General Electric Widescreen 1000
 

Are there any pictures of the guts of this thing? There are lots of scans of the magazine ads but I can't even find pictures people have taken of them, much less nudies.

This thread originally had one of the ads but the link is broken thanks to Photobucket: http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=105880

OK, I guess all I had to do was look at this link:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...ng-1978-06.pdf

Still, if anyone has their own pictures of this beast I'd love to see them.
Thanks!!!

It was one of the worst Projection sets ever, dim picture and not "Widescreen" in the real sense, just a 4:3 NTSC set.
It has been discussed here before but I don't know where the link is.

I went to the training for this beast & other sets. I am hard on
GE but I must say they took us to the cafeteria for a chicken
dinner ( at lunch) & it was damn good !
The set had a modified 13" built in. Never saw one after that day.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

A single CRT projection set? Interesting.

...

The Sony Indexrtron works pretty well, although it's dim too.

lol it's just a 13" tv with a lens and mirror in front of it. It's kinda dumb, but still kinda neat.

Yeah exactly, it's an interesting technological dead end. The Electronics Servicing article I linked to made it sound like the use of the Fresnel lens in this set was novel, so maybe this came out before 3-CRT rear-projection units were available? I know 3-CRT front projectors were available at that time (like the Advent Videobeam). I think Sony made a front projector with a Trinitron tube around this time, too.

I wonder if this had a composite video input. Since it's largely based on GE's 25-inch chassis, I would guess that it does not have one.

I put the link in the first post, some good recollections there but no pictures. Here it is again: http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=105880

I saw one of those 20-25 years ago at a thrift. They were running it in the bright daylight and the picture was barely visible, plus that hideous cabinet.
IIRC, they were asking $200 for it. Some sucker bought it. :thumbsdn:

They were barely visible when new. The shop I worked in as a kid had the pleasure of servicing one of these for a long-time customer, who had gone to the big city to buy it since we were a Zenith town. It was very novel at the time; the only similar size picture on the market was the Kloss Novabeam, which was much more expensive and was a front-projection set.

I remember going on the first (of many) service calls and my boss laughing out loud when we realized it was just a small picture tube hooked to a 25" chassis. The complaint was horrible color, blue faces, saturation going up and down like crazy. It turns out the set had the VIR "control room in your TV" feature, and none of the local stations were broadcasting a VIR color signal, so it was just randomly picking color/tint levels. The fix was to turn off the VIR feature.

Not All That Bad !
 

I actually owned on of these GE big screen sets. Fortunately it was mine second hand but it didn't perform all that bad. I was used to the fact that actually all the projection sets of that time didn't operate well in a well lit room. They all needed to be in an as dark as possible room. To say they were just 13" portables with a lens is not doing the set justice. The CRT's used in these sets were certainly not common 13" CRT's. The glass was much heavier and they ran at 40K volts. They were a bit scary at times to work on. Looking at the CRT straight on was nearly unbearable as they were that bright at the source, certainly not something you could watch. The HV trippler was an odd thing, very big in size. One reason these sets probably all but vanished was because of the trippler, they went bad often and after a few years couldn't be found. I also worked on all the Advent Video Beam sets as I was a tech for an Advent dealer. These sets were better quality than the GE and maybe a bit brighter but they also suffered from lack of brightness and were at least 3 times the cost of the GE. After all they were driven by 4-5" CRT's, one for each basic color. Even with special screens they were still hard to see unless they were in a dark room. One advantage to the GE's was that they worked well in a bar or club situation. The rear of the screen couldn't be touched nor could the projection adjustments. The front projection units at this time usually sat on the floor leaving them susceptible to tampering causing them to be out of alignment and the special screens they used couldn't be touched without causing permanent damage. I think some of the members are jumping to a bit later time when comparing them to sets in the late 80's to early 90's. Just a few thoughts from someone that was there. :thmbsp:

This was a PITA set, cheaper than most better projos then. Fortunately, growing up in Oak Ridge, TN as a junior tech, we only saw one (fellow bought it in Knoxville). Had the same issue with VIR on about color shift. Fuzzy picture, required very dim light to watch, limited viewing angle, and sort of nasty. GE did do a great job of supplying parts and tech support. After the second big lightning strike, the set owner bought a new Sony from our Sony dealer (competition but friends). Much better set. Still needed a darkened room, but had better color rendition, and still fuzzy around the edges like the early projos, that set lasted this owner 8 years as a daily watcher.

Wow I guess I'm crazy but i'd love to own one of those. Or at least see one.