Retro Thing

Samsung GXE1395 TV Opens Its Doors To Retro Gaming

One of the drags of classic video games (or as we called them, "games") at my house in the early 80's was that we only had one giant screen (19 whole inches) that was in color. Even the most intense Swordquest session was easily felled by evening news anchor Dan Rather coming on. It wasn't common yet for children to have a TV in their bedroom (though I did have an old Zenith I'd garbagepicked hidden in our basement), so the family TV became a CRT entertainment bottleneck.

Some of my friends used cast-off 13" color portables for gaming and computing, and that was pretty much the state of things for a long time. In the 90's Samsung released the GX1395, a 13" TV designed expressly as a 2nd TV for gaming. No longer did the gaming youth have to be relegated to woodgrain clad second rate status. An exorbitant $300 got you a very special gaming display that didn't tie up the family TV.

 The GX (capitalizing on "gen x" perhaps?) has a set of doors protecting the 13" screen from the usual bedroom antics. Hinge them open and you see the left and right speakers of the 21 watt sound system, along with a rooftop subwoofer that can offer quasi-surround. A pair of RCA inputs (no s-video?) and an RF in (for stealing cable of course) puts your favorite game's graphics on the special low emission screen. When kids won't back up from the TV after you've asked them to for the 100th time, at least it's nice to know that the GX produces somewhat fewer bozo rays. Today's more tyrannical parent will appreciate the password lockable aspects (once your kids explain it to you) as well as the countdown timer to limit even the most ambitious video game campaign.

On-screen menus let you adjust the picture as well as tweak the stereo sound system capable of both impressive quality and amplitude. The CRT is treated against the ravages of burn-in, with several color temperature modes like a contemporary TV. The titular GX mode offered a crisper contrast ratio for excellent contrast during gaming. Heck, I've even calibrated this TV set for broadcast specs and have used it for editing video.

I imagine that a mere 13" TV might sound funny to those accustomed to 42" LCD displays. It wasn't always as easy to dot the entire household with a TV in every room as it is today. The great sound system goes a long way to delivering a fun experience surpassing the comparatively small display real estate. The extra speakers, tilt stand, and tough guy styling make for a TV that's quite a bit larger than 13" televisions of the day. If your bedroom was as cramped as mine was, it would be hard to fit anything much larger in there.

The GX is a rather sophisticated device for its time with great display options, especially in a product aimed at kids. No wonder they were mostly use in stores as demo kiosks for new games. I also find that the Samsung is excellent for gaming from before the 90's. Compact-sized general movie viewing is great too thanks to the extended contrast. There is little information online about Samsung's GXE1395, except people wishing that they had one today. A flat panel also will never house the audio oomph of this guy. If the GX ever sold at the original $300 price, I can't imagine that there would be many of these around

related:

Commodore 1702, still one of our favorite monitors
Mysterious & slick Sharp from the 80's

A Nation's TiVos On A Disgraceful Death March

March 29th of 2009 saw the second international Earth Hour. All nations of the world are invited to show solidarity with conservation efforts by turning off unused house lights for an hour. I myself saved a couple of pandas by turning off all of our lights (I'm usually pretty miserly anyway, I don't keep superfluous bulbs burning). Earth Hour is a fine gesture, but we need to be doing a lot more.

Over the past six months or so I have found ten TiVo DVRs thrown out in Chicago alleys. I've never had a TiVo before (I couldn't warm up to the notion of paying my VCR to record shows for me), so I took them all home to see why they were dumped. After powering them up, I saw the problem. These TiVos were all branded to work with a specific cable satellite provider. Once the customer changed providers, the TiVo was suddenly rendered useless.

I was alarmed by this because a TiVo is a sophisticated device.  These 10 units I found have plenty of life left in them, yet they were all garbage. These TiVos suffer from being a nigh useless appliances without that specific satellite service and a subscription. I was surprised that I couldn't at least use the TiVo like a programmable VCR.

