My first color TV

[StickJock]

I just came across the manual & receipt for my first color TV.  A 17" Crown that I bought on April 18th, 1984.  This means that I must have been using a B&W TV for my Atari 800 for over half a year, since I bought the 800 in the summer of '83.  It had wood-toned plastic sides with indented handles, and it cost me $199.  The cost must be why I suffered with my 12" B&W (which I bought in 1981 for my Sinclair ZX81) for so long - I spent all of my cash on the 800 & 1050.

 

This TV probably went to Goodwill in the early-mid '90s, after I had packed up all of my 8-bit stuff and hid it in a closet for the next 2.5 decades.

 

 

 

 

 

[Rybags]

That looks not far off the first family colour TV we got in 1975.

 

For my computer it was 1984 when I bought the 34cm Rank Arena (made by NEC) pushbutton tuner, which I still have today though not powered on for probably 4 years.

[lbaeza]

I remember the Crown brand being popular here in Chile in the 80s...a low cost brand with affordable alternatives to more expensive audio and video products offered by Sony and the like...

Was this brand any popular in the US?

 

Kind regards,

 

Luis.

 

PS: The attached IRT Alba B&W TV was very popular here in Chile back in the 70s, and I remember it was used as a compannion to the 600/800 XL. This TV usually broke loose the channel selector under heavy use, and pliers had to be used to change the channel...I owned one of these, so I speak based on experience.

Edited November 30, 2020 by lbaeza
Clarification

[StickJock]

4 hours ago, lbaeza said:

I remember the Crown brand being popular here in Chile in the 80s...a low cost brand with affordable alternatives to more expensive audio and video products offered by Sony and the like...

Was this brand any popular in the US?

Luis,

I don't know if this brand was sold in the US or not.  If you look closely at the pic of the manual, you will see that it is all in Spanish.  ?

 

Interestingly, the manual included a full schematic of the TV as well.

[Asaki]

Pretty sure our first color TV was somewhere closer to 1990... ¬_¬

[TGB1718]

I think our first Colour TV was around 1972 it was a Bush 22"

[Preppie]

I had a B&W portable which was fine for the zx81 but after I spent all my money on an Atari 400 in 1982 I persuaded my Mam to get me a 14" color (for £99 I think, maybe £129) on her store card and I paid it off weekly

 

[kiwilove]

This is the only picture I can find of the old 10 inch Philips colour TV I use to lug around with my Atari 800 and 810 disk drive to computer club meetings.  I bought it because it was a nice portable colour TV to carry around - though a larger screen would have been more impressive to show off the best games running back then.

 

Harvey

[gilsaluki]

18 hours ago, StickJock said:

I just came across the manual & receipt for my first color TV.  A 17" Crown that I bought on April 18th, 1984.  This means that I must have been using a B&W TV for my Atari 800 for over half a year, since I bought the 800 in the summer of '83.  It had wood-toned plastic sides with indented handles, and it cost me $199.  The cost must be why I suffered with my 12" B&W (which I bought in 1981 for my Sinclair ZX81) for so long - I spent all of my cash on the 800 & 1050.

 

This TV probably went to Goodwill in the early-mid '90s, after I had packed up all of my 8-bit stuff and hid it in a closet for the next 2.5 decades.

 

 

 

 

 

That's cool.  I see you bought it at AAFES, the BX (or PX if Army).  Where were you stationed when this was purchased?  Great piece of consumer history.  Never heard of that brand, Crown, before.  I have drank a lot of Crown Beer in my day (Korea). 

[ivop]

13 hours ago, StickJock said:

Interestingly, the manual included a full schematic of the TV as well.

Yeah, those were the days. My first Fender amp (they make amps, too) in the early 90's had a full schematic in the manual. Nowadays manufacturers can't be arsed to even send you a schematic if you ask them for it. Just a buy a new one.

[manterola]

For me it was an "ANTU"  and then a "National Panasonic" with acrylic screen protector both B/W . Years later I got a small color Goldstar TV with composite video input. That was a big upgrade!

Edited November 30, 2020 by manterola

[TGB1718]

The first one I bought specifically for my 800/130XE was a Tandy model. Can't remember the screen size, but the reason I bought it

was it could be carried (no handle) and it had a SCART connector, so I could use composite out of my 8 bits.

[lbaeza]

That National Panasonic TV posted by Manterola reminded me of a friend who used to draw lines on the acrylic screen with a scripto marker pen...I didn't understand why he did that, until he loaded Montezuma's Revenge and advanced until the dark rooms...the lines he drew indicated where Pedro could jump safe

 

Kind regards,

 

Luis 

[+DrVenkman]

We got our Light Sixer VCS for Christmas 1980, as I recall. A few days after Christmas when Mom and Dad wanted the living room TV back, we had to move the Atari to the bedroom I shared with my step-brother and the late-60's vintage Philco black & white TV. Fortunately, late the next year, my parents got a new Zenith to replace the mid-70's rotary dial color Zenith in the living room. That same TV was what we used on the VCS, and later our 400 and then the 800 we upgraded to.