Television Remote Control 1961 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 02:34:42 am
content: The cheesy styrofoam star is a remarkable accompaniment to what was obviously a top of the line TV set.

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 02:46:33 am
content: Quote from: CatalinaWOW on May 17, 2016, 02:34:42 amHey now fella, those are genuine imported cubic zirconia, only the highest quality for a limited time, covering that star.The way she's rubbing that tv though... seems a little, well, more than dusting shall we say lol.

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 02:49:08 am
content: Yea sure lady - change the channel remotely but you're gonna have to get up anyway to fine tune that ole thing and adjust the tint LOL.

author: linux-works
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 02:49:29 am
content: we had it good back then.we had both VHF -and- UHF.the talk about 'fine tuning' made me laugh. long time since I thought about that.my first tv remote used some kind of sound bars like tuning forks. you could hear them being hit by a percussive click/release mechanism. and the channel changer literally turned the knob, mechanically. I think you had to press on some kind of plastic or metal keys to define a channel as active or 'skip'; and of course, only VHF had seek forward and back; uhf never had remote control since, well, it couldn't.

author: station240
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 03:36:21 am
content: The power button on the bottom of the remote, odd. Wonder when they realised shifting it to the top was less annoying.Quote from: XOIIO on May 17, 2016, 02:46:33 amMaybe she used to test washing machine spin cycles.

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 04:04:41 am
content: I remember using TV remotes that did not use batteries

author: linux-works
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 04:11:31 am
content: Quote from: ez24 on May 17, 2016, 04:04:41 am*I* used to be a tv remote.my father would say 'hey kid, go change the channel to 3'lol

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 04:41:13 am
content: I remember as a kid the neighbour having a Philips TV which incorporated touch select or similar technology, a great thing except that moths were drawn to the TV and would land on the buttons causing the channel to randomly change.http://obsoletetellyemuseum.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/philips-26c566-38z-philips-k11-year.html

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 04:53:22 am
content: Quote from: Muttley Snickers on May 17, 2016, 04:41:13 amMoth balls!

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 05:06:39 am
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on May 17, 2016, 04:53:22 amIt's true I tell you, well that's what we were told was causing it anyhow.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 07:02:09 am
content: I very cheaply and easily retrofitted a remote control for the channels and volume to my first TV; I suppose nowadays it would end up in HackADay.It was, of course, a 6' long piece of wood. Since it was a quadrant cross-section, it could be wedged in the slot of the slider volume control and used to nudge the slider up/down. Somewhat sadly, I still have the piece of wood ~40 years later.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 07:17:01 am
content: The remote looks just like a fridgeAnd the handy remote slot quickly became a cigarette dispenser, for sure

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 07:46:55 am
content: Quote from: linux-works on May 17, 2016, 04:11:31 amAh,flashbacksmemories are resurfacing.

author: MrSlack
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 07:54:01 am
content: I was brought up in the age of the remote control. Unfortunately it was shitty 1970/80s quality so the remote control wore out and fell to bits eventually and was replaced with me

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 11:09:36 am
content: Hey lady? Do you know how to test tubes? If the remote control system stops working get on down to radio shack with the amp tubes from that remote control receiver in the ole set.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 03:19:58 pm
content: "Take the remote from its storage space and you're set for hours of pure pleasure"Ah yes, I remember those days, fights over who would watch the channel they wanted and the rest of the family would sit and sulk. Now it's the opposite, frantic hunts through the TV schedules in an effort to find something worth viewing. I have access to about sixty channels through our cable TV system and I'm sat here on the computer, that should tell you something.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 04:00:39 pm
content: Quote from: German_EE on May 17, 2016, 03:19:58 pmWere were you when netflix was made available in your country?I was a zombie in front of my laptop screen, also euphoric because i finally could see quality tv series/movies/documentaries.. in high quality and legally.i don't pay the TV Tax, but i'm very happy to pay the same amount for netflix. yes.

