japanese roundie
 

Hi everyone. This is the japanese roundie made by "YAOU ELECTRIC Co. LTD" in japan.

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Interesting !

How old is that set.

How many scan lines are used in Japan ?

Does that set work BTW ? It looks to be in good condition.

I think it's NTSC just like US sets.

Japanese Roundie
 

This set looks like a "spinoff" of the RCA CTC 7 or CTC 9. Note the mask and inside clips.

The tube looks like a 21CY. Also note the purity magnets. Very RCA.

Once they figured out how to make a color tv, RCA was doomed. I didn't realize that it began so early.

Kirk Out

I took note of the word GENERAL on the front of that set. That sounds like the set was produced for export to probably the US judging by the styling and the name. Anybody ever heard of General sets in the 60s?

It looks to me as if that set has a hi-fi audio system as well. I saw a separate chassis to the right of the TV chassis, connected to the main chassis by several cables which looked an awful lot like an amplifier, or perhaps it was the power supply. (On second glance, I saw several large electrolytic capacitors on that chassis; the line cord looks like it is attached there too). The speaker looks like it's at least 8" round.

I also saw a switch on the antenna terminal board, just above the antenna terminals. Does this have anything to do with the tuner, or was it connected in some way with the chassis in the right half of the cabinet, looking at the back of the set?

The split-chassis design is unusual, to say the least. If this set is/was an RCA clone, it is unusual, as I don't remember ever seeing stand-alone RCA color TVs with split chassis. Philco had at least one split-chassis set in the '50s (my best friend's parents had one, a 21-inch console with two side-by-side chassis [power and deflection/IF-video/audio, IIRC] connected by a multi-conductor cable), but ita's set is the first RCA lookalike I've seen with this design.

No, I've never heard of any Japanese TVs branded "General", and this is the first Japanese roundie I've ever seen. The closest I can come to "General" are the TVs made by the original General Electric Company of Syracuse and later Schenectady, New York, but those were U. S.-made sets. How "General" ties in with the Japanese maker of ita's set, however, is beyond me.

Yeah, NTSC was one of the things we "forced" on Japan during the Occupation, so it was relatively easy for them to make TVs for the US market. In my opinion, it was all over for Zenith, RCA & all the others when Sony came out w/that little 5" B/W set in '62 or '63. Just a matter of time then. Anyway, this is a very nice looking old roundie- I didn't know Japan made any of them. I certainly hope it works, & ita will favor us w/some more pics. -Sandy G.

Nice set Dude! Are there many like it in Japan? Wonder what it would cost to import one. Is there a SAMS folder for it?

polaraman

japanese roundie
 

Thank you very much for your interest about Japanese roundie.
I would like to answer some questions.

Q1:How old
I think this set was manufactured in 1960.(In Japan,colorcast has started in 1960.)

Q2:How many scan lines
Scan lines are 525 and using NTSC system same as USA.

Q3:What is "GENERAL"
Yaou ELECTRIC Co. LTD used brand "GENERAL" until 1985. Fujitsu(Fujitsu is the famous company about computer in the world as you know.) has merged Yaou and established "FUJITSU GENERAL LTD" in 1985. http://www.fujitsugeneral.co.jp/english/index.html

Q4:Are there many like it in Japan
The production number of roudie is very small. The set was too expensive for the ordinary Japanese to buy. So,roundie is very very rare set in Japan. :dunno:

Thanks a lot to everyone
from JAPAN

Awesome post.

I always love to see "foreign" sets. Too bad so much of the world got color so long after the US... I love to see old color sets from the rest of the world (Just like I love seeing the "weird" Mopars from Australia and South America.)

Could we see some close-up shots of the controls w/Japanese characters? Doesn't Japan use some kind of analog "compatable" HDTV? Does this set work with current broadcasts? (Does it work at all?)

On a personal note ita, are you Japanese or an American living in Japan? It's great that this site is getting such an international flavor.

