RCA Lyceum Colortrac
 

A friend gave me a 19" RCA Lyceum Colortrac that was sitting in an office supply warehouse. I have a few questions about it. Were the Lyceum sets for "industrial" use? I thought I may have read that in an old post, that they may have been used in schools and libraries. This set has a ton of odd input jacks in the back, and has the longest, 3 pronged power cord I have ever seen on an electronic piece of equipment. Other than that, it looks like an average 80's set. It's in a woodgrained cabinet, and has the keypad tuner, which is cable ready. It's got an inline tube, and the electronic eye in front. It has a fantastic picture. My other question, It has a 1985 manufacture date in the back. I can't remember when the "real" RCA went under. Is this set one of the last sets they put out or would it be Thompson?

You're right about the "Lyceum" sets; that was the name RCA put on sets intended for such markets as schools/education and (I think) industrial markets. [There was also an RCA "Mural TV" line for hotels and hospitals and such; wasn't that name originally used on a line of custom-install sets..?]

Yep, 1985 would probably be the last year for a "real" RCA set before GE took over everything. I don't know what year GE farmed out all of their TV manufacturing to Thompson though. In any case, I'm sure it's not a Thompson set. Cool find though-- it's not often that you see one of those fancier Lyceum sets with all the extra input jacks..!

It would have been a genuine RCA in 1985. I worked for RCA Sarnoff Labs back then. GE took over RCA December 1985, and I got canned in early 1987 when GE decided they didn't need no stinkin' research lab..... :thumbsdn:

GE sold off RCA's consumer electronics devision to Thompson in 1988 or 89. GE wanted RCA's defense contract work and the NBC TV network, and the other stuff RCA had was equivalent to the stuff in the bottom of the box of stuff containing a desired item but the seller says you gotta take it all. :no:

I found a Lyceum Colortrac two years ago for 20 bucks. It was the first set I'd seen with a 3 prong plug. It had 3 a/v inputs, as well as audio input and outputs, speaker outputs, and inputs for strange component video (RBG, Y). I think the date was 1983.

Replaced some Grid resistors on the CRT board and It still gives a great picture. It will probably go another 10 yesr if not more.

Great find!

If you really want to see a good picture, you should get a DVD player with an RGB output, or a device to convert component to RGB. This will bypass all the chroma and comb filter circuits resulting it the best picture you will ever see on that set. It will look as good as a modern set with a component input. The only US DVD players I've seen with RGB are sold under the "classic" or "mustec" brands. You could probably find one on ebay for $20 or so. There's also a Samsung model that will output RGB if you replace the firmware with the European equivalent.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Classic-DVD-102-...QQcmdZViewItem

As mentioned above, I worked for RCA back then. About that time they had a set that had RGB inputs but those were not normal video, but intended to accept TTL level 1 bit digital input signals. Intended for teletext decoders. To see if your set's RGB inputs are this or are analog, try injecting a luma signal into the G input. If you get a normal looking (except being green and black) picture, then a modified DVD player would work. If you get either all black or patches of green, it's probably the TTL input type.

I'll have to give that a shot next time I had the entertainment center apart. Thanks for the info.

I worked as a volunteer on my high school's A/V crew in the seventies (1972-75). We had a CCTV system which used an RCA Lyceum TV (25-inch, IIRC) as a control-room monitor when we put our first color channel in the system. Good set with a great picture, even from our old Sony AV and CV-series VTRs (we didn't get our first VCR in the CCTV system until just before I graduated in 1975), but I don't think it was ColorTrak; I remember it had two small push buttons near the VHF channel selector panel. I think one of them may have been for AccuTint, though I'm nowhere near sure of that after all these years (it's been over thirty years since I graduated).

The Lyceum series definitely was genuine RCA, which didn't sell out to Thomson until the mid-1980s (RCA sold the NBC television network to GE in 1986). The NBC television network has not been the same since, :no: but that's another story for another thread.

New RCA TVs (made during the Thomson era) have full automatic color control systems, with contrast/color tracking, etc., but the system is no longer referred to as ColorTrak. I have a Thomson-built RCA manufactured in 1999 which has such a color correction scheme, but there is no name associated with the system that I know of. Today's RCA CRT TVs have a fully-automatic color control system they call Advanced Color View, which I would imagine is the third generation of the former ColorTrak system.

