Zenith's very first transistor Television set, royal 1290 from 1966
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- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2024
- This is Zeniths first mass produced transistorized TV. Its a 12" portable black and white royal 1290. Extremely high quality instrument. Assembly was critical on these, but they're built just like the tube type sets on the inside. Full steel chassis, point to point wiring with plug in transistors. To note, this video was made on 10-30-08, thats why you see me still able to change channels at the set.
That's awesome! I miss the days when Zenith was really Zenith. Everything was top quality back then.
Being able to see the scanlines on a 12" set is impressive focus and bandwidth for something of that age!
This just makes you think how well these things were built compared to even the best Plasma or LCD TV's today. I highly doubt even the best modern TV is hand crafted!
Nice TV! I'll bet it's more luggable than portable, especially with two lead-acid batteries.
Can't wait to see the insides!
$199 in 1966 had the same power buying that $1,441.66 has today. People always say "They sure don't make them like they used to!" Well, that's true but you're also paying 90% less than you used to.
I remember my first job at minimum wage in ‘72 was $1.60/hr so a set like this would have cost as much as I made in a month.
I've seen a lot of TV's in my time but never one of these, impressive technology for its day.
I miss analog television!
Very nice! In a way it looks like a 23" metal table top set for some reason, it really has kind of an imposing presence but is actually fairly small.
That signal reception is so good. It must have been quite a luxury item in its day, I calculated for inflation and it would be around $1300 today.
I have the 1965 RCA 12" transistor version as well! I need to make a video of it. This Zenith receiver does in fact have a solid state HV rectifier, making it a 100% solid state chassis.
I love to see electronics from the year I was born!
Great set, never seen one of these. Thanks for showing!
-Cheers! 🍻 Al
Quite an interesting TV! By the way, vintage analog TVs will still directly tune channels 2 to 13 of analog cable TV if you have that service.
$ 198 in Indianapolis on February 3rd, 1966 and $159 in Greenville SC on April 8th. Both with battery pack included. Went down to $98 on November 13th, 1966 with no battery in Akron OH.
This looks like a very well built TV.
I had that 1966 tubed zenith in my room when i was a kid in 1985. The tv was older than me. I thought it was older than 1966. I still have my 32" JVC that was my kids tv when they were babies. Lots of fun times with that tv. I cannot get rid of it.
Being in the TV repair business for 35 yrs and starting in 78...
Zenith was the best tv made until the early 80's...
Fun to work on them...
Then it all changed when Sony took over the market.
It was such a fun business to be in until they made TVs throwaways.!!!
That is just too awesome.
That is quality. From what I can tell, even the sound quality is very nice. By the way, in the UK we don't make stuff anymore either! Shame.
These great vids make me really miss growing up in the 60's/70's . . . great job on them!!
I also reall feel sad for the sake we dont manufacture such fine products here in the USA anymore . . .
If you read the description (and the video annotations) this video was recorded in October 2008, before analog was discontinued.
great tv
I had the first portable solid state 12" B&W TV from RCA in 1965. It was advertised as "solid state" but that was a misnomer. When it lost HV, I opened it up to find the HV rectifier was a tube. I think a 1X2. Does this one a have a tube HV rectifier? My RCA was AC, no battery operation.
As far as I'm concerned, Zenith was the finest TV ever made. Far better than RCA and any Japanese TV!
An interesting look at a Zenith portable TV from the 60's.
Zenith TV was the best you could get in its day, Sad 😢that they are not available anymore 😢 !!
The quality looks better than the first Sony transistor sets.
A lot of TV sets built during the mid-to-late 1960s were hybrids--part transistors, part tubes. Of course all of the old TVs had at least one vacuum tube--the CRT screen.
