LARGE screen shots of a roundie

[Carmine]

One of the problems with view pictures, of pictures, of televisions over the internet is the loss of quality. I recently "tweaked" a '65 Zenith set that Captain Moody gave me some time ago, and I thought this might be a good time to post the best possible pictures I could. (I'm pretty proud of my adjustments ) Purity, Convergence, Drives, Screen, and AGC. The good Captain tells me this 21" is a recent re-build, back when VDC was doing them... Bittersweet knowing they aren't doing them anymore, as this is one of the best & brightest roundie pics I've ever seen in person.

I'm hosting these on another server so as not to eat-up AudioKarma bandwidth. These are still JPEGS, but there the best I can offer:









Keep in mind that they were all taken using just some cheap-o rabbit ears in my basement. I'd love to see what it could do with a DVD.

[wa2ise]

Looks great, though the green looks a little weak. But that's not suprising as the green gun does most of the work. Like about 59% green, 30% red and 11% blue to make white. If the green is at it's max contrast, back off on red and blue a little. Roundies were never that bright, and you couldn't watch TV on a sunny day unless you drew down the shades.

[jroberts500]

Looks beautiful!
It reminds me of a 21" Zenith remote with a metal cabinet that was on Ebay recently and it recieved no bids starting at $25.00. I wanted it nut am too budgeted for now. It was in Texas(I think).

[kx250rider]

OOH & AAAHHHH.... I like those early Zeniths! Does yours have the two 3DG4 rectifiers, (chassis 29JC20, I think)? I have my thumb on a later Zenith roundie here in LA that I hope to get cheap, but I like yours better...

Charles

[Jonathan]

That is one gorgous picture... I can't wait to see what my CTC9 can do.

Jonathan

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by Kaye-Halbert TV

OOH & AAAHHHH.... I like those early Zeniths! Does yours have the two 3DG4 rectifiers, (chassis 29JC20, I think)? I have my thumb on a later Zenith roundie here in LA that I hope to get cheap, but I like yours better...

Charles

Thanks

I believe this is the LAST Zenith roundie. It's not a 29, probably a 24. If I recall correctly, the first number of the chassis refers to the number of tubes. I like the control panel style of this model, color controls not hidden, but it is a low-level cabinet. I need to find something danish-mod with a trashed CRT and Chassis.

As to the weak greens, I'm sorry if I just can't see it. Let me assure you, all three guns are very strong. Perhaps it's just my choice of screen shots, mostly fleshtones (If you consider those talking-head politicians "human"), some text on a blue backround and a B&W shot. Maybe I'll tune in some football or golf, and if I don't fall asleep, I'll get a screen shot.

[Sandy G]

Wow, Carmine, those are GREAT- Looks like you have it in yr office-I bet you get a lot of comments-and compliments- for having a 40-yr-old color TV in yr office...-Sandy G.

[Carmine]

Sandy G,

The only thing that comes into that office is the occasional spider, or my dirty laundry. (It's my basement ) You see here in the frozen midwestern tundra, they dig a big hole under your house, line it with cement and then it's your job to fill it up with junk.

BUT I promise you that if I ever do get an office, it will have an old TV. For now, the home office has a Trans-oceanic and a Chromacolor.

[kc8adu]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

Looks great, though the green looks a little weak. But that's not suprising as the green gun does most of the work. Like about 59% green, 30% red and 11% blue to make white. If the green is at it's max contrast, back off on red and blue a little. Roundies were never that bright, and you couldn't watch TV on a sunny day unless you drew down the shades.

digital cameras often respond poorly to tv screen shots.
and the so called auto white balance is often anything but.
i took a pic of a small sony i fixed for a customer and even though it had perfect greyscale and made a perfect b&w with the color off it looked purple in the pics.

[blue_lateral]

Wow, Carmine! That set has an excelent picture. Any advice on how you took the screenshots? Those are among the best I have seen around here.

John

[frenchy]

Some tips I can think of for sceenshots are - use a tripod or rest the camera on something.... play a dvd and pick something that looks good and pause it so don't get any motion blur...don't use flash, light the set up from the sides and from above so it lights the set up sufficiently without washing the screen out (which is not hard to do on these old sets)

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by blue_lateral

Wow, Carmine! That set has an excelent picture. Any advice on how you took the screenshots? Those are among the best I have seen around here.

These are really excellent screenshots of an excellent color roundie!
For taking good screenshots: much depends on the room light. I use dim electric bulb light, this give a yellowish white. With this yellowish white I can counterbalance the bluish hue of the television screen. And I dim the contrast and brightness of the set too, so one might think, the picture is much to dark for taking photos. With the Canon Powershot A70 I had the best results. The camera is more sensitive to CRT colors, therefore I dim the picture to get well weighted colors on the photo.

[Carmine]

Here's what I did:

Turned down the brightness a bit, unplugged the florescent bulb directly over head (but others were still on). Waited for a good, colorful scene, then snapped the pic without a flash. That's why everything looks "grainy" except the screen. My camera downloads the pic at 1200 pixels, I shave it down to about 800 to make it reasonable to post. Of course, this makes it lose quality, so I apply the sharpness tool once to compensate.

Here's another pic I took to show some green (those earlier shots were mostly blue). Soon after this, I fell asleep. You'll notice some motion blur around the players.



Here's one I shot for an upcoming eBay auction... (Selling the Space Command because I made that trade... Maggie combo for another Space Command)

Tried to get that NBC peacock!

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by Carmine

Here's another pic I took to show some green

It has an excellent convergence!

[stereofisher]

Remember these too! Good old day in high school! I worked for a guy who own a Zenith shop. Great pic. Nice covergence!!! Wished I had a bigger place for a roundie!! Fixed several up in the early 70 while in college. No one wanted them and they went for nothing! Good sets.

Eric