ITT Memories

When I first got my Commodore 64 in the early 1980s, I was given a succession of cheap, second hand TVs to attach it to, before being bought a more reasonable sized Hitachi TV…

One of the earlier ones that doesn’t leave my memory is the ITT, which is pictured at the top of this post. The one in the picture is the 26″ ITT TV CC782 – I’m not sure if this is the exact one that I had, but it looks to be.

It sat on top of the dining room table, with my C64 perched directly in front. A lovely teak surround made it look much larger than it actually was.

It had 2 distinct features, which is why, even today, I remember it.

Ultrasonic Remote

As you can see above, this was an early form of remote control which uses ultrasonic sound for communication. As a young teenager, as often the case at that age, I could hear the high-pitched noise from it when the buttons were pressed (which adults usually couldn’t).

The remote, which has the buttons on top, could then be docked into the TV, where the 3 colours strips can be seen. This was a nice way to store it and you can see that in the image right at the top of this post.

The remote used a 9V battery, such as its meaty power requirements.

Also viewable in the above image, above where the remote was docked, was a number of controls for modifying the picture. These required a cross-head screwdriver to adjust.

The following is image of the docked remote control and a flap above it open, exposing controls for tuning each of the 8 channels…

Wooden Doors

It had 2 retractable wooden doors, made up of thin slats. This meant that it could flex really easily, so when opening it up, it simply folded into a gap around the side of the TV’s case.

It’s because of the case size – look how much wood there is either side – that made it so big, despite the screen only being 26″.

I’m really not sure why there was a need to cover up the front of TVs back then.