The making of RCA Victor televisions

[Red Squirrel]

You don't see this kind of quality workmanship anymore. Now it's all about cheaper and faster and outsourced to China. The use of the wrap tool for the internal components is rather interesting, I've used such wrap tool at work on the telephone main distrubition frame. Most of the blocks are punch down now days but some still use wrap tool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2si4pop4kDE

 

[FleshLight]

That video made me dizzy - they need to lock the z and y axis on their tripod

 

[MongGrel]

Pretty much Steampunk

Quality control is still very high these days, just depends on what it is being applied to I guess.

Markets in general are very much larger even just due to population from the 50's, which I'd think is one of those things people tend to ignore a lot these days.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

That video made me dizzy - they need to lock the z and y axis on their tripod

Film transferred to video without remastering.

 

[Thebobo]

Film transferred to video without remastering.

Its probably capture frame by frame not sure how that would cause that effect? Looks like it was added to make the film look old imo.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Its probably capture frame by frame not sure how that would cause that effect? Looks like it was added to make the film look old imo.

It is old. In the dark ages, transfers from film to video were done by pointing a video camera at a movie screen. The jumps or frame shake was common for projectors of the time especially, if the film was worn.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That shake was noticeable at our cinema before they upgraded to digital projectors. The way these projectors work is they have a very bright light source and have a shutter, as the film frame aligns the shutter opens, then closes for the film to move position and so on, but sometimes it is not quite aligned when the shutter opens. I guess it's similar to the tracking on a VCR.

 

[mmntech]

55 years later and RCA now is considered a cheap, low quality brand.

 

[NutBucket]

Great find. That's what engineering used to be about, quality.

 

[Markbnj]

Quality control is still very high these days, just depends on what it is being applied to I guess.

Yeah, I think they are better at controlling quality, but the specs are lower to begin with. Less margin, more expensive labor, focus on short term growth, etc., etc.

 

[Centauri]

55 years later and RCA now is considered a cheap, low quality brand.

The RCA story pretty much soap boxes the story of the American manufacturing industry.

Sad.

 

[lupi]

I could watch that type of stuff for hours.

 

[dualsmp]

Quality control is now your job

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AorXBIIp8o

 

[Thebobo]

It is old. In the dark ages, transfers from film to video were done by pointing a video camera at a movie screen. The jumps or frame shake was common for projectors of the time especially, if the film was worn.

They might have been done using a process called Telecine. I have had lots of 8mm film transfers and never seen that problem but now days each individual frame is stopped and scanned.

http://www.lasergraphics.com/telecine-vs-scanning.html

 

[Puppies04]

You don't see this kind of quality workmanship anymore.

You also don't need to spend 3 months wages on a TV. Give me build it cheap and throw it way when it breaks any day. Why would I want a TV that will last 15 years when the resolution will be outdated anyway?

 

[Hugo Drax]

You also don't need to spend 3 months wages on a TV. Give me build it cheap and throw it way when it breaks any day. Why would I want a TV that will last 15 years when the resolution will be outdated anyway?

Actually the resolution was not outdated unto we switched to HDTV in the 21st century.

So that TV in 1959 would still be good for over 40 years.

Plus the tubes provided a warmer sound.

People did not buy new TV sets every three years or have perpetual car payments back then.

You would own your own home by your 20's and already be married.

 

[NutBucket]

They had a warmer sound since there was room in them for proper speakers. In a way electronics companies must be loving flat panels since they make sound bars, HTIBs, etc. an easy sell.

 

[T9D]

They used to build technology like it was fine furniture and artwork. And really made to last and be robust. Took great pride in their work.

Now they build them to intentionally break

 

[Puppies04]

Actually the resolution was not outdated unto we switched to HDTV in the 21st century.

So that TV in 1959 would still be good for over 40 years.

Plus the tubes provided a warmer sound.

People did not buy new TV sets every three years or have perpetual car payments back then.

You would own your own home by your 20's and already be married.

Are we talking about going back to the good old ways of producing televisions and also inventing a time machine. I am talking about now......

 

[Jeff7]

Great find. That's what engineering used to be about, quality.

Now it's more like, "Find a way so that it will fail 1 month after the warranty expires, with 99.996% certainty."


(Not the day after the warranty expires - then people might be less likely to buy another one of the same brand. But a month after? "Hell, I got more than a year out of it and it didn't suck too badly, I might as well just get another. Oooohhh, now it comes in new packaging! Shiny!")

They used to build technology like it was fine furniture and artwork. And really made to last and be robust. Took great pride in their work.

Now they build them to intentionally break

Gotta ensure that future revenue stream at any cost.

Quality control is now your job

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AorXBIIp8o

"For safety, connect the antistatic ground wrist band to prevent shock or injury while repairing."

I'm guessing that someone non-technical wrote this?

Then the next few scenes show someone working directly on the boards without using the ESD strap.
(Though I guess they could have been using a foot strap.....but I wouldn't bet money on it.)



A piece of machinery at work has a software suite with it for general operation. It was a German company that decided to outsource a lot of the work, including programming, to China. The hiring process for their programmers seems to have stopped at "Do you know what a computer looks like?"
20-character filename limit, an interface that looks like a Windows 98 disc and a Windows 3.1 floppy disk set were put in a microwave together, text translations that sound like they came direct from an online translator website 10 years ago, and interface choices that seem to have been done to accommodate a computer with 64MB of RAM and a brain-damaged user. A new version of the software meant to "fix" problems had other issues: One of the tool pickups was incorrectly programmed. Pickup #1 went for tool #1, and Pickup 4 went for tool #4. But then Pickups 2 and 3 both tried to pick up tool 3, but #3 didn't realize that it didn't get a tool. The machine completed 75% of the job and reported that it was now finished. The vision system also failed to detect that anything had gone wrong.

