There was a topic awhile back on the smallest Trinitron, which I think was decided at 2 inches, which led to the smallest color crt. About 3 years ago I saw an auction for a Panasonic 1984 CT-101 color travelvision. These had been going for about 300 to 400 dollars. This one said it had a crack in the case but was working. For a hack I bid $200 on it and went to bed. My first clue should have been only one picture of it in the auction, the second was I won it for less than $100.00. When it arrived and I opened the box there was not one piece of the case that was not cracked, broken or missing. That explains the one angle picture in the ad. So as far as I know, this is the smallest color crt tv ever produced. The passive LCD's that came out after this one can not hold a candle to a real CRT power use or length be damned!
So, is this the smallest color crt made? or was the Sony smaller?

very kool looking tv

afaik that is the smallest color crt based tv made.
the sony is 4"

These little guys aren't much to watch, even tho they DO have brilliant "lollipop" color, but they sure are fun to just have, & watch people's reactions to 'em.-Sandy

on the CRT is really much better than the one shown in the post. Between the lamp I use to light up my work bench and the flash washed it out.
Richard.

Yes; the Panasonic 1.5" has a magnificent picture! But I just pity the guy who had to sit there at the plant and try to get convergence on it :no:

The Sony KV-4000, in my opinion, suffers from too coarse of pixels. I have owned a half dozen of them including two industrial versions with that same 3.7" Trinitron CRT. It isn't NEAR as bad as a PortaColor, but somehow I think they should have done a better job on that tube. If you sit watching it from a comfortable distance; say 2 feet, you see the pixels. But the Panasonic looks great with no visible pixels even with your nose against the magnifier (need to be that close to watch it)...

One last word on the tiny color CRT situation: I proclaim that the early 5" Sony Trinitron CRT (KV-5000, 5100, 5200 and 5300) is the smallest truly functional color CRT TV. Any smaller, and you get a headache while watching an hour program. And the newer 80s cheaper 5" color sets (including the KV-5XB5 or whatever Sony called their Korean-CRT color set in the early 90s) just don't look as good as the early ones.

Charles

i have a 5200 here i got at a yardsale with a bad tube.
get this.k-k leakage!
found a guy that did broadcast monitor service that gave me 6 new crt's when he saw it on the shelf.
there is no set this size today that will outperform this set with a fresh crt.
i spent a bit of time with the purity and convergence and got it perfect.

WOW That is some fantastic news. 6 NOS CRTs Why dosen't stuff like that ever happen to me? I have been trying to find ANY plastic part for one of my Panasonic CT-101 color 1.5 inch sets for almost 3 years with no luck. At any rate CONGRATULATIONS! you are set for CRTs for the next several generations.
Best Regards,
Richard.

To be a portable set, & therefore prolly subject to being "knocked about", the CT-101 certainly is VERY flimsy. The plastic case is VERY thin, & easily broken. Mine is intact but I've been VERY careful w/it. The B/W versions seem to be a little more robust. None of 'em are as tough as the good ol' Sony 5-303 series. Those guys are steel, & built like little tanks.-Sandy G.

A good friend of mine looked at my poor CT-101 and gave me a working 101 with only a few repaired cracks. But he did not have the battery holder for it do you have any idea where I can get an extra battery holder? If not Sandy Anybody?
Many Thanks,
Richard.

...

The battery cover seems to be flimsiest of all. There is a little tit that holds it in place, & it'll break if you look at it wrong. It really doesn't fit all that well to begin with. Panasonic spent megabux to develop this l'il guy, looks like they'd spent another yen or 3 to have made it more robust...-Sandy G.

...

I won it for less than $100.00. When it arrived and I opened the box there was not one piece of the case that was not cracked, broken or missing.

I'm gonna guess that it will still be a lot easier and less expensive to find a nonworking set with a good case and marry it to your innards than to find a working set with a good case at a good price! I wouldn't want to have to work on the circuitry in that one :no:.

Has anyone ever seen one of the video cameras that used that CRT?

YES! And I kick myself often for not grabbing it. It was on a huge old RCA or Hitachi camCorder that I declared nonfixable due to droppage. The viewfinder was OK though. To me, it looked like a CT-101 chassis with no tuner or audio. I bet that's what it was, because why would they spend all that money to design a different chassis?

Charles

...

I just won one of those Rca cc-030 cameras on the 'bay, for the princely sum of $13.15(INCLUDING shipping!!) Now, about 20 years ago, or thereabouts, someone paid about $2,000.00 for that camera. At the time, it was about the best non-pro camera one could get!!, SS pickup, char. gen, full auto focus, color vf, etc. ( I have a bit of info on it from an rca "tech bulletin, describing the rca "digital command center, vkp-900(protable vcr, for 1984, that went for about $1300) and the cc030 camera.

