View Full Version : Model ID this RCA DIMENSIA?


samelliot
01-15-2013, 05:06 AM
Hello,
I acquired this guy at the thrift for $3.
The paper tag on the back is ripped off and I don't know what model this is. I would like to find a manual, brochure, or videos with this TV. Curious to what year and the MSRP was. It's interesting because of the apparent SCART connector on the back.

I hear alot of talk about the Dimensia series, was but mainly for the bigger ones, haven't heard anything about this littler one. Anyone know anything about them, if they were any good?

It took me a while to figure out how to switch to the other video inputs, since i don't have the origonal remote. I watched some RCA promotional videos on youtube which detailed the remote operation and figured out I had to press 9, then 1,2,or 3, haha. I would never have guessed that, I was entering every RCA code into my universal remote.

Anyway, what model is this????


http://www.videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=177549&stc=1&d=1358247920

kx250rider
01-15-2013, 11:36 AM
That's one of the last ones; maybe a CTC-130? Look around on the inside, as RCA usually had multiple ID labels here & there, and you might find one with the model number and chassis number.

Charles

andy
01-16-2013, 01:29 AM
...

samelliot
01-16-2013, 02:33 AM
I think about a 19 or 20 or 21.

Didn't measure it. Kinda hard to eyeball with the extra speakers on the sides. Do you know anything about SCART connector? Like which region cables you would need (UK? JP?) ?

RobtWB
01-16-2013, 07:40 AM
I believe that is the last of the Dimensia series
My console Dimensia is a CTC 140 -
Remove back and look inside - you should find ID and a schematic
I have manual but dont have an easy way to scan it for you

samelliot
01-16-2013, 11:49 AM
I believe that is the last of the Dimensia series
My console Dimensia is a CTC 140 -
Remove back and look inside - you should find ID and a schematic
I have manual but dont have an easy way to scan it for you

I took the back off.
By the schem it says ctc140 series.
Then there is a sticker on the chassis that says Model RVM2050 and a serial number.

samelliot
01-16-2013, 11:50 AM
i think it was made in 88?

samelliot
01-17-2013, 03:24 AM
What size screen is that? I once saw a CTC140 20" set, but it wasn't branded as a Dimensia. I think the CTC140 was the only chassis to have a scart connector.

Only RCA chassis, or any chassis?

You were right, the schem sticker says CTC140. But the TV model is a RVM2050? I want to search for this model but not much comes up. Want to find the manual and what remote goes to it.

The year of the date symbol on the far right only points to an '8', so it's safe to assume it's an '88?

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=177566&stc=1&d=1358414292

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=177567&stc=1&d=1358414593

wa2ise
01-17-2013, 09:37 AM
The year of the date symbol on the far right only points to an '8', so it's safe to assume it's an '88?



That would be about right, that's when GE was raping and pillaging RCA. I was there, it wasn't pretty...:thumbsdn::sigh::no::dammit: :cry:

andy
01-17-2013, 10:42 AM
...

samelliot
01-17-2013, 11:13 AM
I believe this is the remote you need:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RCA-DIMENSIA-REMOTE-CONTROL-/330838839909?pt=US_Remote_Controls&hash=item4d07881265&nma=true&si=%252BuTQUx6XuKuWMuYyvYtL06sraXY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

They are still fairly common.

I guess my 20" RCA branded set was made to use up old stock after they killed the Dimensia line.

All you need now is a set of Dimensia audio components.

That would be cool to get some Dimensia audio components, except they seem to be rare.

samelliot
01-17-2013, 11:15 AM
That would be about right, that's when GE was raping and pillaging RCA. I was there, it wasn't pretty...:thumbsdn::sigh::no::dammit: :cry:

You were working there? What all happened?

DavGoodlin
01-17-2013, 11:42 AM
I have a 1974 RCA console hi fi that has a "dimensia" control.
Long before the huge integrated remote control of the mid 80s bearing the same name.

rpm1200
01-17-2013, 07:49 PM
I had a broken 27" Dimensia with the SCART. (Bad power supply.) Unfortunately most of the pins were not hooked up to anything, pretty much just the composite video, left/right audio were paralleled with the video input. No RGB or S-Video input through the SCART.

I used to have the second-generation Dimensia receiver too, but without a working Dimensia TV to connect it to, there's nothing special about it. Just an extra RCA jack for the control system to connect with. It appeared to be made by Hitachi (who were also making some of RCA's VCRs around that time).

RobtWB
01-17-2013, 08:02 PM
certainly not a bunch of info on the Dimensia series floating around the web

i have the 1st or 2nd generation console and it makes a very nice pic, as good as any mid 80's vintage set can

just a personal observation here but i believe the series was over hyped. good tv's, not spectacular, but a damn cool set up if one was fortunate to have the entire setup, especially the monitor style tv, the matching stand and a/v components all interconnected and controlled by a single remote

here is my '87 console

rpm1200
01-17-2013, 08:27 PM
The CED Magic site has some nice documentation and pictures of the first generation components.
http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/dimensia/dimensia.html

samelliot
01-17-2013, 11:17 PM
I had a broken 27" Dimensia with the SCART. (Bad power supply.) Unfortunately most of the pins were not hooked up to anything, pretty much just the composite video, left/right audio were paralleled with the video input. No RGB or S-Video input through the SCART.

