Color Television was disappointing when first introduced?

[oldtvman]

I have lived thru the early stages of developement of the color television products, I still say that when RCA jumped the gun and practically claimed credit for the the entire ntsc system, other manafacturers were left in the cold, and as well all know competition is one of the key factors in a product being more readily available and the cost then starts to drop. After the 1st initial surge of color models, all the other companies basically set on the sidelines and said "ok Rca you sell color to the public". and until the early sixties you saw little or no product from the majority. You also have to consider that most of those manufacturers had plenty of stock on components to build b & w sets, they wanted to exhaust those supplies before jumping head first into the color market.

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Actually, there was another reason for green hair - The optics in the TK-41 were sensitive to polarization, and when backlight is used, the reflection off hair is polarized (at least to some extent). This polarized light went preferentially to the green pickup tube. Later camera optics reduced or eliminated the problem.

That's right. I have an RCA promotional book for the TK-42 4-tube camera that brags they had eliminated the green hair polarization problem in the TK-42. The only problem was that the TK-42 had an inferior picture compared to the TK-41. NBC refused to use them, sticking instead with their ten year old TK-41s. The TK-42 was the first transistorized color studio camera so it should have been more reliable, but it wasn't. One station in Ohio had four TK-42s - three in the studio, and one permanently located in the shop used as a test jig for repairing modules to keep the other three running!

[3Guncolor]

I think RCA "jumped the shark" with the TK42 it was the start of the end of RCA broadcast. Don't forget it made everything look plastic too. Was big and odd looking and that lens what were they thinking. Norelco brought the PC60 to market the rest is history. At least Ampex lasted untill the late 80's.

When the other networks went to the Norelco, NBC was forced to use them also, to match the competition's picture quality. For the first time ever, NBC was using cameras not made by RCA. This was a major embarrassment, resulting in a crash program which led to the TK-44. This was a fine camera, slightly better than the Norelco. As soon as it was available, NBC dumped their Norelcos and used the TK-44 for many years. You can see the TK-44 in operation in the recent movie "Anchorman - the Story of Ron Burgundy" (highly recommended for TV fans and history buffs). Christina Applegate co-stars, and looks great!

[frenchy]

<<<That's about the time I was saving my allowance money to get one of those silly GE PortaColor sets.>>>

Heyyyyy! I have one in my bedroom that I watch all the time! : ))

[oldtvman]

When I saw the porta color in 1965 i sold my 1964 zenith and bought it , I still have that set.

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by oldtvman

When I saw the porta color in 1965 i sold my 1964 zenith and bought it , I still have that set.

Oh, I want to see a photo of this 1965 porta color!

[old_tv_nut]

Plumbicons certainly improved the signal to noise ratio, but not the resolution per se(although the lower noise meant edge enhancement could be increased). Also, the lack of deep red response in the early Plumbicons made flesh tones (especially light-skinned) unnaturally even-colored, no variation due to rosy cheeks. I recall some manufacturer was showing a pickup tube for the red channel that used a silicon diode array for the target to overcome the Plumbicon red problem, but I don't know if they ever sold any. Eventually, extended-red plumbicons were developed that were somewhat better.

Today's solid-state sensors naturally extend into the deep red and infrared, and have to be curtailed by an infra-red cutoff filter. This filter is typically more cutting than really necessary, originally designed this way in order to match plumbicon cameras. Makes it difficult to get a good color balance on a TV monitor that is in the picture, because it cuts off much of the rare-earth phosphor deep red spectral spikes.

Panavision (IIRC - maybe some other guys) have shown video cameras for electronic film production with an extended IR cutoff point to more nearly match motion picture film.

I'm not sure when CBS NY started using the Norelco PC-60's,
but in 1967 they changed all the cameras to the Norelco PC-70's
This was before my time but I have been told that the PC-70's
made a very good picture.
Regards,
Swanson

[colortrakker]

My guess is around fall '65 when Sullivan went to color. They had to shield them with mumetal because of the electrical interference caused by the subway near the theatre.

The Norelcos did make very nice pictures. Lots of 'em, too. They weren't retired until 1984 when a new fleet of Hitachis took over.

In camera maintenance we still have a box of 7586 nuvistors
that the PC-70 plumbicon preamps used.There were 2 7586's
per preamp board that was mounted right on the plumbicon
yoke assy.Most of the nuvistors in that box are pulls.I was
told that the nuvistors were changed during routine
maintenance even if they were not bad.So instead of
throwing out the pulls,someone saved them and mixed them in
with the new ones
Regards,
Swanson

[Sandy G]

It would be WILD to somehow be granted full access to one of the big network's "Junk Holes"..Wonder what kinds of goodies you'd find there. I remember my frat had the contract to clean out our college's basketball arena the second half of the year, I did some "recon" in all the ratholes under the bleachers & found ALL SORTS of neat stuff-Records going back to the 1800s, old annuals, papers, you name it. It was fascinating-a lot of the stuff, I felt, shouldn't have been tossed into a corner like that & forgotten. Think I said something to a history prof friend of mine, he just looked sad & shook his head. I'd wager some of that stuff is still there, nearly 30 yrs later...-Sandy G.

CBS NY also used Thomson cameras in the 1970's before
they changed over to the Hitachi's.I am not sure when
they phased out the Norelco cameras,but I believe it was
way before 1984.The Norelco's were considered obsolete
when compared to the Thomson cameras.The Norelco's
weighed 140 pounds and the Thomsons were much lighter
and easier to work with.It is possible that they could have
kept quite a few of the Norelco's as backups into the
early 80's,But I think the Thomsons were well in use
at that time.
Regards,
Swanson

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by colortrakker

They had to shield them with mumetal because of the electrical interference caused by the subway near the theatre.

Those magnetic fields were produced I believe by genemotors located behind what is now called the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway, where Letterman is produced. At age 11, my parents and I were in the audience of the Arthur Godfrey and His Friends Halloween show in that same theater.

While waiting outside before the show, I was checking things out, heard a whirling noise and, around the corner from the theater entrance on Broadway, found the genemotors, which then provided 600 Vdc for subway cars, but are now I guess long gone and only remembered for their magnetic fields that interfered with CBS cameras in the theater.

At the time, I didn’t know or suspect the real reason for those giant machines.

I remember being wowed by how much electricity it must take to run television cameras!

I walked by there this past summer, but couldn’t find a trace of what I heard and saw back in 1951.

Sidebar: There were three cameras as I recall, probably RCA TK-11’s. Partway through the show a camera started to smoke a little. A guy ran out from behind the stage, opened it up, and started poking around inside. They finished the show on the remaining cameras. Live television!

The generator station is still there and we still have to shield
the monitors with mu metal.We do not have to shield the cameras
anymore because they all use CCD's
Regards,
Swanson