Fernseher aus Berlin - Nr. 4

Berlin television number 4 was when things got interesting...

Finally I found a sweet analog board capable of driving a 70 cm Black Matrix tube. Also, it was the kind of vintage that is really hard to find in Australia.

This TV was free from a guy named Stephan.

Grundig T 70-740 text (chassis CUC 6310)

Pots galore!

The original Philips A66EAK71X01 tube

At this point I hadn't yet purchased a hand trolley. So, being the dedicated SCART Hunter I carried this baby home on the train! In hindsight, it was a ridiculous move. The ensuing Sciatica is still giving me grief but, boy, this TV gave me a lot of enjoyment to help make up for it! After a tube transplant the picture was awesome...

Before we get to that, here are some pics of the crazy journey home:

The journey

Waiting for the train...

Riding the tube

Taking a break

Outside the S-bahn

The CUC 6310 chassis is really great! It doesn't have daughter boards (making it far easier to service and work with) and has pots for comprehensive geometry adjustment:

• Vertical size
• Vertical position
• Horizontal size
• Horizontal position
• Pincushion
• Trapezium
• Vertical linearity

To really get it looking good, I dropped in an absolutely stunning A66EAK552X54 from a 100 Hz Loewe I found soon after:

Tube compare

New tube on left, original on right. Notice the contrast difference

Once the tube swap was complete, this TV lived at the end of my bed for the rest of the stay. Hours of Metal Slug 3 and Super Time Force Ultra!

Bed room gaming

Gonna be sad to see this one go... I just don't have the cash to post the chassis home...

Here are some quick and easy pics of Super Time Force Ultra running on this beast:

Super Time Force Ultra title screen

The future...

The past...

FREE SCART TVs! (Must go ASAP!)

My girlfriend's parents are coming to stay in a week's time and I have been told that my collection of SCART television must shrink before their arrival! Too messy, apparently.

So, I'll be giving away (or throwing away) the following:

Philips - Early '90s, 66 cm, analog chassis, Toshiba tube. Awesome, sharp picture. Like this.
Grundig - Early '00s, 68 cm tube, digital chassis, Philips semi-flat tube. Vibrant picture. Remote and manul.
Blaupunkt - Same as this one, without the pots mod. Tube upgraded to a nice A66EAK from a Loewe CT1170.
Sharp - 20 inch, PAL only. Australian made! Very nice! Check it out.

I'd rather not take all this awesome gear down to the recycle centre. :(

If you're interested, get in touch ASAP. I have to move this stuff before Friday morning!

Pickup only from Clifton Hill 3068, Victoria, Australia.

Gumtree ad is here.

The Hoarder of Suburbia

About 1.5 weeks ago I took a trip out the 'burbs to check out a few promising SCART numbers.

I was tipped off about this Gumtree seller by my pal Rob. The seller originally advertised a collection of 100 plus televisions. Of course, I thought to myself, "statistically speaking, there must be some SCART units in there".

I shot-off an email and the seller said it'd would take a while to go through the collection but he'd get back to me. A couple months later I saw a bunch of SCART specific ads starting to appear on Gumtree to I got on it.

When I arrived at the address I knew straight away that I was about to meet a real-life hoarder:

The front yard

Now, I don't want to say anything disparaging about Richard because he was super-friendly guy that was very generous with his time. He let me test out TVs, remove their cases and take photos of the whole event. However, this collection of... stuff... was out of control!

This is one of the thing I love about the SCART Hunt: meeting all these interesting people!

Assorted junk

The TV stash!

The thing that lured me out of town to check out this collection was the presence of some vintage Philips units. Philips TVs with SCART are pretty rare in Australia. There are plenty of Philips TVs around but hardly any with SCART.

Also, these particular units were packing trimpots. My favorite!

Philips TVs

The owner kindly let me plug in my laptop and check out a few test patterns. One of the Philips was really good while the other had only fair focus and color.

I also tested a Loewe Profil (with the E3000 chassis). As you can see, it looked excellent! Typical of the E3000 chassis and Philips A66EAK tube combination.

E3000 lookin' sweet!

What surprised me about the Philips TVs was that neither had an actual Philips tube inside! Toshiba and Panasonic! Strange...

Type: 28GR6781/75R

Toshiba A66JMZ42X01(ZX) tube

Front view

Chassis view

Panasonic M68 tube

There were a couple other TVs I tried out (Fujitsu and Teac) but the Philips was the one I went home with. Looking forward to modding it with some external pots.

Fujitsu

Flyback in a box

I finally received a replacement flyback transformer for this beauty today. Took a while for Dönberg Electronics to get it in stock but I'm thankful that were actually able to source a flyback for a vintage CRT. Obviously I haven't had time to install the new fly yet but I can certainly attest to Dönberg's service. They're really helpful and are serious about what they do. Also, they wrap a pretty mean parcel!

Package from Dönberg

HR 6504 flyback

Grundig 29221-029.05 replacement

Pin out

I really hope it's as simple as just soldering this into the chassis and having life breathed back into the telly. Hopefully nothing else was taken out when the original flyback went up in smoke... I guess we'll see when I find some time for this epic operation!

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