Given to me today, like moving a 100 lb sack of potatoes.

RCA Vista color with large cataract

It looks like a CTC17 or CTC19. TV will be tube, stereo will be solid state. Cataract looks like it will fall off once you uninstall the CRT and cut the tape around it's edge ( if not we can advise).

The CTC17 was basically the much liked CTC16 roundy with sweep circuit changes to drive a rectangular CRT.
The CTC19 can work okay but it isn't as good a design as the 17... basically a lot of higher power type tubes from the 17 got replaced with 6GH8s in the 19 for cheapness and those 6GH8s were run at or above the ragged edge of their ratings. In a RC
A set that uses more than 2 6GH8s there is a joke that if the set has n 6GH8s n+1 will be bad.

Make sure you have done a few monochrome sets before you tackle this, then turn the color off and make it work well in monochrome before you think about working on the color circuits.

It looks like a CTC17 or CTC19. TV will be tube, stereo will be solid state. Cataract looks like it will fall off once you uninstall the CRT and cut the tape around it's edge ( if not we can advise).

The CTC17 was basically the much liked CTC16 roundy with sweep circuit changes to drive a rectangular CRT.
The CTC19 can work okay but it isn't as good a design as the 17... basically a lot of higher power type tubes from the 17 got replaced with 6GH8s in the 19 for cheapness and those 6GH8s were run at or above the ragged edge of their ratings. In a RC
A set that uses more than 2 6GH8s there is a joke that if the set has n 6GH8s n+1 will be bad.

Make sure you have done a few monochrome sets before you tackle this, then turn the color off and make it work well in monochrome before you think about working on the color circuits.
This sets looks like a CTC17X. It uses a control panel like the roundie CTC16X, a slightly later model than the CTC16E which used two sets of tuner knobs.
The CTC19 was never used in a larger screen set, only in a 19" table model or compact console.
The CTC24 came out later in a 25" set. I don't think the made a combination using that cheapie chassis. :scratch2:

This is a 25" screen if that helps. I'll post guts pics tonight or tomorrow.

I did what I have learned never to do. It fired up in color, dim, but the cataract obstructs a lot. Lots of blue and red saturation, can't get to the back to adjust green. I probably won't turn the tv on again.

http://imgur.com/gallery/lP6ryzk

Dieseljeep, they just made one.

Welp.

Nice, decent color!

More pics

I need to clean the cataract

Those sets are just new enough that I'll usually give them a try before replacing the capacitors. If the filter cans don't get warm you could just run it. With the cataract gone you'll have a real winner.

It looks like the center 5-7" of PVA is still holding it together.

When you get a good 80 degree or higher (the higher the better) day you can fix the cataract safely.
Basically you'll pull the TV chassis, flip the face of the set onto carpet to prevent scratches/dents to the wood, uninstall the CRT neck down into a garbage can or 5+ gallon bucket, remove tape around perimeter of screen, set CRT outside in hot sun for several hours (place black garbage bag over screen to increase heat if necessary). Then once hot ,gently pry out quarter sized chunks of glue around the perimeter and use wooden clothes pins as wedges to apply light pressure. Tap back in every few 15 min as they loosen. Some hit the clear part of the glue with a heat gun...that can be dangerous but I intend to try it next time as I have never had success with sun alone inlet there was less than 3" diameter of good glue left.

DRH4683 on youtube had some success with heat lamps and heat guns indoors during the winter but he also had an implosion and stopped doing it that way....

It's strongly recommended to wear safety glasses and thick clothing to protect from flying glass from implosion.

If you get the glass off in one piece peel the glue off both surfaces, clean residue with Goof Off, and glass cleaner in that order, then use 1/4" thick foam double stick tape spacers and caulk to reattach the safety glass. Don't get anything in farther than 1/4" in from the edge of it will not be hidden by the TVs mask and will bug you when viewing.

The issue that is number one is brightness. The screen brightness is turned quite high. So the set will be used on occasion like a specific show/movie that would have been watched back then. As it runs more often, the little flashes and interruptions as circuits come to life tend to take less and less time to correct themselves. I wonder if updating caps could fix that, it did on my older black and white set.

