B & W sets over 16" after 1980

[Richard_FM]

I remember about 20 years ago Cash Converters in Stockport had a B & W set that had at least an 18" screen. The style of the case was late 1970s early 1980s.

This had me wondering when the last large sized B & W screened sets were made.

By the mid 1980s it seemed to be rare to have any monochrome sets over 16", as they were mostly second sets for kitchens & bedrooms by that point.

[Tazman1966]

I remember Dixons doing a 17" monochrome set under the Prinztronic name well into the 80s

[AJSmith625]

Yes Dixons did sell a set of this type under their own brand Prinztronic or it could have been Prinzvision. I'm pretty certain it was made by Eastern European manufacturer Iskra.

Alan.

[1955APREN]

I seem to remember a 17ins plustron always had dry joints on reg transistor
Derrick

[AJSmith625]

Have just found this-
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/plustr...tron_tv17.html

Alan.

[Maarten]

Plustron looks to me like import from the Far East. Philips produced 24" sets in portugal up to the mid 1980's. Polish, Czech, East German and probably Yugoslav 24" sets were produced up to at least around 1990. I think there have been threads about this before.

[Synchrodyne]

Originally Posted by Maarten

I think there have been threads about this before.

Yes - for example see: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=69946

[D Cassidy]

There was a 20 inch Cap-10 sold from a Scottish rental company in the early 80's it had a rotary UHF tuner.

[FERNSEH]

Originally Posted by D Cassidy

There was a 20 inch Cap-10 sold from a Scottish rental company in the early 80's it had a rotary UHF tuner.

In the mid '80s I bought a good number of 20" Cap10 sets for rental. The sets were made in Taiwan and were most likely made by Tatung.
Never had any problems with them.

DFWB.

[unitaudio]

Ferguson still had 20" and 22" b&w sets in their 1981 catalogue. I've got it somewhere but I've not seen it for years.

Regards,
Paul

[Richard_FM]

Thanks for the feedback.

I heard that some rental companies could switch off the colour circuits of rental sets for customers who only wanted a B&W licence.

[G6Tanuki]

I remember having one of those Plustrons as a computer-monitor for my Elektor "Junior" back in about 1983.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

I heard that some rental companies could switch off the colour circuits of rental sets for customers who only wanted a B&W licence.

I never encountered that particular ploy myself, but what we were often asked to do was to disable the tuner in TV sets and VHS machines for use in promotions in department stores etc.

[slidertogrid]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

I heard that some rental companies could switch off the colour circuits of rental sets for customers who only wanted a B&W licence.

We did this for some people who wanted to rent a mono set in the late 1980's early 1990's it meant they could have a remote control mono set and enabled us to provide one cheap as it was an older colour set that had already paid for itself. We just shorted out the crystal to stop the ref osc the convergence had to be good though!
A popular choice was a 20" PIL tube Panasonic ISTR...

[jayceebee]

D.E.R. were still supplying customers with new 24" mono sets in the early 80s. Surprisingly they weren't Thorn but a solid state Philips chassis badged as PYE, I not sure but I think they were manufactured in Spain. Not very reliable or long service life either.

John.

[thermionic]

Does anyone know when Rediffusion stopped producing their own monochrome chassis?

I was wondering if they continued production of large screen sets into the 1980’s to satisfy their rental demand.


SimonT.

[Welsh Anorak]

We inherited a couple of rental B&W sets when the owners were unwilling to own colour TVs. It turned out this wasn't due to finances, but the local hospital telloing people who had had cataract operations that colour TV was bad for their eyes. This was soon disproved, of course, but the myth stuck.
Ironically, when these sets had given up the ghost, we supplied KT3s with the crystal shorted out as mentioned above, which would have rendered any perceived optical benefit null and void!
The last large screen mono sets I saw were some ponderous Unitra/Iskras with terrible tubes. Before that Philips and Pye were the only European manufacturers. Prinz and the bizarrely named Cap10 with their American styled rotary tuner did quite well. We serviced one for an old lady who had one as 'it was the only British set I could find'! Goodness knows what the salesman had said, but I hadn't the heart to disillusion her...

[Richard_FM]

Would a monochrome monitor used on CCTV systems connected to a Freeview box be valid for use with a b&w licence?

Doing some looking online, these seem to be the few ways to have a way to view TV on a device without colour apart from using a second hand B&W TV.

[hamid_1]

RE: the black and white TV licence. Yes you can use a monochrome CCTV monitor connected to a digibox, however the digibox must not be able to record TV programmes (recording in colour requires a colour TV licence, even if you only watch in black and white).

Amazingly, there was a factory in China (where else?) still producing 17" black and white televisions well into this century (early 2000s). I don't think any of them were sold in Europe - there are no CE markings on them. Hangzhou Television Factory no.2 used the brand name JINLIPU on their products. The website jinlipu.com disappeared several years ago. Presumably the factory has now shut down, but an old website showing some of their models has been left up:
https://jinliputv.en.ec21.com/

I also came across a YouTube video of a 17 inch Jinlipu black and white TV sadly being destroyed, but at least you can see what was inside the cabinet. I've attached a few pictures of what must be the last ever large-screen monochrome TVs.

Back in the 1980s there were a number of large-screen B/W TVs available here. The Ferguson 3850 and 3852 (Thorn 1615) were still around in the early 80s, along with the Philips E2 and L7 chassis sets. I had a 20" Pye branded Philips L7 in the late 1980s, but disposed of it in a house move. Subsequently fellow forum member Welsh Anorak donated me another example which I restored and used as my main TV for more than a year. See https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?p=346580

Another set that I also briefly had in the 1980s was the Iskra TV37 "galaxy", seen here: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...0&postcount=17
Again, I've since acquired another example. This TV was made in Slovenia (former Yugoslavia). It has a 17 inch screen, carrying handle and aerial socket on the top, and can run from mains or 12v DC.

There's a somewhat mysterious CiHAN branded 17 inch portable which I picked up a few years ago. See here:
https://vintage-radio.net/forum/show...0&postcount=60
I think it dates from 1980. I'm still not exactly sure who manufactured it, but I recently found a photo of another early '80s portable called Cap10 - there's more than a passing resemblance. (Photo of Cap10 attached.)
Those 17 inch semi-portable black and white TVs enjoyed a brief flourish of popularity in the early 1980s. There were other similar sets too, with names such as Prinzsound and Plustron - I wonder if there are any left?

[MALC SCOTT]

The final production run of the Rediffusion Mk13 mono chassis was late 1979.
MU2031, MU2431, Malc.