Hey all and Happy New Year you everyone!!

I was thinking last night as I watched the ball drop on both my Sony 36XBR450 and one of my ctc 17's. Of course as I watched yeas the picture on the sony is far bigger. Did they ever make a prototype or something along thaose lines for a color CRT of the 60's or early 70's to take place of a 25v style 23" CRT? I can imagine if so it would have needed a hefty FBT huh!

I think the limiting factor was the deflection angle, and the need to have it fit through a standard US 32" door.

In my own observation, it seems that, for most part, the trend in TV sets from the late 1960's to the early 1980's was actually smaller TV sets.

Whereas 22" BW (then advertised 23") and 23" color (advertised 25") sets were common in the mid 1960's, it seemed that the 1970's (at least the late 1970's) belonged to the 19" color.

In a way, it made sense. The market for second color sets was increasing. So was the number of people getting divorced or leaving their parents' homes as they grew up (both types tending to live in apartments where a big console was not really justified).

Trade regulations may have played a part. IIRC, sets over a certain size (21"?) could not be imported into the US, so they brought in color portables en masse. I have a 1982 Sears catalog, full of 19" color sets, some priced in the $ 900 range (around this time, some Japanese manufacturers would build or buy US plants to make 25" sets of their own).

Our family set had been an RCA GL759WK (CTC-38), a console, supported by legs, with one speaker. In the late 1970's, it started breaking down frequently, and it was hard to find a replacement. All of the 25" color sets (the 23's were out) had really wide cabinets, usually with pedestal bases and speakers on both side of the speakers.

We finally got a 25" RCA console in December, 1981, with one speaker and a pedestal base. It was not an easy fit. The right front corner encroached on a fireplace apron, so we placed it over the fireplace apron and supported the left front of the cabinet with old books.

Just a few years later, some adventurous company decided the time was right to make a 25" TV in a plain box they called "component styling". This would usher in the age of BPC, and, every year in the mid 1980's would see even larger CRTs being brought out.