This is the weirdest TV I have ever found! - Videokarma.org TV - Video

MRX37 · #1 08-20-2008, 09:33 PM

I found a 13" GE color TV, and from the front it looks pretty normal...

But then I looked at the back, and HOLY SHIT!

I have never seen a DIAL TV with video inputs, nor have I seen video inputs like these!

Best part though is it has a DAMN GOOD picture on it! Controls needed cleaning, but with the brightness and contrast set at about 50%, the picture looks perfect! Damn bright and a high amount of black level! It's kinda funny since a sticker on the back only warrents the CRT for 2 years, and the chassis for a year, and this TV was made in 1984.

Any clue as to what the video inputs are? They can't be composite. I see "Luma" and "Chroma" on some of them, so I assume a spliced S video cable might work...?

radiotvnut · #2 08-20-2008, 09:55 PM

Two things come to mind:

1. This set is a commercial set meant for a school or other industrial application. Back in the '80's, my elementary school had several 23" RCA tube-type color TV's from the late '60's-early '70's with all sorts of weird video input jacks. All of the TV's were on roll around metal carts and had U-Matic video tape players connected to the video input jacks.

2. This could have been designed for use as a computer monitor for use with computers of that time.

BTW, look at the chassis number. If this TV uses the BC chassis, you may want to go ahead and order a spare flyback. That chassis was made by Matsushita (Panasonic) and flyback failures were very common. They usually blew a hole in the side of the transformer and stunk up the room.

bgadow · #3 08-20-2008, 10:01 PM

Very cool! I'll go along with the guess about home computers. The General, and his penny-pinching ways, could come up with some odd ducks. I'm guessing this was made in the US, which is about as interesting as anything else on the set. (edit: if it uses the chassis radiotvnut mentioned, I guess it was just pieced together here)

MRX37 · #4 08-20-2008, 10:02 PM

Says "computer monitor" on it, so I guess that solves that.

The flyback looked fine (took the back off to clean the controls). It was dusty, but otherwise fine.

Ya know, I think this TV was very expensive back in its day...

EDIT: One of the jacks is a composite video jack.

Findm-Keepm · #5 08-20-2008, 10:35 PM

I've seen even stranger things from GE - back in the late 1980's, my Dad (a now retired TV repairman) got the leftover parts and assemblies from the closed GE Portsmouth plant - mostly engineering stuff. One of the oddest things was a modded GE PC chassis set that had outputs for various lines - yes individual scan lines - to test the stuff they were developing. It was a 19" set, with a METAL cabinet! It had all the bells and whistles - MTS stereo and a really wierd autocolor system. There was no back on the set, nor could there have ever been one, as it had all these jack panels sticking out the back.

Another odd set was a AB/AC chassis VIR demonstation set - used to demonstrate the various VIR functions available. VIR was a system that interlaced source picture info in various lines at the start of the trace - similar to teletext. It had a 113 channel varactor tuner, but was fixed to channel 10 via a really neat voltage divider network on the tuning voltage line. In this area Channel 10 (WAVY) is also in Portsmouth, and my guess is that they were developing the VIR stuff in conjuction with the station, and needed only to tune in that channel. Lots of outputs - Chroma, Luminance, Line Matrix, Decode, and a few others.

The Picture tubes in both sets were without UL certification, with stickers marked "for mock up only." They worked just fine, but could never legally find their way in any finished product, so the sets were junked. Dad kept a lot of the circuit boards - and even kept some bare PC chassis main boards that were used for evaluating the various circuit board material. I'll try and get some photos available. Heck, if someone wants the circuit boards for a collection, I'll even part with them - postage is on you!

Yes the General had a lot of mutant sets for sure!

Cheers,

MRX37 · #6 08-20-2008, 11:00 PM

I think I'll be keeping this one. It's probably the ONLY dial TV I'll ever see that has composite video.

The colors are also very vivid. strong red, green and blue, extremely sharp picture, and no color bleeding! HV regulation seems to be pretty good too.

Composite video seems a tiny bit "wiggly", but that's a minor quip.

radiotvnut · #7 08-20-2008, 11:43 PM

The BC chassis was used in both 13" and 17" sets with electronic tuning and rotary tuning. I believe only the main chassis was made by Matsushita. The electronic tuners were the same ones used in the 19" and 25" GE built PC chassis sets.

