made the Lyceum line, including b/w and color models such as CTC-68 with many audio/video output jacks up through the CTC-169...have not seen any Lyceum sets newer than that. Seems like the last Mural TV's were made in '73 or '74. I have examples of several Mural TV models including a CTC-39, CTC-53, a 19V" rectangular black and white, and an XL-100 solid state from around 1973. Both the Lyceum and the Mural models all had 75-ohm F connectors for tuner input, but the Lyceum models in addition had a ton of inputs and outputs...usually 2 video inputs and outputs, tape input, phono input, external speaker, headphones, etc.

[Carmine]

I don't like the idea of better components for certain models. I think this is my bias against RCA vs. Zenith. When you've got the cash to spend, you can engineer the toughness right out of something and save a few cents. Spread that over a few million units, and you're talking some serious cash.

Without going too far off topic, (Only because I know more about cars than TVs) it kinda reminds me of GM vs. Mopar. General Motors could offer 4-different types of automatic transmissions, the first three all cheaper to build than a Mopar Torqueflite.

Whereas Chrysler can only afford to design one type of transmission, so what's good enough behind a Hemi or 440 will be overkill behind a slant-6 Dart. (I am aware of differences between the two regarding number of clutches, etc. but they're all the same design) This is bad for business, but ultimately better for the customer.

Except that customers seldom appreciate quality over "design". If you're not shaving a few cents here/there, you'll be out of business soon because you'll first fall behind in development dollars, then facilities will suffer, then build quality, and it becomes a death spiral.

If you can sell your quircky counter-culture image, like VW, you'll gain a loyal following and customers will accept your outdated (if high quality) product such as a Beetle. If you're using the same marketing as your competitors, customers will not accept your dated (if high quality) products such as Darts, or portable TVs that weigh 85lbs because they use the same quality parts (tuner, Xfmer, HV assy) as a console.

In the end, it killed "real" Chrysler, and it killed Zenith too. Although it had a higher price than an RCA, I don't think that Zenith's were perceived as "premium" products by most. In fact, many of my own family think that Curtis Mathis made the BEST tv, simply because it was the most expensive, yet we all know they were usually outdated RCA designs.

Athough both Zenith and Chrysler pushed engineering/quality in their ad campaigns from their begining to damn-near the end of the 70s, it appearently never took root with customers, I think because the average customer cannot understand Hand-wired vs. PC board or Torsion bars vs. Coil Springs, and the "snob" factor doesn't come into play when the price of a RCA set is within $20 of a Zenith and a Plymouth is $100 more than a Chevy.

Sorry for hi-jacking this thread with my rant.

[jstout66]

Great set Dwight! Did you check with Moyers to see if they have a wired remote for it?

[captainmoody]

I should try them, They have had everything so far for my RCA stuff...