Some questions about old "R.C.A." tv sets
 

Did "R.C.A." made also in the '70's sets with a big tall cabinet like in this add? http://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-RCA-Vic...item462e381fa4

What was the meaning of Computer Crafted Color? http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-RCA-Two...item2c926d7d57

Computer Crafted Color was one of their slogans for using printed circuits. There were continuing advertising battles between RCA ("Solid Copper Circuits" or "Computer Crafted") vs. "All hand wired - no production shortcuts" for Zenith.

The Armorer style TV-stereo combos were built until the late 70's by some firms, though I don't know exactly when RCA stopped selling them.

Yes they did--till 1973 or so. The first gen XL-100 line had a highboy version.

See this thread ::

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=247688

I guess the printed cirucit board made color tv sets cheaper, so affordable to more people.
Those C.R.T.'s where really brighter then the old ones?

IIRC Magnavox was the only other major maker to sell
skyscraper TV sets.
I had a friend with an RCA. He was taking it from the
2nd floor & the damn thing just folded up like a cheap
umbrella. I was pleased never to work on it again.

Big fancy consoles were always kept to long. Especially when
someone poor got them. Dont know how many times
I would tell them to junk it but they always came back with
" but its a beautiful cabinet". Usually they would spend
enuf for a new set in a short time.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Yes, the history of CRT development is all about increased brightness as time went by. Sometimes the increased brightness was traded off for increased contrast, by using a darker filter glass in the CRT.

I knew someone who was an engineer at Zenith, and he told me about the use of those strange terminal strips Zenith used. The ones with rows of cones. Production workers would stuff resistor and cap leads into the appropriate cones, and the chassis would then be sent thru a wave solder machine to solder all the terminals. Then a saw of some sort would trim excessive lead length. Parts that would protrude above the chassis (and thus end up in the solder bath) would be added later, things like IF cans and vertical output transformers.

He told me of a problem Zenith had with some early ICs in TV sets. Seems these ICs were designed to fit tube sockets. The assembly line workers used a rubber hammer to press this chip into the socket. Intermittent problems would sometimes happen in the field, and once they told the workers to not use that hammer the problems went away.