Q: The ultimate MAME/SCART television? A: Quite possibly...

I've been trying to wind up my SCART hunting activities this year. It's been a fun adventure over the last couple years but I've been feeling that it's time to put my energies into my other pursuits (namely music)...

However, when you're sipping your first coffee in the morning a mint condition golden era Blaupunkt IS 70-101 VT M (with a Grundig CUC 6851 chassis) comes on eBay, well, what can you do? Click "Buy It Now" of course!

OMG!

This unit is the most startling SCART television I've ever seen. The original owner bought it back in '94 and it's still in mint condition. Did I say "mint condition"? Well, believe me, this things looks like it's straight from the shop! Absolutely incredible!

Image wise, the colours are amazing, the focus is sharp and there is zero jitter.

Internally, it's the SCART hunters dream: analogue pots! The chassis type is Blaupunkt FM 512.60 and it has plenty of trimpots inside. This is what I've found so far:

1. Vertical size
2. Vertical position
3. Horizontal size
4. Pincushion
5. Trapezium

There doesn't seem to be a control for horizontal position but I think it's a compromise worth making given how sweet the rest of the deal is! Also, the trimpots are on their own separate PCB. This thing would be so easier to modify! Simply remove the board to patch in the external pots! Way easier than the CUC 5360 board I modified:

Image adjustment board

The rest of the chassis is extremely clean! I can hardly believe it's this clean even without attacking it with an air compressor:

Clean chassis!

Also of note is the use of a 2-way speaker system, something I haven't seen in a Blaupunkt before:

2-way stereo speaker system!

The tube is an A66EAK which is not my favourite. However, with the contrast filter the results are actually pretty breathtaking (as the screenshots show):

Philips A66EAK220X01 tube

Another awesome thing is the input section: 2 SCART ports, 1 S-Video port and also composite input! Pretty handy for running multiple consoles:

The original owner was incredibly fastidious. He really looking after this baby. Check out how clean the remote is!

No sticky fingers here!

Even more amazing is the inclusion of the original receipt!


Check out the screenshots! These were taken using GroovyMAME on the "arcade_ex" monitor definition:

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (World 910522) (Capcom, 1991)

384 × 224 @ 59.6 Hz

Robocop (World revision 4) (Data East Corporation, 1988)

256 × 240 @ 57.4 Hz

R-Type (World) (Irem, 1987)

384 × 256 @ 55 Hz

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (World 4 Players) (Konami, 1989)

320 × 224 @ 60 Hz

Mortal Kombat (rev 5.0 T-Unit 03/19/93) (Midway, 1992)

399 × 253 @ 54.8 Hz

Rolling Thunder (rev 3) (Namco, 1986)

288 × 224 @ 60.6 Hz

Metal Slug - Super Vehicle-001 (Nazca, 1996)

320 × 224 @ 59.2 Hz

Golden Axe (set 6, US, 8751 317-123A) (Sega, 1989)

320 × 224 @ 60.1 Hz

Bubble Bobble (Japan, Ver 0.1) (Taito Corporation, 1986)

256 × 224 @ 59.2 Hz

Shadow Warriors (World, set 1) (Tecmo, 1988)

256 × 224 @ 59.2 Hz

As you can see, this is a pretty sweet unit indeed!

Here are some more goodies:

Blaupunkt IS 70-101 VT M (chassis FM 512.60)

Program display

Manual... in pristine condition!

The original newspaper ad

Original receipt! $2,000!

Repair receipt

Just to further empahsise how freakin' awesome this TV is, check out the following close ups:

Up close with Chun Li & E. Honda

Up close with Turtles & Foot Soldiers

That's it... this is the ultimate SCART TV! I'm finished!

Here are the original eBay photos:

Front

Front

Side view

Power switch

Top

Back

Back

Left side

Right side

Remote control

Rear connections

Back sticker

The almighty Calida 5072

I have a love/hate relationship with the Loewe E3000 chassis. On one hand, the image is excellent: Loewes are well built and use quality components. On the other hand, they're so fickle: geometry distortion when below 60 Hz, missing vertical lines with 256 line games, etc.

I've persisted with the E3000 because it's just so hard to beat the look of a black matrix Philips tube hooked up to this chassis. My advice to MAME users: if you're a CPS1/2/3 and Neo Geo fanatic (and enjoy other 224 line games by Sega, et al), this is the chassis for you!

Observe the sharp focus and rich colours:

Street Fighter III 2nd Impact

The Last Blade 2

Rolling Thunder

Bubble Bobble

The image is crazy sharp, right to the edges! If you like a modern, clean image, this is about as good as it gets. Personally, I have a leaning towards the older, slightly milky look of analog chassis. There's just something about that type of image that is a little more "classic" and truer to the look of arcade monitors of '90s.

The Loewe Calidas also have great aesthetics:

Front... Lovely, simply styling!

You may or may not notice a slight anomaly with the geometry in the picture above... compare the left and right edges...

Philips A68ESF002X111

The tube A68ESF tube is slightly larger than those in my collection of A66EAK tubes. Also, it's flatter. The glass is high gloss and the blacks are BLACK! I love the look of these tubes! Colours are very rich and the contrast is excellent.

Calida 5027 (E3000 chassis, Super Flatline tube)

The Calida 5072 has proven to be quite rare in my experience. The later 80 - 84cm models are more common but feature shitty 100 Hz processing chassis types. Rubbish compared with the E3000! The larger tubes aren't as flat as the A68ESF either.

This particular specimen was dream come true: excellent condition and at a reasonable price. The internals look pretty much immaculate after a blast from the trusty air compressor:

Back cover removed

Overall, an excellent candidate for GroovyMAME usage (provided you don't care for Mortal Kombat or R-Type). My personal feeling is that the Philips A66EAK tends to have better geometry than the A68ESF. I could be wrong, but my experience with the ESF has been that there are always slight imperfections whereas I've seen EAKs that are dead on. That said, if size matters, go for the A68!

If you like what you see here, keep an eye out for the Loewe CT1170 or Contur 1470. Both feature the E3000 chassis and A66EAK tube type. A little easy to find than the Calida 5072 in my experience...