I was a teenager of the 80s and your comments about “instant on” resonates with me. Ironic that my modern 60 inch LCD has a boot up splash screen that takes around 15 seconds to eventually show a proper channel.
While I wasn't a teen until the 90s, we did have a few older sets when I was a kid in the 80s, so I remember those warm-up times as well, though they were far quicker than what I assume people had to deal with in the decades prior... and yes, even the 4K TV I use as my PC monitor has its own splash screen... definitely a bit annoying 😅
I used it on my parent's 19" set as a teen to record tv show theme songs. "This is Jim Rockford, when you hear the beep, leave a message. Oh, I thought this was dial a joke. I'm going to a party and needed some icebreakers So I guess ... that's that" Queue theme music
When shango is talking about cleaning out TVs, that's usually when he's working on one of his famous "resurrection" sets. Those particular sets are in such a fine balance, from sitting outside in the desert for literal drcades, that an air dusting or brush could feasibly break a corroded wire or circuit trace very easily. A "normal", or otherwise not abused/neglected, set can handle a proper cleaning.
Right. Always amusing to find smack talk about how he isn’t cleaning every inch with a tooth brush like an ASMR channel. He’s pretty clear that a lot of people want him to vet that it’s possible to get a vintage set fully restored or that he’s messing around and only delaying a sets landfill days. Great content, love when he mentions the smells.
it's just a timebomb then, if it breaks it's good it happens so it can be fixed, IMHO better keep things clean, dust can be as dangerous as anything else for components
@@lordmuaddib I agree, much as I love Shango, it annoys me he leaves them full of dirt. If it can't survive a soft brush, just as you say, it needs attention.
That reminds me of watching TV in the lounge room with my dad & brother, then mum storms in, kind of throwing down the gauntlet, "I'll wankel you", obviously miss understanding what we were saying, then the look on her face as we ended up in fits of laughter. I think she then retreated realising her foe par
I would definitely recommend you for taking a look at the power supply caps. At least make sure if the voltages are dead on before passing that tv. The caps on 60's and 70's japanese products are garbage, I'm sure some of them are open or high esr.
You've got to push in the fine tune knobs on those old Sonys. My parents had a 13" from '73 or so, complete with wood-grain sides etc. Otherwise the controls were identical to your little 9" set. Lots of nostalgia in seeing the channel indicator lights turn on.
That was true for most rotary tuners. Each channel had a tuning coil so when you pushed the center knob in, you engaged the knob gear to the tuning coil gear.
I bet there was an external VHF/UHF antenna sitting on top of the TV. The scratches are probably from rotating the entire antenna base to try and improve reception
I picked one of these up in the 80s at a garage sale, same model. All it had was a bight horizontal line so vertical amp was out. Had no service manual. Replaced both the T03's by the VH board as one of them was literally whining and hot. After that boom, perfect trinitron picture. Gave it to my mom for her office, she was really happy.
I have a 12in Trinitron from the same year. It has the same front knobs, and those channel changers are so satisfyingly chunky. Almost perfect condition, but similarly weak picture tube.
Those cord interlocks were so the average owner couldn't power the set with the cover off. I think it was called an interlock cord. Mainly needed for tube sets since there's not much a user to fix on solid state TVs. Technicians would have a "cheater" cord to power the set.
Given that you have disabled the "quick start" feature by removing a wire from the power switch, you might measure the CRT filament voltage, to be sure it's not low. A cathode that isn't hot enough could be part of the reason for the lack of brightness.
That’s a good idea. I was wondering why the working wattage he had it up to (50 Watts) was short 25 Watts of what it was rated for when he read the specs. Might be due to that.
Hi, I bought one of these from an electronics scrapper just a few weeks ago! The manufacturing date is April 1975 and it does turn on and seems to work fine. I haven't plugged in a modulator yet but hopefully it will have a decent picture. Mine has the original omega shaped UHF receiver and the main antenna works well!
My first TV in my 1st apartment bought a 15” Trinitron with the most incredible picture. It was my bedroom set every night well into the late ‘90s. And yeah it was a brick.
CRT's definitely have advantages over modern display technologies, but that being said, not every CRT is great, and not every SONY is a decent set. The fact that it has a watchable picture, has awesome vintage style, and STILL works after all these years makes it a WIN. My opinion only of course.
@@brad3042 Very few. Practically zero input lag because you just need to control the electron beam and the yoke, instead of having to process every pixel. Beautiful colors and black levels. And they are not limited by random resolutions, unlike the set number of pixels on a modern TV. That would be it; they cannot be made larger due to geometry and weight issues, use lots of power, contain lead, are costly to make, and people don't want to pay to fix them anymore. $30 to fix an old CRT TV sounds like a scam to people when they can just buy another one for not much more.
The 1st trinitron was all solid state except for the high voltage rectifier - which was still a vacuum tube. They figured the tube would not likely fail so the big SOLID STATE badge was slapped on the front. I believe 70 or 71 was the year they went to a completely solid state (including the high voltage rectifier) There were some instant on versions of the trinitron, but the EconoQuick CRTs had a fast warmup time due to the different cathode design than the traditional tubes. They were supposed to show a picture within 5 seconds of power on - though full emission wasn't available until about 10 seconds.
