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Old 28th Sep 2004, 4:14 pm   #61
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

I remember when I first started in the trade in 1970 there was a 'portable' Colour TV made by Crown. I remember it used a PL508 and PY500 in the line stage and possibly a PCF80 as line osc. However the colours were very much like the Teleton that Dave Robinson mentions. Again it used simple PAL and getting a good stable colour picture was almost impossible but people were less critical in those days and didn't seem to mind too much if faces changed hue as they moved about the screen!!.

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Old 28th Sep 2004, 5:07 pm   #62
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Favourite colour TVs?

Hmmm. I liked the picture of the Pye 697 when it was set up properly; it worked like the EMI 2001 camera in reverse!

To work on, the Decca Bradford comes tops despite the precarious way the chassis balanced when it slid out! I ran a CS1830 for ages, and gave it to a friend in the end. All that ever needed was the boost C changing.

The A823 was a nightmare, a right dog in fact. How were you supposed to get at the back of the boards to measure anything?!

G8 - not bad but the 520 was IMO better than the 550.

Overall though my personal favourite was the Telefunken 711, their first all-transistor chassis. The convergence was adjusted at low level (no burnt/sticking pots) via a tray that slid out from underneath the front of the tube. You followed the numbers 1-28 and ended up with a perfect picture. The sound quality was excellent too, there was a tone control on the front!

As regards modern TVs, quite often the purity errors you see now are caused by overdriving the CRT, resulting in local heating of the shadow mask. I often get called in at work to explain why a monitor has got a cyan patch on it, and usually it's because the user has turned up the contrast and then it has been left on a source generally involving a lot of white somewhere - be it colour bars or overexposed sky! Telling them to feed it with black temporarily, and TURN THE CONTRAST DOWN! usually fixes it...

As to Jon's remarks about LCDs/plasmas - they're all rubbish, there isn't a good one amongst them! I had several in for evaluation in an office and we settled on Philips LCDs and Hitachi plasmas as the least worst - the Hitachi was chosen because the screen " persistence " is quite low which is handy when the main source is football!

As a daily set, I'd like to recommend something Bush (a friend still occasionally uses an A823!) but on the whole I think I'd go with the Bradford.
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Old 3rd Oct 2010, 10:53 am   #63
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Just joined. Hello all

The Pye hybrid with the output valves running into grid current had a workround - a few more ohms in their heater chain, usually worked quite well.

I forget who made the "SPL802" but I think I may still have one or two. Worked OK.

Decca had a clone - some of the engineers went off and produced a copy, the "Telpro" chassis., I believe sold on a club, but some came out of the back door into my patch. Just the same. Same modification, snip a wire from the harness and put a wire loose direct across the middle of the chassis. The usual model met with rejoiced in the name of "Hamilton Carnival". Smaller size, 20 or 22". Same N+4 interference. A bad batch of sound output valves got into production and many died young. I believe I still have the red Telpro manual out back.

One of the CTVs I liked was the single standard hybrid ASA, the big one with the multiband tuner and key on-off button. Change the output for a PL519 type and they were pretty reliable, except when "...we were having our fish and chips and the vinegar bottle went over. Went BANG and such a nasty smell..." Which eminds me of the old selenium rectifiers, like the Thorn open EHT trays, dying. The lady of the house once said "...I'm sorry about he dog, he's old..."

LIke the time a big electrolytic exploded. Paper and foil shreds everywhere. "Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"

In the Philips sets, when it was on the same socket as a lamp and the bulb blew, the spike usually killed the BT106. I seem to remember adding/modifying the snubber network on the mains.
input? Too long in the tooth alas

Nice to meet you

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Old 3rd Oct 2010, 9:06 pm   #64
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

We also ended up with a few of those Telpro sets. My boss actually allowed me to borrow one over Christmas. I was not sorry to see it go back and working on them was no joy either. It beggars belief that someone could take and mess up a perfectly good design like the Bradford and produce this heap.
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Old 3rd Oct 2010, 9:54 pm   #65
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Hang on Simon! At least the PSU was easy to get at on the Telpro sets.

By the way, Lee (Hunts smoothing bomb) has got one in working order although it does need some work...
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Old 4th Oct 2010, 1:24 am   #66
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

The Philips G11. Yes I used a few yards of solder on this chassis but when it worked it was an excellent picture for its day.
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Old 5th Oct 2010, 8:52 am   #67
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Phelan View Post
GECs did give good results, but that dreadful double-sided print! Aaarrrggghhh!
Loved it! You unsoldered the component from the top of the chassis component side then simply pulled it off the board.

It sorted the men from the boys....

Regards, John.
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Old 5th Oct 2010, 10:19 am   #68
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Maybe I never wanted to grow up, John!

... unless understanding the circuit in one of these below was the better test ...
For picture and sound quality in that era, it has to be the Philips K70.

