In 1985 my parents were looking for a console tv with a furniture grade cabinet with zero luck. I had a job at the time delivering office supplies and one stop was the RCA Corporate building in Indianapolis. I walked in and in a special showcase was a RCA Digital Command Component System Selecta Vision TV in a all hardwood cabinet with a top self that opened and doors that completely hid the set. I asked if it was for sale and after a half hour of them asking higher and higher bosses they said why not and that it was a special built prototype cabinet. It was super fancy and the remote had about 40 buttons, it was a bad-asses set. At the time the guy at RCA just made up a price of $650 for the tv. My parents gave it away when LCD flat screens came out.
This, fully restored, would be a retro - gamers wet dream. I have a high end crt set from 1987 and the picture really pops! I think we can eol low end plasticrap tv's with impunity; but these high end sets ought to be preserved for future generations.
I used to have a tv like this connected to rf modulater and cable tv. Ran it for years. Eventually the crt sadly startwd loosing brightness so i turned up the brightness it ean like thay a few more years it was a very high usage set it was kn oretty much all day everyday. After few more years the pitcure coloring started to become off and started blurrying we added a brightner thing tonthe crt that brought back the picture for another year then it was the end of the line the crt stopped producing a picture.
Would it? No RGB in and the resolution doesn't seem that good ... hell, even some broadcast grade Trinitrons from the 80s are quite meh, when you still have the choice (love my HR Trinitrons from the 90s tho, even with their shortcomings [i.e. fast phosphor]).
The label on the back says that this set was made in my home town of Bloomington, IN, home of Indiana University in the high end product RCA factory on South Rogers St which was recently closed and the property returned to the city by RCA. Bloomington is famous for making virtually all of RCAs earliest color televisions (early CTC series) from just my cities factory.
Never seen this TV before. This was originally came with the Selectavision CED player or a Selectavision VHS VCR as a bundle, but this a great find for a rare TV set. It was one of the very first TV sets to have an on-screen display and it had channel numbers that looked a lot like an Atari 2600 score count used in all Atari 2600 games back in the late 70's and early 80's. Very nice.
1982 is too early for MTS. The set that likely replaced this model in 1984, the Dimensia, did include a MTS decoder, along with true YIQ decoding and a comb filter (this TV might have that too going by how complex it is inside). Stereo speakers were an odd inclusion on this set, the only thing that could use it at the time were CED players and maybe a handful of linear track stereo VCRs as both Betamax and VHS Hi-Fi were still a year away.
ARRRRRGH I HAD ONE OF THOSE! I had one of those. Like you I found it on the curbside, and like you I saw the dim picture and smearing and thought that the CRT was toast. Scrapped it for parts and put the rest back out on the curb. Argh it might have just been that capacitor!
A slight bit of irony about the design of this TV is that although it has a stereo audio section, MTS stereo broadcast sound was not authorized by the FCC until 1984. Thus, the only way to make this TV play stereo audio is by feeding it from a line level source (like a video disc or tape player). I love the '80s styling on this TV, with all of the glass and metal.
Walkies! Get your leash... That was made about the tine I got out of T.V. repair. Helped a friend get one at Macy's clearance for about two hundred bucks, never had real good flesh tones. Great vid nice fix. As far as smoking, did it for over 40 years and had to quit, (can't breathe worth a darn). The sad thing is I still have a terrible craving for one even thought I'm still paying the price.
Reminds me of the 1987 version I grew up with. That TV was amazing. I inherited it after it was struck by lightning for my bedroom. The inputs still worked and I still got a lot of use out of it
Its a old bar set , thats why it has the thickest glass and is so heavy, i got the same set in the 1990s trash find , i carried it home a city block i had to set it down a couple of times very heavy awesome find great video thanks for the flashback :)
RTPN is a great channel as well.. last weekend i was cleaning the kitchen. had him goin for 2 hours straight on the laptop. lol I could listen to him for hours..
The Demented Gamer True. The old ads use to be interesting to watch & you knew what the ad was selling/advertising but today's ones, are either annoying & don't state clearly what they are advertising!
Count me in on the cable-cutters! I oftened wondered if I would miss cable...well after many months, nope! A good old fashioned HD antenna is good enough!
great job I know a friend that still has this same tv monitor and it is amazing and the sound is great and the picture is wonderful . thank you for sharing this great vintage tv all the best
Yes indeed! :) That 80's silver/chrome/brushed aluminum cubism style with sharp crisp lines and corners is gorgeous. Then the 90's came and everything became cheap raw styrene black, minimal buttons as possible, remote control dependent, no LED indicators, rounded, contoured, curved, ovaled, bloated looking.... absolutely FUGLY in every way with all the throwaway cheapness built in you could handle.
One of the neat parts of being a cable installer in the 80s was getting a good idea of what TVs were better than others. My favorite was the Sony Trinitrons, them babies would take a poor signal and make it good. I was looking forward to the new "monitor" sets that were part of the component stereo rack craze. These RCA cubes were interesting and did do stereo but there was a big lack of stereo programming at the time. Trinitrons were still the installers' choice. Worst set I ever had to install to was one of those Heathkit homebuilt ones.