I have one of those and I used to take it every where I worked but now its on a shelf with a bunch of other vintage TVs that go back to 1946 and they all work.
There is a channel that has old films of just that, yes pre video tape. I think its called something like (EDIT) computer history archives project (here on youtube)
The labor cost of assembling these sets is one of the reasons Sony's cost so much more back in the day. Very complicated sets much more so than the usual TV sets of the period. There were many television shops that would not work on Sony's and others that specialized in them. You could think of Sony as similar to a modern Mercedes-Benz automobile. A quality product that definitely cost more then many of its contemporaries. Unfortunately some of the complexities only added to the repair costs when required. Mercedes-Benz cars have over 100 microcontrollers in various functions all talking to each other. This not only causes complexity in troubleshooting but also in a greater number of failures. Smart people never buy a Mercedes out of warranty as it is not uncommon to find one with dozens of codes set in the computer due to failures of the microcontrollers or what they control. Over engineering is nice but it can be later on very expensive to repair.
I used to have a 13" Sony Trinitron with a wood case. My father bought it as a 12th birthday present for me in 1972. It was a model KV1320UB. It was still working in 2005 when I gave it to my gardener.
When I was little, I remember my friend had one of those in her room. Sometimes when I would sleep over on a friday, we'd wake up the next morning to watch cartoons on it. Good memories!
having one of those cliff quicktest testers like bigclive has would come in handy for stuff like this. and they are much safer than your wago cord. Also, what's the model number on your test pattern generator?
I believe Adrian uses a Sencore VG91. Shango also has one, and maybe JPDylon too so they're definitely on the "approved" list. Finding one for a decent price though...? And +1 on the quicktest idea.
Funny nobody picked on you saying that this model isn't much "older" than the very first Trinitron from '68 ;) Echoing what others said about the caps. I know it's easy for me to say "just change the caps!" when I'm not the one who will be dealing with that usually busy early multi-PCB design - but give it a shot if you've got time and it should help those colors pop right out again.
I don't even qualify as a 90s kid by most people's standards, but my grandparents had a circa 1974 Zenith TV that sat in their living room for many years and I recall that they always turned it on about 10 minutes before they actually planned to sit down and watch it (if possible) because it took an _eternity_ to reach its full brightness for some reason.
@@niek024 On that particular set, absolutely. You would hear sound almost immediately after powering it on, but the actual picture wouldn't come in until about 20-30 seconds later and it was extremely dim until about 2-3 minutes later.
@@classiccomputers6211 That may very well have been true, I haven't seen that set since at least about 2008-2009 so I assume it's long gone. All I know is they were reluctant to upgrade until HDTV became more widespread and they finally had a reason to because that old TV was always "good enough" for them. I recall it was pretty fuzzy and dim even once it was warmed up, so it wouldn't shock me if it was on death's door for years and just never fully gave out.
There's no problem blowing out one of these. The old tube stuff might have paper caps that will disintegrate or asbestos you don't want blowing around. The plugs are security plugs and no, they're not critical. We used to drill a little screw in them and rip them out. Picture looks like it needs to be degaussed. I don't care what Sam's says I would try that first. You can even do it with a large magnet or tape eraser. TV has probably been knocked over onto it's right side at some point. I think one of the wires you left disconnected was the degaussing coil. Tube is weak. Probably from instant on feature. Did you try adjusting the screen control on the flyback? You might get it a little brighter. I wouldn't have mucked with the neck board. PSU needs caps. I would start there. I definitely wouldn't change every cap in the set - that's a waste of time on solid state era stuff. This thing doesn't have any paper caps.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this directly inspired the Macintosh and Mac Colour Classic designs (that one used a trinitron tube much like this). You can see the slight wedge shape on the back of the chassis, and the “barrel” shape to the front because of the shape of the trinitron. Very nice find Adrian!
I have the predecessor to that set/form factor, the KV-9000U. You didn't have to take out the trim clips, just remove the screws and knobs and the whole case comes off. Oh well, it's done now.
This reminded me of a television repair shop in my small home town that around 1980 or 1981 put up a sign in their window that said (using a racial slur) that they did *not* repair Japanese sets.
Funny how they made tube TVs with a quick on feature because people were so impatient they didn't want to wait for the picture to come on, but now with flat screen TVs it takes them 10-15 seconds to get a picture because the little computers in them need time to boot up and show all the splash screens. We've progressed backwards!
LOL. 24:19 "Here we go! It might blow up!" Lol. Luv It! When I used to see the green around the corner edges of the CRT on old T.V.s like this, I used to think the CRT was going bad. Hmmm, well that might be partially true. Would it?
About the arrows pointing to the screws: Sony still does that. I never knew that! I have a DAB+ radio here, yeah, with those arrows pointing to screws you can remove! Great!
Had one of these back in the day, looked ahead of its time, seems that I had mine before 1976 and had a circular antenna if I remember correctly, it was built like a tank.