I used to have the second-generation Dimensia receiver too, but without a working Dimensia TV to connect it to, there's nothing special about it. Just an extra RCA jack for the control system to connect with. It appeared to be made by Hitachi (who were also making some of RCA's VCRs around that time).

Oh no, I wanted the tv for the scart so I could get rgb from my game systems. I hope they are hooked up

rpm1200
01-18-2013, 10:55 PM
If that's the case I recommend you find a mid-80s Sony KV-20/25XBR or KX-19/2501. Those models have a "multi-input" connector that can be configured for analog RGB. I believe the pinout should be available from sources like pinouts dot ru, and the connector can be scavenged from a PC floppy drive cable.

I used to work as a co-op for IBM in the 90s, and at one point I got VGA RGB video to display on a KX-2501 they had lying around, using a video driver that output video with NTSC timing.

wa2ise
01-19-2013, 03:42 PM
Some RCA sets of that era had RGB inputs, but they were only 1 bit TTL level input signal. Idea was that "Teletext" was expected to be the "next big thing" and that an RCA set top box (which never happened) was to receive, decode and feed RGB TTL signals into the set.

Jeffhs
01-21-2013, 03:18 PM
Some RCA sets of that era had RGB inputs, but they were only 1 bit TTL level input signal. Idea was that "Teletext" was expected to be the "next big thing" and that an RCA set top box (which never happened) was to receive, decode and feed RGB TTL signals into the set.

Zenith was apparently expecting teletext to catch on some time in the '90s as well. I have a 19" Zenith table model TV, 1995 vintage, with settings on the "video" on-screen menu for two teletext modes, as well as settings for two closed-caption modes. In the four years I used this TV at my former residence, I never saw anything on either teletext mode, although someone told me some years ago that then-WTBS-TV in Atlanta was experimenting with teletext at the time (mid-'90s). Nothing ever became of that experiment that I could see.

I was not aware of RCA's teletext experiments, although if you say the set-top boxes that were supposed to decode the signals never materialized, then I guess their system never even came close to getting off the ground.

Teletext may be a dead issue today because of Internet-connectable Blu-ray players, smart TVs that also have Internet connectivity, and other devices that connect to the World-Wide Web, including smartphones, tablets, et al.

I think teletext, had it materialized, would have been a one-way system for the dissemination of news, weather, and sports updates, financial news, etc., not unlike today's MSNBC, et al. on cable TV.

RobtWB
01-21-2013, 05:13 PM
Did Curtis Mathes have a rebranded set up that was the Dimensia under the CM label?
I once saw a CM console set with the exact multi input/output connectors as the Dimensia series inclucing the SCART, and the epay auction site frequently has CM component audio pieces from that era that are remarkably similiar to the Dimensia component audio systems.

dieseljeep
01-21-2013, 07:49 PM
Did Curtis Mathes have a rebranded set up that was the Dimensia under the CM label?
I once saw a CM console set with the exact multi input/output connectors as the Dimensia series inclucing the SCART, and the epay auction site frequently has CM component audio pieces from that era that are remarkably similiar to the Dimensia component audio systems.
I was surprised to see a CM branded RCA. It looked like one of the wonderful CTC177 types. It's possible that they made a higher ended product like the dimensia. :scratch2:

wa2ise
01-22-2013, 09:40 AM
I was not aware of RCA's teletext experiments, although if you say the set-
I think teletext, had it materialized, would have been a one-way system for the dissemination of news, weather, and sports updates, financial news, etc., not unlike today's MSNBC, et al. on cable TV.

Back in the day, I suggested that teletext mode could have been used as a display mode for a home computer (this was the 8 bit days of Atari 800's and Commodore 64s). Instead of a TV modulator sending the video from the computer onto channel 3 or 4, and that makes for low resolution, have the computer create a teletext style signal on that video signal, and the user switches the TV set to teletext mode, and he will get a nice sharp computer display. Submitted this idea to RCA's patent attornies, but they never did anything with it. Well, I did get other patents there.

samelliot
01-23-2013, 03:28 AM
Teletext seems like it would have been awesome. Shame it was never implemented in the US

samelliot
01-29-2013, 04:34 AM
So my Scart cable for SNES arrived. I hooked it up, set the TV to input 3 and it does display audio and sound from the SNES console.

However, it doesn't really look any better over the composite input. I understand that SCART can display composite also, but there is no way to tell if you are using RGB or Composite video?

Gunslinger
02-03-2013, 10:13 AM
that is a 1989 model it was made in the 32 week of 88

samelliot
02-04-2013, 12:29 AM
that is a 1989 model it was made in the 32 week of 88

Thank you.

samelliot
02-05-2013, 03:42 AM
that is a 1989 model it was made in the 32 week of 88

Actually I have a question about this. So who actually made this set? Is it a Thomson since RCA sold out in 1986??? It's not a true RCA then.