Help Identifying this Magnavox console

[vanillajack]

Hi, kinda new here. I joined back in 2015 but have never posted. I recently picked up this Magnavox console tv. Every sticker on the back has mostly come off and it has no Identifying markings inside. It does say videomatic under the channel selector. Was hoping someone here might be able to help me. I've found a bunch like it with the roll doors, but not this one.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by vanillajack

Hi, kinda new here. I joined back in 2015 but have never posted. I recently picked up this Magnavox console tv. Every sticker on the back has mostly come off and it has no Identifying markings inside. It does say videomatic under the channel selector. Was hoping someone here might be able to help me. I've found a bunch like it with the roll doors, but not this one.

Videomatic was a feature of Magnavox TVs from, IIRC, the 1970s. It used a photocell below the CRT to automatically adjust the brightness and contrast of the TV picture according to room lighting conditions. GE had a similar setup on at least one of its portable TVs from the 1960s, which also automatically adjusted the contrast and brightness of the picture; the feature could be defeated by a slide switch on the back of the TV, if desired.

I had a great-uncle, now deceased, who owned one of these sets (GE) in the '60s. It worked well for him and his family until they got a color set some time in the 1970s; the GE portable was then put in a bedroom and left there, although it was used quite a bit by my great-uncle's mother until she passed away.

BTW, I don't know which TV manufacturer first used the feature Magnavox referred to as Videomatic, although my best guess would be Magnavox, as I remember seeing ads in National Geographic magazines of the '70s for Magnavox Videomatic televisions.

GE's version of Videomatic was very likely, IMHO, a crude imitation of the Magnavox system. I say GE's version was a "crude imitation" of the Magnavox Videomatic system because the GE system was used, again IIRC, on GE's black and white televisions of the 1960s (like my great-uncle's portable; I never saw this feature on any other GE portable I can remember). It was likely designed for use only with GE's b&w sets, while the Magnavox Videomatic was much more advanced, probably including special features for color TV (such as automatic tint control, regulated by the Videomatic photocell below the CRT).

BTW (2): My Insignia 32-inch flat-screen TV has a feature referred to as "adaptive contrast", which I believe works on the same principle as GE's Videomatic. Once the adaptive contrast feature is activated (by a menu setting), it automatically controls the contrast of the TV picture according to room lighting conditions. However, I cannot see any kind of sensor on the TV for this, so I am wondering exactly how it works; that is, whether there is some kind of photocell or other sensor I cannot see somewhere on the TV, or whether the system works by electronically analyzing the video signal itself.

BTW (3): There was a system being tested by one or more American TV networks which adjusted all aspects of the TV picture, and was controlled by a signal sent from the networks; this signal, referred to as VIR and referenced in TV advertisements of the '70s as "broadcast controlled color," allowed the TV networks to control color, contrast, hue, etc. of a color TV picture by means of a special signal inserted in the vertical blanking interval, which could be seen if the vertical hold control were set so the picture was slightly out of sync vertically.

I don't know how long the networks used VIR, or when it was discontinued; however, my best guess is it didn't last too long at all. I am not even sure if VIR would work with today's ATSC broadcast standards; such a signal would not be necessary, after all, with modern televisions, since most if not all HDTVs probably already have an adaptive contrast system.

[zeno]

The chassis number is or was on a little apx 1/2 inch by 1 inch
sticker on the chassis. It will start with T-9##-. The model
number is ONLY for cabinet parts so pretty useless.
You can apx date the set by date codes on UNCHANGED major parts.
Looks to be @1969.

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[John Adams]

Looks like Zenith type ultrasonic remote.

[AlanInSitges]

Originally Posted by John Adams

Looks like Zenith type ultrasonic remote.

I think this one is electronic, with a little ultrasonic transducer behind the window. Previous years were "wheezers" that you squeezed a bellows and it made a whistling noise. 🤣