Early Colour TV's. Were they produced in the UK?

[Electricdreams]

I was chatting to a friend and we were wondering if the early colour tvs such as Philips, Grundig, Tandberg etc built abroad or were they produced in the UK? Were they assembled in the UK?

I was just curious because we have 21-68 on 625 System I PAL and other countries have different Systems. Did they adjust the tv to work on System I before sold in the UK?

Hope my question makes sense..

Paul

[Nuvistor]

Thorn, Pye, RBM, ITT, Philips and Baird were UK made.
The early sets 1967 were dual stand 405 mono, 625 colour and mono. No Continental European sets as far as I know produced this type of dual standard, Grundig etc started to import sets when 625 only sets become practical after Nov 1969.
Can’t remember exactly when imports started.

[Restoration73]

On early sets the various IF tunings simply used adjustable inductors. Later sets used
SAW filters which meant various chassis could be made for systems I, B/G, and D/K.
Many early Euro imports had a VHF/UHF tuner as VHF was used in the Republic of Ireland.

[jayceebee]

Not quite sure exactly what you're looking for but most UK TV manufacturers had sets available for the start of colour in the UK, although I think ITT were a little late to market. You can also add Decca and Radio & Allied (GEC/Sobell) to the list.

Philips had there own homegrown chassis, the G6 which was UK only. Makes such as Grundig and Tandberg only began to appear in the boom years when home manufacturers couldn't keep up with demand. Tandberg definitely had a UK production base located at Haddington in Scotland but I don't know about Grundig.

As Restoration73 says continental designs of the time bound for the UK would have dropped the VHF tuner and realigned the IF strip for PAL-I. Any modifications needed would have been fairly simple not forgetting the mains voltage difference also.

John.

[McMurdo]

I believe there were import controls on TVs as well at that time, making most imports uncompetitive. In fact I'm sure the manufacturing unions or associations had urged the government to stick to 405 line when introducing colour, as it would've made a common foreign-built chassis quite impractical.

[Reelman]

There were definitely import controls, the Japanese could initially only import smaller screen colour TVs and then only a fixed number. This was back in the 70s I believe.

It would make an interesting book if someone was to collate all the reasons for the demise of the indigenous TV industry. Nearly every home has a TV that comes in a large box and must be difficult to transport safely and due to changing technology needs replacing occasionally. Surely a good enough reason for large scale production by a UK concern.......

Peter

[Vectamart]

As I remember it, sets imported from Japan were restricted to a maximum screen diagonal of 18". The Japanese manufacturers, e.g. Sony, Sanyo, Hitachi, Panasonic, Toshiba, eventually got around this by opening factories in the UK.

[emeritus]

I understood that the restriction on screen size of Japanese sets was determined by the PAL patent licencing pool rather than by Government.

[Studio263]

Originally Posted by jayceebee

Philips had there own homegrown chassis, the G6 which was UK only.

Not really, the G6 was based on the K6 which was available in various forms all over Europe where colour broadcasts were established. Here's one:

http://www.marcelstvmuseum.com/photoalbum31.html

The G8, G9 and G11 were unique UK designs, mainly because Philips had much better chassis available on the continent where expectations of performance were generally higher and buyers not so cost sensitive. They didn't make a big screen 90 degree transistor set like the G8 for the European mainland as far as I know (the K7 and K8 were still hybrids), but here is a K9, which was of the same generation as the G9:

http://www.marcelstvmuseum.com/photoalbum20.html

And here's the K11, which pre-dates the G11 but uses the same 20AX tube:

http://www.marcelstvmuseum.com/photoalbum37.html

Of course the K12 was available here, with its monocarrier chassis like the later ones had. It still used the 20AX tube of course.

http://www.marcelstvmuseum.com/photoalbum89.html

Here's a treat we missed out on here, the KT1 portable (the first colour portable from Philips):

http://www.marcelstvmuseum.com/photoalbum39.html

We had a few KT2s here and endless KT3s, but I'd really love to see one of these.

[Maarten]

While the G6 were based on the K6 design, the design changes and production were done by Philips UK afaik. The same probably applies to the French model (TVC3? I'm not sure on the number, in any case not 6). As both UK and French models are dual system, they might have exchanged design details on that, never studied it, maybe someone knows?

[electronicskip]

Originally Posted by Reelman

There were definitely import controls, the Japanese could initially only import smaller screen colour TVs and then only a fixed number. This was back in the 70s I believe.

