Westinghouse K840CK15 Restoration

[etype2]

Five months after our Westinghouse H840CK15 with 15GP22 was restored, no hiccups. Fingers crossed. One day I know, this thing is going to fail. We are mitigating the chances of longevity by running a fan near the power supply and the power going to the set is regulated by a high end, Furman power conditioner. The HV is running at spec and the set is used conservatively.

Having said that, we did a few screenshots of the Grammy award show and last nights Oscar award show. The Oscars did not photograph as well as I would have liked. I could tell going into the photo session, the lighting and set design was not conducive to the best results. Anyway, a bunch of shots:

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...85B5E22DE.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...0EE33B4CE.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...08E4F38D4.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...CC9FD5433.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...D141049EC.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...16F29BED9.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...98FE15CEE.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...9B693C8F2.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...F6276A1AC.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...050402462.jpeg

[old_tv_nut]

Is your camera set to automatic white balance? It seems the shadows are bluish in some shots and not others. If so, setting to a fixed white balance like "daylight" or "shade" might give more consistent results.

[etype2]

Yes, it is set to AWB. I will experiment with your suggestions.

I forgot to say that on the previous night, Saturday, my camera locked up and did some wierd stuff. I managed to unlock it, but that could be the reason for the inconsistent results. I’m going to reset it to factory settings and go from there, but the ABC telecast of of the Oscars were not the best for the reasons mentioned. We rewatched the telecast on the OLED and it was just okay.

[kvflyer]

It never ceases to amaze me how an ~ 1954 color tv set, CRT can produce such wonderful colors.

Great shots.

[dtvmcdonald]

Originally Posted by kvflyer

It never ceases to amaze me how an ~ 1954 color tv set, CRT can produce such wonderful colors.

Its not amazing at all. The RCA set, the CT-100, was essentially cost no object. The others had some simplficiations, but the Westinghouse
and a couple of others had straightforward, no tricks, color chains.
At least RCA and Westinghouse had adequate adjustments and feedback
adders to reduce tube gain changes. And they had real DC restorers.
RCA in fact really needs only one more control to have a full set,
assuming close tolerance resistors in the matrices. Those two are capable of
very, very close to modern quality RGB signals. The major problem is that
one has to drive the red CRT gun so much harder than the other two that
the don't perfectly match curve shape.

[reeferman]

"It never ceases to amaze me how an ~ 1954 color tv set, CRT can produce such wonderful colors".

Add me to amazed.

[Electronic M]

The CT-100 was basically a model 5 demonstration prototype with a cabinet restyle and a couple of minor electronic tweaks...It was more designed to wow the FCC into approving compatible color than to be a consumer product....As a consumer set the CT-100 seems like a case of" uh oh the FCC approved faster than we thought and others are beating us to market we gotta get something out there quick"...The 21CT55 exists for the same reason...CBS beat them to releasing a set with a CRT bigger than 15" and rather than push the completion date of the existing project that became the CTC4 they just modded a CT-100 to drive a 21" CRT and redid the cabinet....It was an awesome product catalog bandaid for the few months it was sold.

[etype2]

Originally Posted by reeferman

"It never ceases to amaze me how an ~ 1954 color tv set, CRT can produce such wonderful colors".

Add me to amazed.

+1

Back in the day, the video chain was not what we have today, so folks did not see images like this on their sets. A good example of what color programs looked like back then is the restored tape of “An Evening With Fred Astaire”, or Dinah Shore, etc. A testament to the engineering of RCA, Westinghouse and others, but couldn’t be fully exploited.

[etype2]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

The CT-100 was basically a model 5 demonstration prototype with a cabinet restyle and a couple of minor electronic tweaks...It was more designed to wow the FCC into approving compatible color than to be a consumer product....As a consumer set the CT-100 seems like a case of" uh oh the FCC approved faster than we thought and others are beating us to market we gotta get something out there quick"...The 21CT55 exists for the same reason...CBS beat them to releasing a set with a CRT bigger than 15" and rather than push the completion date of the existing project that became the CTC4 they just modded a CT-100 to drive a 21" CRT and redid the cabinet....It was an awesome product catalog bandaid for the few months it was sold.

I’ve felt the 21CT55 was kind of an engineering mule for what was to come. Not much advertising and no name given to it, although a sign was put on top of the cabinet on the production line with the suits posing next to it. The sign read “Spectacular”. I’ve yet to find any article actually describing the 21CT55 as the Spectacular. I like the CT-4 Director styling wise, much improved over the 55 and the start of RCA’s big color push, “Big Color”.

The Westy stying wise, reflected the contemporary look of 1954 more so then the CT-100. Never mind the washing machine jokes and when the 19 inch CRT came, filled up the mask proportions better.

“You can be sure if it’s Westinghouse”.

[Popester]

Yes, the colors on that are certainly amazing. But that doesn’t improve Brad Pitts looks (he needs a haircut) and the gal with green hair. Lol.

[trinescope]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

The CT-100 was basically a model 5 demonstration prototype with a cabinet restyle and a couple of minor electronic tweaks...It was more designed to wow the FCC into approving compatible color than to be a consumer product....As a consumer set the CT-100 seems like a case of" uh oh the FCC approved faster than we thought and others are beating us to market we gotta get something out there quick"...The 21CT55 exists for the same reason...CBS beat them to releasing a set with a CRT bigger than 15" and rather than push the completion date of the existing project that became the CTC4 they just modded a CT-100 to drive a 21" CRT and redid the cabinet....It was an awesome product catalog bandaid for the few months it was sold.

What, then, in your opinion was the Westinghouse set? Were they also pushing for FCC acceptance, or just trying to be first on the market with new technology?

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by trinescope

What, then, in your opinion was the Westinghouse set? Were they also pushing for FCC acceptance, or just trying to be first on the market with new technology?

I've read less history on the Westinghouse set but given it beat RCA to market you can bet that it's electronic design was started well before the FCC approved compatible color. I think I've read of Westinghouse sets found with CRTs labeled with the developmental ID number that preceeded the 15GP22 number being assigned to it, and I think I have read of prototype models of it existing.... I'm probably going to go back and do some reading on this when I get a chance.

Many manufacturers even ones that waited nearly a decade to sell color sets to consumers (I'm looking at you Zenith) had FCC demonstration prototypes.

[dtvmcdonald]

The Westinghouse at the ETF has at times produced color as perfect as the
very best CT100s. But note that this means large area color: The small area color along the Q axis is clearly better in the CT100 and 21CT55 than in later
sets for a very long time (when they did in fact get a bit better than the CT100). None of the other NTSC sets at the ETF have come close. Most are, of course, horribly badly restored. (Sorry, whoever did the restore, but its true.)

[etype2]

Originally Posted by Popester

Yes, the colors on that are certainly amazing. But that doesn’t improve Brad Pitts looks (he needs a haircut) and the gal with green hair. Lol.

LOL. Was struggling to find good content to photograph at the Oscars. The audience lighting was better than the stage.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by etype2

LOL. Was struggling to find good content to photograph at the Oscars. The audience lighting was better than the stage.

I didn't watch but I assume the audience was being emphasized in similar fashion to big band live radio broadcasts in the last ~3 decades....Rattle dishes, audience applaud loudly we can't let listeners know there's only 10 people in the audience.