Some of my acquisitions of December, 2008

[Electrohome]

That sure is quite an interesting story on Brazil's history. I didn't know it was originally a Portugeese colony at one time. Just makes me think what a wonderful country I now live in and how far Brazil has come as a country and that many parts of Brazil are now tourist attractions and is very vital to the South Amercian tourist scene. There's some parts of Brazil I would like to see some day there and also that there are some ancient ruins of long lost cities reportedly found in Brazil's jungles and rainforests. Humans were there many thousands of years even before we came to the Americas. Much of our history and past has yet to be unlocked and rediscovered deep in Brazil's jungles and rain forests. We will find that part of our long-forgotten past.
The rainforests and jungles have long covered up those ancient cities and civilizations and have been lost for the ages. I would be really interesting to see that CT-100 in Brazil and those 4 surviving color roundies. I am very sure more of those color roundies are hidden and are yet to be found there.

[Captain Video]

Well, the real ruins of ancient civilizations are in Peru. Since Brazil is so big, and the jungle is so dense, for many years people believed that there might be something to be found inside the Brazilian part of the Amazon jungle. Many tried to find it, from the Spanish on the XVI century to modern explorers in early 20th century. The most recorrent legend was that the famous "Eldorado" ( the city made entirely of gold ) was in there. But almost no serious scientist believe today that there is something to be really found in there.

One very famous adventurer who lost his life there, in 1925, was British colonel Percy Fawcett, who is called by some as "the real life Indiana Jones." If I am correct, he entered the jungle searching for the "Eldorado." His body was never found.

Coincidently with the main subject of this forum, which is vintage television, a Brazilian man who was most obsessed with finding the remains of colonel Fawcett was the media tycoon that brought television to Brazil in 1950. Mister Assis Chateaubriand, the man who brought TV to this country, had a fixation on the History of colonel Fawcett. He financed many expeditions, and put his reporters on the track several times, all on a vain effort to try to uncover the misterys behind colonel Fawcett's disapearence.

[Captain Video]

I am back, brought with me ( I traveled by bus ) just the Admiral and a 1983 VCR. The other TVs will arrive by truck. Only a 1976 Sharp Lynitron I was not able to pick up this time. It will have to wait a few months more.

[Captain Video]

The GE, the Emerson and the Invictus arrived today. All safe!!!

A curious thing about the GE is that the labels on the back are in Portuguese. Funny. This TV was imported from the USA, no doubt, but I never knew that GE of Brazil did put labels in Portuguese on these sets. I will have to do some research on this subject.

The Emerson is 27 INCH SET!!! Not 23 or 24 as it was imagined, but a 27!!!

While I was there, I took the opportunity to visit an Historic site: the building where the first TV station of Brazil began it's transmissions in 1950. I will post pictures of it later.

[Sandy G]

Are you fellas going thru the digital/HDTV fiasco, too ?

[Captain Video]

Yeah. Digital TV was released here in 2007 with a LOT of fanfare by both the government and the TV stations. The way they promoted it, it was almost like the wheel had been reinvented and made into something better. Now, the enthusiasm is a LOT lower. Even the government, that spent BILLIONS in tax payers money on this thing ( while the public schools and public hospitals are in it's worse shape EVER ), now doesn't even mention it. The President of the Republic, who was the most vocal defender of the "wonders" of Digital TV, now doesn't say a word about it.

One thing is, sales of Digital TV sets were - and still are - WAY MUCH SMALLER than expected. Other is that promise of "interactive television" is NOT fulfilled yet. The sets and the converters are STILL without the software that would allow for real interactive television. There's some legal issue with the Japanese that is preventing the converters and the TVs to be released on the market with this software.

Other thing is that what is called "shadow areas" : even in cities where there's digital broadcast there are some places where you can't get any digital TV signal at all. To solve that they would need to put more antennas on this areas, to pick up signals from the transmitter and redistribute it to the local viewers - but to do that they need more specific government regulation on this particular subject, and that regulation was not made yet.

And, the TVs and converters are still very expensive, and what the average public on the streets is saying most is this: "why pay a lot of money in a high-tech TV set, just to watch the same crappy programing with a better quality of image?"

They ( the government ) want to shut analog off by 2016. I don't know... if things remain like this, I don't see it happening.

The thing that interested me the most in Digital TV was the possibility of watching TV in a car or a bus. Well, while I was riding a cab there, the driver had a mobile Digital set turned on on his car. I was not impressed. The image was like... well, it didn't really looked like a "live" TV image, like, let's say, a good image from a CRT TV. In many moments, it was like watching a video from a low quality Internet site, know what I mean? The colors seemed opaque and the motions of the people on the screen were slower than in natural life. It was not like watching TV - actually, YouTube provides BETTER image than that. Not to mention that sometimes the image would freeze, and we would receive no signal at all, depending on what part of the city we were in.

[Captain Video]

Need to know what model number it is... it doesn't have the back cover anymore. I believe it's a 15 inch set; compared to the 17 inch Admiral that I have it doesn't look even 17, looks 15.

Anyone could provide me with the model number?