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 Siemens that created a monster

When I first got into the whole MAME / SCART thing, I had no idea about how video modes worked. I still don't have a great technical understanding of modeline construction but I now understand the importance of a SCART TV's ability to resolve vertical lines.

When I first got into GroovyMAME, I soon discovered the limits of my Loewe CT1170. Amazing picture quality (thanks to the E3000 chassis) but the circuitry only accepts a narrow range of video modes. Basically, anything that moves away from 50 or 60 Hz creates image distortions and, at 60 Hz, the TV won't display modes with more than 224 lines. That's pretty frustrating since so many games in MAME have 240 vertical lines!

When I tested out a Siemens for the first time I was pretty blown away when I saw R-Type running with 256 lines correctly displayed!

R-Type II

R-Type II

Strider (Japan)

Strider

Mortal Kombat

This turned out to be one of several key discoveries that fueled my desire to test as many SCART TVs as possible. You may ask, "why not stop at the Siemens?" Well, the Loewe had better focus and colors... the Siemens was more compatible... so, surely there is a TV out there with all of these qualities in the one unit?

The search continues...