I actually got the color to work with adjustments to the chroma trim pots, but there is a lot of interference in the picture until it warms up. Even then it’s an irritating level of noise. I just ordered a whole bunch of caps to do a good chunk of the main board. I put a video of what’s happening to mine up on my channel if you want to check it out. Thanks so much for your video, there’s very little info on my set and it’s nice to see one cap made so much difference.
"We don't do safety over here" lol Any TV with stereo in the early to mid 80s was considered high end. That was back when RCA was good. I have an xl100 13 inch from 1982 and it works almost like it is brand new.
I bought one of these in 1983 for over $800 bucks. Was always bugged that it was just a little early for an S-VHS input. Particularly after I bought an S-VHS RCA Super VHS VCR. I had it in use until 1999. I gave up cigarettes in 1988 so it was semi-smoked. Still worked when I gave it away.
Those were commercial sets. We had TVs like that in the bar and restaurant in the day and yeah smoke smell was commonplace. The smoke will never leave it if it was in that environment.
nice video. Good troubleshoot. agree that radiotvphon onut knows his stuff. Love the "breathe easy" ad claim for Bel Aire". My mom's best friend smoked those, and she was NOT breathing easy when she got lung cancer. Her husband is still alive at 96 however, as he did not smoke.
My parents had the console version of this monitor. Had the same jacks on the back. Loved the 6X9 stereo speakers that had lots of bass and it got very loud. The remote controlled both the TV and the matching RCA VCR. It was a very nice TV for its time.
I think there is high interest in these types of sets because they make great "retro gamer" sets. RF and multiple composite inputs in something thats not a crappy black plastic throwaway walmart special. Love my old Trinitron video production set.
Looks like a bad filter cap on your 200v screen supply. They were also notorious for cracked connections in the tuner and the system control module too
I had a more deluxe version with more in/out jacks, 25"CRT, tape in/out, loaded to the hilt. Mine was badged J C Penney from late 80s. My remote buttons crapped out, so I gave it to my brother.
I know this is an old video, but adding for posterity. Around 1982 I convinced my parents to buy this set. Theirs was the same except that it did not come with a screen guard and had walnut side panels. It was sold as a 'monitor' because it was one of the very few sets of the time that had line-level video and audio input. I took the set and integrated it into a home theatre setup. It was NOT a stereo set because it preceded the adoption of MTS stereo in the USA. It had stereo audio inputs and outputs for connection to stereo VCRs that were available at the time. It was a very advanced set for its time. On screen display and clock. The downside is that it needed a specific remote control to store channel memories. A universal remote would not function correctly. I loved the set but it eventually quit working after about 15 years and new TVs then had all the same features for much less money. I think the price we paid was about $900.
Hey Shango. It's amazing how you trace these circuits and successfully repair these tvs and stereos... You referred to this RCA tv as high end, maybe because of it's multiple features, but i remember the RCAs from the 80s and i went into a lot of homes as a servicer in a different field, but I rarely ever saw a good picture on an RCA. The XL100 was bragged about big time by RCA, but the pictures always looked washed out. I don't think i ever saw a decent XL100. Same was true with Zenith. The pictures tubes always had a purple hugh around the outer perimeter with green overall hugh. Terrible color definition overall...Believe it or not Philco TVs had good pictures along with Sylvania. Panasonic and Sanyo had one of the best pictures in my opinion along with Sony of course. My parents have a Phillips Magnavox that is 20 yrs old and still has a fairly good picture and has had no repairs...If I see a really high quality tv picture in someones home today, it's almost always a Samsung.
there was a similar set in the recent mercury mining town video sitting next to the piano organ. these are pretty cool sets, I have a Colortrak2000 from 1986 and they were definitely top of the line sets when they were new. mine has some sort of comb filtering for the composite video to clean up NTSC artifacts from the video
Comb filters kick ass and are typically found only in the highest end sets as they are a somewhat expensive component. My 1986 radio shack stereo TV monitor (my first big purchase of $600 back then) boasted its multiple comb filters in a 19" TV, usually reserved for larger CRT sets. Flesh tones were always perfect.. .never pink or green, not sure if the comb filters did this or not. I believe it had some system for flesh tone accuracy, but not sure. But video games were where it shined, no artifacts around high contrast objects. Still have it to this day and the picture is as stunning as the day I took it out of the box. Very low hours. The only issue is the left channel speaker has distortion for the first 10 minutes or so and clears up afterwards. Probably a bad audio coupling capacitor. Need to try connecting external speakers I guess and see if the problem persists.
Of all the junk you have put great effort in to (remember the one that was filled with mud?) - I am surprised your so down on this wonderful example of great 80's technology. I would love to have it, but shipping would be too much to make it worth it (I am in California).
USPS won't ship more then 70 lbs, FEDEX calculator comes up with a "Based on the address information entered, there are no FedEx Express® or FedEx Ground® services available." Let's call it a day on this one. Thanks for the thought though!!
