The kids don't care whether it's plasma, LCD, or 1950 DuMont

[TV set]

Took this picture a couple of weeks ago.

liv maisie tv from face.jpg

[lnx64]

Wait, that's in color.

Somethings not right here.

[bandersen]

Yeah, looks like a color set was retrofitted into it

[Einar72]

I had to abandon one of those in 1989! Where do you live?

[jr_tech]

The tuning "eye" at the top of the TV tuner dial is not lit up... is this a joke?

jr

[Kevin Kuehn]

Someone needs to develop magnetically deflected LED monitors.

[Kevin Kuehn]

I'm sure it's a "proper" decor thing. In which case it's the outward look that counts. I do like the comfy chair.

[jr_tech]

Or perhaps an older photo that has been "photoshopped" to add the color screen to the TV.

jr

[Kevin Kuehn]

The kids don't look 1950's to me.

[mpatoray]

Yeah Image is not right, but seriously kid's DONT care!

My 2.75 year old niece is just as happy watching "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" on the LG LCD in the living room or my 20" Trinitron in my room. And I am sure she will be fine with the 1950 Philco when she sees it.

Well she will be fine with it till the marketing drones start beating into her head, BIGGER NEWER MORE!

Matt

[daro]

It looks interesting for a hack job.

[TV set]

So here's the deal.

It's a straight iPhone photo. No photoshop. I just liked the idea that kids who are used to flatscreen TVs would sit quietly and watch a set like that, and I thought the folks who populate this board would appreciate that the artifact -- a 17 inch 1950 set with doors -- still has charms. I especially like that they sat close to it, just like I did when I was a kid, even though they never got that close to a set they were watching before. Must be an instinct.

The DuMont is a set I bought for $10 in 1984. After spending hundreds on it and never being able to get a stable picture, I removed the chassis and picture tube and inserted a color set. I kept the original components and was very careful not to make any changes that are not reversible. I did wire up the knobs so that it operates like an original. So sue me.

[Eric H]

We can probably help you fix the original chassis if you want to take another stab at it!

[Jeffhs]

Look at the power cord. It's probably a 3-wire grounded one, which means the TV in that 1950s DuMont cabinet is a flat-panel retrofit -- and why the set is showing a color picture. The DuMont continuous "Inputuner" was probably left in the cabinet, unconnected, for auithenticity's sake; that's why the tuner's eye tube doesn't light, even though the TV is on. Another dead giveaway that the TV is a flat screen would be the power draw of the set, which, with a small (19") flat screen, would be only about 25 watts at the outside. The original DuMont chassis probably had a huge power transformer, more than 25 tubes, and drew something on the order of 300-400 watts, on par with today's large-screen (50"+) flat sets.

BTW, while the TV itself in the picture may not be 1950s vintage, the house wiring may be, as I think I saw the set's AC line cord plugged into a 3-to-2-wire adapter.

[TV set]

Please. It's not a flatscreen. That would look awful. It's a picture tube, nice and bowed. Mechanical controls, wired up to work. I did the conversion almost 20 years ago, using a fresh conventional CRT set. I attached a photo from when I first had it going. See the laserdisc player? Now, that I did not keep.

The house dates to 1949. The DuMont fits in beautifully. But I had the wiring completely re-worked in the '90s. It pays to be safe.

This is my only conversion. I'd love to get it original, but frankly, the family likes it the way it is. I'm just keeping the original components because I can't bear the idea of being the one that makes this process irreversible.

Tomorrow, some of our guests will be in the breezeway, watching a game on our flatscreen on the wall. But some guests will be in the living room, watching the pseudo DuMont. Including the kids.

I've been a collector for many years. I've owned a porthole, a Dewald RCA 630 clone, a doghouse, a TR-005. I'm about to claim the 17-inch 1951 Magnavox that was my childhood set. It has a raster and audio. I need the original knobs -- dark honey colored -- if anyone has a line on a set of them. And I need someone in Massachusetts who can recap the set. My skills aren't up to it. Can anyone help?

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