Du Mont "Duoscopic" Television Receiver
March 1954 Radio & Television News

March 1954 Radio & TV News

[Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919-1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

The Duoscope, as presented in a 1954 issue of Radio-News magazine, was a pretty neat concept - sort of like a picture-in-picture (PiP) scheme for television, only in a way much better. Whereas PiP provides only a partial screen for each television program, Du Mont's "Duoscopic" viewer somehow received two independent signals and combined them on the screen in such a manner that there was both a horizontally polarized for one show and a vertically polarized image for the other. The viewer selected which picture to watch by wearing the appropriately polarized glasses or by watching through a floor-mounted transparent, polarized screen. I suppose that while wearing glasses, tilting you head resulted in a mixture of both programs, so the fixed screen would be the best option. The superimposed image on the CRT looked a lot like a virtually indiscernible 3-D picture as seen without colored glasses. Similarly, the audio for each program was selectable using a remote (wired) switch box. Headphones were used to provide private listening. The Duoscope turned out to be just another "outside the box" concept that never played out in the consumer world.

Du Mont "Duoscopic" Television Receiver

A wife can watch a variety show while her husband enjoys a different program at the same time on the same screen on the new Du Mont "Duoscopic" television receiver. Viewing is done through polaroid glasses or polaroid panels. By reversing the glasses or panels, the viewer can choose the alternate of the two programs tuned in. Individual earphones are used to separate the sound portions of the programs. A remote control unit permits the viewer to listen to either of the two programs.

Posted January 13, 2021