So these expensive, functional, and technically capable devices are now landfill. I was frankly shocked at the wastefulness of the whole enterprise. My attitude doesn't stem from the renewed focus on environmentalism or the need to be financially responsible more than ever... the pitching of these TiVos is simply abhorrent to me.

I detest when a device is retired prematurely, especially when it's just all about marketing. This isn't good for the consumer nor good for the planet. It's bad enough that this summer will see a profusion of television sets (some estimates are as high as 99 million) in the rubbish bin, but it looks like more and more TiVos will be rendered useless because of limited forethought and selfish design.

In my dream world, the TiVo would have been designed with a “simple” mode that would let you use it as a VCR-style recorder. I realize that TiVo's business model relies on the subscriptions they collect, but I still can't get past how wrong it is to create a device that is crippled purely for marketing reasons. Aim those RF “blaster” thingies at a DTV tuner and you've got a perfect DVR for a second TV in your house. Are these ideas so crazy, TiVo?

On a sociological note, I was amused at the programming still on these TiVos. It was pretty easy to guess at the the family makeup by the shows recorded on the TiVo's hard drive. Most of the decks were pretty varied, but I did find a couple that were distinctly “his” and “hers” units. I don't like to make broad generalizations like that, but what else can I think when one TiVo had season passes for every morning trash talk show & HGTV, while the other was choked with professional wrestling and Headbanger's Ball (that's still on?!)?

Oh, and in case you're wondering... I did ameliorate the situation at least a little bit. I removed the hard drives from each of the TiVos and am using them in a variety of other devices. Let's just hope that there are some pro-environment hackers that will find a way to squeeze some extra performance out of these abandoned TiVos that will soon be littering the alleys of the rest of the world.

related:
Philips N1500: Dawn of the Timeshifting Age
Looking Back Fondly At The First Video Format War
The World's First Commercial VCR

Retro Thing TV: Portable TVs Get Left Behind

Check out a few of my favorite portable televisions. Full size CRT TVs are enjoying prolonged life thanks to inexpensive DTV tuners, but sadly these cool portables have a more immediate date with destiny. As always, let us know what you think in the comments section. Thanks for watching!

The Real Video Toaster

I've held back from writing about the Video Toaster, an astonishing bit of video tech from the early 90's. It was a $5000 card that snapped into an Amiga computer, suddenly transforming the machine into a video studio powerhouse replacing tens of thousands of dollars worth of specialized gear. The Toaster turned the world on its ear, and not just because of its oddball name. We'll talk about that another time - right now I want to talk about a real video toaster... one that makes potentially yummy toast.

Remember how upset you got when your kid jammed his PBJ into your VCR? No more! Faced with a nation full of junked VCR's in the shadow of the DTV transition, it's only natural to seek out new uses for the hulking carcasses of video recorders. A crafter named Lemonie has posted a set of directions on the Instructables site for those of you who may also want to create a video toaster of your own. The fact that it sears "VHS" into the toast is just perfect. Now if only the program timer could make sure that you have toast ready in time to catch the classic Trek episode "Bread and Circuses".

Build your own video toaster by following these step by step instructions [via Hack a Day]

RCA's First Color TV Didn't Impress Consumer Reports

RCA's CT-100 debuted in 1954, weeks after Westinghouse released the first color television. RCA's color set incorporated a 15-inch picture tube (the 12.5-inch viewing size was small, even for 1954), a "Golden Throat" audio system and a hefty $1000 price tag. The screen was coated with 60,000 phosphor dots, giving a maximum resolution equivalent to about 160 x 120 pixels.

Both of the early color sets were reviewed by Consumer Reports in June, 1954. They concluded that neither lived up to the sharpness of a standard B&W set, "Both sets were troubled with 'color fringes' around objects on the screen. Neither set offered even the mediocre degree of sharpness which is found in most modern television sets. ... On the basis of the evidence at hand, it appears that only an inveterate (and well-heeled) experimenter should let the advertisements seduce him into being 'among the very first' to own a color TV set."