Re: japanese roundie
 

In reference to Carmines question my guess is this person is Japanese...:saywhat:

Wow, that's a cool looking set. Thanks for the pics, nice to see some real rarities. The only other pre-1965 Japanese colour TV sets I seen is a 1960 Sharp colour set on some Japanese technology history site.

Cheers
Troy

"General" was a name brand used in many electronics Japanese goods, perhaps a more marketable and "american" sounding name, for sure.

Obviously that gear never made it to the US under that name because of General Electric.

Another classic example of this is the "National" brand used by Matsushita Electric Co. for many years. In order to sell the products in the US they had to relabel the products "Panasonic" because "National" was registered to the National Radio Co. a manufacturer of Shortwave radios.

National Radio went out of business, and I guess Matsushita could have attempted to use the name "National" here in the states. Instead they completely switched to "Panasonic", even in Japan. For some time during the mid to late 1970s, they labeled their products as "National Panasonic", a transitional period for them, I suppose.

Regards,

crooner

I found some interesting read on early Japanese color TV, courtesy of Toshiba. Apparently Toshiba was the first to market them in Japan. First using a RCA picture tube and with their own design shortly thereafter.

Here's a link from Toshiba's Web Page:

Toshiba Early Color TV History

Here's a pic of Toshiba's Roundie Color TV:

http://www2.toshiba.co.jp/kakan/en/h...58tv_img01.jpg


Regards,

crooner

RCA Color monitor
 

This is the RCA color monitor inported from USA.

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RCA Color monitor
 

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That RCA monitor looks like a lot more robust design than the consumer sets...it appears to have a regulated power supply with 6080's and dual horizontal output tubes. Also the CRT looks like a later replacement (60's or 70's, judging by the modern RCA logo on it.)

Some RCA television monitors were actually built by Conrac, wonder if this color unit is actually Conrac. Their B/w monitors that I have, have extra special features such as a regulated power supply, HV regulator tube, etc. that no consumer B/W set has.

Wow !! That thing's as clean as a hound's tooth !! ita, I sure hope both of these bad boys are in a good home-preferably yours !! <grin> -Sandy G.

Well, in Bucharest, at the Universitatea "Politehnica" are some 2 Japonesee roundies, but not in working condition. One of it haves an 21CYP22A picture tube made by "R.C.A.". That roundie looks like an "Hitachi" CT-150.

Darn. One of those RCA studio monitors must be the ULTIMATE roundie. I bet they're as good as a modern TV, or darn close.

Anyone know where I can get one? :)

(wouldn't mind an old conrac B&W monitor either...)

Yeah, no kidding. Just look at all those tubes... Man, I'd love to find one of those. 'Course, I'd love to find a roundie period, but, one can dream :). I wonder how good the DC restoration on something like that would be. That's one thing that kinda bugs me with some cheaper sets, is the way the picture shrinks and expands, darkens and lightens as a function of the overall brightness of the image. Sure, I've added diodes and caps to help compensate, but even then it's hard to get good, crisp high contrast stuff on some sets.

I've been hunting a Conrac monitor for some time as well, haven't found a tube one on eBay, but some of the older solid state models show up from time to time. I'd love to be able to have a tube set that took composite video reliably. I've modified small black and white portables to take composite video, and used them as monitors with very old computers (Apple II, etc.), but it's a pain working around a way to safely direct-couple video into a stage in a hot chassis television set...

-Ian

The Conracs had very good DC restoration and regulation - and when looking at the tube count, you have to remember they had extra sweep functions for offsetting the V or H timing (or both), and expanding the V interval so you could see if the sync pulses were correct on your signal ("pulse-cross" setting). A real monitor would also allow you to turn the color notch filter off when the color was turned off, and had a phase-compensated peaking ("aperture compensation") control using a tapped delay line. No comb filter in these early beasts, though, and IIRC no I/Q demods either - just very good R-Y, B-Y.

