Woah! Where did the first half of 2014 go?!

A girlfriend's perspective of retrogaming?!

Guten tag! SCART Hunter here... logging in from Berlin!

Things are about to heat up around here after a busy year of adventure and major distraction from this blog.

Since I last checked in I moved country (Melbourne, Australia to Dunedin, New Zealand), hung out in Bangkok, Thailand and have now arrived in Berlin, Germany... and (drum roll) I can safely say it's SCART hunting paradise here!!!

I've got three months in Berlin with limited budget and German skills. Also, no car is a problem when you want to venture out and score a big fat A66EAK tube. Despite these challenges, it would be crazy if I came all this way and failed to indulge in the amazing array of CRTs available on eBay Kleinanzeigen.

So, expect to see some tasty treasures here soon! And, in the meantime, I'll be updating on some of the activities I've been up to in 2014...

Found! Pre-loved Blaupunkt

Check out this beauty:

My latest find! A vintage Blaupunkt

It's been a long time since I went on a hard rubbish scavenging mission. Mostly I just scour eBay and Gumtree for SCART televisions these days. Hard rubbish hunting is time consuming and can often lead to disappointment... you might find something good but it's damaged or wrecked.

That said, when something like this happens, and it makes me think I should be out there on the weekends while people still have CRTs to junk. I can't help but think some prized TVs must be sitting out on a suburban street right now. It eats at me. If people would only list their TVs for 99 cents on eBay I wouldn't have to face such mental anguish!

Anyway, here's how it happened: I was driving to band rehearsal last night and I spotted the distinct styling of a European television. I knew at a glance this was a Blaupunkt. The ubiquitous Samsung and Panasonic CRTs simply don't have these kind of lines:

Front

Back

I made a mental note about the location of the TV and kept an eye out for it at 11 pm when I was driving home. All the cars and garbage bins made it hard to see and I had to park the car and walk up the road before I finally found it again.

It was worth the effort though! A nice vintage 1990 model with trimpots inside! I plugged it in before work this morning and she fired up. Excellent!

Blaupunkt MS 70-109 VT M (chassis FM 500.70)

"Please take me home... In good order."

The TV has obviously been sitting on the side of the road for a while now. There are lawn clippings, dirt and water marks on it. However, the 30 degree heat yesterday probably did a good job of drying out whatever moisture this unit has endured.

We have snow!

SCART ports and S-Video

Audio outputs

This guy has serviced so many of my finds...

Can't wait to the weekend when I can get a chance to test this out with some actual RGB material! Could be a good candidate for some external pot modifications if the Service Manual is correct...

New Gadget: VGA Isolator

A new gadget arrived yesterday... an Atlona AT-VGA11S VGA Ground Loop Isolator.

I discovered this little device a few months back and I had been curious ever since. The thing that stopped me jumping on it was the price. Well, maybe not so much the actual price of the item itself but the crazy FedEx postage that seller insists on using.

Anyway, because I have no will power to resist such cool looking little things, I finally pushed the button and a few days later this little beauty arrived. I haven't tested fully yet but hopefully there will be some benefits to report...

Package contents

All wrapped up

Top view

Input side

Output side

The idea behind this box is that by isolating the computer and CRT, any potential interference caused by ground loops will be eliminated. We'll see how that works out in practise... The manual promises some desirable advantages.

I also have some neat little 50 cm VGA cables on the way so that I can put this gadget in my signal chain (along with the Extron and UMSA).

Manufacturer pictures:

Model: AT-VGA11S

Tiny little thing...

You got mail!

The SCART Hunter finally has a dedicated email address!

Now you guys don't have to track me down through eBay, shmups, KLOV or BYOAC.

Feel free to email all your CRT/SCART/GroovyMAME questions:

SCART mail

 I can't promise to solve all your problems but if it's something I know about, I'll be sure to get back to you!

Please don't be upset if my replies are a bit laggy... sometimes work and life get in the way of all this fun stuff. ;)

For sale: the ulimate MAME/SCART television!

You know how I mentioned that I'd recently discovered the ultimate SCART television for retro-gaming? Yeah, well, I've decided to sell it!

I'm living in a smaller apartment now and there just isn't space for huge 26" televisions. I'd really love for someone else that shares my passion for retro-gaming to take this TV and give it the love that it deserves...

Check out the eBay listing here!

For sale: the ultimate MAME/SCART television!

Long, red toy

A while back I ordered one of those green, Chinese made degauss wands from eBay. I was hoping to fix up the discoloration on the Blaupunkt I modified before taking the final screenshots for my blog. After spending 15 mins changing the plug to an Australian type, I plugged the wand in and was very disappointed to discover that it had no effect. Bummer.

I hunted around for a deluxe model but the only other tool available also seemed a little on the cheap side. Because I'm impatient to fix the problem, I went ahead a blew some more dollars...

Good thing is that this one works! I tried it out on a Loewe that we have at work and all seems good. Can't wait to see if it clears up my Blaupunkt! I'll be reporting back soon...

Looks suspicious, no?!

Vintage Blaunpunkt

I recently saw a vintage, wood grain laminate Blaupunkt FM 100-20 CW on eBay. Although the auction stated that the TV was not in working order, I couldn't resist having a relic like this in my lounge room! Was quite an adventure collecting the unit as it was a fair hike out of the city, up in the hills. The old gent that sold it to me was very friendly and asked lots of questions about my SCART activities. On the way out of town, my car decided not to start and, thankfully, the seller came to my rescue! Such a great guy... Another wonderful little story along the path to vintage CRT heaven!

As it turns out this Blaupunkt doesn't even have a SCART port! No worry, I'm hoping it'll be possible to gut it and stuff the chassis and tube from a newer Grundig variation in there. I just love the idea of a vintage case crammed with a chassis capable of delivering a modern picture. Fingers crossed for when I take to it with a screw driver later this week!

Wood grain Blaupunkt

Front view

Control panel

No SCART here!

Blaupunkt FM 100-20 CW

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

Sony time

For ages now I've been seeing photos of Sony Trinitrons running MAME on retro gaming forums. The image quality is always seems to be top notch on these tubes and the various chassis types are reported to be quite flexible in terms of the refresh rates and resolutions accepted.

With this in mind, I picked up another $0.99 bargain on eBay this week: a Sony PVM-14N6A. Gonna collect it tonight. Hopefully it won't be too hard to wire up for MAME usage. I sure am building up a back log of monitors to test this weekend!

I'm particulary interested to see how the image quality of this Sony PVM will compare to my consumer-grade SCART machines...

Sony PVM-14N6A

Rear connection panel

eBay time!

For anyone interested, I have some nice SCART TVs on eBay at the moment. Each one comes with a pre-made VGA to SCART cable! Check them out here.

Grundig 70-270/8.IDTV for sale