However, I have read in this forum that the early ColorTrak control systems (and those used in other makes of televisions, like Zenith's Color Sentry) were not very good; in fact, in many cases the set owner could do a better job by turning off the automatic system and adjusting the colors, etc. manually. There were several models of GE televisions made in the '70s with a system they called VIR, for Vertical Interval Reference (a term which was then and is now gibberish to most set owners). This was a system which read a special signal the television networks sent in the vertical blanking interval, and used that signal to lock in proper flesh tones, which are the most difficult colors for any color TV to reproduce accurately. If your picture's flesh tones are correct, so will be the rest of the picture. However, VIR did not work nearly as well as GE had hoped (not all stations/networks carried the signal the system keyed on, and I don't think the VIR system itself was that accurate), so after a couple model years it quietly disappeared from all GE TVs.

The modern color correction systems used in Thomson-built RCAs work much better. The system used in my set (CTC185A7, model F19261) is excellent; I haven't had to readjust the on-screen color controls in quite a while (years), even with my old VHS tapes and DVDs.

I think we have finally reached the era of set-and-forget color TV, not a moment too soon. Say what you will about Thomson, but at least they got it right as far as making their sets darn near fully automatic is concerned. They also finally got it right as far as the tuner goes when they started mounting the tuner separately from the rest of the chassis, rather than using an on-board design. My set has an OB tuner which I had to have repaired two months or so after purchase, when the RF port snapped off the tuner PCB; the technician repaired that and also resoldered every ground point around the tuner--the TV has worked flawlessly ever since, almost seven years now. The set even has its original CRT and makes an excellent picture on the cable system in my town. The Indians baseball games are broadcast in HD in Cleveland over the air and on cable. My set, even though analog using a digital cable box (Comcast cable), shows a picture darned nearly as sharp as HD. You can thank the station, and a local cable channel called Sportstime Ohio, for that as they are using state-of-the-art digital equipment to broadcast the games in as high definition as the current state of the art allows.

IMO, there's hope for Thomson yet. :yes: The only thing I can't figure out is why it took them so long to correct the tuner issues. :scratch2: :dunno:

I think there was one Lyceum model made under Thomson-owned RCA...this one would have been the chassis to come after the Colortrak 2000 model.
When I was in high school in the early 90's around 1993 I can remember helping unpack the new Zenith sets at school. They were wood (particle board) cabinet 25" sets called the "New Horizons" series. They used to always use RCA Lyceums but around this time I think they quit being made.

Weren't some of RCA's ColorTrak TV sets full I/Q demod sets? As were some Panasonics back in the 70's/80's (quadracolor?)

I am pretty sure it was the CTC-101, and maybe the CTC-120. Ed (Colortel) knows the answer, so maybe he'll weigh in.

I wasn't aware of the Panasonics! I remember them having good color, but they had pale white face CRTs that I didnt' like for lack of contrast. I'll sift through some Sams for Panasonics and see if I can find details.

Charles

In the early 80s, for a few years, a lot of high-end TVs had extra inputs for computers. Sony had a huge zillion-pin RGB socket on the KX series, with a kit included to make your own plug for your Apple or Commodore computer. RCA I think had the same thing in mind. They had a line of 15" ColorTrak sets in about 1982 or 83 that had that huge jack panel with just about every kind of input and output except gas!

It would be fun to get an old Commodore computer and hook it up to one of those sets, and get an old Z-channel box too!

There are PLENTY of those RCA Dimensia sets still in use. I know of several of the 26" sets, and there's a 40" projection Dimensia at the Turkish consulate in Van Nuys, CA.

Charles

Do you think I could find a manual for the Dimensia beast somewhere? I wonder why the Dimensia and Colortrak 2000 are pretty much identical. I read RCA wanted to do away with the Dimensia title due to the closeness of the mental illness.

Do you know any model numbers to a Sony KX series TV? I wouldn't mind learning more.

I'll look around for a Dimensia manual, I think I saw one at a TV shop in West LA.

