Cool, Daddy-o, cool-The Predicta TV set is back!

[Dusty Ayres]

Does anybody remember these sets from the 50's? Well, somebody's brought them back, and they are just like new:



Personally, I like today's TV sets a lot better, and think they work well way beyond just watching TV (I'm typing this response while watching it now in its computer mode) but for those who prefer something 'warmer' as far as technology goes, I guess this would float your boat. Here's the site with all of the info and the rest of the sets: The Official Predicta Web Site

 

[Jadzia]

I'm not keen on any pre-1970s things. My favourite television designs are the wooden ones form the early 1980s.

- push on/ push off power button
- rotary knob for volume.
- eight buttons for the channels.
- three sliders for contrast, brightness and colour.


The plastic and metal televisions made since the late 1980s doesn't make nice furniture, imo. Only wood makes nice furniture.

 

[publiusr]

I love it all. My idea of a perfect starship set up is a steampunk ready room--dieselpunk engineering section, and every kind of audio visual display ever made for the bridge. Rear projection mirror reversed IMAX viewscreen. CRTs plasmas LEDs, LCDs, nixie tubes, electronic ink, dials paper wheel blanks, etc.

Even a slide projector behind screens above Spocks station for warmth.

 

[RobertVA]

I love it all. My idea of a perfect starship set up is a steampunk ready room--dieselpunk engineering section, and every kind of audio visual display ever made for the bridge. Rear projection mirror reversed IMAX viewscreen. CRTs plasmas LEDs, LCDs, nixie tubes, electronic ink, dials paper wheel blanks, etc.

Even a slide projector behind screens above Spocks station for warmth.

Hmm...

• Oversized wheels resembling those in an early 20th century airship for helm controls. Brass ship's engine telegraph for "throttle"
• Whirling gears and etched numbers on brass wheels resembling a mechanical odometer for a navigation computer. Paper charts and mechanical instruments on a chart table too.
• High neck thick sweaters for uniforms. With so much of the bridge part of the outer hull it would loose a lot of heat to the chill of interstellar space. Would need knit ski hats for the same reason. The captain would wear a worn looking skippers hat just to show his status.
• Periscope for the weapons station. Must retract out of the way into the ceiling when not in use and have folding handles to rotate it. Big mushroom shaped button to fire torpedoes. Triggers to fire phasers. Torpedoes must leave a trail of exhaust.
• All those pipes and high energy equipment in engineering (that sounds familiar) would release a lot of heat. Crew in that areas would be still be perspiring in their tank top undershirts. (we don't need no stinkin' corseted cat suits!)
• No power equipment moving torpedoes around. Crew has to get their exercise somehow.
• Speaking tubes for intercoms.
• Odomeeter style time displays (whoops, that sounds familiar too!)

 

[FreezeC77]

I never heard of it until I saw it on an episode of American Pickers where they bought one off a guy who had it in a barn or something I think. I think they ended up trading it for something else, which I thought was kind of a waste since I thought there were people who took these old type of tv sets and things and either refurbished them or put a 'new' tv in it and just used the piece for the look of it.

 

[scotpens]

I'm not keen on any pre-1970s things. My favourite television designs are the wooden ones form the early 1980s.

- push on/ push off power button
- rotary knob for volume.
- eight buttons for the channels.
- three sliders for contrast, brightness and colour.

What TVs had buttons to select the channels? Every old CRT analog TV I remember had a rotary dial with click stops for the channels. And knobs to adjust color (intensity), tint (hue), vertical and horizontal hold, and contrast.

I love it all. My idea of a perfect starship set up is a steampunk ready room--dieselpunk engineering section, and every kind of audio visual display ever made for the bridge. . .

• All those pipes and high energy equipment in engineering (that sounds familiar) would release a lot of heat. Crew in that areas would be still be perspiring in their tank top undershirts. (we don't need no stinkin' corseted cat suits!)

And the warp drive crew would be big burly shirtless guys. You’ve got to be strong to manually move those heavy shielded dilithium containers and warp coils.

 

[Jadzia]

What TVs had buttons to select the channels? Every old CRT analog TV I remember had a rotary dial with click stops for the channels. And knobs to adjust color (intensity), tint (hue), vertical and horizontal hold, and contrast.

It may just be an English thing, because I've never seen a tv with a rotary dial with click stops. When I was little, my parent's had a wooden tv set, (which they replaced in 1996 iirc) and it was as I described. I also had my own for a limited time in the early 90s, and it was like that too.

The buttons on mine were flush mounted black rectangles (2 rows or 4), which were mechanical and spring loaded like the buttons on tape recorders. Depress a button half way and any other in buttons would spring out. Depress it fully and the button would lock in.

 

[scotpens]

It may just be an English thing, because I've never seen a tv with a rotary dial with click stops. When I was little, my parent's had a wooden tv set, (which they replaced in 1996 iirc) and it was as I described. I also had my own for a limited time in the early 90s, and it was like that too.

The buttons on mine were flush mounted black rectangles (2 rows or 4), which were mechanical and spring loaded like the buttons on tape recorders. Depress a button half way and any other in buttons would spring out. Depress it fully and the button would lock in.

Car radios used to have buttons like that, which you could pre-set to favorite stations. But this is the first time I’ve heard of TV sets having them.

 

[Amaris]

I like the looks of these Predicta sets, but they're definitely not for the general consumer.

Firstly, they're not cheap, being that the price isn't quoted on the website and the site itself uses an odd method of indicating cost without actually giving you any firm numbers or, well, any numbers at all.

