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I'm with Steve McVoy. There's no way that the best early color sets can compete picture quality with good modern sets. Picture geometry, black level control, video bandwidth, chroma demodulation, all are miles advanced on new TV's. Dot pitch is finer than on the early color tubes as well. Mind you the new TV's have the equivalent of literally hundreds of vacuum tubes contained in their complicated circuits. What amazes me is how good a color picture the clever engineers were able to coax from minimized simple circuits using only 20 or so tubes back then. Absolutely amazing! That is part of my appreciation and respect for these wonders, for wonders they certainly were in their day.
Since they are a part of my youth I enjoy them as a nostalgic connection with the past. I appreciate all the really vintage TV's, B&W included, the round screens for their interesting industrial design and as pieces of period piece furniture. Most 40's TV's were made from real hardwood, not molded black plastic.
I see the outside of the vintage set as a cool retro piece of furniture. I'm just as impressed with the look of the inside from my interest in the earlier technology.
I almost never watch my vintage B&W sets except to show them off to visitors on occasion. I will actually watch the roundie color sets when vintage shows come on like the original Star Trek. It gives me a nostalgic blast-to-the-past.
By collecting and restoring these (in some cases) I also feel that I am doing a good service to future generations, assuming that the efforts represented by my collection will be preserved by another when I'm gone, and so on for future generations to see.
I predict that the ONLY roundie color sets that will exist in 50 years time will be in the hands of a few collectors. It will be next to impossible to obtain one. Additionally, only their owners will have the secret knowledge (and parts) needed to keep them going.
Rob
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