The impact of early color

[oldtvman]

In my lifetime I have witnessed many amazing things but not one of them compare to seeing a color television in the 50's! It was almost sirreal

I can't say that anything has even come close since then

[oldtvman]

and the kicker was for the most part, they got it right. witnesses by the fact that many of the early color sets restored produce a picture that rivals many of today's versions. (analog anyway)

[vintagecollect]

...

[Don Lindsly]

Consumers traded out the early color TVs mainly due to reliability issues. Even the best ones burned through horizontal output tubes, dampers, rectifiers, circuit breakers, convergence board coils, flybacks and vertical components on a regular basis. People watched them several hours every day so things overheated and boards got brittle. Eventually it was fix the TV again or buy a bigger boat. Few could afford both.

Those unreliable components were engineered out one by one. Each generation improved until the current generation of solid state TVs is sufficiently reliable that it required FCC regulations to mandate a trade out. That's what HDTV is all about.

[Chad Hauris]

I wonder why more was not done to improve the tube type color sets. I know about the problems as we used an RCA CTC-39 for 10 hrs or more a day when I was in high school. Bad solder joints, horizontal output tubes burned out etc. Parents had to buy new TV's when I moved out as the "TV technician" (ME) was not there to take care of the sets anymore. They do take a LOT more maintenance that solid states when they are used a lot. RCA seemed to be the worst with heat destruction of parts. The Zenith hand wired chassis seemed to be the best with regards to heat related problems.

[oldtvman]

Originally Posted by Don Lindsly

Consumers traded out the early color TVs mainly due to reliability issues. Even the best ones burned through horizontal output tubes, dampers, rectifiers, circuit breakers, convergence board coils, flybacks and vertical components on a regular basis. People watched them several hours every day so things overheated and boards got brittle. Eventually it was fix the TV again or buy a bigger boat. Few could afford both.

Those unreliable components were engineered out one by one. Each generation improved until the current generation of solid state TVs is sufficiently reliable that it required FCC regulations to mandate a trade out. That's what HDTV is all about.

Early on people put up with the reliability issues as a trade-off for the magnificent color images beamed right into their living rooms. As color became more wide-spread I think we lost our love affair with the color set.

[andy]

---

[frenchy]

Originally Posted by andy

All my older family members tell me stories about how their TVs were constantly needing repair. They were amazed when TVs actually became reliable in the late 70's. Now people expect a new TV to work for its entire life without any repairs.

Their expectations are met - their life is now a year or two, and without repairs... cuz they cannot be fixed ; )

[tritwi]

Hi, this is my first color tv. My parents bought it in 1969. It was very uncommon seeing color televisions here in Italy until regular color broadcasting started in 1977. The interesting thing is this is a genuine handcrafted Zenith tv made for Pal B/G tv system (you may notice it completely lacks hue control). It still works quite well for its age!

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by tritwi

Hi, this is my first color tv. My parents bought it in 1969. It was very uncommon seeing color televisions here in Italy until regular color broadcasting started in 1977. The interesting thing is this is a genuine handcrafted Zenith tv made for Pal B/G tv system (you may notice it completely lacks hue control). It still works quite well for its age!

Hi, this is really interesting! which channels do you watch in color before 1977?

Was this a commercial PAL set, U.S. export, or did somebody modified a NTSC set for PAL broadcasts?

Eckhard

[firenzeprima]

Originally Posted by yagosaga

Hi, this is really interesting! which channels do you watch in color before 1977?

Was this a commercial PAL set, U.S. export, or did somebody modified a NTSC set for PAL broadcasts?

Eckhard

in Italy since 1974 could receive the broadcasts in color from Switzerland and Koper with dns PAL, by France and the Principality of Monaco in SECAM, and therefore easy to find equipment color system Multistandard. (PAL-SECAM) zenith, as I know, send the individual components in Italy to the Electronics Montagni Florence. Here were reassembled with the circuit suitable for receiving PAL programs. but I, in the Company Montagni (which inter alia provided to spread the TV signals of IST Switzerland Telecapodistria ANTENNE2 and TMC) I have seen some with SECAM system for the control signals ANTENNAS 2 and TMC.

