Sencore Color King CG141 Deluxe color Generator
 

I recently decided to buy a Sencore Color King CG141 Deluxe color Generator awhile back. Other than the mirror being loose due to the old adhesive failing, this thing is in great shape physically.

It is all solid state and has composite or rf outputs available. I tested in on a known good RCA solid state XL-100 tv. Color bar pattern is giving weird fishbone like distortion, despite my best attempts at messing with both the tv and pattern generator controls this was the best I could get the color bars to look on the tv.

Is this normal and the distortion is simply because these older test pattern generators were not designed to really work as well with the newer 80s solid state tvs?

Or is it simply a bad capacitor or two in the test equipment? All the other modes do not even seem to work at all oddly enough.

The sound carrier works though.

https://imgur.com/a/rQBxRdZ

If the other modes don't work I'd expect the generator is the problem.

Personally I only keep one hardware based generator (a small portable for convergence crosshatch, and a couple of bigger ones for the same thing) that only serves as a pattern generator (I've got a Heathkit vector scope generator combo, and my B&K 1077 and Sencore VA-62 have signals to trouble shoot sweep, IF, sound, sync, color etc. (the B&Ks pattern I won't use for size/lin/convergence setup, but the VA-62 I will and also use it's multiburst to gauge IF response).
The portable gets the most use especially for checking sets in the field.
At home I tend to lean more towards test pattern DVDs since they won't cheat the NTSC spec as some generators do and as a result lack the instability issues some generators have by design, and better reflect normal operating signal.
Just my $.02...

In retrospect I definitely strongly agree and feel quite silly for buying this generator given I can pretty much achieve the generation of test pattern using far more reliable and modern equipment but will try my best to restore this generator and if successful will likely resell it since I have lost interest in it as of recent months.