1973 RCA Color TV Catalog/Brochure

[drh4683]

1973 was the year the XL-100 was introduced. TV's started to have a much more "modern" look this year as the clean styled "60's" look was really fading away if not almost completely gone exept for a few tube type portables. Enjoy:

http://www.mediafire.com/?yj0mzg0cwnj



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[ctc17]

Growing up im pretty sure we had the gs888r parked on gold shag. That was the set that got me into electronics. We had a neighbor who fixed tvs on the side. We took it to him and from then on I would hang out and watch him.
In the life of the crt only one diode failed in the power supply.

[RobtWB]

Nice.

My all time favorite sets, the early XL 100's from RCA. Excellent performers. I think I would rather have a houseful of those sets than a Merrill.

The Early American/Colonial style of cabinetry must have been a big seller during that time period. Lots of that style of furniture is in the RCA lineup. Admiral had several sets from the late 60's into the 70's in that style. My March '75 XL 100 set is nearly identical to the Cooperstown, Bradfield, Providence and Deerfield sets shown here.

I went to an estate sale today - brought home a February 1978 XL 100 tabletop set, and the Gustdorf pedestal stand it was sitting on, all for $15. I'll have to post pix soon - a nice set - still performs great!!!

[andy]

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[radiotvnut]

My cousin had one of the very first XL-100's with instant on, the tilt out control bin, and a Continuous UHF tuner. I think the date on the back was '72. During the mid-to-late '90's, I was always having to do something to it. I don't remember what finally happened to it; but, it was major and I convinced him that it was time for a new TV. His did have a good picture when it worked.

I have seen many weak CRT's on the early XL100's; but, most of them would bounce back with a rejuvenation. Those late '70's-early '80's "last gasp" delta gun RCA tubes were really bad.

[Geoff Bourquin]

Great scans...Thanks for sharing them.

When did RCA stop using model numbers and names for their sets and just use the number?

[AUdubon5425]

That's it! The Tiros ES435R is the set my folks had with the mechanical remote. As soon as I saw that page it hit me.

[Jeffhs]

I can't get the catalog to download--well, it almost worked the first time I clicked the link, but the download stopped at about 50 percent, so I restarted it and....that's when my problems began. Once I get to the Mediafire page, I can click on the link to download the catalog and it looks like it is starting, as I see a status message "Processing download request" and then "Your download is starting"; however, about five seconds later, the download stops and I again see "Processing download request" on my screen. I did, however, manage to download the RCA 1971 catalog with no problems. Is there something going on with the 1973 catalog download I don't know about?

Thanks in advance.

[sampson159]

we saw many of these back in the shop days.very good sets.just below the chromacolor zeniths in my opinion.seems though the crts with a safety glass were the worst of the lot.they all responded to a jolt for some reason.also,those tubes weighed more than the others.failed triplers,resistors in the brightness,horizontal modules,tuners.very common issues with the xl100s.all in all,a fine piece of american electronics.i love mine and it will never leave as long as i am alive.

[Jeffhs]

In reference to Doug's post which started this thread, I have to agree with the statement that RCA TVs took on a more "modern" appearance in the '70s. One of the first things to go was the round "RCA" logo, which the company had used since its early radio days; it was replaced by RCA's current one, the RCA block logo, which began appearing on RCA sets in 1968 and still does to this day.

RCA's portable televisions never were much to look at as far as cabinet appearance was concerned, even in the '60s and earlier. Today's RCA portables, table models, actually (CRT sets made before flat panels), with their dark gray to black plastic cabinets, and even the sets with silver color cabinets produced near the end of the CRT era, wouldn't have won any awards for looks either, IMHO. These sets look much better, again IMHO, in a nice fine wood entertainment center cabinet than they look sitting on a table. A friend of mine has a Toshiba color set in his living room (again, with the nondescript black plastic cabinet) which he placed in a wood floor-to-ceiling entertainment unit along with his stereo system; the whole installation looks 1000 times better, IMO, than the TV cabinet itself.

BTW, RCA's XL-100 model designation was discontinued, I believe, around 2004 or so, about the same time Zenith stopped using its trademark "lightning bolt" Z logo on its sets. I have an RCA CTC185 TV with "XL-100 Commercial SKIP" at the upper left corner of the cabinet above the CRT; however, these days that phrase means nothing. For whatever reason, RCA decided to hold on to the "XL-100" branding for several years into the 21st century, even though by then it was little more than an empty marketing tag. However, I do think these sets were made to last longer than most of today's black-plastic cubes coming off the lines from Korea and elsewhere in the Orient with names no one recognizes. I bought my CTC185 XL-100 table model in late 1999, and it still works amazingly well today, over ten years later. I also own a Zenith Sentry 2, now with 14 years on it; as well, that set worked very well the last time I had it on, still has the original CRT (must have gotten a good one, as 1995 was well within the time frame during which Zenith TVs generally had bad tubes), and has had no service whatsoever done on it in all the years I've had it.

I would not expect today's off-brand flat panels to come even close to that span of longevity, although Panasonic claims its newest sets will last at least that long. Zenith/LG? Not even close. I've heard that LG's FPs go bad (even today) within two or three years of original purchase, no thanks to the video driver ICs being molded into the cable between the chassis and the display, not to mention other production shortcuts. I don't even want to think about how many FPs are destroyed every year when they are pushed off of or fall off their stands, accidentally or otherwise. My RCA CTC185 fell off its stand last year and still works, suffering only a slightly bent shadow mask in the CRT which I was able to fix in five minutes with a sweep or two of a speaker magnet across the screen; however, had this TV been a flat-panel, the screen would have cracked as soon as the set hit the floor.

[drh4683]

Glad everyone enjoys these. I'll post more as time goes by. I always enjoyed product literature and we all know this stuff isn't that easy to find, even on ebay. I'd say the catalogs are probably more rare than finding some of the TV's. Some of my catalogs are pretty fragile from age and use, yet some are like new, but having them scanned into a PDF preserves them and the added benefit is that I can share them with fellow collectors for free.

[Greg B.]

There are some handsome sets in that lineup: the Allison, with the dual speakers and side by side channel knobs;the Glen Cove, with the black glass top; and that oh-so-70s Projecta Ensemble.

I mentioned that our family's first big color set was a RCA from the early 70s. It wasn't in either the '71 or '73 catalogs, so I suspect it was a '70 or '72.