Capacitors always the problem with old hardware, suggest replacing them as others suggested. Also suggest cleaning the TV, as Dust and Old electronics causes house fires.
@@ct6502c I was born a few months after something called Watergate. But on a good note, Blazing Saddles was #1 at the box office and Band On The Run was still on the charts. :)
Wow this took me back. I had to fix one of these in the late 70's. The owner gave it to me because it made a scary popping sound. The high voltage transformer or "flyback" was arcing to the chassis. I fixed it by putting some rubber strips and sealing them with anti arc paste on the side of the transformer. It fixed the TV and it had a terrific picture for the time. It worked for years...I wonder what happened to it?
Oh yes, I remember in '68 when my parents bought a new TV and it was "Instant On". The old sets would make a crackling sound when turned on if it was cold weather and a wait of a minute or more for the picture to swim into view.
We had one of these growing up .... I would talk mom into bringing this into the dinning room to watch TV while eating dinner We still have this somewhere. Yes there was a loop for the UHF ... the was screwed down
I love watching shango66. I actually found him accidentally thought his mine exploration channel where he was rescuing an old tv set from out in the desert.
What do you mean by late? We were using VHF since the early days of TV here. If you're referring to not going UHF-only, I don't see anything unusual about that. I thought it was only the UK that dropped VHF. In fact, the VHF TV channels are still used in the US for some digital channels.
The CRT heater elements were kept running in order to bring the CRT gun to full emission quicker than if started from cold. Solid state chassis designs, that drove the CRT's, could of start processing instantly, unlike previous thermionic valve (tube) designs which also had to come up to full emission, together with the thermionic CRT thus making "warm up times" seem like eons. The downside of preheat was that this prematurely aged the CRT as the electron gun was still emitting even at the lower heater supply.
Heh, my Vic20 (my first computer, which I still have) was rigged up to one of these (a donation from the family kitchen in 1982) via RF modulator and a barrel to antenna lead adapter. While I still have the Vic (which works perfectly all these decades later), I have no idea what happened to that TV. When I got my C=64, with matching monitor, the Vic went back into it's original packaging (which I also still have), but the TV totally disappeared (I have no memory of where it went next, though nobody threw out a Sony anything back in those days, so it probably went to my older brother, and then off to college with him). For all I know, that's my old TV in the video.
I have a late 70s zenith tv with a similar issue with the power/volume switch. I ended up just throwing a switch on the back of the tv to turn it on/off.
got inspired to look up the model of an old trinitron I had in the 90s that used that same tricolor logo, it was 20" Sony KV-1942R from 1979. thought before maybe I shouldn't have gotten rid of it but looks like it only had RF so not too bothered lol
It’s interesting seeing the way US antennas hooked up to the tv. The British antenna hookup was a round socket with a pin in the middle, and of course the corresponding female socket on the set itself.
Fun fact, keeping the filament on at a much lower voltage actually prolongs the life of the vacuum tube. They used to do this to the early vacuum tube computers, to cut down on tube failures.
One part is correct in one part is not. They did leave the tube filaments on to prevent failure due to inrush current. Unfortunately the engineers discovered later that the tubes were failing at a very high rate. This was caused by operating the tubes for long periods of time in standby mode without b+ voltage. Special computer tubes were developed that reduced or eliminated this effect. Many computers used 12ax7's or 12au7's and special 6000 or 7000 series tubes were developed that were exactly the same specification as the consumer tubes but with the special cathode that prevented poisoning. These are now sought after by the audio fools and bring sometimes extraordinary prices as they are seen as being superior for audio work.
@@randyab9go188 Ah, i did not know there was a separate design for those tubes. I always assumed they were the same tube. And i was basing some of what i said on other lighting solutions, which tend to last a much longer time if the power cycling is minimized.
@@randyab9go188 The fun part is .. they aren't. Those special cathodes are noticeable noisier, doesn't really matter in digital circuits, but is a disadvantage in audio applications. Long-life audio tubes from the time DID NOT HAVE THEM. And the noise reason was stated by the manufacturers.
Adrian, somebody else has hinted at this but have you checked to make sure that the CRT is receiving full heater voltage? When you were messing with the wires on the switch maybe you have it so the heater is in the reduced power mode, that would certainly explain it being a bit dim. And we saw earlier that the instant on wasn't working, so maybe that helped cut down on the cathode wear a bit.
