Significance of RCA's "New Vista" sub-brand

[Robert Grant]

I've seen many (perhaps ALL?) RCA TV sets, color as well as black-and-white, from about 1961-1972, that carry the term "New Vista" or "New Vista Color" in the escutcheon plate.

I friend of mine asked me, this morning, what "New Vista" means, and only then did I realize that I haven't a clue!

To make matters worse, searching for "New Vista" on the internet only provides zillions of his on the latest Windows OS, which, of course, happeng to be "New" (LOL)

So does "New Vista" mean anything, thanks in advance!

Rob

[zenithfan1]

It was a new type of "tube" developed by RCA. THey used it mostly in tuners. Here is some info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuvistor. Hope this helps!

[Robert Grant]

Is this to say, then, that the "New Vista" mark on a TV set means that the set uses at least one Nuvistor tube?

Thanks!

[andy]

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[stromberg6]

The Nuvistor has a much lower inter-electrode capacitance than some larger triodes due to the very small spacing between elements, and elements to base. This allowed for efficient use of a triode instead of a pentode, which have higher gain, but also a higher noise figure, in TV tuners. RCA seems to be among few manufacturers to use them in TV designs.
I have also seen them used in Amateur radio designs, as well as commercial applications. The most common types are 6CW4, and 6DS4. Some special types have grid caps.
Kevin

[Steve D.]

Seems to me the term "New Vista" as applied to the RCA brand of televisions was the brain child of RCA's advertising agency. The word vista means view. Hence "new view" or in the eyes of the public, an improvement in the picture as RCA introduced it's brighter phospher picture tubes. RCA "New Vista" made for a catchy phrase in print ads and television commercials as well as on the television cabinet itself. The introduction of the nuvistor tube into the circuit may have sparked the similar sounding "New Vista" term as an advertising tool.

-Steve D.

[Don Lindsly]

The Nuvistor RF amp made a significant improvement in RCA TV performance. On comparison tests I witnessed, RCA Nuvistor TV's ability to "hold sych" improved from 10-30 microvolts to a comfortable 5 uv. That works out to about 6-10 db. Anchoring all the elements to a ceramic base reduced internal noise.

Other tetrodes and frame grids also made improvements so comparisons from year over year were more significant than from brand to brand in the same year. There are other metrics beside "holding sync" of course, however the performance was impressive.

Improved RF and IF tubes soon allowed eliminating an IF stage, enabling comparable performance with two video IFs (for B&W). It all soon gave way to transistors.

Don

[bgadow]

The nuvistor was among the last major breakthroughs in vacuum tubes, on the market about the same time as GE's Compactrons. GE promoted its tubes and the sets that used them as being "space age". "New Vista" must have sounded fresh and, well, new, in the early 60s. I suppose by the early 70s it had begun to sound stale. I doubt even in the sixties if most folks knew the name connection.

[leadlike]

Nuvistors were here and gone pretty quickly-I think they really were done in consumer products by the late 60s. They arrived too late on the scene to compete with the semiconductor devices that began going into tuners at that time. Far more successful were the compactrons, which continued to see television service for a few more years. I think I read that GE kept making compactrons until the late 80s. Nuvistors must have been dropped too quickly to build up as spare parts as several types command kinda high prices today. Anyone know when they stopped making them?

[jeyurkon]

Originally Posted by Don Lindsly

The Nuvistor RF amp made a significant improvement in RCA TV performance. On comparison tests I witnessed, RCA Nuvistor TV's ability to "hold sych" improved from 10-30 microvolts to a comfortable 5 uv. That works out to about 6-10 db. Anchoring all the elements to a ceramic base reduced internal noise.

Other tetrodes and frame grids also made improvements so comparisons from year over year were more significant than from brand to brand in the same year. There are other metrics beside "holding sync" of course, however the performance was impressive.

Improved RF and IF tubes soon allowed eliminating an IF stage, enabling comparable performance with two video IFs (for B&W). It all soon gave way to transistors.

Don

How do you remember all these details! Sometimes I feel lucky if I remember what I did three hours ago.

John

[oldtvman]

The new vista title also co-insided with the start of the Wonderful world of color which debuted in 1961. Up until that time Rca didn't refer to the New Vista tag line.

[Pete Deksnis]

I was a young kid late in 1960, not quite old enough to vote, working in Alaska on an Air Force project for which RCA was prime contractor, as you may already know.

Our 3-story airman-type dorm had a 40-ft. TV tower feeding a b&w RCA console that picked up the two stations in Fairbanks some sixty miles away. One day the new sets were gone -- replaced with similar b&w consoles except for a logo.

The story was that RCA hotfooted the New Vista sets to us cause their Nuvistor RF amps were so much better.

Maybe, but my response was, "Why didn't they send color sets."

Pete

[Don Lindsly]

Nuvistors and Compactrons had different applications. Nuvistors enabled performance improvements by applying ceramic tube technology to consumer products. They were used exclusively in tuners and industrial front end applications.

Compactrons used conventional tube technology and usually combined several applications into a single envelope. Their primary benefit was reduced cost in supply chain and end-product manufacturing. You won't find compactrons in tuners or Nuvistors in deflection circuits.

Don

[zenithfan1]

I'm almost positive that Zenith used them in SOME of their color sets too. They were in the UHF tuner.

[bgadow]

I have Admiral's first "non-clone" color set and it uses a nuvistor.