TV & Radio Rental Companies

[slidertogrid]

Wasn't it the early version that used the single chip decoder and the later one that used the two chip?
I agree with the other comments though the later varicap sets had a poor picture compared with the earlier models.

[Welsh Anorak]

Yes - the early version had an SL901 and the later used the SL917 as well. As you say, the two-chip one didn't perform as well which wasn't saying much. To my eye the colours were brick, green and blue.
The rare Z179 used a two-chip decoder (SL901/918) which did give a good picture, so the ICs aren't the culprits.

[FERNSEH]

Heatercathodeshort wrote: "The 718 was more reliable but for some reason I saw very few of these in S.W.19. I think they were all shipped to Newcastle for David to play with"

Hi John,
same here, my shop didn't buy in many Z718 sets. A few 18" Bush BC6100 sets and likewise the 22" and 26" models. These were the sets that employed Toshiba in-line CRTs. However, in order to keep myself busy I bought in loads the awful T20 and T22 models which were equipped with the power hungry 20AX CRT.
From the customers point of view it made sense to rent these sets.
In 1979 20" T20 models were replaced by the excellent Toshiba designed models, RRI designated the chassis as the T24 which was apart from the RRI made varicap tuner based on the super reliable Toshiba X53B chassis.
Very few 30AX CRT T26 models were made.

DFWB.

[Welsh Anorak]

...and even fewer had good tubes a couple of years down the line. Triplers and dry joints were favourite on the few I saw, and you had to remember the PSU gave out 160V, not the 200v of the T20.
The Z718 was a good 18" with an excellent picture (Toshiba CRT, of course) but the stick rectifier in the large screen sets was a bit of an accident waiting to happen. A customer had a very early text version.
We looked after loads of the T22 series - 910 ohm and 1 ohm wirewound, mains switch/volume control, tripler and BU208A would cover most on-site repairs. But tripping, EW or frame faults could mean a long stay in the workshop. Oddly enough the PSU wasn't too bad in these - and by coincidence I've just found one in the garage!
Besides the 36k resistor and the tuner, the T24 was a rare sight in the workshop.

[FERNSEH]

"The Z718 was a good 18" with an excellent picture (Toshiba CRT, of course) but the stick rectifier in the large screen sets was a bit of an accident waiting to happen. A customer had a very early text version."
That'll been the Bush BC6333, the set equipped with the Tifax decoder.

DFWB.

[Vectamart]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

I wonder - did any of the larger department-stores ever do TV rentals? I could understand how this might have made sense for the 'upmarket' department-store chains to offer TV rentals in the early days when a TV was a major luxury and _buying_ a TV would involve spending six months' wages for someone in a 'lower-white-collar' job, but probably wouldn't have been a good place to be once TV became a more-established thing in the mid-1950s.

The Co-Op? Did they ever rent-out "Defiant" TVs??

It's worth remembering that in the 1950s the Governments-of-the-day would use crude economic levers - like requiring a year's upfront payment - to 'throttle' demand for rental/hire-purchase goods if they thought the economy was overheating.

"Stop-Go" was the name of the game back then.

There were also regular changes in the corporate tax-liability assessment of the asset-value/depreciation of "TVs that were rented-out" - the chancellor-of-the-day could wave his quill and turn a rental-company's impressive assets into horrible tax-liabilities in an afternoon.

[I'm just as fascinated by the socioeconomics/politics of the UK electronics-industry as by the technical aspects].

When I was buying ex rental sets for re-renting out and selling as reconditioned sets, a large percentage were Co-op and Defiant badged sets. Many of the monochrome sets were Rank A640s and their single-standard equivalent A793. The CTVs were mainly Rank A823s.