Very, very early CoLoR TV

[Steve McVoy]

Small screen was only one part of the reason CT-100s didn't sell. They were expensive ($1000 at a time when you could get an excellent 21 inch black and white set for around $200), poor performance, complicated so they broke down frequently, very little programming in color. It would be the late 60s before these deficiencies were cured. 1970 was the first year that more color sets were sold than black and white.

[Carmine]

Gentlemen,

Understand that I see a multitude of reasons why Zenith didn't make a color porthole (or any color set for the public until the '62 MY).

My comment was only meant to provoke the thought that Zenith engineers would have been working on a color rectangular tube concurrently with the company marketing the "superiority" of its porthole B&W sets.

It makes you wonder if there was ever a discussion of producing a color porthole in the very early stages of color development at Zenith, circa 1949-51. The cons would outweigh the pros, but I could picture an argument being made by the "porthole camp". While I understand they were building color wheel sets at that time, they must have also been working on electronic color to be ready with their own tube in 1953.

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by Steve McVoy

Small screen was only one part of the reason CT-100s didn't sell. They were expensive ($1000 at a time when you could get an excellent 21 inch black and white set for around $200), poor performance, complicated so they broke down frequently, very little programming in color. It would be the late 60s before these deficiencies were cured. 1970 was the first year that more color sets were sold than black and white.

Nothings changed. The few working CT-100's still break down frequently! Sarnoff, after all the money & time invested, wasn't about to let other manufacturers offer color sets before RCA. Although Westinghouse, at least, beat them to the marketplace by a month or so.

-Steve D.