1961 hand held color tv?

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by etype2

I have a 1966 Motorola annual report. Motorola developed a flat screen CRT for hospital use in 1966. Interestingly, some 16 years before the famous Sony FD 210 Watchman flat CRT.

See photo and text from report: http://www.visions4.net/journal/time...creen-tv-1966/

Very interesting... Did Motorola actually claim to have developed a flat CRT for the unit? Do you have any details?

A few things come to mind:
!. Since the unit is on a long cable, the complex driving circuitry could have been located apart from the display, making for a compact unit, even in the era before complicated ICs, so perhaps it would have been possible.

2. Perhaps the body of the unit could have contained a small monochrome CRT and a mirror/lens system similar to the Philco Safari. Again could have been possible with remote electronics.

3. The caption says "talk to a nurse and operate a combination radio-television set"...Which may be an indication that this was just a "nurse call button" combined with a fancy radio/tv remote control... but it sure looks like a display screen.

Scratching my head over this one, thanks for posting it!
jr

[etype2]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Very interesting... Did Motorola actually claim to have developed a flat CRT for the unit? Do you have any details?

A few things come to mind:
!. Since the unit is on a long cable, the complex driving circuitry could have been located apart from the display, making for a compact unit, even in the era before complicated ICs, so perhaps it would have been possible.

2. Perhaps the body of the unit could have contained a small monochrome CRT and a mirror/lens system similar to the Philco Safari. Again could have been possible with remote electronics.

3. The caption says "talk to a nurse and operate a combination radio-television set"...Which may be an indication that this was just a "nurse call button" combined with a fancy radio/tv remote control... but it sure looks like a display screen.

Scratching my head over this one, thanks for posting it!
jr

That's what I thought as well, just a control unit, but that sure looks like a display screen about 3.5 inches. In 1966 the Intertel Corporation in Los Angles demonstrated a working two sided flat 6 inch color TV. You could actually view it on both sides. So the advanced circuitry was available in 1966 to create the prototype flat color CRT. This makes me believe the hospital TV is real.

See photo of working 6 inch flat color CRT. http://www.visions4.net/journal/time...wordpress-525/

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by etype2

That's what I thought as well, just a control unit, but that sure looks like a display screen about 3.5 inches.

That's what I thought at first, but I remember seeing formed metal speaker grills (with very tiny punched holes) on vintage Motorola 2-way radios that had a similar appearance. Notice the odd contour and shape of the "screen"... I now think I am seeing a speaker/microphone, not a CRT face.

jr

[etype2]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

That's what I thought at first, but I remember seeing formed metal speaker grills (with very tiny punched holes) on vintage Motorola 2-way radios that had a similar appearance. Notice the odd contour and shape of the "screen"... I now think I am seeing a speaker/microphone, not a CRT face.

jr

Point well taken. Probably not a TV. That pointed screen threw me also. Why have that shape if a viewing screen.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by etype2

See photo of working 6 inch flat color CRT. http://www.visions4.net/journal/time...wordpress-525/

Nope, not a picture of a WORKING flat screen set. May be a photo of a flat screen set that worked, but the picture is definitely a paste-up, unless someone can tell me that they had a CRT that could make black areas despite the light coming in. Or was that "view from either side" article a note on a two sided CRT that would need to have the back covered by a black shield to actually use it anywhere but a darkroom?

[etype2]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Nope, not a picture of a WORKING flat screen set. May be a photo of a flat screen set that worked, but the picture is definitely a paste-up, unless someone can tell me that they had a CRT that could make black areas despite the light coming in. Or was that "view from either side" article a note on a two sided CRT that would need to have the back covered by a black shield to actually use it anywhere but a darkroom?

The full article which can be read at post #44 states that the reporter saw working prototypes in action, both color and black & white. The reporter commented that the flesh tones were the best he had seen.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by etype2

The full article which can be read at post #44 states that the reporter saw working prototypes in action, both color and black & white. The reporter commented that the flesh tones were the best he had seen.

These statements I can believe. The flesh hue is determined by the color of the red/orange phosphor. It is desaturated by some amount of complementary cyan, but its hue cannot change.

As the author states, purple is not possible - but I have no idea what he means by "reddish blue" if it's not purple (which it couldn't be) - maybe he means it was slightly variable from slightly blue to slightly red.

Here are some shots of Cliff Benham's 2-color field sequential set (left smaller screen) vs. ordinary 3-color (right screen), from the 2009 Early Television convention.


P5010070 by old_tv_nut, on Flickr

P5010072 by old_tv_nut, on Flickr

P5010114 by old_tv_nut, on Flickr

P5010115 by old_tv_nut, on Flickr

Finally, 3-color bars on left, 2-color on right:

P5010099 by old_tv_nut, on Flickr

[etype2]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

These statements I can believe. The flesh hue is determined by the color of the red/orange phosphor. It is desaturated by some amount of complementary cyan, but its hue cannot change.

As the author states, purple is not possible - but I have no idea what he means by "reddish blue" if it's not purple (which it couldn't be) - maybe he means it was slightly variable from slightly blue to slightly red.

Here are some shots of Cliff Benham's 2-color field sequential set (left smaller screen) vs. ordinary 3-color (right screen), from the 2009 Early Television convention.


P5010070 by old_tv_nut, on Flickr

P5010072 by old_tv_nut, on Flickr

P5010114 by old_tv_nut, on Flickr

P5010115 by old_tv_nut, on Flickr

Finally, 3-color bars on left, 2-color on right:

P5010099 by old_tv_nut, on Flickr

Wow! Thank you for posting these photos.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

These statements I can believe. The flesh hue is determined by the color of the red/orange phosphor. It is desaturated by some amount of complementary cyan, but its hue cannot change.

As the author states, purple is not possible - but I have no idea what he means by "reddish blue" if it's not purple (which it couldn't be) - maybe he means it was slightly variable from slightly blue to slightly red.

Here are some shots of Cliff Benham's 2-color field sequential set (left smaller screen) vs. ordinary 3-color (right screen), from the 2009 Early Television convention.

Very cool! thanks for posting. Two color looks better than I expected, but still might have been pretty hard to sell, even in the mid 60s. I looks as if the colors shown are basically "I axis" only, which could have simplified the circuitry somewhat. Was a 2 color system used in some countries, in the "early days" ?

jr

[reeferman]

I've now sold the bridge a total of nine times. Wanna buy it?
Phil

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Very cool! thanks for posting. Two color looks better than I expected, but still might have been pretty hard to sell, even in the mid 60s. I looks as if the colors shown are basically "I axis" only, which could have simplified the circuitry somewhat. Was a 2 color system used in some countries, in the "early days" ?

jr

Two-color TV systems never went into use, although they were proposed. A Mexican inventor proposed a two-color system for Mexico:
http://www.earlytelevision.org/mexican_color.html.

Two color film, however, was used for a while - in one early form of Technicolor; also some two-color cartoons by others than Disney (who had three years of exclusive rights for use of three-color Technicolor in cartoons).