RCA advertised that their sets were good neighbors, which makes me wonder just how much radiation these beasts were pumping out: "RCA Victor Color Televisions will not interfere with picture reception on your neighbor's TV sets. This interference, called oscillator radiation, has been virtually eliminated by RCA Victor's carefully designed, heavily shielded circuit system."

Sales were slow and RCA slashed the price to $495 within a few months. All in all, a few thousand CT-100s were sold before most of them were recalled and replaced with a much more polished 21-inch set, making it unlikely that you'll find one lurking a garage sale. If you do, for God's sake don't hack it.

La Primera Televisión (Asequible) de color 1954

10 Reasons To Own A Tube Television

If you haven't taken the plunge into the murky world of high definition television, here are 10 good reasons to keep an old-fashioned tube TV around. Perhaps it won't be your primary set, but there are solid reasons to keep a CRT as backup - especially when people are practically giving them away these days.

1. Used CRT sets are dirt cheap. The February 17th DTV switchover in the USA has confused millions of Americans. To ensure maximum befuddlement, the Feds recently pushed the date back to June 12, 2009, although many stations will switch off their analog transmitters on the original date.

This can work to your advantage, of course. Hundreds of thousands of perfectly good tube televisions have popped up on "for sale" boards across the nation. It doesn't take much looking to find a great 32" Sony Vega TV for well under $100. Their loss is your gain.

2. You can watch videotapes without horrible pixellation. Many less expensive VCRs only offer composite video output. The quality of VHS tape was awful to begin with (your off-air tapes probably only have a couple of hundred lines of resolution), and digitizing this low-resolution mess for display on a 1080p panel won't be pretty. Besides, VCRs can still come in handy for time-shifting shows.

3. They work just fine with cable and satellite boxes. Yeah, that's right. Your old analog television will continue to work just fine after June 12, 2009, if you're one of the millions who relies on cable or satellite TV. Only over the air signals are going away in the short term.

4. Old video games look much better. Yeah, a shiny new 1080p LCD panel looks amazing paired with your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, but the standard definition video output from your old Nintendo 64, ColecoVision or Atari 2600 doesn't look so hot. Many older games only have composite video outputs, which tend to bring out the worst in a flat panel. These signals have to be digitized and scaled for display on a new LCD or Plasma set, and the results aren't pretty. Besides, you'll have ugly black bars on the side, unless your friends are the uncouth type who prefer to stretch everything horizontally. Ick.

1980's Sharp Wedge-Shaped Television Mystery

Last week when I was interviewed on the Mediageek radio show, I mentioned that Retro Thing is  fortunate to have a great and involved readership. One of my favorite things about all of you out there, true believers, is when we solve a retro mystery together. Every once in a while I come across some retro item that leaves me stymied, like the large wooden gear mystery or the Somnus sleep inducement device conundrum. No matter how obscure, our readers have the answer. So sharpen your wits – here's the next puzzler!

This Sharp TV is the 26LV96, it also says “Visual Integration System” in a couple places on the cabinet, as well as above a large multi conductor socket. The screen is probably 25” and has a glass panel that can pop off the font. There's also a composite video in and loop out (to share the same signal among several TV's), a 3” wide on/off button (easy to find in the dark?), and no audio nor tuner. Peering into the secret compartment on top there are controls for adjusting picture and even a push-button degauss. These are all unusual details to be sure – but look at the shape! 

The TV is an unorthodox wedge shape – the screen leans back at an angle. There isn't any bracket or stand missing to hold the TV upright – it's meant to have a slanted display. It is also really, really heavy. The sides are enameled wood, so it's classy and techy looking (a lot like today's laptops and LCD TV's that come in that glossy piano ebony finish that's designed primarily to show off fingerprints). The label on the back says the TV was built in 1986, but I don't remember TV's looking this cool back then.

