Did you know you can buy an RCA...

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

This meant, in most cases, a metal-cabinet 19-inch roundie.

Originally Posted by jr_tech

I don't think so!
While a 19" roundies (19VP22 & 19TP22) did exist as a short-term step between the 15GP22 and the 21AXP22...

Even though all of the post-15GP22 round-CRT sets had "21-inch" tubes, they have 19-inch-diagonal pictures, by more recent standards. It seems that most color-TV ads I have seen from the 1960s mention the square-inch size of the picture rather than the diagonal number. I wonder if that was already an early response to the misleading CRT-size-versus-picture-size issue.

[Robert Grant]

Originally Posted by Penthode

News from television was still a novelty in the early 60's. ENG (Electronic News Gatheringing) was still way off in the future. News then was collected on 16mm film, rapidly processed/developed and edited to meet a deadline.

We today take for granted the ease how video may be collected on small HD cameras and edited on computer laptop workstations. It was far from a breeze in the early 60's.

I remember going to an event with my school and seeing a local station (WJBK, Channel 2) getting footage of the event with a 16mm movie camera and color film - in 1974!

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

When I read your post, it reminded me (I had all but forgotten) that I had a 16"-17" Sears Silvertone metal-cabinet table TV (don't know if the chassis was an RCA clone or not) in the mid-1970s -- a trash day find. The set had a rectangular CRT, was all-channel and worked very well, even on rabbit ears in the basement, in the Cleveland suburb in which I lived at the time, although it worked much better when I connected it to the attic antenna -- especially on UHF, as I expected it would, as that area was not the best on earth for color TV reception using indoor antennas.

Cool! Did it look like the small Silvertone shown on "radiola guy's" site, here:

http://radiolaguy.com/Showcase/VintageTV/Sears_5170.htm

The close-up shots of the chassis don't look like anything that RCA made (that I have seen, anyway), but RCA perhaps licensed some of the circuitry to Toshiba.

jr

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Cool! Did it look like the small Silvertone shown on "radiola guy's" site, here:

http://radiolaguy.com/Showcase/VintageTV/Sears_5170.htm jr

Yes, except mine was a table model in a black metal cabinet, IIRC.

[tubetwister]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

I remember the Kennedy coverage was in B&W, & looks like its from some ancient time, far removed...And I have commented here long & loudly about how the video work looks SO amateurish, w/so many "Artifacts", & the camera tubes so obviously overloading...Kinda looked like they drug all their old 1948 equipment out of the janitor's closet, smacked it good & rolled w/it...

I remember the Kennedy coverage I was 6th grade we watched it at school
on a 21 " zenith table top then at home on my parents Curtis Mathes combo
24" I think. The images were a far cry from what we have today but still vivid in my memory .
I think the network feeds were on phone lines then IIRC satellites were not in use yet for TV .
regards

[Electronic M]

I believe that the TV networks were either Coaxial or microwave then because a standard twisted pair phone system has mediocre band width when used for audio, and audio has much less bandwidth than video.

[Sandy G]

And a LOT of it looked like it was "Recorded for Prosperity" via kinescopes, rather than on tape. Of course, VTRs were still kinda new-fangled back in '63, I don't think they were widely used-or entirely trusted.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Cool! Did it look like the small Silvertone shown on "radiola guy's" site, here:

http://radiolaguy.com/Showcase/VintageTV/Sears_5170.htm

The close-up shots of the chassis don't look like anything that RCA made (that I have seen, anyway), but RCA perhaps licensed some of the circuitry to Toshiba.

jr

Back in the mid-60's, Sears had two suppliers for the 18" table models. Toshiba and Sanyo. The Toshiba's were a little higher end. The Sanyo's had more CRT and Flyback failures. Most customers had maintenance agreements on those models, for at least a few years.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Back in the mid-60's, Sears had two suppliers for the 18" table models. Toshiba and Sanyo. The Toshiba's were a little higher end. The Sanyo's had more CRT and Flyback failures. Most customers had maintenance agreements on those models, for at least a few years.

Hmmm. My Sears 16" set (don't know the vintage or, for that matter, whether the chassis was made by Sanyo or Toshiba) was working perfectly when I rescued it from the curb. I guess the former owner got tired of it or wanted a set with a bigger picture.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Color TV for less than $500, in 1963 that is.

How about under $400 in 1964?

[Sandy G]

$400 was STILL "Big Money" back then...Remember, a Caddy Fleetwood Brougham was about $7500 then, as was a smaller home. My grandad rewarded himself-at 75- w/a '73 Fleetwood Brougham. He DIDN'T tell my granny, he just DID IT. Well, he went to pick her up in it, & unfortunately, had left the window sticker in the back seat...$10243,& some odd cents. My Gran blew about 3 gaskets- "TEN THOUSAND dollars ?!? My God, Fritz, are you out of your MIND ?!? That's more money than it cost The Good Lord to make the WORLD..." She stayed fuzzed up over that for SEVERAL days....Fritz was a meek,mild mannered fella, but she was a "Fire-Horse" enuff for the both of 'em...(grin) Meh...10 grand NOW won't even buy you the veriest econobox...

[DavGoodlin]

My parents paid $569 for a 1971 Zenith 23" (23VATP22) chassis 12B14C52. A rather basic contemporary dark wood cabinet (no legs). I still have it and after 14 solid years of use, the CRT is only a bit soft. It has HV regulator issues tho' and needs bench time I can't spare.
My 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix cost 10 times that amount in late '68, when a 23" color was $500.
Nowadaze, you pay $400 for an average LCD TV but an average car will cost you 40 times more. Funny how a TV is still relatively the same price as '63.

Cars are much different (and so are TV's), but car prices are unbelievable.
Sandy, your G-dad deserved that caddy! We could all learn something there.

[julianburke]

We moved here in Sept 1963. We didn't have a TV for a couple of months (don't remember missing TV) but my dad answered an ad for a 19" B&W Emerson TV for $125 from a couple who had received it as a wedding present. Two days later Kennedy was shot and couldn't watch TV for almost two weeks. We only got 2 channels and I remember my friends at that time were commenting on that fact that we couldn't watch Gunsmoke!