Great video! I have a kv9000u? In my basement. I turned it on once and it started smoking a little bit. Seeing the internals of this guy makes me think I'll leave repairing these to the pros. I was scared when you were poking around in there because I don't remember seeing you discharge the set on camera! Adjustment while it's on is also a bit of a risky maneuver!
cool set! Hey what is the SAMs you talk about in the video? Iv heard reference to those on shangoes TV vids before too. "Schematic Analysis Manuals?" something like that? Did sams club use to service sets? Do you generally have to buy them or are they free? LOL sorry about the dumb question
If you can find one, get a Sencore 7000 CRT tester. It was the one of the last and arguably the best CRT tester ever made. The rejuvenation function is also recognized as one of the gentlest available. It has brought many a dead CRT back from the grave. It will rejuvenate computer, television, oscilloscope crt's and even vidicon tubes. They are now selling at a all time low prices as they are not seen to be useful anymore. The instant on feature of many of the older sets was one of the biggest CRT and tube killers. Some of the first computers also had an instant on function believe it or not. The filaments were left on for many hours without b+ voltage. Overtime this would poison cathodes and render the tube useless. Special tube types were developed to prevent this from happening. In the older tube manuals this was mentioned for the computer industrial types but I never remember seeing this feature mentioned for consumer tubes. The engineers of these products never imagined people 40 and 50 or 60 years in the future trying to resurrect these items. They were seen as consumables. Honestly I feel they would be surprised that these items actually survived that long.
Just remember that rejuvenators do not work well on Trinitron tubes. In-line guns respond well to a rejuvenator, but the Trinitron gun does not and it can make things worse.
Most times you can get out the inner segment of the antenna with a screw. Just tool a long one, screw it into the segment and pull it out. Had a lot of old TVs and radios on my bench, and I mostly managed to get out this thing that way :)
From what I understand, the "headphone jack" that keeps the TV speakers on is actually for a tape recorder, because my Sony TV-500U has the same looking connectors, but it has symbols on it, and the one has a little tape symbol
Being a child in the 70's that had a Black and White til early 77, I would have given anything to get a color TV even in the condition shown back in 1976.. Those small TVs were built to be moved quite a bit for reception back in the day..
I have an early 70s 9" RCA B&W salesman's sample television, built with a mix of tubes and solid state. Its power cord is also incorporated into the back cover, as a safety feature: The idea is that you can't keep the TV plugged in with the back cover removed, so you can't electrocute yourself while swapping tubes. Obviously the consumer wouldn't be working on this Sony like they would with my TV, but I guess Sony still held onto the idea with their early solid-state TVs.
A long time ago I had a hand-me-down battery-powered Sony TV that looked like that. And it was a brick as well. But what might have looked ugly and utilitarian back in the 70's now has the classic look of cool plastitronic design.
Not really. The first thing to fail would be the flyback. As long as that is good a complete cap change should restore it back to nearly full health, even if the tube is dim, which this one isn't, regardless of what he thinks. I've seen and fixed plenty that were worse, he's given up even before starting. Waste of time, give it to someone who knows what to do with it instead of hoarding it and complaining it isn't perfect LOL!
It's the cathodes, the phosphor always outlast the electron gun itself. And Trinitrons are really, really picky when it comes to rejuvenation, sometimes it works and others it just makes it worse.
@@GoldSrc_ Maybe. The point is the TV is not dead and it's not that dull. It's perfectly usable and a cap change should fix any geometry issues. For the amount of use it will get in the future it's just fine as-is with a bit of maintenance to the caps, adjusting the rings/yoke and possibly a light rejuv. The main issue is the wrong person has it.
@@johnbos4637 It's not "maybe", that's what happens. The cathode surface gets worn out way faster than the phosphor ever will, unless it happens that the deflection fails and he keeps using it while displaying a line, because that does burn up the phosphor. Replacing the caps is a very good idea, I had a KV-1201 that I had to replace practically every cap. As for rejuvenation, you do not want to do that to a Trinitron tube, the chances of doing nothing or making it worse are way higher, in-line electron guns do respond better than the Trinitron single gun design.
![Adrian's Digital Basement ][](http://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AIdro_k7CrQRe71qN6c0Ua7A1P_I8KkxjqLa70u0zYeCvdvnKw=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)
I was a teenager of the 80s and your comments about “instant on” resonates with me. Ironic that my modern 60 inch LCD has a boot up splash screen that takes around 15 seconds to eventually show a proper channel.
While I wasn't a teen until the 90s, we did have a few older sets when I was a kid in the 80s, so I remember those warm-up times as well, though they were far quicker than what I assume people had to deal with in the decades prior... and yes, even the 4K TV I use as my PC monitor has its own splash screen... definitely a bit annoying 😅
@@CanuckGodif it is a samsung tv then you can turn the splash off in the menu. I don't know about other brand because I don't have it.
The headphone socket without switching is there for hard of hearing people, so they can use headphones, but still have others listen to the TV set.
Yeah thats what I was thinking.
I used it on my parent's 19" set as a teen to record tv show theme songs.
"This is Jim Rockford, when you hear the beep, leave a message.
Oh, I thought this was dial a joke. I'm going to a party and needed some icebreakers
So I guess ... that's that"
Queue theme music
@@danman32 Lots of classic Doctor Who episodes actually survived only in audio form thanks to likeminded people, fun fact.
ah makes sense
I always wonder why airplanes have double pins for the headphone sockets then as well.
Any idea why?
The scratches on the top panel were likely made by a rabbit ears antenna base being rotated over many years!
@Cindy SparkleFarts Don't forget the rolled up tinfoil!
Yup.
