How about the CTC 48?

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by andy

I hated how the preset color setting was always wayyyyyyyyy to high. It doesn't seem to matter what brand, they always produced a cartoon like picture when the auto color was turned on. At least most provided some way to readjust the color level.

The auto color control of my RCA CTC185A7 TV works fine. In six and a half years I haven't had to adjust the OSD color controls once. I set the auto-color to ON when I installed the set; haven't turned it off since.

Which reminds me. Does the auto-color setting in the CTC185 chassis (and Advanced Color View processing in later RCA CRT sets) simply switch in preset controls, or is it a true automatic color correction system such as was RCA's former ColorTrak? (The advertising literature for the CTC185, aka F19261, states that the set is designed with an auto-color system which maintains color fidelity and correct flesh tones from scene to scene and channel to channel, which mine does very well.)

I personally don't think the CTC185's auto-color switches in presets. If it did, I'm sure the picture would be either too bright or too dark with the feature activated, being correct only a small percentage of the time. I believe these preset controls are factory set using color-bar test patterns, which are not the same as broadcast station and/or network programming. I also believe that most people with TVs that have these preset color controls (the button is often labeled ACM, ATG, AccuColor, etc.) are better off not even using the preset button at all. These presets might produce acceptable pictures with strong signals from a cable or DBS system, but I doubt it. Motorola, in the '70s IIRC, once had a line of color TVs it referred to as "GT-Matic" which were supposed to be so stable the set owner adjusted the color controls once, then locked the control door with a key. The color picture would be nearly correct from then on (or so the GT-Matic advertising would have one believe). Never having seen or owned a set like that, I cannot comment on how good or bad the GT-Matic system was. It may not have been all that good, however, as Motorola discontinued the sets using it after two or three model years. I would simply turn off any auto-color functions in an older set and forget the darn button even exists. (Zenith, for example, only had Color Sentry on its TVs for about three years, starting some time in the mid-'70s, IIRC.) The auto-color features in today's color sets (including the Advanced Color View features of the newest RCA CRT TVs) are much better than those preset buttons, as I think the automatic color features in new sets are true color correction systems, with the control circuitry incorporated in the jungle IC.

I believe the day of set-and-forget color TV has finally arrived, at least as far as CRT sets go. I know my RCA is like that; turn it on, get the channel you want to watch, then forget the rest. Some day I hope HDTVs will be that automatic and fiddle-free as well, but at this stage of plasma and LCD television development, IMHO (after having read comments on and reviews of several makes of current HDTVs), the technology has a long way to go before it reaches that point.

[Bill R]

GT-Matic was a Sylvania feature. It came after GTE bought Sylvania, and disappeared shortly after Philips bought them. Sylvania had introduced Perma-Tint on the later D14 chassis. Their manual describes it as a circuit to widen the X,Z demod angles. It used 2 transistors and was usually a small plug in board. As I read it this was supposed to help maintain correct flesh tones. By the time of the last GTE Sylvania chassis (E54 I think) GT-Matic was incorporated on the chroma processor IC. Since Philips combined Sylvania, Philco, and Magnavox, I would guess the technology evolved into the "Total Automatic Color" system.

Bill R.