A fair amount of time has been spent finding workarounds for bugs on this piece of junk, and reporting them to tech support, which then relays them to China where they get mistranslated or ignored.




But their marketing materials say: "Field-tested software."
:hmm:
That's probably not the sort of thing you should be putting on marketing materials.
It sure is accurate though.

 

[BUTCH1]

Yeah, I think they are better at controlling quality, but the specs are lower to begin with. Less margin, more expensive labor, focus on short term growth, etc., etc.

TV sets of today have much less component's then of decades ago, the advent of LSI chips (large scale integration) where color, video processing, and scan were all done by a single chip. This was still in the days of CRT display's mind you. My Dad had a TV shop back in the '60's and '70's, people expected quality because those sets cost so much, a typical "25 color set was $500-650 and that's in 1970's dollars. Many of his customers just kept watching black and white TV's because they didn't have the $$ to afford a color set. My Dad realized they were not having a lot of extra dough and would repair those sets for parts and a minimal labor fee.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Actually the resolution was not outdated unto we switched to HDTV in the 21st century.

So that TV in 1959 would still be good for over 40 years.

Plus the tubes provided a warmer sound.

People did not buy new TV sets every three years or have perpetual car payments back then.

You would own your own home by your 20's and already be married.

Yep my grand parents only recently (maybe past 5 years ago or so) got rid of their RCA, and it still worked and served them well. It was only really in the recent decade or so that TVs were truly worth upgrading for better picture quality, but then they die a few years later. Sadly people don't want to pay the premium for stuff that lasts anymore. Before it was actually worthwhile to get stuff fixed, now stuff is disposable and there is so much waste.

Things today tend to work better in the sense that they produce better results and more efficient results (in the case of TVs better resolution while using less power) but they don't last as long. So guess there is a tradeoff. Electronics have also come a long way with packaged ICs, SMD, pick and place/reflow soldering etc, making automated manufacturing easier.

 

[mmntech]

My dad still owns the very first stereo system he ever bought. A Pioneer unit of early 70s vintage. Thing still works like a dream. I've got it hooked up in my workshop right now. The laugh is it actually sounds better then the Pioneer 5.1 system I bought about five years ago, using the same speakers. Much warmer, even though it's also a transistor unit.

Then there's my grandma's Loewe Opta radio console that dates back to the early 60s. It does have FM but it's a tube system. Solid piece of furniture. Cabinet is in mint condition. She never uses it anymore, but the radio still works great. It has a built in turntable as well, which just needs a new needle.

I also own a vintage table top radio from the late 1930s which still works on its original tubes. I will eventually put new tubes in it because I don't want to wear out the classic ones.

Skip forward to today's electronics. Microsoft claims to have sold 83 million Xbox 360s world wide but XBL (both standard and Gold) only has 48 million users. I doubt there's that many that aren't connected to the internet. Modern electronics are indeed better and more efficient, but they just aren't built to last.

I think that trend started in the 90s when people were beginning to demand lower and lower prices for their gadgets. That's about when real wages were starting to stagnate. People want more toys but they don't have as much money as they did back in the 1960s. Back then a TV and maybe a radio were the only gadgets you had, so spending a decent bit of money for a quality product wasn't too big a deal. It's the same with everything. You don't see too many people with quality pieces of furniture anymore either.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Yep my grand parents only recently (maybe past 5 years ago or so) got rid of their RCA, and it still worked and served them well. It was only really in the recent decade or so that TVs were truly worth upgrading for better picture quality, but then they die a few years later. Sadly people don't want to pay the premium for stuff that lasts anymore. Before it was actually worthwhile to get stuff fixed, now stuff is disposable and there is so much waste.

Things today tend to work better in the sense that they produce better results and more efficient results (in the case of TVs better resolution while using less power) but they don't last as long. So guess there is a tradeoff. Electronics have also come a long way with packaged ICs, SMD, pick and place/reflow soldering etc, making automated manufacturing easier.

Before it was worthwhile to get things fixed because they were simple.

These days, everything is extremely complex with a few expensive chips and pieces of hardware being used as all-in-one components. Expensive as shit to replace normally, but otherwise, makes the appliance much more reliable and cheaper to manufacture.

This idolization of "old" engineering is silly. It only LOOKS impressive because it was possible to do alot of that work by human hands. These days, the amount of technology that is in tiny components is absolutely mind boggling.

As for things being "built to last", the absurdly rapid pace of iteration in technology means that electronics simply don't have relevance after 5-10 years. It's more expensive to fix than to buy something new because the parts required to fix them simply don't exist anymore.

 

[Jeff7]

...
As for things being "built to last", the absurdly rapid pace of iteration in technology means that electronics simply don't have relevance after 5-10 years. It's more expensive to fix than to buy something new because the parts required to fix them simply don't exist anymore.

I'd still like to have things like appliances that can last awhile. I don't know what amazing new advances will come in dishwashing technology, but I would still like a dishwasher that doesn't feel like it fell off of Duplo's assembly line, or a dehumidifier with a coil frost sensor that'll last more than a year.