I was thinking the same thing
same thing I thought
Yep, first thing that came to mind when I saw that :)
When shango is talking about cleaning out TVs, that's usually when he's working on one of his famous "resurrection" sets. Those particular sets are in such a fine balance, from sitting outside in the desert for literal drcades, that an air dusting or brush could feasibly break a corroded wire or circuit trace very easily.
A "normal", or otherwise not abused/neglected, set can handle a proper cleaning.
Right. Always amusing to find smack talk about how he isn’t cleaning every inch with a tooth brush like an ASMR channel.
He’s pretty clear that a lot of people want him to vet that it’s possible to get a vintage set fully restored or that he’s messing around and only delaying a sets landfill days.
Great content, love when he mentions the smells.
it's just a timebomb then, if it breaks it's good it happens so it can be fixed, IMHO better keep things clean, dust can be as dangerous as anything else for components
It's kinda why I am sticking to LCD/LED TVs even for retro, I don't have space nor nerves to fix those old bricks :)
@@HoboVibingToMusic You have to know the old sets are better built then todays throw away sets.
@@lordmuaddib I agree, much as I love Shango, it annoys me he leaves them full of dirt. If it can't survive a soft brush, just as you say, it needs attention.
My wife just thought you introduced this by saying "Hello everyone and welcome back to Adrian's Sexual Basement 2", and now I can't unhear that.
That reminds me of watching TV in the lounge room with my dad & brother, then mum storms in, kind of throwing down the gauntlet, "I'll wankel you", obviously miss understanding what we were saying, then the look on her face as we ended up in fits of laughter. I think she then retreated realising her foe par
I would definitely recommend you for taking a look at the power supply caps. At least make sure if the voltages are dead on before passing that tv. The caps on 60's and 70's japanese products are garbage, I'm sure some of them are open or high esr.
Yes
what do you mean doc? all the best stuff is made in japan
@@Themaxleydogtrue in the late 70's and 80's
@@Themaxleydog 70's japan capacitors didn't age well. Same with potentiometers.
Replaced dozens to make sony and hitachi tv's work well.
@@Themaxleydog unbelievable!
That’s the model my grandparents had in the back bedroom when I was a kid. Cool!
"Adrian's Analog" sounds pretty catchy. It's analogous to your first channel, and now you have analog equipment too!
I see what you did there.
Mr. Adrian, your mission if you choose to accept it, is bring this television back to life.
Right off the bat: points off for locating potentiometers on the top of the unit (6:40) - heat rising from the CRT will probably toast 'em!
dang nice beard
The Sony Trinitron was one of the very few products that was clearly superior to any of its competition.
I used to point out that not only was the color more accurate but you could read the small text on the screen.
I own a bunch of these earlier Sony's.
You've got to push in the fine tune knobs on those old Sonys. My parents had a 13" from '73 or so, complete with wood-grain sides etc. Otherwise the controls were identical to your little 9" set. Lots of nostalgia in seeing the channel indicator lights turn on.
I second this. I came to the comments section just to say the same thing.
That was true for most rotary tuners. Each channel had a tuning coil so when you pushed the center knob in, you engaged the knob gear to the tuning coil gear.
I bet there was an external VHF/UHF antenna sitting on top of the TV. The scratches are probably from rotating the entire antenna base to try and improve reception
I picked one of these up in the 80s at a garage sale, same model. All it had was a bight horizontal line so vertical amp was out. Had no service manual. Replaced both the T03's by the VH board as one of them was literally whining and hot. After that boom, perfect trinitron picture. Gave it to my mom for her office, she was really happy.
"Let's see what happens (fingers on power switch)... Oh, before we do that..." What a heart-stopping cliffhanger!
I have a 12in Trinitron from the same year. It has the same front knobs, and those channel changers are so satisfyingly chunky. Almost perfect condition, but similarly weak picture tube.
Those cord interlocks were so the average owner couldn't power the set with the cover off. I think it was called an interlock cord. Mainly needed for tube sets since there's not much a user to fix on solid state TVs.
Technicians would have a "cheater" cord to power the set.
wasnt it the cheater cord?
I have this old vintage radio that the cord comes off with the cardboardish wooden back
If it were woodgrain I'd watch this on LGR instead right now probably 🤣
In some cases, the back cover and cabinet are in one.🤗
Adrian's Analog Basement, is actually not a bad name for a second channel 😆 though I could see why keeping the "2" moniker makes sense.
yep. nothing digital at all about this TV. Still awesome content, though. I hope Adrian never stops.
@@sweintz agreed
Adrian's Analog Attic is better
I have this TV os amazing! 1975
Given that you have disabled the "quick start" feature by removing a wire from the power switch, you might measure the CRT filament voltage, to be sure it's not low. A cathode that isn't hot enough could be part of the reason for the lack of brightness.
That’s a good idea. I was wondering why the working wattage he had it up to (50 Watts) was short 25 Watts of what it was rated for when he read the specs. Might be due to that.
Hi, I bought one of these from an electronics scrapper just a few weeks ago! The manufacturing date is April 1975 and it does turn on and seems to work fine. I haven't plugged in a modulator yet but hopefully it will have a decent picture. Mine has the original omega shaped UHF receiver and the main antenna works well!
