Hallicrafters offers selectable picture size. New Features in TV Sets
Hallicrafters offers selectable picture size.

Improvements and innovations in design distinguish 1949’s selection of receiving sets.

Nineteen Forty-Eight was certainly a year of tremendous progress for television. Eight hundred thousand sets were produced-and snapped up by an eager public. More and more citizens visited the neighborhood tavern, less for spirits than for images. Hundreds of thousands of homes took on a nightly movie-theater flavor. Psychiatrists and child specialists were called upon for newspaper interviews on the effects of television upon the family. This year, the video art promises to make an even bigger impression than it did in ’48 on public, performers, technicians, and manufacturers alike.

To all viewers the most important piece of electronic equipment concerned is the receiver. And to servicemen, dealers, engineers, and all the members of the electroneering fraternity, TV receivers mean money in the pocket–new jobs, new techniques, new calls on skill and enterprise.

Already many receiver circuits have become standard. The high voltage for the second anode of the picture tube, for instance, is almost universally obtained from a flyback or r.f. supply, rather than a transformer with a 117 volt primary. Intercarrier sound is becoming more commonplace as time goes by, especially in the smaller sets where economy in space and cost is an important factor.

But, as every salesman knows, circuits don’t sell receivers–AM, FM, or television. Aside from the usual variety in cabinet furniture which might be expected, there are several innovations which add to the convenience and satisfaction of the viewer.

The push-button the young lady holds in her hand controls the picture size in this Gerod set.
The push-button the young lady holds in her hand controls the picture size in this Gerod set.

One of the most interesting of these, introduced recently by the Garod Radio Corporation, is known as Tele-Zoom, a name that suggests the Zoomar lens which travels from a distant to a closeup view in a second or so. Tele-Zoom effectively does the same and the “zoom” is controlled by the viewer.

The face of every television screen is circular. The standard 4-to-3 ratio rectangular picture wastes a large part of any screen on which it is seen. Tele-Zoom provides a circular picture which fills the entire screen. While this cuts off the corners and sides of the transmitted rectangular scene, it enlarges what is seen 2-1/4 times. Since most important material is near the center of the picture, little of interest is lost, while the main feature becomes even larger than it normally is on the next size larger tube.

But the most important feature of Tele-Zoom is that when the entire scene is of interest, the viewer can make it appear by pushing a small button held in the hand and connected to the receiver by a 15-foot cord. The picture immediately reduces to the usual dimensions and assumes the normal oblong aspect ratio. Another click of the push button magnifies the central portion again.

The button operates a relay which is energized by the 6-volt supply. The relay contacts control four circuits: the horizontal and vertical drive, brightness, contrast, and focus. Each is instantly reset when the button is pressed.

The same optional large or small picture is offered by Hallicrafters. These receivers use a IO-inch tube; the Garod sets are available in 10, 12, or 15. Hallicrafters has placed a toggle switch on the front panel to allow change from the big circular picture to the smaller rectangular one.

Sightmaster screen is a mirror when not in use.
Sightmaster screen is a mirror when not in use.

The Sightmaster Corporation has taken advantage of the “one-way” mirror to present a viewing screen that looks like a decorative mirror when the set is turned off. As the photograph shows, the receiver resembles a period furniture piece. When it is turned on, the cathode-ray tube transmits the image through the mirror. Since the mirror is not quite completely transparent, it is said to act as a filter, reducing glare. The manufacturer is offering custom installations with the Sightmirror as well as the standard receiver.

Even today, many potential TV viewers live in houses equipped with d.c. lines. Many have installed converters so that they can use standard receivers. Belmont Radio Corporation and TeleTone Radio Corporation are both offering sets operable from either a.c. or d.c.

Motorola is one of the crop of new portables.
Motorola is one of the crop of new portables.

The trend in many types of electronic equipment today has been in the direction of smaller size and greater portability. So with TV receivers. Young as the art is, or at least its commercial development, and complex as the structure of a television set, some manufacturers have managed to build instruments which may be carried about. The Pilot TV-37 was among the first of this group; another, the Sentinel 400-TV. Motorola announces its 7-inch-tube portable model, too.

Before the war-indeed, up to only a short time ago–many AM receivers were marketed with an audio receptacle on the back and a switch on the front labeled TELEVISION. Obviously, the manufacturers believed tele receivers without audio sections might be made at some future time, in which case (at least so the prospective purchaser was told) the old set could be modernized at small cost.

Table-model Scott shows a projected picture.
Table-model Scott shows a projected picture.

Up to now no one has produced a video-only model. The owners of the strangely marked switches eventually gave up asking why they couldn’t receive television programs. But now, two good uses have finally appeared for the optimistically placed jack, at least on console models with good audio ends and large-sized speakers. The first (mentioned in this article only for the sake of completeness) is the Columbia LP Microgroove record (and the RCA Victorgroove?) which may be played on an auxiliary, external turntable.

The second–more germane to the present discussion–is occasioned by the thoughtful provisions of at least three television-receiver manufacturers. Scott Radio Laboratories, Inc., makes a table model projection set which appears in a photo in this article. The speaker is, naturally, small, but a jack is provided on the chassis from which a cable can be run to a large sound receiver. The Scott volume control can be turned down and the audio system of the sound receiver will provide all the quality of which it is capable.

Stromberg Carlson Company’s Rochester model has the same feature, as has the teleset made by Templetone Radio Manufacturing Corporation. In view of the small speaker most manufacturers provide in their television receivers–even the consoles–this looks like a fine idea. Servicemen might, however, be interested in letting their customers know that just about any TV set can be so treated. All that’s necessary is to install a jack connected to the FM detector and a shielded cable to the family radio console’s phone jack. If there isn’t a so-called “television” jack on the radio, an inconspicuous switch can be added, plus, if there isn’t a phonograph, a simple connection to the first audio stage.

Plenty of improvements and changes are yet to be made, some of them already in the planning stage, many not yet conceived. With the boom atmosphere pervading television today and likely to continue for many a year in the future, there isn’t a doubt that hardworking, sales-conscious manufacturers will think of all of them.