Found a 1988 RCA Colortrak 2000 TV today...

[The Clonus Horror]

I was doing an inspection on a foreclosed property, and here is this woodgrain and black RCA TV sitting out in the snow. I thought if I looked at the back, it would just have a coax input. I was surprised to see 3 composite and one S-VIDEO jack! It also had external speaker outputs and something like a "BNG" jack. I checked the manufacture date, and it read 1988. This prompted me to wonder what actually used S-video back then, and all I could think of was S-VHS and Laser Disc. Anyway, long-story-short, I grabbed it and took it home with me, figuring I could just toss it if it didn't work. Let me just say that it works PERFECTLY, and I now have my NES, Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360 hooked up to it and it looks absolutely amazing with the old school circuitry and EXCELLENT CONTRAST, which LCD's and Plasmas have yet-to-duplicate. Yeah, the color isn't as deep as with component or HDMI, but there is such an amazing crispness to the picture...I couldn't believe it was a 20-year-old TV that had been sitting out in the snow for at least a month! I looked up RCA Colortrak on wikipedia and this must have been one expensive mamma-jamma back in '88. Does anyone else have one of these or any memories of one? Talk about an excellent free-find! Just wanted to share. I have a '99 RCA Entertainment Series TV as well that I love, but the S-Video jack is loose, and I also have an '08 RCA SDTV, which also has a nice picture. I know the quality of their products has been under fire in the past few years, but I seemed to have caught them all at the right time--I have no complaints whatsoever.

[boatofcar]

Sounds great! You should take some pics!

[slip81]

awesome find, but we need pics :D

[otoko]

Agreed, I kinda did the same the last couple of years. Cept, for me I just bought cheap goodwill televisions.

I was fortunate to pick up this Emerson:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v17/otknot/DSCN0944copy.jpg

If it looks quickly photoshoped, it is because the picture turned out extremely dark..

Here's the real photo.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v17/otknot/DSCN0944-1.jpg

It's from 1987 and does not have S-video, but it has a crisp picture and it would make a kickass arcade monitor!

Don't you just love the fact older tech can still out preform new tech any day?

[The Clonus Horror]

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I have no idea how to put photos in messages. I really AM old-school tech!

[klausien]

Congrats on the excellent find!

Just yesterday I picked up a 34" Sony Trinitron KV-32S22 (1997) from Craigslist. I had everything hooked up to a really crappy Daewoo 27" CRT (which is now the bedroom TV). The Daewoo at least had S-Video, but the picture was pretty bad (in addition to other issues). Sony made the best CRT TV's available when they were still making them (as most everyone knows), and I must say the picture on my "new" TV is simply mindblowing though S-Video. Loving it. Totally worth today's backache from dragging it up to my second floor apartment (Sony CRTs are comically heavy).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v695/klausien/TVFRONT.jpg

The only thing that could've been any better would've been a Sony KV-32XBR100 (the fabled XBR "squared" - best SD tube ever made), but those are rare and the external tuner/input "Feature Box" is known to fail before the TV ever would. I'll never forget the first time I saw one of those in PC Richards back in the mid-'90's. Best SD video game TV ever.

[MrSparkle]

Yea laserdisc and maybe some high end vhs decks are all i can think of that would use s-video back in 88. Not surprised that your older systems look good on this thing new fangled digital tvs just dont really handle analog signals all that well. All of their filters are set up for progressive scan digital stuff. My best recent tv find would have to be the 55" rear projection triple crt gun RCA i picked up. Colors are slightly out of alignment and i cant realign them to save my life (or lose it hitting a flyback transformer) but it makes one hell of a steel battalion display ;).

[Zap!]

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I have no idea how to put photos in messages. I really AM old-school tech!

Just put and then and put where the picture is located online (the www link) in between.

[Thrillo]

Gotta love those Trinitrons. I had a 27" made in '98 and playing my PS2 on it via S-Video blew my mind! The image was just about perfect after I fiddled around with the service menu. Unfortunately I had to sell it when I moved...but I didn't realize until now that there were so many Trinitrons being sold off on Craigslist. Time to call up a friend or two, as those things are a major PITA to haul up to a 2nd floor...

[Greg2600]

There's no convincing me that an Xbox or Xbox 360 looks better on a 20 year old television than a new one, especially at HD resolution. As for old RCA's, we still have a Colortrak from 1993, 27", that still plays beautifully and does have S-Video input, and A/V out, which is good, because the speakers are in the back of it, and sound terrible. It's great for classic systems, not for the new stuff.

[Sonicwolf]

Congrats on the tv. Those things will last a long time. My parents bought an RCA Colortrak TV in April 1988 and it was used constantly until March 2008. 1 month shy of its 20th anniversary, it started to malfunction. Nothing major but were not bothering to fix it now. It was well worth the money. Beautiful picture and sound for 2 decades.

(Side note, I replaced it with a 1985 Console Colotrak which was donated to me by my dads good friend. Funny thing is, it was the first tv I ever played video games on. We used to visit them alot and they had some great SNES games.)

[The Clonus Horror]

Oh, I'm not saying that my 360 looks better on it than on my 2008 RCA CRT with component (not even HD, 480i), but what I AM saying is that I'm pleasantly surprised at how good it looks on a 20-year-old TV with S-video. THAT is the mind-blowing thing for me...and that's on the default settings without even fiddling with the contrast, color, brightness, tint, and sharpness yet! I'm planning on putting the old Colortrak up on my loft and using it for Atari 2600 up through PSOne era consoles. Basically anything where the highest consumer output was S-Video. But, for now, I'm perversely enjoying the retro-connection of my 6th and 7th gen consoles to a 20-year-old TV. I'm wondering if I shouldn't take my '99 Entertainment Series to a TV repair shop and have the S-Video jack fixed--it's loose and you have to bend the cable a certain angle for it to not be in black/white. I assume it would be an easy fix/soldering for a professional? That TV also kicked major ass with the high contrast darker screen. I live on the third floor and I'm frankly amazed at my ability to lug these things up and down the stairs by myself. I basically just go as fast as I can, because if I stop, I know I'll be stuck. I then collapse once the thing is heaved upside down on my couch cushions or bed, gasping for air and clutching my burning legs. ;)

[Blanka789]

The only thing that could've been any better would've been a Sony KV-32XBR100 (the fabled XBR "squared" - best SD tube ever made), but those are rare and the external tuner/input "Feature Box" is known to fail before the TV ever would. I'll never forget the first time I saw one of those in PC Richards back in the mid-'90's. Best SD video game TV ever.


Whoa. That thing is ridiculous...how much do those go for these days?