Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1961)

VOL 17: No. 27 19 On the stereo receiver front: GE introduced its first stereo radio — a modern wood-cabinet 10-tube set f with wing speakers, to retail at about $175. Admiral announced a fully transistorized plug-in multiplex unit for its radio-phono consoles. Motorola is reported to be preparing to announce a multiplex adapter for its auto FM radio. For details on multiplex receiver activity, seep. 20. SHAPE OF COLOR SETS — HOW IMPORTANT? Motorola took its stand on color last week, and fired the opening gun of what could be a real battle — or a smokescreen. Exec, vp Ed Taylor stood up before some 1,200 distributors & their salesmen at the Chicago Motorola convention and said, in effect: "Motorola won't go into color TV until we can sell a set with a 23-in. rectangular tube which can fit inside the same size cabinet as a 23-in. black-&-white set.” And he revealed that Motorola has developed such a set, which could be produced in about a year, and will be demonstrated in a month. It isn't news that such a set can be made. Motorola lab receiver uses same principles as RCA's, but substitutes a 23-in. rectangular shadow-mask color tube with 90-degree deflection for RCA's 21-in. round with 70-degree angle. The tube. was made with a modified 23-in. black-&-white bulb, with color phosphor screen applied in conventional way; new yoke & deflection components were required. Size of set is just as important as price, said Taylor. "If we get this [23-in. 90-degree set] even at the price of present color sets, color TV becomes a salable item." The 23-in. tube cuts 5 in. from set's depth, increases viewing area to 283 sq. in. from present 261. RCA has decided that 21-in. round tube is "it" for next year or 2 at least — although it undoubtedly has know-how to produce similar tube in 90-degree rectangular version. (Westinghouse had rectangular 22-in. shadow-mask color tube in 1956-58.) Question is one of tooling & bulb costs, etc., and RCA — now in the black on color — apparently believes that any changeover would be too costly for the immediate benefits. Motorola move, if it gains adherents, could force RCA's hand and make it advance its schedule for shortening and squaring off its shadow-mask tube. In meantime, Motorola's stand is clarified — no color for at least a year. Motorola will give data on its development to tube makers soon. It has no proprietary interest in the 23-in. color set, which uses conventional circuits, although Motorola itself holds many color patents. RCA's response, from a spokesman: "There have been so many reportedly new color tubes announced over the years that until we see them in operation we don't feel that we can comment." National Video, which worked with Motorola on color tube, told us it could get into production on the tube in about a year, if there's a demand for it. Taylor explained Motorola's attitude this way: "We got tired of waiting for tube manufacturers to come up with the kind of design needed to make color receivers salable. Therefore, we took the initiative ourselves to accomplish something that the industry told us was several years away. We're willing to share our laboratory findings with the industry as our 1961 contribution to color-TV progress. We would like to see all the manufacturers in this industry put as much of their time & effort into advancing the color art in their laboratories as is being put into the marketing of receivers that are too large for the average size American living room." Motorola made no actual commitment to go into color at all, but its less-than-gentle poke in RCA's ribs may get others thinking about pros & cons of a rectangular version of the present type color tube. Motorola's attitude, in fact, seems to have changed somewhat since 2 months ago, when Pres. Robert W. Galvin told stockholders (Vol. 17:19 p23): "At the present time, color TV does not appear a profitable prospect nor is there any technological advance on the horizon to change this picture." Rectangular color, anyone? JAPANESE BATTERY TVs REACH U.S. MARKET: Sony's heralded 8-in. battery port able TV went on sale in N.Y. last week — nearly a year behind the originally announced delivery schedule (Vol. 16:4 pl5). The set carried a $249.95 price tag; attachable battery pack optional at $29.95. Liberty Music Shops broke the news with full-page ads in June 25 N.Y. Times, followed by additional insertions during the week. The headlines proclaimed: "It's here . . . the new Sony truly portable, all transistorized, personal direct-view TV." Liberty told us interest in the Japanese set was high, sales "excellent." Distribution of Sony set will go national beginning in July. Sony Corp. of America merchandising Ivp Milton Thalberg told us the battery portable (Model 8-301 W) is being imported in "substantial quantities," and the import pace will be stepped up to a peak by early fall. "We expect to sell many thousands of them," he added. The sets are being brought in by Sony's U.S. import operation, Agrod Electronics.