Sold those new. Took one and cut around 1" or so off the top and installed in a OLD Cherry Wood Curtis Mathis Console unit. Used a relay to switch internal speakers on and off for TV when powered on. They were a very nice set for its time. When Stereo TV came out.
I knew right away with that retrace and smearing it was a capacitor issue... Used to see them all the time for those crt Cathode feed caps failing. Another common symptom was a washed out pic where one side is darker than the other as well..
Old comment but: In Europe, teletext was very popular. I know Philips (Magnavox in US) had teletext decoders in the very early 80s. Since they now had to be able to inject a full color computer-generated image, they also started adding the SCART plug giving you RGB inputs all the way back then. I loved hunting these old philipses on the curb. They were like the Zeniths in the US in that they were typically way over-engineered, built locally, and built to last. I don't think the Magnavox models that came out in the US shared anything with these though. I even found a model at some point that had a *printer* built in. So you could (thermal) print teletext pages. I wish I had that one still.
That smearing color reminds me of the many sears 19" color sets that I worked on in the early 90's. The ones with the 13 presets that you just touch with your fingers to change the channel. If you wet your finger and touched a preset it would stick on that channel. But they always had the same problem, a week crt. Never did I see one with good color.
Nice sets I remember well. The 200V filter cap is one of the most common fails on ANY brand of solid state sets til the end of real TV's. Lots of symptoms, some quite subtle. Also on some B&W's. The other big fails on RCA's with separate tuner / micro boards is cold joints at connectors. This set should be saved......... BTW RTVPnut does know his shit. Thats from someone in the biz 40 yrs. CUL LFOD ! Tom
I've had some success getting rid of cigarette smoke smell using very liberal amounts of Fabreze. Worked great for a guitar case and a digital guitar effects unit as well.
When I was in middle school back in 93-95 they had a few of an RCA TV similar to this, but not sure if it was also SelectaVision. It had fake wood grain finish and no OSD (it used 7-segment LEDs for the channel display).
you are right was very top notch equipment. it was a monitor receiver. we used to use them in the school system for early video work. there are adjustments that would clear up some of that. turn down the contrast and would lose the re-trace lines. RCA's are bad for "eating" CRTs.
I serviced many of those models, they did have screen control problems, bad connections in the tuner modules, the CRT does look a bit weak... But, give it a good troubleshoot and go from there.
a wega tv i was looking to buy had the same washed out image, when the seller turned it on to test. i asked if i could see a picture of it turned on, but it just ignored the question and tried to shove me a philips. looking by what you did, it seemed maybe easy to fix, but the clusterfuck amount of capacitors would make any diag like a nightmare, no wonder these things end up in curbs. about the selectavision, it's been some months now, but i hope it went to a good home, as an admirer of cutting-edge obsolete tech.
So this one scores TWO cigarette adds LOL! And this time you have the entire Marlboro thing. And no kidding, I now have a second smoked out Betacam SP BVW75 that would be just as tasty as your find there if it were also hot box convection infused. Same Bat time, same Bat Channel. Roller guide bearings were screaming even louder unless they were ceased. You've tempted me before to do a funny edit of the same Marlboro inducer. Now that I've got two decks like this I think they are going to meet my edit controller as soon as I fix the problems trying to kill them. I think its mostly heavy use and aging issues unrelated to the ash tray near by. And not that I've never smoked a cigarette but I don't like them... ESPECIALLY NOT IN MY TAPE ROOM! I do hate the inner workings of most commercials.
The Curtis Mathes monitors from that time period had on screen display. I think some of them were made by NEC. I used to sell them back in the early 80s.
its a very looking set, seems to be one of those high end ones you know were you had the basic one for a few dollars, thn the middle one which everyone brought and then the high end one that only a few ppl brought if any as they could aford it so this might be a rare set
That one looks like it was a really nice set back in the day. Would love to give it a good home, but no space and teleporting it from the US to Germany also won't work all that well unfortunately...
Nice set, would really love to have it but shipping to Germany would probably cost the equivalent of a new 75 inch 4k TV....Would still be the better deal though...
My car was probably high end when new, but now its a shed and ought to be weighed in, if its a cigarette infused pile of junk eol it. amberola I'm with you, I prefer youtube with adsoff than tv.
I bet it was a classroom TV I do remember seeing a RCA Selectavision TV's in grade school too. I think RCA copied the channel interface from the Panasonic VCR's that would display the channel number full size then change too a smaller display behind a blue background.
This has got me curious, since i own a 82 Colortrak 2000 and i wonder if there's much of difference. RCA's big selling point was that they could fit a 25" into a 19" cabinet. I think mine weight's about 40 pounds. Yep Onscreen and a programmable clock.
oh I so wish I could come get this tv and maybe some other vintage sets I love old tvs if I was closer id come get it and maybe get you to repair one of my old tube sets I have a ge porta color tv that quit working. last time I used it the picture ws very poor and coloring was way off.