The KX "PROFEEL" component TV series was Sony's flagship line in 1981, and I think up to '83. They came in 3.7" (KX-4200), 12" (KX-1211HG), 19" (KX-1901), and 25" (KX-2501). The monitor was just the monitor, and you could get two versions of matchin tuner boxes for it (VTX1000R and VTX-1100R). Also, you could get all kinds of factory accessories for it including MPX box (sets were stereo-ready but not full stereo), matching stands, and 4 or 5 versions of matching speakers. They were probably among the best TVs ever made, and most are still working. Sadly, the bigger ones are worthless. Saw a free one on CraigsList yesterday....

I put a post here about them a couple months ago:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63735

I have a 19" and a 25" that I'd let go of for a nominal price, to a good home.

Charles

KX-1211HG, KX-1901/1901A, KX-2501, KV-20XBR, KX-1311CR, KV-2011CD, KV-25XBR all had the large multi pin RGB inputs.

I hope there's some out there. PDF, anything. That'd be awesome!

I like those Sony TVs. Where they considered Trinitrons, or is this a whole different category?

Here's a question:

Why do the RCA Lyceum TVs/Colortrak 2000 only go up to channel 53? I have older sets (i.e. the Zenith System 3 w/ Space Phone) that go up to 99. This is one thing that has always confused me.

Also, there are 2 coax on the TVs, UHF and VHF. When I use a splitter, and hook both UHF and VHF up to cable, I get all the normal cable channels (up to ch. 53, or course), and when I switch the TV to norm (I think), I get a couple UHF channels on random numbers, in the teens and 20s.

Trinitron is the name Sony gave to their color CRT technology. With very few exceptions, all Sony color CRT TVs are Trinitrons.

It was common for early cable ready tuners to only get some of the cable channels. 53 was actually pretty good for 1985. Many only went to 36. 99 and 125 became more common as time went on.

Most of the cable channels fill in the large gap between VHF 13 and UHF 14. Cable channle 65 is on about the same frequency as UHF 14, so even an old TV will receive cable channels 65 and up on UHF.

So, are you saying that I could hook up my 1980s Lyceum to a component DVD player using the RBG inputs? Would I have to use the red, green, blue, AND enable inputs?

For giggles, here's the RGP portion to the back panel to the RCA Lyceum.

:D you forgot KV-25DXR in your list :D , but I forgot that the others you mentioned also had that RGB socket... Was the 1311CR the bone-white one that looked like a computer monitor?

Charles

Here's a 1311CR. I like this set because it has a fine dot pitch CRT. I also have a 2011CR which is identical to the 20XBR, but with a finer dot pitch CRT and a white cabinet like the 1311CR. The XXXXCR sets seem to be TVs that could also be used as (CGA) computer monitors. I've seen Sony computer monitors that looked like the 1311CR, without the tuner.

You could use a DVD player with the RGB input as long as it's an analog RGB input on the TV. Finding a DVD player with an RGB output is tough, but not impossible. Component video is different even though the jacks are red green and blue. I don't know what the enable input does. You would have to figure out what type of sync signal the TV needs for RGB. It's probably either composite sync through a sync jack, or sync on green.

Looking at the diagram of the RGB connectors indicates that that it is a TTL input (the color on/off and enable connector pretty much guarantees it). Definitely intended for videotext/caption decoders, OSD, etc. Unfortunately this input is pretty useless, TTL RGB limited to 8 colors.

It is definitely possible to hook an analog RGB signal to a digital TTL monitor and get full color picture. You just have to modify the TTL monitor. It's not that hard, I've done it before. All you need to do is trace the inputs from the back of the set. They should lead into a logic chip of some sort, I forget what chip was used in the monitors I have hacked, but it's a 74 series. Basically, this chip is a buffer or gate between the signal input and the video amplifiers. Cut some tracks and jumper around it, and feed the signal into the video amp - and viola! Analog color picture. I've got an IBM CGA monitor at home that I hacked like this to work on a Commodore Amiga. It works great!

-Ian

I forgot to add, depending on the set/monitor, you might need to add a simple transistor amplifier to boost the signal a bit - the video amplifiers are going to be expecting a 5v signal level, and you're going to send an analog signal - IIRC, 1v p-to-p. You get acceptable brightness in most cases though, I forget how I dealt with it on the IBM monitor, but I know I had it producing a good picture.