It would make an interesting book if someone was to collate all the reasons for the demise of the indigenous TV industry. Nearly every home has a TV that comes in a large box and must be difficult to transport safely and due to changing technology needs replacing occasionally. Surely a good enough reason for large scale production by a UK concern.......

Peter

As regard to import controls , you were allowed to import TVs in the 70s from places like Korea to encourage their trade to flourish from Goldstar and the likes of I believe?
And look where they are now? giants of tech LG etc.

[1955APREN]

When the demand for colour set was at it peak makers had a problem keeping up
Currys bought in some Pye sets 22ins that had been made for I think for the Swedish market. Big wooden cabinets same chassis as the pye Ct 72 but had a different tuner , I had a couple on my patch.
A little Later there was the Finlux Peacock ( should this one have seen the light of day)
Regard
Derricks

[Nuvistor]

Originally Posted by 1955APREN

Currys bought in some Pye sets 22ins
Regard
Derricks

Presume they were the 697 chassis ones, the earlier 691/3 were ok but the 697, were well, another story.
But it may have been different for you.

I didn’t have the joy of fixing the Finlux set.

[Welsh Anorak]

There were a lot of continental sets with varying degrees of quality! Big hitters like Grundig, B&O and Philips were good, of course, and some of the smaller ones like Saba, Korting and Luxor were excellent. However, EMO/Eurovox (with its huge inflammable autotransformer) the aforementioned Finlux Peacock and the Autovox sets were an acquired taste as was the Kuba Florence.
The hybrid Tandberg CTV1 was imported, then the CTV2 and excellent CTV3 were made in Scotland, though someone will know how much of the manufacturing process was actually done there.

[AJSmith625]

The first Continental colour sets I remember seeing at Currys were the Grundig 5010GB and 6010GB the latter having ultrasonic remote control which was the first remote control set I had ever seen. This was about 1973/74 when colour was starting to boom and the UK manufacturers could not keep up with demand. These were made in Germany and as the model number denotes they were made for the UK market. I can't remember If a multiband tuner was fitted so these could be used in Eire. Many of the later Grundigs did and had the little slide switch next to each tuning pot to select Band 1, 3, or UHF. As others have said the next set to follow was the Finlux Peacock.

Alan.

[raditechman]

Although they only started production when 625 only came along, Rediffusion also made colour television sets in the UK.

John

[Welsh Anorak]

There were a few earlier than this. The Grundig hybrid (717?) and the Telefunken 710 predated them and often had the controls labelled in German. I've also seen an odd Korting with an EHT overwind and GY501 rectifier. Also the 25" B&O 3000 was already established by that time, though not exactly widespread.

[Welsh Anorak]

As said above, the continental manufacturers only sat up and took interest when the full colour service started in 1969, as making a dual standard set would not be viable. Up till then we had the home-grown products, i.e. the Thorn 2000, the Philips G6, the GEC 2028 series, the Bush CTV25/167, the Pye Colour Television Chassis (as it was proudly named) and the Decca CTV19/25. ITT were a little late to the party with the splendidly eccentric CVC1. Some of these dual standard designs were refined to make a single-standard version (Pye, Philips, GEC, ITT) wheres others decided to go back to the drawing board (Thorn, Bush, Decca), though the Philips G8 and ITT CVC5 weren't too far off being launched. Of these, only GEC (successfully) and Pye (less so) continued to refine and develop their original chassis to the mid-Seventies.

[dazzlevision]

Originally Posted by 1955APREN

When the demand for colour set was at it peak makers had a problem keeping up
Currys bought in some Pye sets 22ins that had been made for I think for the Swedish market. Big wooden cabinets same chassis as the pye Ct 72 but had a different tuner , I had a couple on my patch.
Regard
Derricks

I think the Pye models CT4211, 4212 & 4214 are what you refer to. I have the large Pye fold-out abridged service data sheet (RV381, May 1971) for them.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by electronicskip

As regard to import controls , you were allowed to import TVs in the 70s from places like Korea to encourage their trade to flourish from Goldstar and the likes of I believe?
And look where they are now? giants of tech LG etc.

Just the other day on Facebook someone American mentioned Goldstar being regarded as a cheap & cheerful brand when they started to export to the USA.

I've heard many early Korean sets were based on Japanese designs, due to a technology sharing treaty that the South Korean government signed up to help built up it's industry.

To bring things back on topic, did ITT import many German made sets during the colour boom to supplement their UK built models?