CBS Slave Spotted
 

Saw it out of the corner of my while Jamie was watching The Outer Limits, really annoys her when I make her pause the thing so I can take a screenshot. lol


Seen on Season 3, Episode 18 (A Special Edition) about 14 minutes in. This is the 90's reissue of the series, not the original.


http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...3&d=1451102500

Sure looks like the same one pictured on the ETF site:

http://earlytelevision.org/images/cbs_slave-10.jpg

Nick,

Not sure how many of these sets CBS built. Your off screen shot is one of the CBS slave sets. The ETF set, formally from the Ed Reitan collection seen here just before we packed it up for shipping to the ETF. The knobs had been removed and packed inside the cabinet. Also a CBS-Columbia ad for the companion/slave from 1951. Good eye on the capture.

-Steve D.

So here's something I never really understood about the CBS sets: there's the slave an companion, what's the difference? ETF site says the slave has to be connected to a B&W receiver, I presume to rob it's tuner input or something. But does that mean the companion has it's own tuner and stuff, so it can operate by itself?

IIRC the slave sets usually rob the tuner IF and sound from the Master (no sense duplicating circuits that would not be somewhat unique to the slave).

Nick,
In essence, To receive color on the tunerless slave set you did require two TV receivers in your living room. If CBS-Columbia had their way one of the TV's would be the slave set to reproduce the color image and the other set would be a CBS-Columbia "Convertible" set that, has electronic outputs, & supplied the tuner if & sound components. The convertible set also had a special output plug on the back to connect it to the slave sets input to receive the video & sound. The slave set had the electronic sync elements fed to the color wheel to convert the inputed info to a color image. Not exactly a success as who needed 2 tv's taking up space to receive the non-compatible color images. The 1951 CBS-Columbia ad further explains:

Also bear in mind the other, even more major factor which doomed the CBS color system. It's incompatibility with existing monochrome TV sets. The number of existing TV sets incompatible with CBS Color was a major problem. RCA in the long run won the color TV format wars on compatibility with existing sets, and their dominance in the TV marketplace.

Remember RCA used every trick in the book to delay and delay approval of the CBS system. Every day of delay meant more sets incompatible with the CBS standard in homes.

RCA's system also had the advantage of being all electronic from the get go. CBS's system could easily have electronic sets by 1953 similar to NTSC but the incompatibility issue would remain.

I note how RCA advertising often talks of "compatible color" long after it was moot.