"It's a (bad ass) Sony!"

Woah! Score! Went on a journey today to collect a Loewe Calida 5072 (yeah, they awesome-yet-problematic E3000 chassis again... with a 72cm screen! The ultimate CPS1/2/3 and Neo Geo screen...) and a SCART equipped Sony.

The Sony cost me $10. Picked it up from the garage of a friendly Vietnamese family. The TV belonged to their Grandma (maybe she died? I didn't ask...) Either way, the TV was in tip-top condition and also had the original remote intact. I was pretty amazed to see that this piece of history was made in West Germany! Firstly, I was expecting "Made in Japan" and, secondly, how strange it feels to have something that was made in a country that's no longer listed in the atlas...

So, after some kind words with my girlfriend (it's true what they say about Trinitrons: damn heavy!) we got the thing up the stairs. Plugged it in and was instantly astounded by how sharp the focus was! Craps all over my modded Blaupunkt in this regard. So far, so good!

Next, given the vintage (Germany reunified in 1990, right?), I was pretty keen to see what was under the hood. A few minutes of head scratching later, I found the 1 screw holding the back in place (3 plastic tabs do the rest of the job) and the cover slid off. I could hardly believe my eyes! Very different technology to the Loewes and Grundigs I'm used to. And, best of all, analogue potentiometers galore!

This bad boy is a keeper! Expect some serious front panel pots in the coming weeks!

(Further reading: Obsolete Technology Tellye ! )

Full frontal

WTF?! The original "It's a Sony" sticker intact 20+ years later?!

Sony KV-C27 (chassis AE-1)

Greetings Windows XP! Text is actually legible...

Nice geometry... no adjustments made (yet).

Convergence grid

Aliens vs Predator

Forgotten Worlds

Pang

What's this?! This adjustment is usually found on the flyback...

Amazing! The screen (and speakers) are completely shielded!

SCART port and external speaker jacks

Pots, glorious pots!

... and it doesn't stop there! 

Bang and Olufsen MX6000 (no worky...)

Picked this up on eBay for $20.50. Seller said that the power switch doesn't work and that it should be an easy fix. Turned out to be more complicate than that... the power switch seemed fine to me. Something else is astray and I don't have the knowledge to fix it. It's gonna get sold or used for parts pronto.

Still, this is one gorgeous piece of machinery! This gloss black B&O MX6000 is probably the coolest looking TV I've ever come across...

Front

Back

Sticker

Back without cover

Chassis

Chassis

Chassis

Yoke and neckboard

Philips A66EAK 71X02 tube

Connections

A sorry end for our tubby tellies

Political commentator Annabel Crabb has written a story for the The Age newspaper about the sad demise of TVs. Of course, she's not writing from the perspective of a nostalgic CRT freak like me but she makes some great observations about the current state of affairs that range from the humorous to the troubling. I love this paragraph:

"Spare a thought for burglars, who now face urgent professional development challenges. What's the point of nicking a television when the streets are already full of them?"

Read the article online here.

Also, this article reminded me of a post by David Viens, one of the Plogue developers: Analog TV Death toll.

Anyway, despite all the teary eyes, the figures mentioned in the article suggest that 2012 should be a bumper year for the SCART Hunter!

Lost in Translation

Just a little tidbit I found on my phone that I've been meaning to post for a while...

A little translation mishap on the back of a SCART equipped Grundig DVD player that I gave to some friends. Wasn't until I was sitting in their kitchen, handing over the unit that I noticed this little grammatical error. Makes it sound like the DVD player has actual body parts and organs inside!

Found! Vintage CUC 4620

Well, I always said I'd never find another Grundig CUC 4635 chassis TV in Australia after I managed to burn the CUC 4635 I had. That particular chassis remains the best SCART replacement arcade chassis I've tried to date. It was just fantastic!

Amazingly, I found a Blaupunkt with a Grundig CUC 4620 chassis (very similar to CUC 4635) the other night on the side of the road, not far from where I live. My girlfriend spotted it while riding her bike to work. As it stands, the TV doesn't work properly. It power on, the screen lights up but the image is just black. No snow when I flick through the channels. Haven't tried it with RGB yet but I don't hold much hope. When I first plugged it in, I could see retrace lines across the screen. I turned the flyback down these went away. The flyback also hisses a bit. Not a good sign.

So, I have no idea if I'll ever be able to repair this. However, this time, I won't be so hasty to trash a non-working, vintage chassis. Hopefully I'll find another similar board (or receive that shipment from Germany) and this one can be used for spare parts.

At the very least, I have a little more hope of finding more of this chassis type in my part of the world. I really didn't think I'd see another one like that fabled CUC 4635! There's gotta be a couple more lurking in sheds in garages around the place...

Blaupunkt IS 70-39 VT (chassis FM 500.40)

Life on the street

The mean machine!