Since there's no tuner or audio, I have a feeling that this might be a monitor intended as part of a store display rather than a TV a consumer could buy. I doubt it would have been part of a video wall since the CRT doesn't go to the front edges. The custom connector in back makes me think that perhaps a series of these monitors could be connected as part of some big display system. Perhaps this model sat on a stage while others stood on trusses or some other elaborate staging? I like it, and it's going to be the new home of Atari gaming in my house. Any ideas out there what this Visual Integration System monitor might have been for?

related:

General Electric's 1978 widescreen TV
1986 Zenith color portable TV - in yucky mauve!
Westinghouse portable TV mystery

1980's Toshiba IK-1850 Camera Teaches Today's Camcorders A Thing Or Two

My video career has been a ragtag one, especially when I think back to the motley assortment of gear I've used over the years. In high school in the 80's I saved up all my summer job money to get a video camera. I couldn't afford an all-in-one camcorder, since it wasn't until the late 80's that camcorders dipped below $1000, so I bought an old two-piece outfit. The kit consisted of a (sort of) portable VCR, attached to a camera via a big umbilical wire.

Later when I was in film school, we were still using two-piece “portapak” pro setups. It was an interesting arrangement, sort of like getting stereo components. You could mix and match your recorder unit and the camera you wanted. I started off with a very entry level camera, and moved up to something with more oomph later. This Toshiba IK-1850 would have been a nice unit back then, and there are a few lessons here even for modern camcorders.

I don't know exactly what year this is from, but I'd guess early 80's. Auto-focus was a new feature, and from the size of the AF module on the lens, this camera was probably pretty early to the party. Astonishingly the Toshiba has a removable lens, a rare feature on consumer cameras then... and still almost unheard of now.

The viewfinder is a mini black and white CRT (easier to find focus versus a color LCD), and can be mounted on either side of the camera. There are on-camera adjustment knobs for color balance, iris, focus - no endless on-screen menus to page through! Also handy is the handle – today's cameras are so small, sometimes it's hard to know where to put my big paw.

I've learned to live without the above features when using a modern camera, but if there are any of you out there who happen to make camcorders for a living, here are the features from 20 years ago that never should have disappeared. Present on the Toshiba is a tripod mounting screw (two of them actually!) and a manual zoom lens. Some late model camcorders lack tripod mounting facilities (ghastly!), and substitute digital magnification for a real optical zoom. Digital jiggery pokery is okay, but there's a lot to be said for getting the picture right in the first place.

The Toshiba has manual focus and a real focus ring that you can grab onto. I played around with a recent model camera and the only way to get manual focus was to open a menu, and twiddle controls on the touchscreen. Ignoring my fear of bashing in the screen with my thumb... how am I supposed to focus on something when the on-screen controls and my fingers are covering the screen?

Even more important, this Toshiba has a mic input jack. Bliss. You don't need to be a pro to want to use a microphone that cost more than the ten cent one originally built into the camera. Remember that the best place for the camera is seldom the best place for the microphone. Wouldn't all those video bloggers out there benefit from a nice tack-on mic? Don't manufacturers see this as an opportunity to sell people more stuff?

Of course we've moved on from the 200 line (if we're lucky) imaging tubes inside the IK-1850, and this Toshiba isn't going to fit in anyone's pocket. Can we at least agree that it's unfortunate that we've lost lots of functions over the years that many people would probably like back? Let's not stifle people's creativity just to save five bucks in parts.

related:
First VHS camcorder was bright red!
Build your own progressive scan camcorder
More Fisher Price Pixelvisions than we thought?

Too Many Buttons On Your Remote?

Okay, I'm a doofus. I've never been able to get a universal remote to work for me. I've tried a hundred dollar jobber with a reconfigurable LCD screen, I've tried one from the dollar store - no dice. I can maybe get one function to work, so a universal remote is just not going to fit into my universe. Therefore, like a lot of people I have a coffee table littered with remotes. 

As if multitudes of remotes weren't enough of a problem, almost all of them have nightmarish design. In some cases I've never seen anything designed to fit in a human hand that could be less accommodating to the human hand. Let's not even talk about those remotes you practically have to hold right up to the device you're controlling.