Secondly, they're not HD televisions. They have digital converters built in, but they're not HD. So you're paying a premium price for an SD TV. You're paying for the look.

 

[RobertVA]

Earliest TV in my family that I remember had a horizontal thumb wheel to select the twelve VHF channels. That TV was black and white only and wasn't equipped to receive UHF channels. When you pushed the power/volume knob in the AC supply was interrupted and it didn't use the slightest bit of electricity.

The next TV had two channel selection knobs. The VHF tuner had problems with contamination or oxidation on its numerous electrical contacts and had to be disassembled periodically to be cleaned. There were separate strips of circuitry for each VHF channel with at least eight contacts that connected the strip to the remainder of the TV when the knob rotated it into position. There was a fine tune knob concentric with the VHF knob. Between 13 and 2 on the VHF knob was the position for UHF. I never saw the inside of the UHF tuner, but it was a continuous analog tuner with a fine tune knob in the center. Like the earlier TV it used absolutely no electricity when turned off.

The first TV I had which featured a remote control duplicated ALL of the buttons on the remote control behind a door below the screen. It really startled my mother one afternoon when it suddenly came on by itself with nothing but snow on the screen and a static sound at full volume. I was almost as startled at the low charges when I got it back from the shop (they just cleaned some electrical contacts)

 

[scotpens]

Earliest TV in my family that I remember had a horizontal thumb wheel to select the twelve VHF channels. . . When you pushed the power/volume knob in the AC supply was interrupted and it didn't use the slightest bit of electricity. . .

. . . The next TV had two channel selection knobs. . . Like the earlier TV it used absolutely no electricity when turned off.

Do modern TVs use electricity even when they’re not on?

 

[Owain Taggart]

What TVs had buttons to select the channels? Every old CRT analog TV I remember had a rotary dial with click stops for the channels. And knobs to adjust color (intensity), tint (hue), vertical and horizontal hold, and contrast.

Sony had a series of Trinitron TVs with rectangular buttons to switch channels, up to a max of 13 and no dials. Though this was in the 80's, and we had one until the early 90's.


It looked like this:

 

[Dusty Ayres]

I like the looks of these Predicta sets, but they're definitely not for the general consumer.

Firstly, they're not cheap, being that the price isn't quoted on the website and the site itself uses an odd method of indicating cost without actually giving you any firm numbers or, well, any numbers at all.

Secondly, they're not HD televisions. They have digital converters built in, but they're not HD. So you're paying a premium price for an SD TV. You're paying for the look.

No kidding-as I said before, these were meant to be for those who preferred something 'warmer' as far as technology is concerned, and don't really care about big bells and whistles, technology wise. This is meant for the retroist person who thinks that modern things are too soulless and badly designed, and likes things of the past.

 

[RobertVA]

Earliest TV in my family that I remember had a horizontal thumb wheel to select the twelve VHF channels. . . When you pushed the power/volume knob in the AC supply was interrupted and it didn't use the slightest bit of electricity. . .

. . . The next TV had two channel selection knobs. . . Like the earlier TV it used absolutely no electricity when turned off.

Do modern TVs use electricity even when they’re not on?

They certainly do. They have to keep a few circuits powered to monitor the sensor for the remote control and determine which flashes of infra-red light it should respond to (you might be using other remotes for things like a stereo).

 

[Amaris]

I like the looks of these Predicta sets, but they're definitely not for the general consumer.

Firstly, they're not cheap, being that the price isn't quoted on the website and the site itself uses an odd method of indicating cost without actually giving you any firm numbers or, well, any numbers at all.

Secondly, they're not HD televisions. They have digital converters built in, but they're not HD. So you're paying a premium price for an SD TV. You're paying for the look.

No kidding-as I said before, these were meant to be for those who preferred something 'warmer' as far as technology is concerned, and don't really care about big bells and whistles, technology wise. This is meant for the retroist person who thinks that modern things are too soulless and badly designed, and likes things of the past.

I don't consider high definition to be a bell or whistle. It's now the standard in television technology. I believe in form and function, in that this television could easily have been built to handle high definition and, considering the premium price, would not have eaten into the manufacturer's profit margins.

 

[scotpens]

I don't consider high definition to be a bell or whistle. It's now the standard in television technology. I believe in form and function, in that this television could easily have been built to handle high definition and, considering the premium price, would not have eaten into the manufacturer's profit margins.

That would mean redesigning the “picture tube” housing to accommodate HDTV’s 16:9 aspect ratio — except that there wouldn’t be a picture tube inside, just a flat display and a lot of empty space. If you change the screen proportions, it doesn’t look like a Philco Predicta anymore.

 

[Dusty Ayres]

That would mean redesigning the “picture tube” housing to accommodate HDTV’s 16:9 aspect ratio — except that there wouldn’t be a picture tube inside, just a flat display and a lot of empty space. If you change the screen proportions, it doesn’t look like a Philco Predicta anymore.

Correctamundo. That's exactly as I said it before what they want out of this set: something classic and 'warm' as opposed to what they think a typical current flatscreen is, which to retroists is 'cold' and uninviting. That's why the sets are designed as they are.

 

[Amaris]

I have no problem with the design, and a picture tube can be made to support the high definition aspect without the 16:9 ratio (there are still high def 4:3 CRT TVs). Form and function. All the warmth, but with updated technology inside.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I'd love to have one of these things. I notice their website hasn't been updated for a while.

The "Meteor" was going for about 3600 bucks a few years ago.

These guys have made an HD version - an image is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72154009@N00/2792819729/in/photostream

I wouldn't want one.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I need something to hook my NES up to.