I wonder what Filo T Farnsworth (sp?), would think of his invention now, with HD, 3D, & internet video. I think he would be blown away, by the availability, & quantity of content, amazed at show of the breathtaking views from space, under the oceans, & all around the world. He would be heart felt, by the way his invention, which was one amongst several competing technologies, has enabled humanity to reach out to one another during times of natural disaster, times of renewal like the new year,etc
Awesome! I've never seen one of these. Thanks
Thats a cool set
Actually the first all transistor TV was the Philco Safari in 1959. This TV here is ZENITHS very first all transistor TV.
People were always giving me old junk black and white TV’s. I would get them working just well enough so they light up. During parties I would plug them into a long extension cord and through them off the second story balcony to see them smash onto the concrete. One day I had an old metal cabinet zenith portable. It was tossed from the balcony and no boom! Well this had to be investigated. After putting all the tubes back in there sockets the damn thing still worked!
I love the little white dot fading after you turn it off. Iconic.
Very nice tv! Do you have the Light Shield shown in the ad?
love it
i have an old RCA from the 60's...ill get a video up online tommorow
I've been dying to see the inside! Are you going to post a video of it?
We had a Zenith transistor TV (mains, not battery like this one) from when I was perhaps 3 to about 14, which would be a few years newer than this one. It was bought in the USA when we were there (my father was a student) then we returned to New Zealand when he graduated and brought it back. It needed to be adjusted to work in NZ (different frame rates and perhaps other stuff). I'm told that it was taken to a TV repair guy who charged $trivial for parts and $substantial for figuring out how it worked to be able to make the change. (It wasn't converted for mains voltage, we used a transformer.) The circuit board inside was a square grid of little wells of solder in a (fiberglass?) insulating board. Discrete components (transistors, resistors, capacitors etc) just bridged between the wells. Eventually the picture just slowly faded away so we watched less TV, and thus became less aware of what was on TV that we might want to watch, and so watched still less TV until we essentially didn't have any TV for a year or two before eventually buying a replacement.
Impressive! I'm curious as to how much current it draws from those batteries (or even the approximate battery life)
I remember that tv, it was cool back then!
Hey, drh which is the oldest tv you have and what year the year is what most interests me
@mubd1234
Mass produced yes, but not many were sold, thus finding one today is rare.
very great set i want one
Please post the circuit view. Would love to see.
I saw two of these down at Goodwill the other day. I think they were going for like around $7 each.
I've seen the commercials for those sets.
Were the original lead/acid batteries AGM or gel type? I didnt think they had glass mat/gel type back then.
I don't think such an old TV like this will be totally redundant as I think you can get a device that will adapt this sort of set to digital but you won't get stereo as thes like most old TVs were mono. Interesting.
DIDNT THIS BECOME A HEATHKIT?
2:23 Who the heck watches television at the beach?
Does anyone have the Sams folder number for this little Zenith gem ??? I need to collect it.
Yep, thats the one. Its a little tank.
Well, I believe Zenith is now only a brand, but I could be wrong. I saw a Zenith CRT TV from 2000, but it was cheap compared to these. I need to research some more.
Nice television doug . I think thats your name . Thats what I see on your video posts . I love your televisions from the 1960's and on . I wish I had a old television in my living room now. We have a sony tube tv in there now . I dont like the flat televisions they make now days . The lcd televisions are all junk if you ask me . I hear that they wont last past the warranty you have on the set , thats about 3 years or so .
$199.95 for a 12-inch battery-powered B+W TV in 1966? I could imagine if they done a color version of the same model. Triple the price, maybe?
Price in 2010 USD dollars: $1,328, that money buys an 52 inch LCD today.
Prices were about 7% more in the west according to a pair of ads for 1965 Zenith portables.
It would be nice if you can scan some of those flyers and post them at calameo dot com or scribd dot com.
did you have do do a cap restoration to it.
how are u getting over the air signal on that tv isnt analog stopped/?
nowdays, we have flat-panel portables that can draw less power, and run for hours on batteries for less milliwatt hours.
But where's the port/connector thing so I can plug my PS4 in?
What no spot suppression?
wow that was neato man
It looks like somebody mounted a car radio on its side and installed it.
Styling is a failure, but it otherwise is not a bad set.
