# Proton Tv



## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

*Proton TV Monitor*

When I was just a lad....

(many many moons ago)

I was a visual sort of a guy. Just as I am am right now. All of my buddies had killer stereo systems and huge collections of records back then. 

BUT...I had the very BEST TV set that I could get my hands on. When I lived in the same house with several of my high school friends ( a few decades back) I was the guy who provided the TV set. THEY had the stereo systems and speakers.

It worked out GREAT. We had good tunes AND a killer TV set. Best of both worlds.

But, being the "video dude" in the bunch...I kept on hearing about the elusive and spectacular "PROTON TV". It was supposed to be the ne-plus-ultra of TV sets. Unbeliveable picture...perfect colour...the ultimate expression of us video freaks, born into reality.

But a PROTON TV was a rare and elusive animal. And...according to reports...those things cost an arm and TWO legs! I was a committed videophile for almost three decades, and I'd never even SEEN a PROTON TV!

Fast forward to present day.

I'm cruising through a local Vancouver Island second hand store. Looking for good speakers for my surround sound system that is...SURPRISE...hooked into my killer TV.

And guess what I found, sitting quietly underneath a table full of cheap crap at this nondescript second hand store?

A big 27 inch PROTON TV!!!!

It had no remote...and it was a model that was originally sold into the Japanese home market. So all of the controls and the menu were in Japanese. The picture and colour controls were wayyy out of whack when we fired this big PROTON up, and NOBODY could figure them out (the picture looked like sh*t!). So the guy who owned the store said..."give it to you for twenty bucks. Get it out of my sight!".

I scooped it instantly!

Dragged it home and hooked it into my SAT TV system. Spent about half a day figuring out all of the controls. But I GOT it...eventually.

This TV is beyond belief! The colour is better than my expensive 27 inch Panasonic reference monitor! And its sharper than my Hitachi big screen CRT in the livingroom!

MUCH sharper!

I LOVE the thing!!

But I can't get any of my universal remotes to work with it. No matter how hard I try. Nor can I find much data on it via Google (it's an oddball).

Anyone here know anything more than I do about PROTON TV"s (probably from the mid nineties).


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## gastonbuffet (Sep 23, 2004)

Can't help you with that super cool Proton TV MacNutt, but for $20 bucks i'll take the old piece of crap TV. Shipping on me! 

Good luck with the proton tv.


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

If you are talking about the Proton 600 MT, I saw one years ago in Montreal and that thing filled my expensive dreams for years to come.
Check this link if we are referring to the same thing:

http://www.computex.com.tw/company_of_the_week/Proton0509.asp

You probably went there already.

Thanks for the memories.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

This one's not a flat screen LCD or anything. Just a big crt from the mid nineties (I'm guessing).

But...hoooBOY has it got a killer picture! 

I've had it side by side with my best Panasonic 27 inch monitor for about two weeks now. Both of them have exactly the same SAT TV feeds....and I can't seem to get the top end Pana to display the same lifelike colour as the Proton monitor! No matter how hard I try.

Also...when I tune to a dead channel or when the SAT system winks out for a second, or when I dial in a music channel that has no video, the Proton monitor shows a completely black screen. Jet black. The Panasonic and all of my other TV's (about nine of them at last count) always show a dark blue or blue gray screen under the same conditions.

Is this big Proton sharp? I actually have to dial back the sharpness control to less than the halfway mark or it begins to show edge artifacts from the SAT feed. When I hook it up to my broadcast quality 3 CCD Pana video camera the results actually hurt my eyes. I showed it off to a fellow video dude last night and he was blown away by the quality of the picture. Now he's looking on eBay to see if he can find one for his editing suite.

I'm just lovin this thing. It's scary good. 

And I got it for twenty bucks at an out of the way second hand store, because it doesn't have a remote and because the menu is in japanese.  

Too cool.


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## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

23 April 2005
Making a return that is causing a stir among home theater enthusiasts, Proton will begin selling 32-inch and 37-inch LCD televisions in the U.S., Canada and Mexico this summer. Well-known for decades of superior CRT television quality and dedication to engineering perfection, Proton has applied that same dedication and knowledge to their new LCD televisions about to hit the market. Working with Brix Lab, Proton's new line of LCD televisions will be available exclusively through the Brix Lab distribution channel.

Brix Lab is the exclusive distributor for Proton-branded television products in North America. Brix Lab is responsible for all sales and marketing activities for Proton in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Proton televisions will be available at retailers that cater to home theater enthusiasts and audiophiles.


http://www.brixcom.com/html/aboutus_brix_main.html


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

A website about high end video gear notes that Proton has about 500 employees...and about HALF of them are R&D engineers! No wonder they made stuff like this! I've never seen a crt that looked this good...and I spend a lot of time working with vido.

Sansui used to be like that with audio gear...until the bank took over and trashed everything.