What a lot of remotes need to do is simplify. Since TV's don't come with adjustment knobs anymore, we have to do it all from the remote using tons of tiny and confusing buttons. Maybe RCA got it right with this corded remote. Not only will it work from anywhere in the room (within a ten foot radius), imagine how easy tech support must have been:

- befuddled customer: "I pressed the thing and all it does is change channels."

- warmly smug tech guy: "Hmm... have you tried the other button?"

I'm oversimplifying, though the VCR I had up until the early 90's was a top-loader with a corded remote. I was spoiled with forward and reverse scan on mine as well as a noise-filled pause... so there. Actually what I'd like to come back is something I remember seeing done in the 90's. As TV remotes got more sophisticated, the seldom used buttons were hidden away under a cover. Some companies went as far as to provide a pair of remotes (that's TWO remotes for you to lose in the couch!), a much simplified day-to-day unit, and a Sunday-go-to-meetings fancy pants one.

I hope that someone comes along someday to solve this multi-remote problem for me. Then again, walking the six feet to the television set every day just to control it may be the only exercise I get.

related:
Radio Shack remote control extender of the ancients
Atari 2600 joystick remote
Calculator watch with built in remote
General Electric's ginormous television

JVC Ends VCR Production

JVC -- the last manufacturer of standalone VHS video cassette recorders -- has ceased production, essentially bringing the curtain down on the videotape era. Since the format's arrival in 1976, almost 1 billion VCRs have been produced worldwide and one in twenty was a JVC unit. All is not lost, since the format is expected to live on in a variety of dodgy combo units that cram DVD playback and recording functionality alongside a monstrous tape slot.

I have mixed feelings about all this. I have only purchased one VCR in my life -- a Toshiba unit with digital audio capability (and a light pen!) that set me back the princely sum of $1000 in 1987. I was a teenager at the time and couldn't fathom anything more sophisticated ever hitting the market. That machine has performed flawlessly for over two decades, and my six-year-old still uses it to watch a seemingly endless stream of Pokemon videos. Heck, I still use it for time shifting with my satellite receiver. The quality isn't nearly as good as a Tivo, but there are no onerous monthly charges and it works just fine.

Our biggest fear at Retro Thing HQ is that the disappearance of the VCR moves us one step closer to a world without a record button, where content is doled out in $1 increments. Say what you will about the quality of VHS tapes, but at least they could be resold and lent to friends. The same can't be said for iTunes.

JVC Ceases Production of Stand-Alone VCRs [via the inimitable Boing Boing Gadgets]

related:
The First Home VCR
The World's First Commercial VCR
Video 2000: The Other Home Video System

Countdown To TV Apocalypse Continues

Lately when I walk into a room, friends quickly change the conversation to the oncoming digital TV changeover here in the US. I guess because I work in TV & film, that makes me some kind of broadcast engineering expert. There is still a lot of confusion surrounding the change, and the many public service announcements I've seen really aren't all that informative.

Were I more of a conspiracy theorist, I'd say that these particularly unhelpful ads are to goad consumers into buying a new LCD television or subscribe to cable TV rather than buying & understanding a $20 converter box. I do read a few "behind the scenes" TV industry journals, and there are a shocking number of people surveyed who don't understand the changeover, or that they can keep their old TV's and keep getting free programming. I guess that we will all be getting phone calls next February from  a technophobe friend or relative wondering where Oprah disappeared to.

I'll admit that I am genuinely angry at how short the overlap between analog and digital broadcasting has been. In the UK when the BBC adopted an all new standard for color broadcast in 1970, they continued broadcasting the older non-compatible black and white signal until only a few years ago. The BBC gave people decades to make the switch. I'm not saying that we should do exactly the same, but they're our airwaves, right? Is it right that in February all the unadapted TV's in my house will simply go dark?

related:
Absolutely free HDTV: the return of rabbit ears
Build your own high efficiency HDTV antenna
Flash Gordon bakelite antenna
Tele-Test prank

Sony Conquers Disease... With A VCR?!

