Small RCA TV and Hamlin cable box

[wa2ise]

This is an RCA CTC115 TV set. Not cable ready so here it is paired with a Hamlin cable converter box. Both of these date to the early 80's approximately, and this pairing would likely have happened back then.

[dieseljeep]

Those small RCA's & GE's have great pictures on them. The sets I have a set of numbers on the bottom of the screen and a cursor that indicates the channel. The one you have has the pre-sets. Those hamlin convertors were used on the smaller cable systems.

[radiotvnut]

A few months ago, I saw the silver version of that TV at a church rummage sale; but, it was beat to heck and the tuner door was missing. I don't even know what they wanted for it.

Years ago, I had a newer red RCA AC/DC color set with electronic scan tuning. When the channel button was pressed, the screen would go blank and a green or red vertical line (depending on if you were on UHF or VHF) would scan across the screen until an active channel was found.

I don't think I've ever seen that cable box; but, it does sort of remind me of those Jerrold boxes with the pushbuttons. I think those old mechanical pushbutton Jerrold boxes were finally phased out by the late '80's, as there were then more than 36 channels on the cable system and everyone wanted remote control. In a short period, all of these old analog cable boxes will probably be good for nothing but a paperweight.

[Jeffhs]

I remember those mechanical Jerrold boxes well. When we first got cable in 1982, the cable operator (Continental Cablevision at the time, now Time Warner) put these converters on both the TV in the living room and on the set in my bedroom. These boxes served the purpose well at the time since, as was noted, most cable systems had no more than 38 channels; the Jerrold box had a three-position switch at the left end of the control panel to select one of three banks of twelve channels each -- position 1 was channel 2 through 13, position 2 was 14 through 26, and position 3 was 27 through 39. The fine tuning control was at the opposite end of the control panel.

I was not aware of when those boxes were phased out; now I know. It makes sense because by the late '80s, nineties and beyond, cable systems were carrying more and more channels (not counting premium channels, which required yet another box alongside the regular cable box), eventually exceeding the capacities of the boxes then in use, so it wasn't long before the 38-channel converters were forced into obsolescence.

As to these boxes eventually becoming paperweights, I believe they already have, since the Jerrold boxes will not work with digital signals; if they work at all on today's cable systems, the chances are better than even that they will only work if the system still carries analog signals, i. e. translators or LPTV stations, producing a blank screen on digital channels. Besides, as was mentioned, today's TV viewers want boxes with remote control, which of course the Jerrold box did not and could not offer because of its design; this box did not even have provisions to turn the TV on and off at the unit rather than using the switch on the set itself.

I seem to remember, however, reading years ago in Popular Science magazine (IIRC) about a remote TV tuner that worked only with over-the-air signals, not cable. The tuner was connected to the TV by a multi-conductor cable, which presented the same safety hazard as did the control cable for the Zenith "Lazy Bones" wired remote of the 1950s (a cable running across the room that could all too easily be tripped over). This system was eventually superseded by the ill-fated Zenith Flash-Matic in 1955, and then by the Space Command series from the following year until 1980 or so.

[radiotvnut]

At this moment, my old analog cable boxes, my VCR tuner, and any older cable ready TV's will work on our cable system. At present, channels 2-67 are still being delivered in an analog format. Anything above 100 requires a Comcast digital set top box and a subscription to digital cable. I heard that within the next year, Comcast will move most everything that's currently being delivered via analog over to digital. When that happens, we will no longer be able to screw the cable directly into a TV, VCR, or analog cable box. We will be forced to rent a digital cable box. Comcast already has digital starter packages that are not much more expensive than the current expanded basic analog package; so, it's just a matter of time before most analog delivery is done away with. Where the problem comes in is having to pay rent on several digital cable boxes for all the TV's connected to cable. That factor might weigh heavily on rather or not we keep cable once delivery goes all digital.

[AUdubon5425]

We had those Jerrold "three-tier" boxes from 1981 until about 1990-91, when they were replaced with Scientific Atlanta digital remote units.

Locally, Cox Cable has been running an ad for the basic $15 cable package, which surprises me. I've heard no talk of them 86'ing analog entirely, but some channels have been moved up into the digital bands.