Holy Grail GE!?

[Eric H]

First time I've seen one of these on eBay.
I can't begin to imagine what this will go for being ultra 50's Modern and all!
I'd take this over a Predicta.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Retro-Space-Age-...item19b8d97c7e

[Zenith26kc20]

I might be wrong but is that the chassis known as the "Swiss Cheese" chassis? The printed circuit had perforated metal on the solder side. They were known to short out their IF transformers.

[Phil Nelson]

Unusual design, fer shur. I took it for a tabletop at first glance, but then noticed background objects in the second view, which tell you the true size.

Can't decide if I love it or hate it. The screen placement seems awfully low for such a big CRT -- practically on the floor. If I had one, I'd build a low stand of some sort.

Phil Nelson

[David Roper]

It is a tabletop, you'd have to tune it on your knees on the floor.

[Jeffhs]

Ooops! Duplicate post - plase disregard.

The item description for this TV is interesting. The seller says he has no way to test it, yet he reports getting sound and a picture, albeit weak, on one channel. (I would classify that as a test, which is why I'm baffled as to why he says he cannot test the set -- unless he is referring to the fact that he cannot receive standard TV stations on it, using just the set's own rabbit ears.) Because full-power TV stations are digital these days, the channel he's receiving almost certainly has to be a low-power TV station or a translator. He could have, however, tested the TV's picture quality by using a cable connection (through a box) or with a DTV converter and an outside antenna or rabbit ears -- I wonder why he didn't think of that. I guess he's one of the many people with which the idea that there is no more analog TV in the US still doesn't register (over five months after the transition), or he just doesn't believe it.

Both scenarios are still far too common in the US these days; it makes me wonder why the campaign to educate the public about DTV months or years before the transition wasn't better organized or thought out than it was. If it had been a success, by now everyone in the US would know about DTV and how to deal with it, even with older analog TVs. Instead, we now have a huge portion of the country still unprepared for DTV -- as I said, over five months after the transition. These people (except those in the Detroit area and other parts of the Great Lakes region who can still receive OTA analog from Canada until at least 2011, when that country shuts off its analog TV signals and goes exclusively digital....here we go again--I hope their DTV transition goes off much better and with far fewer hitches than ours did) are going without television, which means trouble for the networks as far as ratings are concerned (every TV set not tuned to any given network means one less ratings point for that network). The broadcast networks are floundering because of this, and more people than ever are baffled as to why their TVs have not worked with an antenna since 06.12.09. The FCC should have left the original US television system (NTSC) as it was instead of forcing all US TV stations to convert to digital, which is very unreliable in poor weather and at certain times of the year; I have read posts here from VK members whose OTA DTV reception becomes worse than useless, or disappears altogether, when the leaves are off the trees or when said trees sway in a stiff wind.

[Jeffhs]

The item description for this TV is interesting. The seller says he has no way to test it, yet he reports getting sound and a picture, albeit weak, on one channel. (I would classify that as a test, which is why I'm baffled as to why he says he cannot test the set -- unless he is referring to the fact that he cannot receive standard TV stations on it, using just the set's own rabbit ears.) Because full-power TV stations are digital these days, the channel he's receiving almost certainly has to be a low-power TV station or a translator.

He could, however, test the TV's picture quality by using a cable connection (through a box) or with a DTV converter and an antenna or rabbit ears -- I wonder why he didn't think of that. He may be one of the many (far too many, IMHO) people who are still baffled as to why their TVs on antennas haven't brought in anything other than snow since 06.12.09.

[matt_s78mn]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

The item description for this TV is interesting. The seller says he has no way to test it, yet he reports getting sound and a picture, albeit weak, on one channel. (I would classify that as a test, which is why I'm baffled as to why he says he cannot test the set

On ebay when a seller states that he/she is unable to test an item, or that the item is untested, that generally means that the item does not work.

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by David Roper

It is a tabletop

That makes more sense, looking at those dinky metal legs, but talk about supersizing -- has there ever been a bigger tabletop?

Phil

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

That makes more sense, looking at those dinky metal legs, but talk about supersizing -- has there ever been a bigger tabletop?

Phil

How about a 24" Westinghouse?

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1955-Westinghouse-Brochure.JPG

Any bigger ones out there?

jr

[Jeffhs]

I had an Admiral 21" table model set, perhaps early '60s vintage (trash find in the '70s), in a white cabinet, with the controls under a trap door on top. Also had an RCA Victor 17-inch table model, also probably from the early '60s or maybe late fifties (both sets were VHF only, which would date them prior to 1964). I also had, in the early seventies, a Sears Silvertone 21" roundie color set in a huge metal table-model cabinet. Power transformer, heavy as the dickens, VHF only, early '60s vintage.

[Eric H]

I knew it had a name, It's called "The Forecaster" (Predicta, Forcaster, get it )

http://cgi.ebay.com/1959-General-Ele...item1c0d2f6aaf

[Old1625]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I had an Admiral 21" table model set, perhaps early '60s vintage (trash find in the '70s), in a white cabinet, with the controls under a trap door on top....

I had one of those Admirals for a while--exactly as you describe. It worked after a fashion, but needed TLC that involved parts I couldn't at the time afford. I had more TV sets back then than I had money, and a series-wired set was not something I'd ever take seriously. Nor would I a set with two pix IF stages. I'm not sure about how many this set had, but I'm dead certain it had a series-wired filament setup--just based on how it behaved on warm-up. I never opened the thing--and threw it out later. CRT was clapped out anyway...

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Eric H

First time I've seen one of these on eBay.
I can't begin to imagine what this will go for being ultra 50's Modern and all!
I'd take this over a Predicta.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Retro-Space-Age-...item19b8d97c7e

The opening bid is $24.99. I do not see it going much higher than $60 or so. If this were one of the early RCA color sets (CT-100, CTC-2, 3, 4, et al.) I could see the bidding for any of these older sets going as high as hundreds of dollars, but not this one. For one thing, this GE is black-and-white, not color, and GE was not really a high-end brand of television, even in its heyday.

The cabinet style may be unique but, IMHO, that does not necessarily mean the set will or should sell at auction for some sky-high price. The cabinet looks as if it is plastic or Bakelite, not real wood, which lowers its value as a collectible even more.

[John Folsom]

Very cool! First time I have seen that set. Should be fun to watch the auction....

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by John Folsom

Very cool! First time I have seen that set. Should be fun to watch the auction....

Well hot damn. If this guy here says it's the first time he saw one it's gotta be a rare set.
I think it looks awesome! Their coolest design IMO, most of their stuff was pretty homely in the 50's.