Brad Staggs writes, "My boss brought to me an original copy of the October 17, 1972, Life magazine featuring a story on 'the amazing new Polaroid Land camera.' What I loved, however, were the ads inside the magazine. One was for the brand new Sony U-matic Videocassette Recorder. Some of the claims made in the ad copy were way out there, so it's funny to read it now and laugh."

Follow the jump to discover that, "The uses of this little machine boggle the mind. It could, for instance, solve one of the biggest problems in the conquest of cancer."

RCA Selectavision 400: Timeshifting Not Allowed

My grade school actually had one of these futuristic devices in the late 1970s. The small print at the bottom of the ad reads, "CAUTION: The unauthorized recording of television programs and other materials may infringe the rights of others."

Luckily, RCA offered a fantastically smeary color camera with 6x zoom and a tiny B&W CRT viewfinder so that people could always claim they were making home movies rather than taping the latest episodes of Happy Days and The Six Million Dollar Man.

General Electric's 1978 Widescreen TV

Sometimes it's best not to keep up with the Joneses. Take 1978, for instance. Your spendthrift neighbors had just taken delivery of a monolithic new General Electric Widescreen 1000 projection TV and were showing it off to everyone who could be tricked into visiting. GE proudly marketed the set as "a super-size TV with a picture three times as big as a 25-inch diagonal console and the 'chairside convenience' of random access remote control." Oddly enough, there is nothing widescreen about the set, despite the name.

Luckily, you (or your parents) had done a bit of research to uncover the less impressive truth. According to US Patent 4181918, the giant wood veneer cabinet housed a much smaller CRT display that employed "a vertical deflection reversing switch to invert and laterally reverse the image, and a three element lens within a light-proof projection chamber to re-invert, magnify and project the image onto a forward projection type reflective screen."

In other words, the image from a regular old TV tube was flipped and back-projected onto a transparent screen [I suspect a similar system was used in the RCA rear-projection sets that debuted in 1983].

In addition to the honking huge screen and fancy remote, the set featured GE's futuristic VIR automatic color control system, which used "computer-like circuitry" to decode hue and tint information encoded in the broadcast signal, preventing little Ricky Jr. from cranking the color controls in an attempt to burn out the cat's eyeballs during Saturday morning cartoons.

1986 Zenith Color Portable TV - In Yucky Mauve!

Whenever my friends remember their lives in the 80's, they talk about MTV and bright colored futurist fashions, New Wave music, and the like. They seem to forget that the 80's were responsible for a lot of stuff that's not much fun at all like Paula Abdul (though her egomanical ravings these days are a guilty pleasure), Reaganomics, and lots of mauve... yes mauve.

For a while in the mid to late 80's it seemed like every institution I went into was splashed with mauve and grey - sometimes with brass appointments yet! I had never had an emotion about mauve before, but the mid 80's overexposure did it to me... I now hate mauve. Even consumer electronics of the time couldn't escape the creeping mauve.  I had a friend with a walkman and boombox steeped in mauveness, but who could have predicted a mauve TV! 

This Zenith TV is a stylish & compact 10 inch cube. The 9" CRT display is color, of course, though by now you probably sense that I wish it had one less color on it. The TV has a slick hidden handle, remote controlled digital tuner (still not totally common by the mid 80's), and remains a fine monitor for a classic Atari session today. One inch high LED's display the channel number - high tech aesthetic back then, annoying in a dark room now.

It's easy to forget how good the color can be on an older set. I hooked the Zenith up to one of those new digital decoder boxes, and got a lovely broadcast picture. Maybe if I keep my eyes on the TV show instead of the Zenith cabinet, I'll be able to bear to have the mauve mini-monstrocity in my house.

So whether you call it "dusty rose", or pronounce it the many ways people seem to, it's still just a pig-colored pigment to me. I like the TV too much to throw it out, it would just look so much slicker in any other color. Now... where's my taupe spray paint?

related:

Mini stereo system that's all cubes
Portable TV 1950's style
Unusual pop-up portable TV