Of course, I got it to play with the color viewfinder, ESPECIALLY after I found out it is an index type. I plan to do a LOT of messing with it, and see if I can get it to accept video, etc. BUT-- I do NOT plan to do any destructive testing, ie, nothing that can't be reversed, if I wanted to use the camera.

Right now, another cc030 is on the 'bay, WITH a portable vcr to go with it(a vgp-170, I think). I am the high bidder on it, at the moment, (this was before I got the other one)BUT It is still below $10, and maybe someone else might want one, I already have a portable vcr to use with my cc030.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9701089414&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBI%3AIT&rd=1

Does anyone else think the CRT used in the CT-101 was designed for a viewfinder and later made into a TV? It seems odd to put that much money into making a TV that's too small to really use, even for personal viewing.

Speaking of viewfinders, I've played with a few from old camcorders. Most accept composite video and can easily be turned into a TV. Many use round CRTs. You could make a working scale model of a TRK12 only it would be 12mm instead of 12 inches! Even some of the color LCD viewfinders accept composite video.

Personally, I figure that ALL of the tiny crt (2" and smaller) tv's were most likely designed from EVF tubes.

I have an old (1979) EVF from an rca cc-004, and it has a 1.5" or so BW crt. It is quite densley packed inside, with a lof of "thin film Ic's" in it, and a lot of discrete parts. I plan to play with it some, as well as with the color B.I. evf I am getting from the cc-030 I just won on the bay!!

Hi Jack, if you don't mind I would like to bid on that other RCA Camera. I have a working Panasonic portable System that I bought in 1982, The camera was still a vidicon type and a friend borrowed the system to tape a Three Dog Night concert and thought it was neat how when he aimed it at the spotlights it would leave comet tails on the screen. I told him he just destroyed a $1,200.00 6 month old camera. He did not call me again for a long time. Anyway it would be neat to plug in the RCA to my "portable" system
Thank's to all,
Richard.

Hi Jack, if you don't mind I would like to bid on that other RCA Camera. I have a working Panasonic portable System that I bought in 1982, The camera was still a vidicon type and a friend borrowed the system to tape a Three Dog Night concert and thought it was neat how when he aimed it at the spotlights it would leave comet tails on the screen. I told him he just destroyed a $1,200.00 6 month old camera. He did not call me again for a long time. Anyway it would be neat to plug in the RCA to my "portable" system
Thank's to all,
Richard.

Go right ahead, after all, mine is coming.I really don't need 2. As long as the connectors are compatible(and i think they are) that cco30 would make a GREAT camera for your portable vcr.

...

I have 2 panasonic 1.5's, one with a leather casing.I made one work with a RC car battery that i just recharge, and I tape it to the unit.The other one works well, I think, i forgot. I gotta dig-em out of storage...you just gotta dig em.

Go right ahead, after all, mine is coming.I really don't need 2. As long as the connectors are compatible(and i think they are) that cco30 would make a GREAT camera for your portable vcr.
I can get into most vintage stuff, but those old clunker vCR/camera outfits are just SO obsolete and useless compared with the modern Digicams. Still, if its obsolete, that means someones gonna want one cause they are scarce and therefore collectible I guess.On the other hand, I saw a nice betacamera I wouldnt mind having. Would i need some kind of break-out box to hook it up to table top Beta VCR?

Thank You Jack, Lets see how high it goes.
Best Regards,
Richard.

Mayb you can get this one for parts?


http://cgi.ebay.com/PANASONIC-TR-1010P-MINI-TV-WITH-ACCESSORIES_W0QQitemZ6618893190QQcategoryZ932QQrdZ 1QQcmdZViewItem

The amazing thing is that everything works. No burns in the vidicon. Of course the first thing I did is take apart the viewfinder. Same CRT, high voltage section with a long anode wire so you can turn the CRT, turned the trim pot for color up a little. It is almost as big as the CT-101, the main difference I can see so far is that the top and bottom circuit boards are plugged together and lift out as a unit, the CT-101 boards are wired together and can be seperated while in operation. I will post some pics of the open viewfinder later tonight.
Richard. :thmbsp:

I hope these are the pictures!

Methinks the little CT-101 has less schtuff in it than THIS thing does...

I do NOT think that this has the same CRT as the ct-101 does!! Taks a look in your viewfinder window-- you will see a pair of photocells-- it APPEARS that these are used for EXTERNAL commutation of the indexing!! These are in FRONT of the crt, on the bottom of the eyepiece!! not to mention, the ct-101 has purity rings on the neck, and such,. There are NO such rings on this one.

Mine looks DIFFERENT on the inside that yours-- specifically, mine has MORE in it, it must be an EARLY model,yours must be a LATE model. Mine says 11/83 on the bottom.