The G11 was good, once the stock faults were all sorted. For reliability and quality, I'd go for the Kuba Florence followed by the Korting hybrids.
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Old 5th Oct 2010, 10:35 am   #69
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Wow those Korting hybrids, terrific sets, we had loads of them on rental with Clydesdale!
I cannot think of a stock fault with them just an occasional valve, I think it must be one of my favourite sets along with the ITT KB CVC5.
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Old 5th Oct 2010, 12:54 pm   #70
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Hi
Nice to see this dormant thread re-opened.
The only downside of the Korting hybrid, which was probably why they were so reliable, was the thumping great thermistor in the heater chain that meant a very long warm-up time - especially when Mr Jones next door had a new-fangled G8! I'm not sure, but did the Baird badged Kortings have a " modification" to help that?
The last of the hybrids certainly could give the solid states a run for their money - witness the Rediffusion Mk1, Kuba Florence, CVC9 and the Saba hybrid. Not quite so sure about the Pye 697, unless you compare it with a 741...
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Old 5th Oct 2010, 1:06 pm   #71
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

the korting was very good indeed lovely colours and sound that is one of the best valve sets as well for me as well as the ITT CVC 5 ETC
i think the korting beats the ITT just by a wisper.
The best solid state set despite some of its pitfalls and that awful frame stage and 1 component in the power stage is the G11 what a great and capable set closley follwed by the GEC2110 a proper modular chassis
of course their much better sets that the ones mentioned
but these are the ones i like best of all
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Old 5th Oct 2010, 4:46 pm   #72
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

One of my endearing memories was of a new Philips G6 on the bench for pre-delivery testing when I worked at Granada, the picture really was excellent and I remember thinking to myself "how could it get any better than this?"
I always had a soft spot for the G6's and found them to be quite reliable despite their complexity.
In more recent years (early 80's) I had a little Decca 14" "portable" jobbie, I can't remember the model, but 120 comes to mind? I used it for ages as a bench monitor for VCR repairs then it got relegated to my daughters bedroom, nothing special but just such a good, bright, pin-sharp picture and it never failed.
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Old 5th Oct 2010, 5:59 pm   #73
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chip-chop View Post
In more recent years (early 80's) I had a little Decca 14" "portable" jobbie, I can't remember the model, but 120 comes to mind? I used it for ages as a bench monitor for VCR repairs then it got relegated to my daughters bedroom, nothing special but just such a good, bright, pin-sharp picture and it never failed.
Hi Chip Chop,
This was the bench monitor I used for VCR repairs from 1990 to the present time. The set was made in 1982. I'd say it is one of my favourite CTVs. It needs a good clean, just look at that dust.

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Old 5th Oct 2010, 6:09 pm   #74
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Ah the Philips G6.

A little before my time for servicing but I do remember a wealthy aunt of mine had one from new, when she bought an updated one because the G6 had gone wrong she gave it to my grandparents. In fact only the mains fuse had failed and I replaced it and it worked. Even on an indoor aerial on the 2nd floor of a block of flats in Kensington London.

But my grandparents would let me use it because they only had a black and white licence and were afraid of being caught.

I dont know what happened to the set after that.

The first colour set we had was when I built the 1979 Television magazine one but it didn't last too long.

Favourite TV? I really dont know, I made my money in the 1990's servicing Sony's Panas and the likes, though I wouldn't have liked them. For sheer quality the B&O sets with the 30AX tube were amongst the best especially the stereo ones.
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Old 5th Oct 2010, 6:35 pm   #75
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Hi Furnseh - yes that's the one, a cracking little telly.

What is the model? (my memory has gone AWOL l!)
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Old 5th Oct 2010, 7:06 pm   #76
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Hi Chip Chop,
The DeccaColour TV is the model DP9257. It's the remote control version using the 121 chassis.
Way back in 1990 the original CRT failed and it was replaced with a Hitachi tube that was removed from a damaged ITT 16" portable TV.

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Old 5th Oct 2010, 9:06 pm   #77
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Thanks for that, The one I has was a 14" non remote but looked the same.
I think (would assume) the model number was very similar.
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Old 5th Oct 2010, 9:29 pm   #78
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tazman1966 View Post
Hang on Simon! At least the PSU was easy to get at on the Telpro sets.

By the way, Lee (Hunts smoothing bomb) has got one in working order although it does need some work...
Yes but that was there only good point. Bristol Wireless in Bath were the Decca agency so we were well use to the Bradford chassis, by comparison the Telpro was a very poor imitation. Even so I would like to see Hunts smooothing bombs set just for the memories.
At Radio rentals we saw lots of those Korting Hybrids, I can remember how slow they were to warm up but the pictures on them were very good but tube life was poor. I rememeber that we use to do a mod on the crt heater circuit to extend the life of the crt. Oh GEC2110 I am sure that these sets used a transistorised sound output but it did sound good, the valve line up was PCL805 Frame osc/output, PCF802 Line osc, PL519 and PY500A for the line output. The cda panel was a small sub panel which used transistors.
BTW I was pleasantly surprised to see this thread back after 5-6 years in the wilderness.
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Old 6th Oct 2010, 2:14 pm   #79
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

Hi
I think our definition of favourite sets would be a little different to our customers'. We want one that's predictable in its fault patterns, easy to repair, gives a good performance and is quite reliable.
Reliability is paramount for customers and the picture quality is quite a way down the list. Nowadays I'm happy enough to see a Vestel set come in as it's probably quite an easy repair. However if a genuine JVC, say, arrives I'm a bit worried as it's unlikely to be simple. But that doesn't mean I hold much affection for the Turkish sets.
And Chip-Chop - what do you mean it couldn't get better than the G6? It didn't!!
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Old 6th Oct 2010, 3:25 pm   #80
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Default Re: Favourite Colour tv's

From a purely commercial point of view I liked the first Granada/GEC solid state colour sets, each section was on a seperate panel which made for very easy/quick servicing. I had about 150 of them out on rent at one time and used to carry a box of panels in the car. I could usually be in and out in 10 minutes - unless I had to change a tripler. I only scrapped the last one in 09! Still have a couple of boxes of panels for them if anyone would like them.

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