My first TV in my 1st apartment bought a 15” Trinitron with the most incredible picture. It was my bedroom set every night well into the late ‘90s. And yeah it was a brick.
Nice little unit. Someone is gonna love running their C64 in a dark room on this thanks to your little repair.
I wasn’t born until September 1976! I did have a KV2060UB Sony tv back in the day. Weighed a ton, but built like a tank. Great video as always
CRT's definitely have advantages over modern display technologies, but that being said, not every CRT is great, and not every SONY is a decent set. The fact that it has a watchable picture, has awesome vintage style, and STILL works after all these years makes it a WIN. My opinion only of course.
What are the advantages?
@@brad3042 Very few.
Practically zero input lag because you just need to control the electron beam and the yoke, instead of having to process every pixel.
Beautiful colors and black levels.
And they are not limited by random resolutions, unlike the set number of pixels on a modern TV.
That would be it; they cannot be made larger due to geometry and weight issues, use lots of power, contain lead, are costly to make, and people don't want to pay to fix them anymore.
$30 to fix an old CRT TV sounds like a scam to people when they can just buy another one for not much more.
The 1st trinitron was all solid state except for the high voltage rectifier - which was still a vacuum tube. They figured the tube would not likely fail so the big SOLID STATE badge was slapped on the front.
I believe 70 or 71 was the year they went to a completely solid state (including the high voltage rectifier)
There were some instant on versions of the trinitron, but the EconoQuick CRTs had a fast warmup time due to the different cathode design than the traditional tubes. They were supposed to show a picture within 5 seconds of power on - though full emission wasn't available until about 10 seconds.
What a beautiful set. Love the style.
I have one of those and I used to take it every where I worked but now its on a shelf with a bunch of other vintage TVs that go back to 1946 and they all work.
I wish we had some footage of this TV being assembled!
There is a channel that has old films of just that, yes pre video tape. I think its called something like (EDIT) computer history archives project (here on youtube)
The labor cost of assembling these sets is one of the reasons Sony's cost so much more back in the day. Very complicated sets much more so than the usual TV sets of the period. There were many television shops that would not work on Sony's and others that specialized in them. You could think of Sony as similar to a modern Mercedes-Benz automobile. A quality product that definitely cost more then many of its contemporaries. Unfortunately some of the complexities only added to the repair costs when required. Mercedes-Benz cars have over 100 microcontrollers in various functions all talking to each other. This not only causes complexity in troubleshooting but also in a greater number of failures. Smart people never buy a Mercedes out of warranty as it is not uncommon to find one with dozens of codes set in the computer due to failures of the microcontrollers or what they control. Over engineering is nice but it can be later on very expensive to repair.
I used to have a 13" Sony Trinitron with a wood case. My father bought it as a 12th birthday present for me in 1972. It was a model KV1320UB. It was still working in 2005 when I gave it to my gardener.
When I was little, I remember my friend had one of those in her room. Sometimes when I would sleep over on a friday, we'd wake up the next morning to watch cartoons on it.
Good memories!
any chance that leaving the quickstart wire off, affects the heater voltage?
Ha! It has an interlock!
Thought that was a thing of the 50s-60s
I was ten. I also have a 17 inch trinitron monitor from 99 that came with a Gateway computer. Still has amazing picture.
How much to ship it.
Those knobs are super cool.
having one of those cliff quicktest testers like bigclive has would come in handy for stuff like this. and they are much safer than your wago cord. Also, what's the model number on your test pattern generator?
I believe Adrian uses a Sencore VG91. Shango also has one, and maybe JPDylon too so they're definitely on the "approved" list. Finding one for a decent price though...? And +1 on the quicktest idea.
From what I understand, the "DIP" you found at 15:06 refers to the wave soldering direction for that PCB.
that's a gorgeous TV
Love it, man! More CRT content!
I have the same tv wish I could have seen him break it down more.
The CRT is worn. I understood that probably after the fifth mention. Perhaps I should have made a drinking game out of that....
Funny nobody picked on you saying that this model isn't much "older" than the very first Trinitron from '68 ;) Echoing what others said about the caps. I know it's easy for me to say "just change the caps!" when I'm not the one who will be dealing with that usually busy early multi-PCB design - but give it a shot if you've got time and it should help those colors pop right out again.
From my vague memories from the 70's, old TVs could take many minutes to be fully on, so I get why a 'quick start' would be a nice feature.
I don't even qualify as a 90s kid by most people's standards, but my grandparents had a circa 1974 Zenith TV that sat in their living room for many years and I recall that they always turned it on about 10 minutes before they actually planned to sit down and watch it (if possible) because it took an _eternity_ to reach its full brightness for some reason.
@@AliceC993 Yeah, you really had to plan way ahead. Did the sound come on before the image? I'm not sure...
@@niek024 On that particular set, absolutely. You would hear sound almost immediately after powering it on, but the actual picture wouldn't come in until about 20-30 seconds later and it was extremely dim until about 2-3 minutes later.
