Tri-view TV?
 

Going through some old pictures, about 10 years ago I came across this 3 CRT TV. Excuse the picture - the cameras on phones were only so good 10 years ago! As a bonus I'll include this RCA B&W I also came across.

Any idea who made the three screen?

Sampo. See page 27 here: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...cs-1981-09.pdf

Now that is pretty cool. Also, I had one of those RCAs very briefly almost two years ago.

That RCA looks to be what Radio Shack had modified for the TRS-80 Model I monitor (Pic stolen from the internet):

http://www.oldmangeek.com/trs80/TrsMonitor-1L.jpg

Sony made a "Tri" TV as well, right around the time the 1st Trinitrons came out. They had 3 screens the same size, the guys at Bondurant Bros in Knoxville-Our Sony Distributor in NE TN were singularly UNIMPRESSED w/it. I asked if it was COLOR, one of 'em snarled "NO-But you THINK you're buyin' a Color set..."

The only ones I know of that Sony did were monitors, and not TVs.

Back in the stone age of TV, there were only 3 TV networks. CBS, NBC and ABC. With one of these sets you could watch all three...
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http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1254204466

Another one of these Sampo tri-screen sets just showed up on Facebook Marketplace for a very good price, only $50.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...34379147182985

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...1&d=1546119099


http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...1&d=1546119099

.

Never saw the Sampo in person. We did sell them as a cheap set for a few
yrs. Not to badly built. We even had warranty status but only fixed
one IIRC. They just never caught on........
I fixed a few of the Sonys when I worked for them. I thought one had
tuners the other 2 were monitors but that was 40 yrs ago. They came
from one of the big 4 Boston stations.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

On sale at Neiman-Marcus 1969.

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...11217DD4A.jpeg

Thank you for sharing this. Sandy mentioned a Sony one earlier, but I didn't recall ever seeing one that wasn't just (security) monitors. Being sold at Neiman-Marcus, it probably wasn't cheap.

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I recall that Sampo being a frequent prize on "The Price is Right". I also recall Belmont, a DC area electronics store that advertised a lot on TV, carried Sampo. I've never seen one of their products in person.

If anyone in VA can grab this and bring it to the ETF I'd double your money...

Here's another multi-screen set. This Nordmende has 3 B&W screens, and a larger color one.

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...1&d=1546148580

http://collection.sciencemuseum.org....ision-receiver

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Forty-odd years ago, Popular Science magazine had an article on a TV called the "Showcase 70". This set was made in 1970 (hence the "70" in the name) and had four monochrome screens plus a large 21" color screen, with a remote that could switch the image from any one of those screens to the large one on a moment's notice; the set also had a digital channel readout, again rather unusual for a TV made in 1970. IIRC, the set was housed in a clear plastic cabinet, which I found unusual, although I guess it makes sense when one considers this was an experimental model.

I don't think the Showcase 70 was ever meant to be mass-produced, as it was simply a prototype that never made it past the developmental stage. However, it could have given other TV manufacturers (Sony, Nordmende, et al.) the idea to produce similar sets under their own branding.

I don't see the practicality of a set like this anyway, except perhaps for TV stations so that they could keep tabs on what the other stations/networks were showing at any given time during the stations' broadcast day (this TV is from the era when television stations would sign off for the night around one or two a. m. local time).

I can't see anyone actually owning a TV like this except for the novelty factor. I had a great-uncle (now long since deceased) who couldn't see the sense, either, in having a TV with more than one screen. He used to say "you can watch only one channel at a time", which makes sense. Even picture-in-picture (PIP) systems, which were popular before DTV and flat screen TVs and showed a small picture from a second channel in one corner of the main TV screen while another was being watched, were useful (IMHO) only for the novelty of them as, again, no one can watch more than one TV program at a time. The PIP functionality only worked when the TV was connected to a VCR with its own tuner.

BTW, no flat-screen TV I have ever seen has had PIP capability. I wonder if this would be possible with HD televisions, or is there some technical or other reason why PIP never caught on in the digital-TV era? :scratch2:

PIP is certainly possible with HD TVs, just no demand to justify including this fad any more. I think my Dish receiver has some similar capability, but I have never tried to find out or use it.

I always thought PIP was an interesting concept. I never used it bacuse I've always had more than one TV at my disposal...It is not rare for me to have multiple sets in a room and run more than one at a time* and often I'd tune them to different shows I wanted to watch at the same time (though if both were really good I'd record and watch one later). It is easy for me to watch multiple shows at once, but not to listen to them. 1-2 people talikng I can follow, but beyond that it just becomes background crowd noise...Hell until they shut off analog cable atleast one of my TV display rooms could display 6 different cable programs at once (though the breaker for that room would not support that for long)...That room can still sort of do that but I'd need to grab every cable box in the house or use the two boxes and fill in the gaps with OTA DTV boxes internet and recorded media.

I've always had good visual attention span for media multitasking....Hell I can put 2-3 VHS EP tapes 6-8 hours long in separate decks on high speed visual search fast forward simultaneously with the sets they are connected to clustered and pickout the show I want to find from the 3 rapidly moving images...Also I've probably written a books worth of posts on this forum while also watching TV.

*Another thing that is common is to watch the same show on two sets at once. The reasons being every set is a bit different and some excell on different image content and fill in for eachother, and also if one tube set craps out mid program on something I'm watching live (which has happened more than once) I can just switch it off and let the other set soldier on.

I have the portable version of those 1969 Sony B&W's, they are good sets. Got it for $10 30 years ago.

I think these multi screen sets would be popular among sports enthusiasts who enjoy more than one sport. I remember when Mom was still alive, there were times I dragged out my 1969 Sony B&W set (same model as one of those three in the pics) and we'd have NASCAR on one TV and NFL football (or NHL hockey depending on the time of the year) going all at once. One of my father's buddies always had two or three sets going watching various NFL games at once especially when playoffs are near. He had the Pittsburgh Steelers on the main color and other teams who one or two B&W sets sitting on top of the color console.

In that era, the TV sports nut is who these sets were really marketed to. The post above, goes into detail why.

Beside the ideea of an P.i.P., you could the small screens for C.C.T.V. In one old image from an catalogue an lady was watching tv and on one of the small screens appeared an baby sleeping - so she could watch tv while kept an eye on the baby that was sleeping in another room.

Philips Video-Centre 8078
 

Very few people used PIP. MGA sets had a PIP module that always failed.
You could change all the surface mount caps on it or remove it & add 2 caps.
Given a choice NOBODY ever wanted the PIP.
Baby monitors were one useful thing. Zenith made security kits you could
use with PIP or a monitor. I never sold one but they were there.
Radio monitors go back to at least the 30's & I think Zenith called them
radio nurses. Trouble is most people put the babies crib in there bedroom.
In the 70's baby monitor listening became a very popular hobby. I think
you could imagine the content:banana:

enuf fer now
73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

One example, loosely translated: "Rubber Duck, this is Pig Pen. Mercy sakes, I'm haulin' a loaded nappy here. Got your respirator on? This mess could close up your sinuses in nothin' flat.

I just realized what the quote is actually implying. Nevertheless, I'll stick with what I already have.