Second chance at a Grundig CUC 4635

By far my favourite SCART TV chassis to date was the Grundig CUC 4635 that I managed to fry by powering up with the H and V yoke inputs unplugged. I tried to be philosophical about the loss ("why be upset about the loss of something that cost $0?") but, really, I was pretty down after that. How could I have been so stupid?!

Amazingly, a fellow SCART junky from Germany offered to sent me a CUC 4635 chassis in the mail! What started as a passing comment on a forum quickly snowballed into a TV being purchased, torn apart and the chassis being packed into a cardboard box. I haven't heard if the package has made the post yet but, either way, it makes for a great story! Check out the images and read the back story here.

The original article:

Grundig ST 1470/9 text

Then, stripped bare:

Comfy in the car...

Phillips A66EAK22X01 tube

Ooh! Look at that!

Blaupunkt vs Sharp Image

Which would you choose? The winner is clear to me... Remember, we're comparing a $30 SCART television with a $240 arcade chassis...

Blaupunkt

Sharp Image universal chassis

Blaupunkt (left) versus Sharp Image (right)

Oops!

Did a bit of monitor rewiring last night and made this humorous mistake! I guess the ordering of the inputs is important after all...

Upside down, upside down.

Finally, a Loewe that will play R-Type!

Just picked up a Loewe Profil Plus 3472 that was offered as a freebie on Gumtree.

This TV seems to be something of a transition model for Loewe as it's not a 100 Hz chassis but it runs the same Super Flatline tube used in the later models. Also, the internals are very much like an E3000 but the menu system is closer to that of the later Q2500 and such.

Anyway, I was curious to see if this unit had the same issues as the E3000 when it comes to showing games with 256 lines. It was a nice surprise to see that it will display the full image for R-Type and, as a bonus, doesn't have the trapezium distortion issue of the E3000 when displaying refresh rates that aren't strictly PAL or NTSC. Very cool!

I suspect this chassis still has a few quirks that make it less than ideal (in terms of fast modeline switching) but the picture quality is great (vivid, focussed, stable, etc.) and it's nice to finally see R-Type on a Loewe after all my previous failed attempts.

All four borders visible? Check!

In game

Profil Plus 3472

Happy New Year!

So, it’s 2012 and I find myself here in the New Year with 17 (!) SCART equipped CRT televisions in my apartment. Some are good, some are bad, but one thing is for sure: I own far too many TVs! This predicament is the result of 6 months of chasing TVs online and on the street just so that I can experience late ’80s and early ’90s arcade games in their full glory.

In 2012, this blog will be a place for me to document what I have discovered up to this point and then beyond, detailing the specifics of each individual TV as I narrow down my collection through a process of monitor tests, A/B shoot-outs and, of course, play testing. ;)

Let the games begin!