@@AliceC993 sounds like an extremely weak CRT, that isn't normal operation for sure
@@classiccomputers6211 That may very well have been true, I haven't seen that set since at least about 2008-2009 so I assume it's long gone. All I know is they were reluctant to upgrade until HDTV became more widespread and they finally had a reason to because that old TV was always "good enough" for them. I recall it was pretty fuzzy and dim even once it was warmed up, so it wouldn't shock me if it was on death's door for years and just never fully gave out.
There's no problem blowing out one of these. The old tube stuff might have paper caps that will disintegrate or asbestos you don't want blowing around.
The plugs are security plugs and no, they're not critical. We used to drill a little screw in them and rip them out.
Picture looks like it needs to be degaussed. I don't care what Sam's says I would try that first. You can even do it with a large magnet or tape eraser. TV has probably been knocked over onto it's right side at some point. I think one of the wires you left disconnected was the degaussing coil.
Tube is weak. Probably from instant on feature. Did you try adjusting the screen control on the flyback? You might get it a little brighter. I wouldn't have mucked with the neck board.
PSU needs caps. I would start there. I definitely wouldn't change every cap in the set - that's a waste of time on solid state era stuff. This thing doesn't have any paper caps.
You need to push the fine tuning knob in to engage the mechanism.
Yep... he's too young to know this I guess! (Although he's only like 2 years younger than me).
@16:18 Ok, but are they solid?
top looks like flowerpot traces :D. I'd love to have a tv like that it looks incredible, great styling.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this directly inspired the Macintosh and Mac Colour Classic designs (that one used a trinitron tube much like this). You can see the slight wedge shape on the back of the chassis, and the “barrel” shape to the front because of the shape of the trinitron. Very nice find Adrian!
I have the predecessor to that set/form factor, the KV-9000U.
You didn't have to take out the trim clips, just remove the screws and knobs and the whole case comes off. Oh well, it's done now.
This reminded me of a television repair shop in my small home town that around 1980 or 1981 put up a sign in their window that said (using a racial slur) that they did *not* repair Japanese sets.
yikes lmao
Funny how they made tube TVs with a quick on feature because people were so impatient they didn't want to wait for the picture to come on, but now with flat screen TVs it takes them 10-15 seconds to get a picture because the little computers in them need time to boot up and show all the splash screens. We've progressed backwards!
Were the metal gears nice and solid?
LOL. 24:19
"Here we go! It might blow up!"
Lol. Luv It!
When I used to see the green around the corner edges of the CRT on old T.V.s like this, I used to think the CRT was going bad. Hmmm, well that might be partially true. Would it?
These bad boys are gonna make a comeback when the next Carrington Event hits
I adore the vintage aesthetics of this particular model. How wonderful are those chunky knobs?
They feel great too
About the arrows pointing to the screws: Sony still does that. I never knew that! I have a DAB+ radio here, yeah, with those arrows pointing to screws you can remove! Great!
Had one of these back in the day, looked ahead of its time, seems that I had mine before 1976 and had a circular antenna if I remember correctly, it was built like a tank.
Capacitors always the problem with old hardware, suggest replacing them as others suggested.
Also suggest cleaning the TV, as Dust and Old electronics causes house fires.
I was just a year and half old when this TV was made.
:)
I wasn't born yet :)
(1977)
@@ct6502c I was born a few months after something called Watergate.
But on a good note, Blazing Saddles was #1 at the box office and Band On The Run was still on the charts. :)
Wow this took me back. I had to fix one of these in the late 70's. The owner gave it to me because it made a scary popping sound. The high voltage transformer or "flyback" was arcing to the chassis. I fixed it by putting some rubber strips and sealing them with anti arc paste on the side of the transformer. It fixed the TV and it had a terrific picture for the time. It worked for years...I wonder what happened to it?
Oh yes, I remember in '68 when my parents bought a new TV and it was "Instant On". The old sets would make a crackling sound when turned on if it was cold weather and a wait of a minute or more for the picture to swim into view.
We had one of these growing up ....
I would talk mom into bringing this into the dinning room to watch TV while eating dinner
We still have this somewhere.
Yes there was a loop for the UHF ... the was screwed down
the vertical flatness and squareness of trinitrons really made them look futuristic.
I think it looks perfect for what it is and the age.. would cool to watch some old tv shows on it..
Those metal gears look solid.
I love watching shango66. I actually found him accidentally thought his mine exploration channel where he was rescuing an old tv set from out in the desert.
I’m always amazed just how late VHF tuners were a thing in the US
What do you mean by late? We were using VHF since the early days of TV here. If you're referring to not going UHF-only, I don't see anything unusual about that. I thought it was only the UK that dropped VHF.
In fact, the VHF TV channels are still used in the US for some digital channels.
i remember sony trinitron had the most beautiful picture of all the tube sets before they started making plasma and lcd
The CRT heater elements were kept running in order to bring the CRT gun to full emission quicker than if started from cold.
Solid state chassis designs, that drove the CRT's, could of start processing instantly, unlike previous thermionic valve (tube) designs which also had to come up to full emission, together with the thermionic CRT thus making "warm up times" seem like eons.