-Ian

hey would you be able to provide and electronic file version of the manual in PDF or Word doc?

Until June 12 last year, this was true. However, since all TV is digital these days, you won't see anything on an unmodified TV set on any channel if you are using an antenna. I don't see how the set's own UHF tuner would work, either, unless you're talking about receiving analog low-power or translator stations--and even those will be required to convert to DTV shortly. Analog TV in the US is definitely on the way out (as it will be in Canada in 2012). We will have to use alternate signal sources, such as VCRs, DVD players, or DTV ATSC->NTSC boxes to test old TVs; this will work, of course, but it's not the same as watching actual OTA TV stations and changing channels using the set's own tuner. IMHO, this takes a lot of the fun out of watching vintage and antique TVs, but that's the way it is in this age of digital everything. :no:

Wow this is an old thread! Anyone know what happened to AlwaysLyceum? He hasn't posted on here in eons!!

Oh, I am here, don't worry. I need to start posting on this site again.

Sure, I have the manual in PDF form. I keep trying to upload it, but it keeps failing for some reason. Should I email it to you? Do you have one of these sets?? I have 3 in my bedroom stacked up on my floor.

Excellent, great to hear from ya!! Since it's been a while, has your collection expanded lately?

Yes it has, actually. Those posts I did was 4 years ago, when I was still in college. I don't have everything here, though because I only live in apartment. I've obtained a couple Sony Trinitrons, RCA Colortrack console from 1985, 1990 RCA Colortrak 2000 (but it's color is really messed up—I think I will have to get rid of it soon) I have 6 TVs in my bedroom in the shape of a lower case "t". I should take a picture and post it. I have 3 Lyceums stacked up, a small Trinitron on top those, and and each side the the tower, I have 2 dressers. The dresser on the left has my 1990 27" RCA Colortrak 200, and the dresser on the right has the 1985 20" Trinitron. Can you visual that? I call it my TV-T, or my TV Crucifix. It's pretty fun, actually.

Yes, you should post a pic, it would be cool to see the stack of TVs!! Do you ever have them all powered up at the same time?

I will certainly post a picture, and yes I always use them at the same time, that was the point of doing this. I'm glad that I don't have to pay my electric bill. Let me get a picture taken, and I will post it.

Okay, sorry it took me so long—I kinda forgot to take a picture. I just bought the 1987 Sony Trinitron on the left most dresser tonight. The RCA Colortrak 2000 that it replaces started to turn green.

So, here is my TV-V!

The RCA's look great. The Sony's look a little sick. The thrift shop has a Sony like the one you just got. It's been there for a few months.

AWESOME!!! Thanks for posting the pics!! Hard to decide which Sony I like better... I'm thinkin the one on the right.

Oh, I just saw that I put TV-V, when it's a TV-T!!!! Yeah, the Sony on the right is a 1985 XBR, so it's pretty nice!! However, you would think that since it has nice detachable speakers and bass control that they would sound pretty good, but it really doesn't at all—my Lyceums have way better sound than that one. Also, that XBR has to be hit every now and then to get the color back to normal. Sometimes it will turn almost completely black, except for dark colors, but it goes back to normal after a love tap. I hate that the fact that the Sony on the left is missing the cover for the control knobs, oh well. I'm glad you like it. I feel that this picture makes me or my bedroom look pretty trashy, with the cords and little bit of clutter; you would hardly tell that I'm a neat freak!

AlwaysLyecum,

Sounds like cold solder joints on the Sony, should be an easy fix.

Yeah I have one of these KV-CR1311's with teh 43 pin IDC connector(just like a floppy drive connector) and it can be wired for either Digital RGB(CGA) Or analog RGB, I am going to make a cable to use with my Apple IIgs.

Yeah those old Colortrak 200 series sets where great, I saw one sitting at the curb on my way to the gym one day, too bad it had been sitting in the rain for 3 days, when i want to grab it the cabinet came apart in my hands.

i would love to find one in good condition,probably the last good set that will ever have the RCA name....

Matt