1969 Zenith Chromacolor TV NOS!

[Lain94]

This was a rare find for me. A sealed New in the box 1969 Zenith Chromacolor portable tabletop tube tv. It uses the well known 14DC15 chassis. Technically a hybrid set. Also what is remarkable about this tv is that it actually uses a integrated circuit chip which is very high tech back then. I purchased this tv on facebook marketplace awhile back. It was a big pain to have shipped but arrived to me safe and sound. A liquidation company had not one but three of these chromacolor sets new in the box and all of them used the 14DC15 chassis. I debated on whether to open the box and inspect further and decided to do so since it seemed silly to never open it. I slowly brought up the tv with a variac with success! Virtually no adjusting at all needed as it was setup from the factory and was amazingly having no issues at all other than some arcing or high voltage buzzing at first during warm up but this stopped after a bit of time. Absolutely amazing condition and very impressed by it. I am inclined to recap regardless, what do you all think I should do about this unique situation?


https://imgur.com/a/x2k1Lfj

For those of you who are on tiktok, I have a channel that has a few videos of this tv in operation:
https://www.tiktok.com/@noahdawson44...44818129390891

[dishdude]

That's beautiful.

[jhalphen]

Hi to all,
Hi Lain94,

What a find! stored for 54 years and works perfectly straight out of the box, rare indeed.

Will be interesting to follow what our Zenith experts advise in terms of preventive maintenance or just leave it alone & power-up from time to time.

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France

[consoleguy67]

One of the best!!

[zeno]

Nice catch ! Its not a '69 though. Its a D line sets so
late '72 to late 73.

Zeno

[Lain94]

Originally Posted by zeno

Nice catch ! Its not a '69 though. Its a D line sets so
late '72 to late 73.

Zeno

Yeah I think so the more I look at the inside because an IC chip in 1969 would just be way way too early.

[zeno]

Originally Posted by Lain94

Yeah I think so the more I look at the inside because an IC chip in 1969 would just be way way too early.

Actually Zenith used its first IC in the 69 model year (1968) for
color demodulation. Also added AFT that year. One of those long legged
metal case OP amp styles. Plugged into a tube socket. IIRC youurs
uses a DIP IC & plugs into a socket with hand wiring provision.

Zeno

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by zeno

Actually Zenith used its first IC in the 69 model year (1968) for
color demodulation. Also added AFT that year. One of those long legged
metal case OP amp styles. Plugged into a tube socket. IIRC youurs
uses a DIP IC & plugs into a socket with hand wiring provision.

Zeno

+1

In 1971 some of the consoles got a duramodule with a dip IC. And in 72 some of the consoles with the round IC that plugged into a standard tube socket switched from that to a chassis socketed DIP IC (that's the only difference I noticed between the 20BC50 and 20CC50 chassis). It seemed in the hybrid era Zenith fielded more different color chassis both console and portable than they did before and each was slightly different how it was a hybrid....My guess is that Zenith was afraid that they'd get a bad batch of parts, or someone would make a bad circuit and that if they didn't have that technological variety their whole brand would suffer instead of only a small portion of their line.

[zeno]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

+1

In 1971 some of the consoles got a duramodule with a dip IC. And in 72 some of the consoles with the round IC that plugged into a standard tube socket switched from that to a chassis socketed DIP IC (that's the only difference I noticed between the 20BC50 and 20CC50 chassis). It seemed in the hybrid era Zenith fielded more different color chassis both console and portable than they did before and each was slightly different how it was a hybrid....My guess is that Zenith was afraid that they'd get a bad batch of parts, or someone would make a bad circuit and that if they didn't have that technological variety their whole brand would suffer instead of only a small portion of their line.

Zenith chassii evolution is interesting to me. They are almost all the same.
Best example is 4 tube hybrid, flat chassis then CC2's. All the same sets
with many of the same parts & service problems. Just changes in the
sweep for the most part. If you can fix a CC2 you can for the most
part do them all.
The 14 & 16" were more built to size & not quite the same sets.
You cant squeeze a flat chassis into a 14" set !! In later yrs they did
get a CC2 into a 13" set complete with a massive power transformer
( 13GC10 ) And did it again getting the XXX A.K.A. System 3 style
chassis a 13 ". And both retained easy serviceability.

enuf fer now !
Zeno