Findm-Keepm |
03-30-2017 10:21 PM |
NEC Micro-controlled projo (think stadium....)chassis had some really cool menu and on-screen features, even more if you knew the back-door key sequence on the remote. They made chassis for some projo units we serviced, and a tech from the projo company met us once for a warranty dispute - he was cool and showed us key sequences (long since forgotten) that brought up Japanese games and some cartoon faces, dunno who they were. The explanation was that the mask ROM in the uProcessor had 512K memory, and only 60K was used if the set was single system (NTSC...),and the remaining 450K or so was filled with an engineer's fantasyland. Images, patterns, and a demo mode....in Japanese. 513 lines, 4Mhz clock frequency, and 512K.....ancient, I tell ya! :D
Philips had some sets that required a Service Remote - had to buy a special white remote to enter the service menus. I still have one floating around here somewhere - called a SciFi sounding name by the Philips crew at the service seminars (always fried chicken served....they were based in TN).
Some of the multi-system JVC and SOny sets sold by AAFEES had some cool setup/calibration features. JVC had a 36" set with a series of alignment patterns built in for height, linearity, centering, Bow/symmetry of the Pincushion, and even a test tone for stereo separation testing. SOny had some sets with the bargraph tuning and the ones with the later DV-cam interface had split screen edit mode, with two video windows for the home video guys. We replaced a CRT where the guy forgot to shut it off, went North to ski for a few weeks, and came back to CRT burn. Almost 600 dollars for the CRT, bonded yoke and multi-lingual videotape instruction for setting it up after replacement.
Some HP 8562 Spec Analyzers had SPace Invaders, easter eggs, and an April Fools mode which inverted the screen at random. Fun stuff to pull in a cal lab, but after the cal school started teaching such stuff, no longer a secret.
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