This 27 inch Proton monitor was the best twenty bucks I ever spent in my whole life. (Wellll...there was that lovely brunette in Bogota.)  

But we don't want to go into that right now. At least not on this thread.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

MacNutt said:


> Also...when I tune to a dead channel or when the SAT system winks out for a second, or when I dial in a music channel that has no video, the Proton monitor shows a completely black screen. Jet black. The Panasonic and all of my other TV's (about nine of them at last count) always show a dark blue or blue gray screen under the same conditions.


Gerry, my 10 year old 27" Magnavox CRT "Smart TV" does the very same thing and has one of the sharpest pictures I have ever seen. It puts many of my friends flat screens to shame.


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

MacNutt, the first paragraph of the text I sent you refers to the Proton 600 MT "the first Hi-Fi tv" (if I remember the ads in my "Son HI-Fi" magazines). We are talking about 1982 here.
I am assuming here that you have the same model.
Since they are the ones who made it, I suggest you to use their e-mail address at the bottom of the article to directly ask them yours questions.
I am sure they still have these tv sets in their shops, would know the answer and woud be pleased to help a dedicated customer.

I remember this Proton tv to be built like a fine Hi-Fi component: top, no-compromise quality parts and assembly.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

I found that website the first day I bought the thing... and emailed Proton a week or so back. No replies as of yet.

I'm not holding my breath here. As a manufacturer myself I know full well that my company is far more interested in promoting what I currently have for sale. Not what I sold ten years ago. That's the past. Dark and distant.

But I sure do like this Proton TV. I've never EVER seen a picture this good on ANY TV set...be it plasma or crt or whatever.

(Sorry SINC..I've had several Magnavoxes over the years...and this Proton would blow them out of the water. Even on it's worst day, while totally out of adjustment.)


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## Ena (Feb 7, 2005)

MacNutt. When you said you searched Google did you include searching Google Groups/Usenet News? Just a thought from another frugal shopper.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

No I didn't. Is there anything on there about Proton TV's that I might have missed?

Help me out here.


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## audiodan (Sep 26, 2005)

Try other search sites! Or try resellers sites or even Protons Site!


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## Ena (Feb 7, 2005)

Tons of posts in lots of groups. Not being cheeky. Am not sure what you are looking for. Access code number for a remote?


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## audiodan (Sep 26, 2005)

He wants to know how to use his remote on it


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## Derrick (Dec 22, 2004)

I found the following comment in one of the forums:

"The standard code for Proton TVs in "One For All" remotes is TV/0031."

What is the model number of the TV?

Here is a list that may help:

http://www.units.osu.edu/cable_tv/instructions/html/remotecodes.html


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

About four days after I found this gem I managed to get a universal remote to work with it. But the menu is in japanese. So are the colour controls. (this Proton monitor was obviously sold into the japanese home market, and then brought here to the west coast by a recent immigrant to these shores)

Sooooo...now I am dealing with neat tight little bundles of barbed wire on the screen. They mean something. Just not sure what, exactly.

The one at the top of the menu (it looks a bit like a compressed dog skeleton with a palm tree growing out of it) seems to mean "brightness". The next one down (it defies description) seems to represent "contrast". (Judging by the effect if I move the cursor right or left.) The next one after that is pretty easy. It's got a green bar and a red bar and they change ratios as you move the cursor. Red green balance.

HEY! Maybe I'm getting the hang of this!

But no...the very next set of controls on the menu of this fancy Proton monitor are totally inscrutible to me. Subtle changes only...and nothing I can put my finger on. No matter how hard I monkey around with it.

On this particular set of adjustments, the very best picture seems to be gained by dialing the thing up to the mark that looks like a trapezoid laid over a tetrahedron with several small dots along the right side of the pictogram. And the word "BAT" seems to appear on the screen at odd intervals, once I summon up this strange combination.

??????????

There are several other controls on this Proton unit that I just can't figure out for the life of me. Most make only subtle differences in the picture quality, even when i swing them from one extreme to the other.

Which begs the question....

Since this high-end TV set was originally sold into the japanese home market, and was therefore meant for asian eyes.... is there something fundamentally DIFFERENT about how asians see a TV picture from the way that I see a TV picture?? 

I posed this pertinent question to my very best buddy, Danny Lim. He is of asian descent and was born in that part of the world about a half century back. He's been my best friend for about 35 years now. We've been through hell and back together...but the subject of asian eyes has never come up between us. Until now...

"Are asian eyes actually different ?" I asked him?

"Only from MY side" he answered.

Great, That solves everything.


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## gastonbuffet (Sep 23, 2004)

Asians don't see, they observe.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

gastonbuffet said:


> Asians don't see, they observe.


Judging by how well they are doing in this modern world of ours...they "observe" very well.

I brought this fact up to my buddy Danny Lim just the other day.

He just smiled. Inscrutibly.


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