mercury6768
07-13-2012, 04:32 PM
Another TV ancillary I've never seen or heard of, on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-1966-Zenith-Phonevision-1st-Pay-TV-Movie-System-Descrambler-Box-Unit-/360472136532?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item53edd04b54
It seems like a rather complicated way to get your pay TV, but obviously precedes HBO by a decade or so. Cool little item.
consoleguy67
07-13-2012, 04:37 PM
There had been another one on E-Bay that was more complete.
OvenMaster
07-13-2012, 09:07 PM
One of the three stations in the U.S. that used Phonevision was WHCT in Hartford. I remember seeing the scrambled OTA signals when I was small, and hearing the garbled sound.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonevision
W3XWT
07-14-2012, 06:23 PM
Zenith... Where Z-TAC lives forever!
old_tv_nut
07-14-2012, 06:48 PM
Another TV ancillary I've never seen or heard of, on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-1966-Zenith-Phonevision-1st-Pay-TV-Movie-System-Descrambler-Box-Unit-/360472136532?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item53edd04b54
It seems like a rather complicated way to get your pay TV, but obviously precedes HBO by a decade or so. Cool little item.
Zenith was the greatest early advocate of pay TV. The idea was anathema to many, and Zenith had great trouble getting pay broadcasts authorized. Today, of course, pay TV is the norm, with many people not even aware you can get free TV over the air any more.