GE PortaColor; eBay seller says NOT color!

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by tv beta guy

It doesn't have a verical or horizontal hold control, it's also automatic on this set.

This confirms me that I have the same set. It was not possible to operate this set with 625 lines/25 frames NTSC here. It only works with 525 lines/ 30 frames NTSC from DVD.

Eckhard

[compucat]

Thanks for showing pics, especially of the chassis. I have always loved the cabinet styling on those sets. There is a red cabinet one on Ebay right now. I especially like the rounded edges and corners on the screen as well as the simulated wood grain finish.

[bgadow]

A TV repairman gave me one of these many years ago. The only thing I could find wrong was that the tint would jump in and out. I never bothered with it. A friend had an elderly relative staying with them and I put it out on "permanent loan". The sweet old lady really loved that little set! As far as I know they still have it. I guess that was one of the last "cheap" tv sets to be designed and built in the the US.

Yeah, I love the woodgrain cabinet on this, as well as the dials (very big for such a little TV.)

Some more chassis pics.

[compucat]

I had forgotten how crowded those little chassis are in those sets. seeing that set opened up makes me want to work on my 1972 Sears 9" color set. It is made by Sanyo, all solid state and definitely has that Seventies look.

How's the build quality on that GE? As I remember the plastic seemed a bit thin and creaky, especially if you used the recessed handle to pick it up.

The plastic seems pretty decent on this TV, doesn't creak or anything. The overall build quality seems decent as well.

I have one of those 1972 9" Sears colors as well. Every inch of space is used up in that TV.

[compucat]

I have one of those 1972 9" Sears colors as well. [/QUOTE]

I'm having a weird problem with mine. I'll start a new thread so as not to hijack this one.

[JCFitz]

It was probably a griplet connection.Those have doublesided boards with "griplets" feeeding from one side to the other filled with solder.The often developed poor/intermiitent connection inside these griplets and would cause problems.I soldered many of those back when regular consumers had a lot of these sets.BTW the one I have by my computer had a vertical problem that suddenly cured itself and never came back for 3 years so far.I thought I was going to have to solder griplets but it stopped before I had a chance to crack open the case.She hasn't been opened yet and I don't think this set's ever been worked on.The little minimanual is still intact.Gonna have to open it soon as theVHF tuner needs cleaning especially in the UHF positio which it's on all the time.Gets very snowy and a quick turn to channel 13 or 2 and back clears it up and the speaker is crapping out.loses sound and an increase in volume or a loud commercial will wake it back up.

Originally Posted by tv beta guy

It did do something weird however: The color control had no effect, but it was at the proper intensity, so I figured I'd troubleshoot it later on. An hour after being on, I heard something make a quiet snap, and it suddenly began working. Odd. Been working fine since.

Yeah, I was thinking griplets may be the problem... I never had a GE TV before with those.
It's working perfectly now, so I'm not going to mess with it until a problem arises.

[compucat]

In my experience repairing TVs, I soldered a lot of griplets on those sets. Aside from the weird intermittents they would cause, those sets rarely had any other problems. I don't think I ever replaced any components in one, just lots of poor connections. Once repaired, they proved to be quite reliable. Great little sets, Maybe I'll get one sometime.