Show us your vintage B&W sets!

[Smoky Pond]

Here are some shots of the RCA 648PV that I restored in 2001.

This set looks beautiful and performs flawlessly.

My wife and I often watch old B&W movies from our CED and laserdisc collection on this TV.

-Matt

[Steve K]

Matt:

Welcome to AudioKarma. What a beautiful set and restoration. I have the RCA projection set from 1948 without the radio and phono that I recapped a few years ago and the picture is nowhere near the picture on your set. I even put in a NOS projection tube.

Steve

[Marlin Mackley]

Bravo Matt!! What a great tv! Gives me hope on restoring one of my '49 RCA projectors.
Marlin

[Smoky Pond]

Originally Posted by Marlin Mackley

Bravo Matt!! What a great tv! Gives me hope on restoring one of my '49 RCA projectors.
Marlin

Marlin,

Thanks.

I see from your site that you have lots of hobbies too! My other vice is trucks. In particular, an early 1930 Ford Model AA stake truck that is going through a ground-up, frame-off restoration.

Let me know if I can be of any assistance when you begin the restoration of your set.

-Matt

[Smoky Pond]

Originally Posted by Steve K

Matt:

Welcome to AudioKarma. What a beautiful set and restoration. I have the RCA projection set from 1948 without the radio and phono that I recapped a few years ago and the picture is nowhere near the picture on your set. I even put in a NOS projection tube.

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for the welcome!

In addition to re-capping, I found that I had to replace quite a few resistors in the video and HV chassis. I also performed a complete alignment. The radio was a nightmare, but that's another story....

What do you feel is better about the picture on my set? Is it the resolution brightness? If it's resolution, how do the mirrors look in your set? Any apparent cloudiness when viewed in bright light? How much light escapes through the spherical mirror? If the mirrors look fine, do you feel that you were able to obtain satisfactory results during the optical setup? I got a lot of practice on mine, as I disassembled it each time we moved (the 648PV is extrmely heavy). So with each successive re-assembly, the optical setup turned out better and better. I now feel that all aspects of the optical setup, corner to corner, are as good as they can possibly be.

If it's the brightness of the picture, that may be due to the fact that I installed a NOS 5AZP4 CRT in place of the original 5TP4. I don't really know how much of a difference there is between these tubes. John Folsom may want to step in here and fill us in (hello John).

-Matt

[Smoky Pond]

One of the neatest looking devices in the 1940's RCA projection sets (aside from the optical barrel) is the horizontal deflection chassis, which of course contains the HV section. If you've never seen what's under the cover of this chassis, please take a look at the attached picture.

-Matt