This 70-Year-Old Console TV Was Modernized with a Raspberry Pi

Television sets today are designed to be as slim and low-profile as possible. Ideally, consumers don’t want to see anything except the screen itself. But that wasn’t always the case. In the early days of television, a typical TV set was big and very heavy. It was common to integrate the TV into a piece of furniture. These console TVs are chock full of mid-century charm, but they’re generally pretty useless today. That’s because they can only pick up analog signals that are no longer used and they don’t usually have connections for other video sources. That’s why Redditor Pcdoodle modernized his 70-year-old console with a Raspberry Pi.

It isn’t clear exactly who manufactured this console TV or what the model is, but it looks similar to the console TVs made by Admiral in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. Pcdoodle says it was made in 1952, which would make it just about 70 years old. The console originally contained a CRT TV (probably 19”), a record player, a couple of shelves, and a set of speakers. The record player was missing when Pcdoodle purchased the console and the original CRT was likely useless, so all of the original electronics were replaced. The only exceptions are the channel selection and volume knobs, which were kept functional. The volume knob still controls the volume, and the channel selector flips between simulated “stations.” Those are actually either videos or applications running on the Raspberry Pi.

Almost all of the functionality is handled by a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B; though a 12-position rotary switch is connected via an Arduino for the channel selector knob. When a channel is selected, a script checks the corresponding folder. If that folder contains a video, it will automatically play. If the folder contains an application, it will be launched. Channel 3, for example, launches Emulation Station to play video games. The original TV was replaced with an old Panasonic CRT monitor that has a composite video input. On the slide-out shelf that was originally occupied by the record player, Pcdoodle placed a wireless Logitech keyboard and gamepads to be used with the Raspberry Pi. We can’t think of a better way to bring new life to a vintage console TV like this one.