For an example of what a portable set with style looks like turn to Sony in the same era.
First mass produced, but very rare?
wttw11 i havent heard of wttw11 before
Well you're not from Chicago. It's the PBS affiliate.
what's the battery charger look like?
So where are the transistors?
did you get the battery with it
All but one of my tvs own are from the 1980s besides a flat screen used for the computer but id like to maybe have a set from the 60s,70s or the 50s. All tho tube sets look like they have alot of up keep or maybe not im not sure. One thing id like done is to have someone recap and resotre my 80s sets, not that they dont work great it would just be preventative matinence.
Wow a time when an American could say I built this! You know we built them to last through the ages not 2 or 3 years, think I could possibly say we were greener then than we are now. We just chuck and buy a new one!! :)
its beutiful
I don't know I'm just saying cause I don't see them at Best Buy or Future Shop.
And during times.of friendly competition, such as the olympic games. I do however think, he would cringe, at how well it has documented humanity's cruelty towards one another, or tendancy towards war & ignorance. This is the fate of many technologies, not just TV.
This TV set must have been very expensive to purchase at the time. Production quality was very high back then. In today's dollars that TV set would be in the range of maybe $800 or so.
Probably even more than that! We may never know...
it was $200 back then brand new........ in today's money comes out to be $1,456.33
is this for sale
200 dollars 1966 adjusted for inflation = $1,346.02
They don't make Zenith's anymore do they?
In name only. Now owned by LG.
Wow, where do you keep all your TV's???
Let me have a think about that? ....... I know! In his house! 😂😂😂
Yesturday I turned on my tiny 5" portable AC/DC B&W Panasonic TV (TRG-513T, manuf: Jun 1985, by Matsushita), NOTHING, every one off analog air. There were a few strangler stations after the end date. Now its zip.
I discovered most NTSC to ATSC converters are DC powered and you can do a little hack and run them with batteries, for when power goes down. Im going to wait a little to get a tiny battery powered NTSC (digital TV)
I like the Fox News at end, "Vote, but Vote Legally." Ha ha.
o ha yea i guess i missed that
Probably not. I read they were acquired by LG in 1999.
Believe or not, we watch this kind of tv until the 1990s
He should try to revive the original batts. Hopefully they are simply sulfated to shit but if dry than can fix that as well. Would be awesome and all original than😀
Anyone who had brains always purchased RCA or Zenith television sets back in the day.
Absolutely. "All transistor" was a huge marketing ploy for tv and radios. We had a 17 inch color console TV...weighed a ton! No remote control...three stations...abc, cbs, nbc...period.
I remember the first TV remote ..it had two buttons (channel changer and volume)and went 'Kerchunk" when you pressed the button.. The TV had a small motor that would turn the channel dial...
MrGchiasson Was it one of those remotes that had a wire going to the set? I don't think I owned a remote control TV until 1990 or so.
ldchappell1 The very first remote I ever saw was wired...the cable was about 20 feet...when you pushed 'channel' button..the motor turned the physical tuner..with a very loud 'thump thump thump'. We thought it was wonderful!!
***** We had an RCA color console TV with a whopping 19 inch screen...
The thing weighed a ton...When you turned it on..you could have warmed the living room from the heat coming off of the vacuum tubes...
All that and three channels ...ABC, CBS and NBC.
i watched the first moon landing on that thing.
Shame the tubes a bit tired.
Maravilha
The $200 spent on that set in 1966 is probably equivalent to spending $2,000 today.
+roachtoasties about $1,456.33....but still an insane amount of money for a 12" B&W TV when you think about it...i mean, now you can get a 60" 3D 4K TV for about that much
@ToXicB3ast15151
That's the concept. Oh, I just blocked you. Sorry buddy.
Zenith company is dead?
Bought up by LG. Unfortunate, isn’t it?!
LOL probably gave you 30 minutes run time.
best electronics ARE JAPAN AND SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
us dosent count cause they make nothing now guess to the gov money is prioriety not qaulity