This wasn't the first time Consumer Reports made an issue of the lack of DC restoration in TV sets. In the late fifties they complained about it, but at that time no manufacturer used it, except in the color sets. The excuse? According to the manufacturers, the TV broadcasters were not bothering to control the DC level at the transmitter, so why should the set manufacturer attempt to control it at the receiver? While this may have been true in a few isolated cases, most broadcasters did control the DC component correctly. In fact, FCC rules require correct control of black level at the TV transmitter. It was simply an excuse to cut the cost of the receivers.

Prior to 1953, most of the better quality receivers, such as RCA and DuMont, used DC restorer circuits in their designs. The DC restorer seems to have disappeared about the same time the 21" rectangular picture tube became standard, around 1953, as DBerning mentioned.

A confusing factor for the consumer is the use of the term "brightness control". In a set with DC restoration, this control is in reality the "black level" control, and should be used to set blacks at the correct level. The "contrast" control is in reality the "white level" control, and is adjusted to provide the desired picture brilliance, followed by setting the correct DC (black) level with the "brightness" control (in some early sets the contrast control was called the "brilliance" control).

In a set with 100% DC restoration, once black level is set, it will stay correctly set through all scene changes, including the difficult nighttime outdoor scenes.