early color wanna be's

[old_tv_nut]

The original thought with VIR was that it could be inserted early in the signal path and allow correction for all that happened along the way. But then people started to reinsert it along the way, and I believe, even just before the transmitter so that it could be used to adjust the transmitter. Of course, it had no relation to all the preceding distortions then, and became useless in a consumer set. I remember doing competitive analysis of a GE set some time after VIR had been around for a while, and much of the time you would prefer to turn it off.

[EDIT - I mean turn off the VIR - but maybe you would prefer to turn off the set too! ]

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

The original thought with VIR was that it could be inserted early in the signal path and allow correction for all that happened along the way. But then people started to reinsert it along the way, and I believe, even just before the transmitter so that it could be used to adjust the transmitter. Of course, it had no relation to all the preceding distortions then, and became useless in a consumer set. I remember doing competitive analysis of a GE set some time after VIR had been around for a while, and much of the time you would prefer to turn it off.

[EDIT - I mean turn off the VIR - but maybe you would prefer to turn off the set too! ]

My great-uncle had a GE TV with VIR in the early 1970s--the first television with that feature I ever saw in my life (haven't seen another since, even on eBay). I don't honestly know, however, if he even knew the feature was there. This frequently happens with functions on TVs such as auto-color, VIR and the like--people just turn on the set and watch their programs, with little or no regard for those extra buttons, knobs, etc. for other functions (this also applies to Sears Silvertone's "Chromix" control on a few of their higher-end sets of the '60s-'70s that was supposed to inject a soft blue hue into monochrome pictures; most people simply set the control to black and white and forgot about it). It's just as well; most auto-color correction schemes didn't work all that well, as has been discussed in this thread previously.

Most if not all color televisions worked better with these systems turned off and disregarded, anyway. I shut off the auto-color control on my RCA CTC185 some time ago as it isn't needed, given today's rock-stable chroma circuits in the sets themselves (all televisions manufactured in the last decade or so, not just RCAs) and the vastly improved stability of the signals from TV stations, especially if you are on cable.