Color TV? Sure - but when? (Article and accompanying photo from a 1954 issue of "Better Homes and Gardens")

Overcoming the mechanical headaches of color television was a great scientific achievement. But don't hold your breath awaiting the day when you will have your own color receiver.

Is your black-and-white television set soon to become obsolete? If you're thinking about buying a set, should you wait for color? What about cost? When will we have regular color programs?

"Color television will come as an evolution and not as a revolution," says Dr. W.R.G. Baker, chairman of the National Television System Committee. "Color will prove to be a supplementary service and will not quickly, or perhaps ever, completely replace the black-and-white service. Black-and-white receivers will continue to be the backbone of television for at least five years to come."

That is not to say that color TV at its best is not a magnificent achievement. A two-hour show in New York last October, designed to convince the Federal Communications Commission that the National Television System Committee color system is sound, represented the pay-off for one million engineering man-hours of work by 200 scientists from 91 companies.

Several hundred broadcasters, set manufacturers, congressmen, newspapermen, and magazine editors watched as 13 companies demonstrated color receivers picking up programs put on the air by CBS, DuMont, and NBC. Color registration, fidelity, and absence of flicker were nearly as good as you might expect in a home movie.

After the showing, Rep. Charles Wolverton, chairman of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, said, "It appears to the collective judgment of the industry that the new system is satisfactory and workable."

Production headaches

With a workable system perfected, you have to see some of the production difficulties to understand why 16 hours of color telecasting is a long way off.

When Nanette Fabray appeared in an experimental color telecast recently, the stage lights seemed bright enough for a night ball game - six times as intense as for a black-and-white telecast. Beneath the intense heat of that merciless battery, the star sat for minutes before the program. Make-up men scurried in and out of range, touching up her skin and checking results. Skin color had to be just right, or it might have appeared comic in a receiving set.

There was a flurry of last-minute checking to assure that the costumes and setting were in harmony, with no color clashes. Cameras worth $65,000 each were rolled into place. Technicians hovered over the set, mindful that one tiny flaw might result in a color mess on receiving screens.

The show went off without a hitch. But one mistake, and the picture picked up might have looked like a small boy's finger painting.

Obviously, color telecasts will require costly sets, costumes, props and equipment. Many stations will delay adding production equipment until there is a strong demand for color from viewers. Advertisers may not be in a hurry to pick up the tab for expensive colorcasts, especially when only 1 in 25 TV homes will be able to pick up the sales message in color as of January 1, 1956.

What about color-set production?

Members of the National Television Systems Committee, certainly the best informed on color television, say 50,000 to 75,000 color sets may be built this year. The first sets will reach the market early this summer. Many of these will go into the hands of TV personnel. Even granted that every set reaches a customer, there still will be only 1 color set for every 100 black-and-white sets.

"Don't be misled by talk that color is just around the corner," a Chicago television manufacturer says.

What will a color set cost?

If you wait for a perfected and inexpensive color set, you may be like the man driving a model-T who says he won't buy a new car until turbine- or atom-powered models appear. Those first color sets will have price tags which restrict them to families that don't have to pinch dollar bills. Members of the National Television Committee generally talk about prices ranging from $500 to $1,000. (Note from Laura: For a current value of the 1954 dollar, times it by six - so now we're talkin' $3,000-6,000 - that's QUITE a hefty sum for a TV set!)

"And that's being conservative," says a top TV executive. "It would not surprise us if prices start at $1,000." Another leading TV-maker believes the price may be closer to $1,500. On the other hand, a new invention at any time could reduce costs, and increasing production is bound to bring prices of sets down eventually.

What will you get for your money? A set that will pick up color telecasts during rare periods when they occur with about the same clarity and brilliance as you find in a miniature color movie. Of necessity, most of the first receivers will be larger than black-and-white sets, with more than double the number of parts you find in today's black-and-white sets. They probably will have a control so you can adjust the color to suit yourself.

What about servicing?

Much should be said about the servicing that will be required with color sets. In the beginning, at least, you might expect to have twice as much trouble with color, if only because the receiver has twice as many parts to go wrong. Add to this the fact that color tubes are infinitely more complex than black-and-white tubes. "Field service for color sets will take at least five times the man-hours required for servicing black-and-white sets," says one expert. One engineer interviewed had to work for months to acquire the skill to adjust a color set. One make of tube requires 12 adjustments before the picture takes shape. That makes thousands of combinations of adjustments which are possible, and only one correct.

In the early days of color TV, the cost of the receiving set will be only part of the expense. Figure on a stiff instillation and maintenance bill, too.

So, where do you stand?

- If you need a good black-and-white set, buy it. If you have a good black-and-white set, hang onto it. Don't be afraid color TV will make obsolete any black-and-white set you might buy this year, next year, or the year after next.

- Color sets will be expensive and scarce for at least five years. Set-makers talk of a "class" market developing for color TV, while black-and-white receivers continue to be the backbone of the industry. And you'll probably want to keep your black-and-white set for use in a second room even after you buy a color set.

- If you live in a fringe area or in a neighborhood with poor TV reception, forget about color even longer. Any picture distortion or double image would be magnified on a color set.

- If you receive a good picture with your present antenna, it should do the job for a color set, too.

- Don't count on an inexpensive converter that will allow you to transform your black-and-white set into a color receiver. Most authorities agree that a converter will cost almost as much as a new set, so you might as well purchase the new receiver.