LCCS Video Monitor: A Black and White TV... But in Color!
This is SO COOL! And it's a fairly quick topic, for once!
I never knew that the CBS color wheel system was... kind of anyway actually put into production! Here's a look at JVC's LCCS video monitor.
Comments (25)
What I really wonder is what's the principle behind being able to making the color filter, this seems impossible!
my guess is they used an RGB or CMY stack of dichroic dye LCDs.
So is the CRT in LCCS monitor interlaced or progressive scan? It must be 3X the field/frame rate, right? Which means using phosphors with faster decay?
This is incredible! Thanks for doing what you do Alec. Also, your video backdrop wall is amazing.
I never knew this existed and it's freakin amazing! Great job, Alec!
Something's up with the audio. It doesn't sound nearly as clear as usual. I realize I'm too late to prevent it from showing on the main channel, but hopefully I can still prevent the mistake from persisting.
I think I need to up my pledge. The level of engineering depth in these videos is wonderful.
Yes, it is possible to remove the colour wheel on most DLP projectors. The reason you have to have the motor hooked up on most of them is for the Index pulse. But, on some DLP projectors, you can simply spoof the pulses that the sensor (or motor driver) normally generates. One of my very first FPGA projects was for a "Colour Wheel Replacer", which sequenced high-power RGB LEDs in time with the original wheel segments. It hooked up to the serial pins of Allegro motor driver chip that was commonly used on many projectors of the time. I then just had a counter in the FPGA which counted from 0 to 359, to simulate each "degree" of the wheel. There are some other nice tricks you can do with sequential colour systems. ;) https://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5458
The basic premise of that was to sequence the Left / Right shuttering of 3D glasses with the colour sequence of the projector, to increase the apparent shutter rate, and massively reduce the flicker. It actually worked very well, but had to be set up for the different colour wheel segments for each model of projector, and obviously the speed the wheel spins at. One of the slight issues with it was that the more modern DLP projectors tend to spin the wheel at a faster multiple, so the 3D shutter rate actually became too fast for the poor LCD shutter glasses to keep up. lol
Thought I'd found the monitor Alec bought, but his has a different serial. lol Whoever bought it got a bargain, though. We rarely see anything like this as cheap on eBay UK... https://www.ebay.com/itm/JVC-LCCS-Video-Monitor-TM-L450TU-/254357753562?nma=true&si=y2yYN4b7qYb82aZaeIWoFbUHfsc%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
Mikeselectricstuff did a video where an energy monitor used a display tech that was nearly the reverse of this. The image was formed by an inexpensive monochrome LCD panel, and an LED backlight changed color behind it. (different mike, for the record) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1LvleZcJm0
Yeah that is common, even some DLP projectors use RGB leds instead of a color wheel now becasue of obvious cost/reliability benefits
Is the "circles" random, when the power is removed? That's so weird!
The technology seems pretty logical for oscilloscopes, if they are multichannel, using alternate scanning, then change the color for each scan. I see the usefullness there for Tektronix. Would be cool to try to get one of these oscilloscopes ;-).
Those Tektronix colour oscilloscopes are pretty common, it's just they're super expensive on the used market because they are specialised equipment and they tend to hold their value very well.
That is amazing! I never knew!
I would be interested to know what causes the “spotting” artifacts after power is turned off to the monitor.
Me too. It definitely looks like some kind of chemistry with the crystals doing chaotic things in the absence of electricity, but I'm not sure what's really going on. The look actually reminds me of this chemical reaction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL3kVtc-4vY
that color is super accurate too
Very nice, love the obscure video products, You’re doing an excellent job!
The opposite of this is also true. Take a DLP projector, remove the color wheel (actually, that does not quite work, you need to break the glass off it and replace the wheel itself) and, pronto, the best, brightest B&W projector ever, for watching B&W movies without rainbow or dimming side effects. A surplus, older, not so bright DLP works perfectly fine for this purpose.
When I first heard about the CBS color wheel, I couldn't shake the thought that it would have to spin at some ridiculously high rpms in order to make a decent picture, especially with a larger screen. The idea of a disc about 3 or 4 feet in diameter spinning at 3,000 rpm in your living room just seems like it would be noisy and dangerous, especially with 1950's technology.
You know that phenomenon in the early 2000s when CD drives were reaching 52x speeds and discs were shattering? Imagine the shrapnel coming out of a huge glass colour wheel! Might even take the picture tube out with it...
Omg the TMNT meme so good 😆
This kinda stuff is exactly why I subscribe.