The color is superb considering a digital tv broadcast in hi-def is being run through an analog out RF coax. I think that makes sense.

The sound has a hum, so that could mean replacing filter caps? I notice high hum in other instruments and the feedback tends to mean replace capacitors, canned or otherwise.

How many scanning lines? Still 525? I have some color tv theory books to read, and the general Pinpoint TV Problems in 15 Minutes book, I like that one. It's been helpful with my black and white tv that I screwed the alignment, I'm still going slow to absorb that material and learn to use testing equipment.

I don't even get how it still works

How many scanning lines? Still 525?

All US analog sets are/were 60 field per second, 525 line per frame scanning only.
(If you want to get picky about that statement, yes, some, or maybe quite a few, chassis might be adjustable to European 50 Hz / 625 lines, but nothing like HDTV rates.)

Of course removing the CRT and putting it back in a color set this size is quite a project.
Since you haven't worked on vintage color set before and don't have the equipment needed to adjust them, I recommend that you, as the best as you can, not remove the yoke assembly and other items on the CRT neck. There are many mechanical adjustments there. Hopefully most of those items can be unplugged from the chassis.
I remember seeing a video online a couple of years ago where someone had tried the "CRT in the sun with wood wedges" to remove a cataract. It ended with a plastic garbage can filled with broken CRT glass. You have to be very careful if you use wedges, the CRT always has about 15 lbs per square inch atmospheric pressure on it, it can't take much more, especially if any force is applied to a small area like a wedge.
https://www.earlytelevision.org/Deksnis/doug_harland.htm

All US analog sets are/were 60 field per second, 525 line per frame scanning only.
(If you want to get picky about that statement, yes, some, or maybe quite a few, chassis might be adjustable to European 50 Hz / 625 lines, but nothing like HDTV rates.)
To add to that there is usually no advantage to running a US-made NTSC TV set at PAL/CCIR scan rates since the video amps in US sets (assuming video injection is used)tend to have less bandwidth than PAL sets (the RF/IF chain is usually the worst bandwdith bottleneck). The higher the video frequency the finer the details resolved and US sets usually didn't run as high of frequencies as PAL sets.

Of course removing the CRT and putting it back in a color set this size is quite a project.
Since you haven't worked on vintage color set before and don't have the equipment needed to adjust them, I recommend that you, as the best as you can, not remove the yoke assembly and other items on the CRT neck. There are many mechanical adjustments there. Hopefully most of those items can be unplugged from the chassis.
I remember seeing a video online a couple of years ago where someone had tried the "CRT in the sun with wood wedges" to remove a cataract. It ended with a plastic garbage can filled with broken CRT glass. You have to be very careful if you use wedges, the CRT always has about 15 lbs per square inch atmospheric pressure on it, it can't take much more, especially if any force is applied to a small area like a wedge.
https://www.earlytelevision.org/Deksnis/doug_harland.htm
The only difference between a CRT swap in a 23" combo and a 23" tabletop is the weight you have to move. The procedure it's self isn't that hard. Basically you have to disconnect the convergence board, and deflection yoke from the main TV chassis, the HV lead and CRT socket from the CRT, then pull the TV knobs and unmount the tuner/front controls sub-chassis from the cabinet (there are a couple of screws on either side of the power interlock on the main chassis that you slip the tuner sub-chassis into and tighten to lock the tuner sub-chassis to the main chassis for servicing), disconnect any other harnesses holding the main TV chassis into the cabinet, unbolt the main chassis and remove it, then flip the cabinet onto it's face (if the floor isn't carpeted lay down a blanket to avoid scratching the cabinet), unbolt the convergence panel at the top back of the cabinet and remove the spring that tethers the cable to the cabinet, then remove the degaussing shield behind the CRT followed by the CRT.

Leaving the neck hardware on the CRT is a fairly good suggestion (I've done it many times), but be careful not to mash up the convergence board or components on it. You want something deeper than a 5 Gal bucket to use as a stand during cataract removal to avoid crunching the convergence board.

On a set I'm familiar with I can yank the CRT in under 15 min if all my tools are on hand and the set is stock (sometimes people tack in their own audio inputs, outputs, or other goofy junk that complicates chassis removal).

Neat. Gotta get the crt out and clean the cataract.