Lately I've been running my monochrome sets more often. I just enjoy watching them. Most have high contrast and acceptable dc resto. So, I really have no use for scheduled TV broadcasts, and run a few agile modulators. I enjoy using b/w portables the way they were intended to be used.

In my yard and porch I sometimes carry out a small b/w portable and beam movies such as 'the Big Heat' or 'Panic in Year Zero', which were black and white anyway. I recently found a late seventies GTE Philco 19" b/w tv which was made in Taiwan. However it has seen very little use and makes an extremely bright picture with perfect linearity and ample video gain. It's a nice example of a sturdy black and white set which will last forever or damn near close to it.
But the cream of my monochrome crop are my 60s sony portables, my mid fifties Westinghouse in the metal cabinet, and my mid sixties Admiral 19" tube portable.

Is there anyone on the board who only watches black and white sets?

Count me as one. Since childhood, I've always liked 16" black and white portables, especially RCAs and Zeniths. My current daily watchers are an RCA AH054A and a Zenith L1615L. I also have a Zenith B & W console (I think it's a Z2417 -- in any case it uses chassis 14N22 like most late 60's Zenith consoles). Like you, I don't have much use for broadcast TV any more and watch mostly DVDs. Maybe it's just force of habit, but I never got used to widescreen. I like 4:3 for most TV viewing.

Most of my childhood was spent watching TV in black and white, so I even enjoy vintage color shows in monochrome. Also, I think that old black and white movies look best on a monochrome CRT set.

Doug E.

Also, I think that old black and white movies look best on a monochrome CRT set.

Doug E.
I was just mentioning this sort of thing to my mom the other day, wondering how her old B&W movies would look on an actual B&W TV.

I certainly agree that old black and white films look best on a monochrome CRT. I have been watching the solid state Philco to keep hours on my older sets. But the effect is the same when the DVDs or tapes are black and white content.

I was just mentioning this sort of thing to my mom the other day, wondering how her old B&W movies would look on an actual B&W TV.
If the gray scale is perfect on a color set, B/W programing will be perfect, as well.
I do posses several B/W TV's. I do run them at times, to make sure, they're working well, but I still like a high quality color picture. It just adds more dimension to the program.
I still maintain, the best quality TV picture, using a non hi-def source is a CRT set, in good condition. :thmbsp:

I'll bring out one of the old B/Ws for a classic movie. Still think the funniest thing i saw on a classic set was an adult movie... Had to do it... Just looked SO weird on that era of tv hahahaha

SR

And I maintain that a good BluRay transfer of a classic B/W movie shown on a decent sized HDTV will "knock your socks off". :thmbsp:

jr

If the gray scale is perfect on a color set, B/W programing will be perfect, as well.
I do posses several B/W TV's. I do run them at times, to make sure, they're working well, but I still like a high quality color picture. It just adds more dimension to the program.
I still maintain, the best quality TV picture, using a non hi-def source is a CRT set, in good condition. :thmbsp:
Mom's aught '6 Toshiba CRT set displays her B&W films crystal clear. My B&W portable pictures are crap in comparison, but then again I was running color movies through them so interference from the chroma signal could have had a lot to do with that.

..Still think the funniest thing i saw on a classic set was an adult movie... Had to do it... Just looked SO weird on that era of tv hahahaha

SR
The mind boggles!

:eek:

I waited too long to get color TV to go back. :yes:
It's fun to occasionally watch something on a B&W set but I'm not going to make a habit of it.

I switch off, but I try to catch the morning news every day on whatever B&W I feel needs some run-in time. Lately, it's been one of my 7" sets, either the Admiral or the Motorola. I had been watching my 23" Zenith B&W every morning for half a year, but now that's sold and soon off to Maryland to be enjoyed by one of our new members, Coshi. As I've mentioned, selling my most used set I figured was a push for me to get going on one of my "problem children" here :)

Wife passed out on the couch watching SVU the other day, so I took the opportunity to haul the Motorola VT-71 up from the basement and set it up on the coffee table....at least till she woke up :)

What you watch can be determined by one question, what's more important to you at the time, watching the TV, or the program on the screen? The only thing that I can't do is watch cooking shows on B&W. Reminds me of the shower scene from "Psycho".....

Playing a VHS of "The Invisible Man" on the old Admiral 19" portable. I taped it off TCM in 1998 or so...edited out the commercials which I kind of wish I didn't do..and this was off analog cable at the time, with a 4 head hifi stereo Sony machine & TDK T120 tape..the picture is quite good still.
Good point regarding greyscale on a color set. Also, if the edge convergence is slightly off, black-and-white material can have annoying color fringing effects.