Those flybacks can look perfectly normal and still blow up without warning. I picked up the 17" version of this set off the side of the road. All it needed was a power switch and it produced a great picture. About 15 minutes into test playing it on the bench; the picture pulled in on the sides, horizontal lost sync, and BANG!!!SMOKE!!!STINK!!! The flyback had blown apart and the little copper windings were hanging out the side! I ordered a flyback (they were cheap) and the set was good as new.

BTW, I think GE made some of their best color TV during the early to mid 80's, just before they went under.

zenith2134 · #8 08-21-2008, 12:21 AM

That is a unique set. I agree with radiotvnut that the General had some great sets in the early 80s.

I have a 17" AC chassis with a breathtakingly good picture. Built in 82 in Portsmouth, LED readout, remote set. I may have to swap out the filter caps since the set is extremely sensitive to power-line fluctuations.

To insert Svideo on your set, wouldn't you need to insert sync signals somehow?

ChrisW6ATV · #9 08-21-2008, 03:20 AM

That set is in fact made for use with the home computers of the early 1980's. The separate luma and chroma signals on two RCA connectors was available as an output from the Commodore 64 computer, and possibly the Atari 400/800 as well. Yes, it is the same signal later called S-video. The Apple II had composite color NTSC output.

What is especially interesting is that it has looping inputs (the two RCA connectors for each signal type), along with the required switchable 75-ohm termination switches. These allow this monitor to be in a chain of two or more displays fed from one computer or other video source.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zenith2134

To insert S video on your set, wouldn't you need to insert sync signals somehow?

Sync is part of the Luma signal with this TV, the same as with regular S-video.

ChrisW6ATV · #10 08-21-2008, 03:25 AM

On a side note, use this TV's luma/chroma input (with a home-made adapter to a regular S-video cable) or any other S-video-capable TV, and get a Super VHS VCR (using its S-video output), and any remaining regular VHS tapes you may still have will look better than you have ever seen them look before.

ChrisW6ATV · #11 08-21-2008, 03:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRX37

Any clue as to what the video inputs are? They can't be composite. I see "Luma" and "Chroma" on some of them, so I assume a spliced S video cable might work...?

Yes, the one marked Video is composite NTSC, and the luma/chroma is S-video and will work with an adapter. For proper display, you need to set the switches to the 75-ohm position (unless you connect additional monitors as I mentioned above). To set the video level controls, first tune in an RF TV signal and adjust the display for good color/contrast/brightness, then switch to your external input and adjust the video level control to match the RF signal. If you use the luma/chroma input, the best procedure is probably to adjust the luma control first with the chroma control at mid-point, then put the chroma control at the same position as the luma control.

ChrisW6ATV · #12 08-21-2008, 03:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRX37

I have never seen a DIAL TV with video inputs, nor have I seen video inputs like these!

I still have an external mechanical-tuner box with its own switchable video input, and with baseband audio/video outputs. It was designed and sold for use with the composite-input color monitors sold for the Commodore and Atari computers mentioned above. It cost about US$100 in 1984-5.

Whirled One · #13 08-21-2008, 07:14 AM

Yep, as others have opined, this TV was specifically designed for dual-use as a computer monitor. I remember ads for this set appearing in various home computer-related magazines at the time.

One magazine ad I recall had two photos cut and pasted up side-by-side, so that one half of the TV appeared to be dispalying a TV show, and the other half had some generic-looking computer application text. The tagline was something like "New From GE - A TV That Can Display Two Kinds of Programs".

I don't think this was a big seller-- If I remember correctly, it was very expensive compared with a regular 13" color TV. Nice find!

MRX37 · #14 08-21-2008, 10:23 AM

Okay, a bit more trivia for this TV:

According to the stickers, the model # is 13BC5509X

The TV apparently uses a BC-M chassis.

I ran this TV for a couple hours last night and it played fine.

MRX37 · #15 08-21-2008, 12:59 PM

Rigged up an S video adaptor, using an S video port from a junked TV, and soldering two composite video cables to it (labeled for luma and chroma). I hooked the Tv to a DVD player and... the picture was unwatchable and the audio was horribly crackled and distorted.

Then I started playing with those controls on the back. After adjusting the levels, I got a great picture and audio. The red is a bit smeary, but then again I haven't adjusted the chroma controls yet. No wiggle in the picture either. (perhaps the composite control needs adjusting too)

Here's a pic of it showing the movie "Red Dragon"

The image is stretched due to the DVD player itself. Other then that it looks fine. I also found that you can hook both audio inputs up, one in the main and one in the loop. It's still mono, but both channels mix so you hear all of it.