Sony Indextron projector in Ill on eBay cheap!

[kx250rider]

With the recent hub-bub on the ill-fated Indextrons, here's the other one! This is a Vidimagic projector, which has an Indextron tube, and a built-in Betamax VCR. This one looks really clean, and he has all the stuff with it. Hopefully someone in Illinois can grab it. I've only ever seen 2 others. Not as rare as the 4" direct view, but EXTREMELY rare.

eBay Item number: 270150925949

http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-VIDIMAGIC-F...QQcmdZViewItem

Charles

[andy]

I have one of these. It has almost no hours on it, but it's not really bright enough to be that useful. The VCR doesn't work because of bad packing from Canada. I need to look out for an SL-2000 portable to use for parts. It has the same nice direct drive tape transport.

[vintagecollect]

...

[rca2000]

And while they are not very bright, they ARE fun to watch the CRT in operation (That GREEN glow from the rear of the bell, which is for the "index phospor"). I also have the HUGE factory service manual for mine(about 300 pages or so!!)

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by rca2000

I also have the HUGE factory service manual for mine(about 300 pages or so!!)

Me too.... I took one in for repair in the early 90s. I ordered the manual, opened the case of the TV, looked, closed the case back up, closed the manual, and put both on the shelf.

Charles

[old_tv_nut]

Seller claims owner said it works - I put in a minimum bid just to make sure it doesn't get lost - it's near enough for me to pick up in person.

[rca2000]

Just curious about something...

WHY is it that EVERY ONE of these I have seen--(worked on one about 15 years ago, this one on sale, a couple of others for sale before, and that one in my basement now that I found "shopping" in 2001), have that "AVON" sticker on them as if Avon was the ONLY com[pany to ever use these??

[Richard D]

Please forgive my stupidity, but having owned a direct view Indextron I am not sure how the projector models work. There could not be enough brightness in the CRT to simply put a large lens in front of it and put that image on a screen, like those old ads you used to see. Turn any 13" color TV into a large screen with our kit! They gave you a lens and basic instructions to wire the yoke reversed to get an inverted picture. A friend had one, you had to be in a black, not just dark room and it was still pretty bad. Does it work the same way?
Thank's
Richard

[andy]

It used a bigger CRT with a bigger electron gun, but it was basically just an indextron CRT with a lens in front of it.

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by rca2000

Just curious about something...

WHY is it that EVERY ONE of these I have seen--(worked on one about 15 years ago, this one on sale, a couple of others for sale before, and that one in my basement now that I found "shopping" in 2001), have that "AVON" sticker on them as if Avon was the ONLY com[pany to ever use these??

Yeah, I've kinda wondered about that; that's at least the third one of those I've seen with "AVON" stickers.

My Vidimagic (a 'regular' version without the built-in VCR) doesn't have any labels on it indicating it was used in a corporate setting though.

I will echo everyone else's sentiment that while the picture quality is okay from a geometry/color/resolution standpoint, it is very *dim*. Even back in the days when *all* projection sets had pretty low brightness, I remember seeing a Vidimagic and thought "gee, that thing really is *dim*..!" However, I think it was about the only game in town for a "portable" video projector at the time.

[andy]

Maybe Avon used them to show product videos in the customer's home?

[Richard D]

It went for $170.00
It think a collector bought it for display. I have seen early LCD TV projectors from the late 1990's selling for around $100.00 and they have a very bright picture compared to the Sony.

[Patnukem]

Originally Posted by rca2000

And while they are not very bright, they ARE fun to watch the CRT in operation (That GREEN glow from the rear of the bell, which is for the "index phospor"). I also have the HUGE factory service manual for mine(about 300 pages or so!!)

Do you still have that service manual? Would be great to digitize it for others. I’ve been looking for one to buy and do this with but no luck so far. I know this is a super old post but I’ve already checked all the obvious places.