(see my thread about mine, to see what I am talking about. )

I took apart the sleeve around the crt-- there are NO index pickups on the tube, as I said, it appears to be done by the 2 photocells in FRONT of the screen of the CRT?? But HOW could that work??

Can't really see the CRT in these photos, but what you CAN see, mine does look different. Been awhile since I had mine apart, though. I'm w/you, believe this is a different CRT than the little TV has.

With a flash, it just reflects and washes out the picture totally. I tried to get a good picture.

maybe, If I place the unit on a black surface, and THEN remove that little mirror, I could get a good flash picture. I'll try-- I want you to see what I am talking about, with the photocells in front of the CRT.

I tried with a flash, lying the unit on the black bag the camera came in-- a little better, perhaps. Maybe someone wiht a photoshop program can ""clean it up" a bit(I don't have photoshop)

If you look at the front of the crt, that little yellow-orange thing looks like a photocell, and there is another black one next to it. This HAS to be how the index ckt operates!!

While I am at it, the item behind the color viewfinder is an EVF (bw) from a 1979 RCA cc-004 camera.

Hi Jack, You are correct. Upon closer examination I found the two devices in the bottom of the viewfinder. One looks like a photocell the other a photodiode or transistor. I noticed that if I block off the photocell looking one the colors all shift and red is green or blue or something else. If I block both of them it goes to a perfect black & white picture with real blacks and pure whites. When playing a B&W tape it looks better in I cover them. Live and learn. Thanks for the lesson. But why go to all the trouble when Panasonic was making conventional 1.5 inch CRTs.? It says RCA but I bet it was made by JVC or Panasonic.

Seeing all of that circuitry in both of our color EVF's, I would gather that a normal, in-line type tube like the one in the panasonic sets would have been simpler to implement in the EVF. All of that extra circuitry (including several SMD chips)to guide the beam with those photocells and such, when they could have used Panasonics crt and a normal circuit!!

BTW- it is a HITACHI tube, as I removed mine (temporarilly) from the sleeve. It says "Hitachi 6289" or something like that. ( I think the whole camera may be made by them!!)

Has ANYONE else EVER seen a Crt like this, using external guidance from the SCREEN?? The Sony vidimagic uses photocells, from the REAR of the tube and a seperate, green phospor for indexing.


BUT- the unusual design DOES make for som fun "messing around"!!

PERHAPS(and maybe someone can help me here) a shadow-mask tube would had looked too coarse and grainy up that close to the eye, and that had to go another route. After all, color LCD-s often look grainy in VF's today. Maybe the panasonic tube was just not sharp enough at that close eye distance, or such.

But STILL -- LOOK at ALL of this stuff in here!! (on the one board, the white squares indicate SMD chips underneath, and there is a couple of others on the top board, too!!)

I do feel it would be difficult to use this in a normal color tv set, due to the external indexing of the CRT.

Just for the heck of it I used a 3X eye loupe and looked at the Panasonic, and at about the same magnifacation it looked better than the Viewfinder. When I backed up the loupe and the image was magnified a lot more then you could see each set of pixels changing color and brightness. Can 7.5 KV. produce x-rays? I was using the ct-101 with the broken and pieces missing cabinet, I can just imagine holding an X-ray tube up against my right eye.:)
Richard.

OK,this test set is next to a sony kv-4000 ,both are about 2.6",I took a peek inside the removable leader monitor,looks like matsushita made the CRT,but i cant find a label for the electrostatic CRT inside the waveform monitor.just thought you all would be interested.LOL..:)
terry

Panasonic did have a 3" (if I recall size correctly) color set that looked an awful lot like that monitor! I am trying to remember the model; CT-3311? I had one.

Charles

Hi Charles, Yes you are correct. The model is the CT-3311 with a 3 inch diagonal screen. I have one in great condition and another that was put in a shoe box with no filler and shipped accross the country, so you can imagine what happened to the CRT. I think Mick Jagger summed it up best with the song, SHATTERED. Anyone need CT-3311 parts, or anyone have a ct-3311 CRT on a shelf somewhere?

I had one of those CT-3311s that got fried in the Great Lightning Storm of 2001 that creamed a lot of my gear. It was pristine. I got another one from a fella who made it work for its living, he was a video engineer, whatever the hell THAT is, it is NOT pristine. I think I saved the CRT out of the other one; yep, got it in my fat, greasy hand. It is an 85XB22, & I clipped the white wire lead coming off the side of it, but otherwise it's intact. You want it, it's yours. PM me yr addy & it'll be on its way 1st of the week.

This is fascinating!! Now i want one!

What do you mean by "indexing?"

I have a Sony vidimagic on the way by the end of next week BTW :D