Early Porta Color on eBay

[Eric H]

This one looks pretty ancient, think this is the model I had years ago.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-GE-Porta...QQcmdZViewItem

[compucat]

My first color tv was a Portacolor exactly like that one. When I got it it had many hours on it, was badly heat damaged and had a lot of intermittents in the color circuits. I later sold it to a friend and it became his first color tv. I can't really say I miss it but it does bring back some memories.

[maxm]

I notice this set doesn't say "Porta Color" on the front. I thought they stopped using the name on later sets, as my 1975 set (from captainmoody) doesn't have it. I also heard that they didn't use the name on the very first sets? Anybody know when they stopped using the name? I have two older sets that I'll take a look at to see if they say Porta Color.

[compucat]

I believe the Portacolor name is on the badge on the top left of the cabinet. I think some versions even had it on the handle. You know, I don't recall ever seeing a bad picture tube in one of those.

[kx250rider]

That one should say it on the handle, I think. It's early, but not the very first. The very first one had the channel knobs side by side, I believe (later they went back to side-by-side, leaving the upper-and-lower type to the 2nd and 3rd years, etc).

Charles

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by compucat

You know, I don't recall ever seeing a bad picture tube in one of those.

Mine had an open heater on one gun, it would work fine when you banged on the neck and got it to light.

I absolutely hated the picture on it, lousy color, coarse dot pitch,
I prefered watching my B&W set to that thing and unloaded it at a yard sale back in 1978 or thereabouts.

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by maxm

I notice this set doesn't say "Porta Color" on the front. I thought they stopped using the name on later sets, as my 1975 set (from captainmoody) doesn't have it. I also heard that they didn't use the name on the very first sets? Anybody know when they stopped using the name? I have two older sets that I'll take a look at to see if they say Porta Color.

The "PortaColor" name on that particular set should be on that rectangular badge you can partially see near the left-front corner of the cabinet top.

The photos in the auction show a model number of M213CWD. I've got an M213BWD, which I know is a first-model-year PortaColor, and it has the PortaColor logo on the front. My guess is that they're both first-year PortaColors, but I don't know which (if either) came first.

I don't know for sure (maybe Kaye-Halbert TV has other data that shows otherwise), but all of the first-year or so PortaColor sets I've seen had the controls arranged just as shown in that auction set, with the tuning knobs arranged up/down, and the five smaller controls arranged vertically near the right-hand edge of the front (and that little vertical line visually separating them from the rest of the front panel). GE switched to horizontally-aligned controls a year or two later on some models, but it seems like they kinda went back-and-forth a bit (and/or made some models in different control layouts in the same model year-- I think all of the clock-timer models have horizontally aligned controls, for example) until the "click-stop-UHF" tuners appeared in the mid 70's, when they pretty much stuck with the same control layout (horizontally aligned tuning knobs, with three of the five small controls just below, and the other two small controls hidden partially under the edge of the front panel).

As for when GE stopped using the PortaColor name, I'm not sure. It may have even been a gradual phase-out. It was definitely gone at the time of the click-stop-UHF tuners in '75, but I think it *may* have appeared on at least some models even as late as the previous model year. I'm not sure though.

[kx250rider]

I don't know for sure (maybe Kaye-Halbert TV has other data that shows otherwise), but all of the first-year or so PortaColor sets I've seen had the controls arranged just as shown in that auction set, with the tuning knobs arranged up/down, and the five smaller controls arranged vertically near the right-hand edge of the front (and that little vertical line visually separating them from the rest of the front panel). GE switched to horizontally-aligned controls a year or two later on some models, but it seems like they kinda went back-and-forth a bit (and/or made some models in different control layouts in the same model year-- I think all of the clock-timer models have horizontally aligned controls, for example) until the "click-stop-UHF" tuners appeared in the mid 70's, when they pretty much stuck with the same control layout (horizontally aligned tuning knobs, with three of the five small controls just below, and the other two small controls hidden partially under the edge of the front panel).

As for when GE stopped using the PortaColor name, I'm not sure. It may have even been a gradual phase-out. It was definitely gone at the time of the click-stop-UHF tuners in '75, but I think it *may* have appeared on at least some models even as late as the previous model year. I'm not sure though.

I could be all wet on that, as it was pure memory and a conversation with Dr. Dan on the subject.

Charles

[superdeez]

Kaye-Halbert TV, the PortaColor was supposedly made through 1980 as evidenced on this page.