The only thing that I can't do is watch cooking shows on B&W. Reminds me of the shower scene from "Psycho".....
For me, anything in gray wouldn't look very appetizing.

Pretty much every day. Even with a 40" flat panel downstairs, I still give one of the tube sets upstairs its spin in turn, usually The Daily Show. There's a peculiar issue with that particular HD channel while its analog counterpart comes in fine.

Cool. Glad to hear, there are some people still enjoying black 'n white televisions.
Switched to color tonight-Watching the Star Chamber 1983 on DVD on my '80 RCA CTC-97 19inch.
Out of all my old tv sets, only the black and white ones seem to get peoples' attention when I show em off..Lots of people have never watched a non-color-TV...and it isn't only real young people..it's people in their forties..

I'll bring out one of the old B/Ws for a classic movie. Still think the funniest thing i saw on a classic set was an adult movie... Had to do it... Just looked SO weird on that era of tv hahahaha

SR

If it was a pre-Mc Carthy set it would not seem as odd to me. With how racy ads got in even something as bland as electronics mags after the war I kind of wonder how much of that was able to penetrate in to TV...

I've watched adult material on tube color sets, but I can't recall if I ever ran a monochrome set while playing such material.

I watch so little monochrome content, and dislike watching color video in monochrome so my mono sets see very little use.

I like watching tv in black and white.. I am not totally happy with the current monochrome sets I have, but once I get one I like you can bet I will use it a lot!

At first I was thinking early 60s metal cabinet Zenith, but now I am leaning towards a pre-1953 set with a 17" rectangular screen. I want to see what wideband monochrome video bandwidth looks like

I don't want on b/w tvs all the time, but I do enjoy it. I have a 1959 Magnavox b/w console that I like to watch. Haven't in a little bit though. I'm having a slight audio issue, I need to address. Just haven't gotten around to fixing it. I like to watch Perry Mason on it. I've even watched many episodes of Hill Street Blues on it.

Still think the funniest thing i saw on a classic set was an adult movie

Someone I know has a movie projector with a quite a few reels from the the 1920's. Some of which are adult movies. I haven't seen them yet, but heard they are rather funny to watch.

Most of my tv watching is done with vintage B&W sets. Since I mostly watch classic tv shows that are only in B&W it doesn't matter. I actually prefer B&W. I don't have any color sets done anyways.

I have a Deluxe RCA KCS-97 in the garage that's begging for me to restore it so I can watch BW films and TV shows on a proper receiver. Maybe this Autumn...:scratch2:
Kevin

if it is high quality or blu ray i watch it on the 36" hd set , if its below standards i run it on a bw set and it actualy improes the image , none of the garbage in the image is there , looks cleaner but if it is high quality or blu it looks best on the hd set , color or black and white and yes bw can look great on blu and hi def , its a wonderful life , miracle on 34th street and wings are stunning , thing that stinks about wings is the tinting of scenes , i turn the color off , wasn't tinted when i saw a remastered 35mm in the theatre and feel it shouldn't have been titnted

Wings did have tinted scenes originally, a fairly common process in the days of silent films to add mood and drama to certain scenes.
They were probably lost (as is the original negative) in later reissues but were put back when the film was restored.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handschiegl_color_process

I watch b&w a fair bit, im into old movies. id really like to find a big screen B&w set from the late 50s or early 60s, with a bit of a preference for Zenith

I watch my 16" G.E. "Escort" portable quite a bit.

I passed out cold watching Big Bang Theory last night on a Motorola Cadet.

The set worked when I got it, so I figured I'd let it run out to see how it did.

Turned it on the other night, fell asleep for about 45 mins, woke up, and the picture wasn't filled out completely on the right side. Let it cool down, fired it up, still not filled out. Put in a new 33GY7 yesterday, turned the set on about 8:30, looked great, fell asleep, woke up at 10:30, picture still looked great, turned set off, went to bed :)

Now mind you I wouldn't want to fall asleep watching just any vintage TV, but I have 3 Cadets that I have a total of $15 into, so if a part fails or something happens so be it, one of the sets is a parts set anyway.....

I use a RCA Victor B&W 12" everyday but sometimes I love to Watch a nice movie on a color tv... yes I have a Toshiba 32"..

Oh, I bet it would be a MAJOR hoot watchin' some REALLY Nasty Porn on my Porthole...

Oh, I bet it would be a MAJOR hoot watchin' some REALLY Nasty Porn on my Porthole...

Makes me think of the Aerosmith song, "Gray is my favorite color.."

lol some posts with no sens......