G.E. Porta-Color

[KentTeffeteller]

The Porta-Pottie was also the first inexpensive Color TV most low incomes could afford. And easily the most reliable color TV General Electric ever made.

[DaveWM]

My 67 is going strong completely orig except for some tubes

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by KentTeffeteller

The Porta-Pottie was also the first inexpensive Color TV most low incomes could afford. And easily the most reliable color TV General Electric ever made.

That set was out about a year when a lot of the Japanese imports were starting to hit the stores.
IIRC, Allied Radio started selling a Sharp-built Midland 14" color set for under $200 in late 1967. All three Milwaukee area stores sold out within six hours. The picture quality was a little better than the GE.

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by KentTeffeteller

The Porta-Pottie was also the first inexpensive Color TV most low incomes could afford. And easily the most reliable color TV General Electric ever made.

Lets raise a collective toast to that statement.
GE owes alot to Earl"Madman" Muntz, who showed how to do TV with fewer parts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntzing

While I could always troubleshoot and even get parts, my only beef with GE was that thier damned tuners really sucked in fringe areas. Sarkes-tarzan or something, I thing Mags used them too.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Lets raise a collective toast to that statement.
GE owes alot to Earl"Madman" Muntz, who showed how to do TV with fewer parts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntzing

While I could always troubleshoot and even get parts, my only beef with GE was that thier damned tuners really sucked in fringe areas. Sarkes-tarzan or something, I thing Mags used them too.

I think that Muntzing thing is a well-worn urban tale. It's a well known fact that every TV manufacturer bought sets from competitors and reverse engineered them. Then they built up a prototype and jockeyed the design around enough as not to get into a patent war. They generally did that on their lower end products.
Regarding distant reception, the tuner is only part of the chain. A well designed IF strip and keyed AGC is equally important. Sarkes Tarzian tuners aren't one of my favourites, but the circuitry was simular to the rest of them.