[QUOTE=Jeffhs]It looks to me as if that set has a hi-fi audio system as well. I saw a separate chassis to the right of the TV chassis, connected to the main chassis by several cables which looked an awful lot like an amplifier, or perhaps it was the power supply. (On second glance, I saw several large electrolytic capacitors on that chassis; the line cord looks like it is attached there too). >>>

yeah just looks like the power supply and big can type caps are on it, and maybe the high voltage stuff under that metal cover.

@crooner: there's a problem with the TOSHIBA site... :no:

Damn! I bet that color monitor sucks up some serious wattage!

On a side note... have you ever wondered about the power cords used on vintage roundie sets? The cords usually look kinda wimpy considering the set uses 300+ watts!

Yes, Charlie, they sure do--and not only roundies. Every vintage color TV I've seen that draws 300 watts or more (including every old set I've owned over the years) has one of those thin-looking cords. Say what you will about the reliability of their TVs, but, IMHO, one of the best things Thomson (RCA) ever did with all of their sets was to put polarized AC cords on them, and with thick insulation along with conductors large enough to handle the current drawn from the line. However, it seems like overkill now (to me, anyhow) to put those thick cords on today's sets, as most modern TVs draw much less current than the old ones ever did. I had a Zenith 12-inch b&w solid-state portable, bought new in 1978, with a very thick and wired-in line cord (no interlock); my 1995 Zenith color set has such a cord as well, as does my living room set, an RCA (Thomson) 19" table model. The RCA draws 105 watts; the Zenith, 87 watts, and my small 12" Zenith (which I no longer have) drew well under 100 watts as well, but they all had/have thicker cords than the roundies and rectangular sets of 30+ years ago; the new ones are all hard-wired into the set as well. Even my bookshelf stereo system has a rather thick polarized AC line cord, despite the fact that it only draws 150 watts.

Ian, the way I always coupled anything into a TV set (or any kind of electronic equipment), whether or not it had a hot chassis, is to use a blocking capacitor in series with the circuit or instrument I was connecting to the set. Over thirty years ago, I learned a lesson I'll never forget when I tried to connect an oscilloscope to a color TV with a transformer-powered chassis, to monitor the video signal. I went across the contrast control, without using a high-voltage blocking capacitor in series with the lead to my scope's vertical input. Turned everything on and--whoops!--I heard a loud noise coming from inside the oscilloscope. By the time I heard that noise it was too late--the voltage across the contrast control in my TV had arced through the intensity control of the scope. Didn't really ruin anything (the scope still worked amazingly well for several years afterwards), although from that moment on, whenever I'd adjust the intensity control and the movable arm inside the pot contacted the burned area of the carbon resistance element, I would hear a noise very much like a rifle shot. :eek: :yikes: To this day I am amazed the scope didn't blow a fuse, or the power supply was not heavily damaged, the first time that happened. Hmmm. :scratch2:

Quote: "On a side note... have you ever wondered about the power cords used on vintage roundie sets? The cords usually look kinda wimpy considering the set uses 300+ watts!"

----------------------------

Wimpy is right. Last night, or was it early this morning, a CTC2 (s/n B8000194), an early production chassis that I’m restoring, was powered up using a late-’50s cheater cord that has never been uncoiled since it left the factory. The cage is gutted so no HO circuit load exists, only the front end, the oscillators, video, chroma, sync sep., and so such.

It was on for about 30 minutes while checking voltages and stuff so I listened to audio from over-the-air ABC channel 7 from NYC while running the ABC video on an HDTV in NTSC mode. One of the things I did was check the power draw with a wattmeter – just short of 300 watts. A fully operational CT-100 is rated at 475 watts.

When I killed the power and removed the cheater cord from the CTC2 after the thirty minute run, that cheater cord was actually warm to the touch!

Pete

"R.C.A" 21-CT-55 eats "only" 525 watts!

I wonder if either one of these magnificent lovelies are in working condition-the RCA studio monitor almost looks like it's mil-spec construction.-Sandy G.