1976: Sony KV-5100 Econoquick Trinitron Color TV Reciever

I'm watching the Texans @ Cowboys game tonight while I'm typing this. I'm sure most people in Houston and Dallas are doing the same. They probably all have satellite or digital cable, maybe recording it on their DVR, maybe with surround sound, definitely in high definition, hell a few may even get it in 3D. Personally, I'm watching on my 46" LCD Television, in full 1080i HD and digital sound. But I've got it old school, through an antenna! I get all the local channels digital, crystal clear and in HD. But it wasn't always like that.

Cable television didn't exist until the 70s, and even then it was prohibitively expensive. Satellite didn't start appearing until the 90s. Before that, was just plain analog transmission through rabbit ears, with some areas lucky to get 3 or 4 stations. You had to mess around with your antenna to get it to pick up the stations you wanted, the weather had to be just right, probably the planets had to be aligned just to get a clear picture. And all of us would be watching it the same way, in ordinary, standard-definition, grainy and dull sound (and some of us might not even see it in color!). Odds are, if you were in an RV or a boat, you might have something like my Sony KV-5100 Econoquick Triniton Color TV Receiver.

Origin:

Trinitron color system: a big deal back then.

This TV has a pretty cool look to it. A small, 5" screen next to a set of knobs to set channels and picture controls. A dark switch has a selection for battery power.

Manufactured in November 1976, it was found at a garage sale by some family that thought I could do something with it. It started out as a 16th birthday present, sat in a closet for a few years, and that's as much as I know about it.

Repairs:

I didn't have to do any repairs, it was fully functioning when I got it! However, to actually power it and see any picture, I had to use a lot of adapters! As I said, TV has come a long way since the 70s, and since analog TV transmissions ended in 2009, I had to improvise just to see picture

I would like to see a cable technician try to hook up digital cable to this.

The back of the TV has a lot of knobs and plugs and screws, but no place for a regular coaxial TV cable. This TV has it's own antennas, a very long one for VHF (channels 2-14) transmission, and a round loop for UHF transmssion (channels 15-69). These are useless today, so I was able to buy an adapter to plug into the VHF hole so I could get a digital converter box and a DVD player to plug in. Also, that gray thing with the power plug prongs sticking out of it? I had to painstakingly sand down an adapter for old electrical outlets, to fit into the hole so I could get a standard extension cord to plug in the TV to the wall, since I didn't have the original power cord. After taking care of those things, I was able to see and use the TV. There are some fine-tuning knobs on the channel switches on front that don't seem to work right as well, so some channels are grainy.

How well does it work?

Pretty well. It has pretty great picture when adjusted properly. And it isn't as easy as it is now with on screen menus. There are a total of TEN knobs and controls, all of which adjust various aspects of the picture, from color to saturation to screen position to fine-tuning the channel. After some tweaking I got pretty good picture from my DVD player:

Airplane!

For a short time, I was able to plug it into some analog cable that I was able to get through my apartment last year. It got some of the cable channels, but on the wrong channel numbers. On that note, the knobs to change channels work. One interesting thing is that most TVs made in the last 20 or 30 years that are analog, antenna channels only go to 69. This TV goes all the way to 83

Maybe they thought one day there would be 83 broadcast channels..

The first knob sets channels 2-14, one channel is U, which lights up the lower knob and allows you to select channels 15-83. In the back, there are two connectors for the 2-14 antenna and the 15-83 antenna. Volume is controlled by the Power knob, you pull the knob out to turn it on, and rotate to set the volume. Now the sound is just awful...its just one speaker on the left side.

Conclusion & Future

So despite a few small problems and old-age broken items, this TV works remarkable well. Well...when you can actually plug something into it. Right now I keep it on display on my "retro shelf", and turn it on every so often. I don't see actively using it, maybe as a cool little thing in my office to show off every so often.

Thanks for reading, next week I'll bring us way back to see my Super 8 Video Camera!