Anybody Remember VIR

[holmesuser01]

I saw alot of the VIR sets in the shop. The switch for this function was usually turned off.

[Beachboy]

Thanks for all the comments and memories about VIR. At least in my experience, it seemed to work well and I left it "on" all the time. I quit using that particular TV in 1992, so I don't remember if the VIR signal was still being transmitted at that point or not. It seems like the advancements in color control have made all the "one button color" systems obsolete.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

I am not sure if what I saw in the mid-80s was VIR, but I remember noticing color stripes and some dots and things in the vertical interval on most channels. One time, I hooked up a scope I borrowed from work that has a delayed-sweep feature (Tektronix 2215). With some careful knob-twiddling on the scope I realized the vertical signal included one line of NTSC color bars, one line of multiburst (the vertical stripes of finer and finer B&W lines often seen in test-pattern sets), and maybe some others like a grayscale ramp. It was pretty cool.

You have described VITS (vertical interval test signals). VIR was a chroma and video level reference that was supposed to go from the studio through the whole network and the local transmitters. Since clean color burst and sync had to be inserted at the final transmitter, and that might not match the various degradations to the color signal in the (analog) network, the VIR signal was supposed to let the receiver compensate for all those distortions.
However, some broadcasters (and Tektronix) developed a use for VIR to do closed-loop correction of the local transmitter. When that was applied, the conection to the original degradations was lost, resulting in VIR receivers sometimes getting worse results with VIR on than off. This, along with the desire for that signal real estate for other things, killed VIR.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

I remember the demo that the salesman gave on the VIR when my parents were shopping for the set we ended up buying. He turned the tint and color controls WAY off, then hit the VIR and they came back into alignment. He was talking about how the VIR took the signal information from the station and adjusted the color automatically.

That demo was over 50% phony, because the jump back to correct settings was due to going to the internal preset controls. Any "one-button color" set could do that demo. A true demonstration of VIR would be showing two channels with different color that both became correct when VIR was turned on.

[basil lambri]

GE first introduced VIR to their TV sets in the 1970s. Actually manufacturers had started putting some kind of auto color button on their TVs since around 1969. But when VIR came out it was something revolutionary. When it first came out it had about 30 transistors.
Later it was reduced to a single IC. GE stopped calling their auto color VIR but I think they continued offering an auto color feature in their TVs into the 1990s.

[cbenham]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

I remember the demo that the salesman gave on the VIR when my parents were shopping for the set we ended up buying. He turned the tint and color controls WAY off, then hit the VIR and they came back into alignment. He was talking about how the VIR took the signal information from the station and adjusted the color automatically.

VIR only worked as long as the network and the station passed the original VIR program signal all the way through the broadcast system to your TV set. Sometimes the station didn't pass the network VIR and sent their own which was not the same. This caused wrong hues and bad color.

Cliff

[VintageJoe]

In 1980 I decided to buy a new TV. I first looked at Curtis Mathis and was expremely disappointed in the color. All the sets I looked at had way too much blue in the picture. I next checked into the Sonys. I was also not pleased with the Sonys on display here also (I would love to have one of those now though). I then saw a GE on display with VIR and could not believe how good the picture looked. I bought the next to top of line model. I always left the VIR on. The red indicator light would go on and off for various broadcasts. That TV always had a great picture and color for years and it still working but after 32 years the color and picture are not nearly as impressive. It does still produce a pretty good picture after it gets warmed up good. The color is dull until it warms up good. Also that slotted mask CRT is not as sharp as the others were. The audio on that TV was also very impressive. I really liked that thundering bass!

I wish I had the skills like most of you do to restore that set to a like new picture