<<Since the'70s the entrepreneur Mauro Montagni decided to put himself against the idea of monopoly, the occasion was for the World Cup played in Mexico, he captando from Mount Secchieta signal A2 from Corsica did other repeat that amplified through an apparatus autocostruito, the city of Florence. On 10 August 1970 could see some Florentine football matches of the World Organization for the first time in color, and for the first time ever not in connection with a broadcaster of State, the same place of Mauro Montagni company was transformed provisionally into a hall to watch the games in color. Only after the heavy defeat in the final 4 to 1 with Brazil the Judiciary intervened against contractor had infringed because a law of 1938 that forbade anyone to make radio without prior authorization from the Minister of Posts. The same Montagni recalls, with much regret, that to see the matches in color at his company were the Mayor of Florence, the Prefect and also the director of RAI Florence. <<Tutti To tifare as amiconi old data; pity that they finished the World Cup I denunciarono>>. A lawsuit that Mauro Montagni lost, but at a distance of more than thirty years can proudly claim to have won and quest'episodio gave way to long and arduous struggle for the spread of private television over the air in Italy.>>
<<In Italy are beginning to receive foreign television signals as: TV ITALIAN SWISS (IST) from the Canton Ticino, TELEMONTECARLO (TMC) from the Principality of Monaco that radiates the first transmission to Italy on 5 August 1974 by the 'Industrial Marcucci who install a repeater on Mount Pizzorne in Lucca, KOPER KOPER TV station upstream Nanos in Yugoslavia and ANTENNAS 2 (A2) from France. The latter, so that the signal was received well throughout the central and northern peninsula, demonstrating the superiority of television system colors French had stipulated by the company INTERSECAM, a costly maintenance contract with the Florentine businessman to Montagni which were provided all the equipment necessary radio frequency. The bridgehead from which captava signal A2 was the upstream Secchieta single point from which "saw" the transmitter French Bastia in Corsica. As a week to week, however, stretches the chain of repeaters installed by private captavano dall'etere signals audio-video foreign broadcasters and ritrasmettevano amplified to the towns.
The business was undoubtedly enormous because this will installavano on the roofs of several houses reception facilities of the Fifth banda (this banda frequency was one that had the largest number of channels available from 21 to 68) and incrementava the sale of television receivers polychrome since these TV stations sent by time, regular programmes in colour, otherwise not explain, for example, spending 200 million (1977) by the manager John Del Piano of the repetition of TV signals SWITZERLAND , KOPER KOPER and TELEMONTECARLO on Mount Guadagnolo at Palestrina near Rome. Note that the spread of signals in the south of Italy had life even more difficult for the clear opposition of the Mafia that inexorably destroyed the positions repeaters than anyone had passed.>>
Excerpt from thesis of Dr. Menichini Fernando

[andy]

---

[tritwi]

Hello everybody! Yes the Zenith I have is an almost all tubes set. Despite the fact that it does not have the common "chromacolor" logo on it,it is equipped with a black matrix tube. It also has the common handwired metal chassis. Not many color pograms to watch at the time. I think my parents bought it because at that time there were rumors of incoming color broadcast. I remember watching experimental color tests at that time as well as the olympic games but nothing more. It is not a modified set, it is all original as manufactured by Zenith. I will try to make photos of the inside. I had another Zenith color tv (chassis 24MC32). It was a round tube set modified to be used with our tv standard. I recall it was bought by my grandfather during the sixties. Zenith was a very popular brand here in Florence during sixties and early seventies as there was an importer who used to import them directly from the production line and then modify them. I remember not many years ago I contacted that man and he brought me to a warehouse where there were many round tube color tvs still in the box together with chasses of equally old sets pehaps used to pick up spare parts and many many other old bw and color Zenith tvs!!! All that has been trashed not more than two years ago...What a shame!!!

[Don Lindsly]

Manufacturing costs drove the migration to solid state. In consumer products, the driver is unit cost. Little else matters. Transistors enable simpler power supplies, no sockets, automatic insertation and low cost. Everything else follows. Cost! Cost! Cost!

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by oldtvman

In my lifetime I have witnessed many amazing things but not one of them compare to seeing a color television in the 50's! It was almost sirreal
I can't say that anything has even come close since then

Yes, this is absolutely true. I have witnessed the introducing of color television in my childhood. Our family had a b/w tv set, and we only knew television in back and white. When I saw the first color television set--it was in summer of 1969--in the house of an uncle, it was absolutely incredible. Bonanza was on the screen in full color. I only knew this tv show in black and white, and as a child, I thought it was originally in black and white. I could not image that it was in color. Later I saw Gunsmoke and Star Trek in color when school friends invited me to watch color television. But these were very rare moments. In 1977 we got our first color tv set at home. It was a Nordmende tube tv set with shunt regulator.
In total these late 1960s were very exciting times, it was the time of the moon landing, color television, The Beatles and so on. But with respect to media events, I think color television was the greatest revolution since introducing of television, and no other new media can keep up with it.

Eckhard