MCS VTR Component TV
 

I was prowling the thrift store this morning when the manager called me to the back room. He knows I like old TV's.

He produced the set you see below in the picture. From JC Penney's stores. Model 685-1015.

Essentially, it is a 5" B/W TV with a "scope" for a speaker line-level signal input. It has a video line-out to a VCR.

Built in 1979.

Turned it on when I got home. Cleaned the tuner and controls and switches.

Replaced 4 electrolytic caps that have obviously overheated. Checked operation between replacements... each time, I noticed the picture was improving.

When I started, the picture did not fill the screen. The end results are what you see with no adjustments to vertical or horizontal.

Its running off of rabbit ears right now. The picture looks alot better than what you see in this pic. Should look good until the end of analog...

I've never seen one of these things before. I worked on TV's for 35 years. Cute little toy.

Anybody know what this thing cost new? I gave $5 for it.

Nice find! I don't think I've ever seen one like that before.

I do remember seeing it in my 1978/79 JC Penney Catalogs, I'll have to dig them out though.

Ok. WTF is the point of that thing?

2nd that

It's main purpose is to be used as a spectrum analyzer for a higher end stereo. It was designed to fit in the rack with the other components. A switch an be flipped and an illuminated scale appears over the screen like an o'scope. Pretty cool when used with the stereo, I can't say I would watch much tv on it though.

The lights are burned out on my set. There is no switch that I have discovered for them.

It might look nice with my older silver stereo systems, but for now, its just playing while I surf the net.

I remember that device when it first was available in J.C. Penney stores. As zenithfan1 and holmesuser01 said, its one stereo-system-specific use was to display the audio from your speakers as a graphic waveform on the 5" CRT. Other than that, it was just a 5" B&W TV in a really nice cabinet that matched typical stereo components of the late 70's. I think it also has line outputs so you can feed TV audio into your stereo system. The original price was about US$200, if I remember right.

Akai also had a stereo-component-style TV in the mid or late 80's; it had a 4" color screen and a black cabinet (matching the stereo components of THAT period). A friend of mine has or had one about ten years ago; I don't think he still has it.

Im amazed that this sold for so much... But then again, how many of these has any of us seen over the years?

This set uses a 140BRB4 kinescope. Has anybody got one they want to get rid of that is known to be good? This set, the more it runs, has burned-in marks on the screen from the 'scope' function. I have another 140 series kine that worked fine when I installed it, but I couldnt put the cabinet back together around it. The tube is too long by about 1 inch! So, the original went back in for now. It's not going anywhere. I plan to use it on my satellite system so I can record one thing while I watch something else on the main TV's. Dont ask me to explain right now. Let me get it hooked up first! I'll take pictures, of course.

As I recall, many of those little B&W were a little pricey back then. Of course, they were made much better than those little $14.99 Chinese jobs that were available not too long ago at the dollar stores. I have a little 3.5" Panasonic with a snap on magnifier. It's over 30 years old and still works great. It WAS our power outage & bad weather TV; but, I guess I'll have to do something else in a little over a month.

I don't know what it sold for new, but do a search for completed auctions on eBay. One just sold last month, I believe, and it had high BIN price - and sold FAST!!

Was it the one that was on eBone in France? I saw that. Mine is just like that one. Here's the pic of that set. Mine is cleaner, of course... :D

No, it was here in the US on eBay. The auction must have been deleted - I just searched and couldn't find it. I collect MCS gear, and had never seen this piece before, so it's rarity must have sold it fast. Very interesting piece - and VERY expensive, I'm guessing.

Rob

I remember when my folks dragged us to the mall and I would run over to the stereo dept and hope they had this gizmo running in audio mode. Awesome eye candy for a ten year old audio geek.

FYI I found one at a hamfest Sunday for ten bucks with the original manuals & hang tag for $10. The seller also had the tape deck from the same series.

The manual shows the audio analyzer function is more of a dual-trace vertical o-scope display (ie it shows the audio level split screen vertically). There was a another gizmo (from Radio-Electronics?) that did something similar. This is not to be confused with a spectrum analyzer fft display.

Hi to All,

Someone wanted one of these JC Penney units; one appeared on E-Bay today:

http://cgi.ebay.com/JCPenney-VTR-Com...3A1%7C294%3A50

Not my sale of course,

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France