author: MrSlack
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 04:07:52 pm
content: I stopped watching TV. Television and sleep are the close cousins of death.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 04:41:37 pm
content: That set has a surprisingly rounded tube for 1961. The black and white sets in the UK were fairly rectangular by that time, although most still had a separate armoured glass safety panel. That colour one looks like it has a bonded screen.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 06:34:55 pm
content: Quote from: Muttley Snickers on May 17, 2016, 04:41:13 amThey did not like humidity either, or furniture polish. Remember often having to clean those panels with a cloth soaked in pure ethanol to get the film off that was making it either change channel randomly or select multiple channels at the same time. That set ran for over 2 decades in the house, eventually being replaced with a new one when it finally popped it's clogs and a new set, with remote control ( other than us kids being the remote) was bought.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 07:50:38 pm
content: Quote from: German_EE on May 17, 2016, 03:19:58 pmSame goes in Australia -- 28 Free-to-Air channels in Sydney and it's mostly just crap, even the news isn't news anymore. I haven't had an antenna connected to my TV for years and I don't miss it one bit.

author: N2IXK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2016, 02:32:35 am
content: Neat stuff, but not the first TV remote control by any means. RCA had a way of claiming industry firsts like that, and company history probably credits it to Sarnoff himself...The US electronics company that introduced and really promoted the remote control was Zenith.Zenith pioneered the remote control with a corded pendant control called the "Lazy Bones" in 1950. Available on their higher end sets, or as a kit to retrofit your existing set.http://www.factfixx.com/2011/08/17/lazy-bones-the-first-tv-remote-control/Zenith also introduced the wireless remote in 1955 with their "Flash-Matic" system. The remote resembled a sci-fi ray gun, but was essentially a flashlight that you would aim at photocells at the 4 corners of the screen to turn on/off, change channels, or adjust volume to one of 3 levels.http://www.vintagetvsets.com/flash.htmThe FlashMatic quickly gave way to the ultrasonic "Space Command" remote, which used an entirely mechanical transmitter with aluminum tuning fork resonators that produced a "ping" when the button was pushed, tripping a spring operated hammer. Zenith stayed with ultrasonic remotes into the 1980s, long after essentially everyone else had gone to infrared. Later units used an electronic transmitter with an ultrasonic transducer.http://www.pushclicktouch.com/blog/?p=108

author: kwass
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2016, 05:27:39 am
content: Quote from: N2IXK on May 18, 2016, 02:32:35 amWe had a tv and a 35mm slide projector that happen to use the same ultrasonic frequencies so they could share a remote. However the real fun was to pull the window shades down and release them, the tv and the slide projector go crazy. The spring loaded shade mechanism must have emitted a broad spectrum of ultrasonic noises.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2016, 06:10:36 am
content: Quote from: coppice on May 17, 2016, 04:41:37 pmDitto for Oz,although the separate armoured glass panel had pretty much disappeared,replaced by a panel manufactured as part of the screen.23" BW tubes displaced the more rounded 21".Philips & Kreisler had wired remotes which from memory only did vol & brightness/contrast.The short-lived (in Oz) Ekco brand had an ultrasonic remote (with tuning forks),& a big ,boofy motor in the cabinet which turned the tuner via whar looked like a bike chain.Press the button ,& the tuner rotated-"chunk,chunk,chunk!"---you stopped at the channel you wanted.At the time,I would see ads for the Zenith Colour sets in Playboy---No!,Honestly,I only read it for the articles!All of them had the roundish tubes----apparently the early delta tubes were hard enough to build, (& converge),without introducing a new tube geometry.I have obviously elevated nyself to Geek status---I remember TV ads from 1961,without remembering anything about "Miss January" or an of the others.

author: dfmischler
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2016, 12:44:41 pm
content: Quote from: N2IXK on May 18, 2016, 02:32:35 amI remember when I was a kid my grandmother had one of those sets with the ultrasonic remote. I remember the set occasionally doing weird things when she ran the vacuum cleaner

author: N2IXK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2016, 12:56:27 pm
content: Rattling a ring of keys would freak an ultrasonic remote out, as well.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2016, 01:35:51 pm
content: I agree that Zenith was the US company that introduced remote control, and also that it was the major promoter. I remember Zenith ads touting this feature and don't remember anyone else pushing it until the 1970s. But you have to give RCA credit for the remote mentioned in the OP. It is far more ambitious than the Zenith controllers. It appears to offer linear, or at least a large number of steps, control of more functions. Things like tint, fine tuning, brightness and contrast as emphasized in the video. Only those who lived through the era can understand how necessary those functions were. And though the RCA control didn't mention it because those problems were probably solved on that high end set, horizontal and vertical sync.