Ben, what circuit does LB-962 cover?

It's a late 1954 simplified color receiver for use with the 21AXP22. The HV section is similar to that of the 21-CT-55, the color demod is narrow band R-Y B-Y similar to the CTC-4 in some ways. RCA never put it into production; they built the CTC-4 instead.

See this post from Nick's Gilfillan thread for a PDF of RCA LB-962:
http://www.videokarma.org/showpost.p...41&postcount=9

Thanks, Ben. That explains a lot.

I suspect that RCA had a patent on the color oscillator circuit which might have prompted GE to use a different circuit. GE's circuit also had a lower component count, often a design motivator.

Even at RCA parts count and cost were the PRIMARY motivators. Part of the reason my Great-Uncles left RCA in 1956 was the oppressive corporate culture, and the insistence that the cheapest possible circuitry be utilized, actual performance be damned. They were given a lot more leeway and freedom over at Sperry-Rand, mostly because they were playing with defense department money...

The brilliance of RCA corporate culture as well can't be overstated. The visionaries there saw what engineers couldn't- that performance was a red herring without a viable base of sets in use, and cost was the major barrier there in addition to the not ready for primetime capacitors and other components economically available. The other companies' me-too projects were essentially stunts not expected to make money done for marketing/bragging rights. The color demodulation section used in the CTC100 was likely bigger than Madman Muntz would want for an entire B&W set :)

I would agree (and if Neil and Skip were alive, I'm sure they would too) up to a point: as soon as performance suffers in a way that is totally objectionable you're now stunting sales of the product you're trying to push. The CTC-5 Super chassis is a pretty infamous example of taking cost cutting way too far, and unfortunately, RCA didn't really have a large enough base of sets in use when the CTC-5 was rolled out.
This is speculation on my part, but I'm sure that more than a few people saw a CTC-5 in operation, made up their mind that color TV was a dog, and then decided to wait to purchase a set when the technology matured more. The sad part is, mature color TV *was* there. A CTC-4 produces a gorgeous color picture, as does the LB-962 circuit...

Admiral didn't bail. I can't speak for other manufactures. They stopped production of their 15 inch color set about June, 1954, about the same time RCA stopped production of the CT 100. Then RCA had limited quanties of the 21CT55 in time for Christmas delivery, 1954 and Admiral had their equivalent 21 color set in dealers showrooms by January 5, 1955, again with an RCA 21APX engineered CRT.

I stand corrected. I had forgotten about the ugly 21 inch Admirals. Regardless, by 1958 RCA was left standing alone for the most part. Zenith wouldn't start manufacturing a color set until 1962, and GE and Motorola, while continuing to offer sets, were selling next to nothing.

I happen to really like the looks of the 21" admirals...A green face with a mahogany cabinet or black face with blond cabinet and two simple top controls like Zenith monochrome sets of the time...It just looks really clean and nice to me.

Not my cup of tea... but then I like the looks of the GE 15CL100, the Westinghouse H840CK15, and the late 40s UST projection sets, all of which have an unconventional (some might say ugly) design.

Antique TVs are like cars and women. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

+1.

Ahem. Show me a picture of a 1955 Admiral, please.

David,

Same question occurred to me when I read the post. Closest I can come to the 1954 15" is the 1956 Admiral color receiver.

-Steve D.