The downside of preheat was that this prematurely aged the CRT as the electron gun was still emitting even at the lower heater supply.
7:12 - I'm guessing an external 'rabbit ears' antenna.
I remember late night TV watching on one these circa 1980.
DIP and the arrow is to show the human which way to placer the pcb into the wave soldering machine.
You need a lamp in series for this cases, so if there is something wrong the lamp will protect the equipment
Heh, my Vic20 (my first computer, which I still have) was rigged up to one of these (a donation from the family kitchen in 1982) via RF modulator and a barrel to antenna lead adapter. While I still have the Vic (which works perfectly all these decades later), I have no idea what happened to that TV. When I got my C=64, with matching monitor, the Vic went back into it's original packaging (which I also still have), but the TV totally disappeared (I have no memory of where it went next, though nobody threw out a Sony anything back in those days, so it probably went to my older brother, and then off to college with him). For all I know, that's my old TV in the video.
I have a late 70s zenith tv with a similar issue with the power/volume switch. I ended up just throwing a switch on the back of the tv to turn it on/off.
That would have been a sweet monitor for my TI99/4a.
got inspired to look up the model of an old trinitron I had in the 90s that used that same tricolor logo, it was 20" Sony KV-1942R from 1979. thought before maybe I shouldn't have gotten rid of it but looks like it only had RF so not too bothered lol
Come on man!! don't be so critical, that TV is 45 years old!! It's amazing it even works at all. It looks great considering the age
It’s interesting seeing the way US antennas hooked up to the tv. The British antenna hookup was a round socket with a pin in the middle, and of course the corresponding female socket on the set itself.
Fun fact, keeping the filament on at a much lower voltage actually prolongs the life of the vacuum tube. They used to do this to the early vacuum tube computers, to cut down on tube failures.
Isn't computerphile a great channel?
One part is correct in one part is not. They did leave the tube filaments on to prevent failure due to inrush current. Unfortunately the engineers discovered later that the tubes were failing at a very high rate. This was caused by operating the tubes for long periods of time in standby mode without b+ voltage. Special computer tubes were developed that reduced or eliminated this effect. Many computers used 12ax7's or 12au7's and special 6000 or 7000 series tubes were developed that were exactly the same specification as the consumer tubes but with the special cathode that prevented poisoning. These are now sought after by the audio fools and bring sometimes extraordinary prices as they are seen as being superior for audio work.
Please, don't talk bullshit and mislead people.
Having the heater on, wears out the cathodes in a CRT, it does not prolong the life of the tube.
@@randyab9go188 Ah, i did not know there was a separate design for those tubes. I always assumed they were the same tube.
And i was basing some of what i said on other lighting solutions, which tend to last a much longer time if the power cycling is minimized.
@@randyab9go188 The fun part is .. they aren't.
Those special cathodes are noticeable noisier, doesn't really matter in digital circuits, but is a disadvantage in audio applications. Long-life audio tubes from the time DID NOT HAVE THEM. And the noise reason was stated by the manufacturers.
Can you mod these for composite video or rgb?
Adrian, somebody else has hinted at this but have you checked to make sure that the CRT is receiving full heater voltage? When you were messing with the wires on the switch maybe you have it so the heater is in the reduced power mode, that would certainly explain it being a bit dim. And we saw earlier that the instant on wasn't working, so maybe that helped cut down on the cathode wear a bit.
Nice tv. I have a Sony DT-1 5 inch trinitron Video 8 video TV recorder. Working great too.
Great video! I have a kv9000u? In my basement. I turned it on once and it started smoking a little bit. Seeing the internals of this guy makes me think I'll leave repairing these to the pros. I was scared when you were poking around in there because I don't remember seeing you discharge the set on camera! Adjustment while it's on is also a bit of a risky maneuver!
cool set!
Hey what is the SAMs you talk about in the video?
Iv heard reference to those on shangoes TV vids before too.
"Schematic Analysis Manuals?" something like that?
Did sams club use to service sets?
Do you generally have to buy them or are they free?
LOL sorry about the dumb question
If you can find one, get a Sencore 7000 CRT tester. It was the one of the last and arguably the best CRT tester ever made. The rejuvenation function is also recognized as one of the gentlest available. It has brought many a dead CRT back from the grave. It will rejuvenate computer, television, oscilloscope crt's and even vidicon tubes. They are now selling at a all time low prices as they are not seen to be useful anymore.
The instant on feature of many of the older sets was one of the biggest CRT and tube killers. Some of the first computers also had an instant on function believe it or not. The filaments were left on for many hours without b+ voltage. Overtime this would poison cathodes and render the tube useless. Special tube types were developed to prevent this from happening. In the older tube manuals this was mentioned for the computer industrial types but I never remember seeing this feature mentioned for consumer tubes. The engineers of these products never imagined people 40 and 50 or 60 years in the future trying to resurrect these items. They were seen as consumables. Honestly I feel they would be surprised that these items actually survived that long.
Just remember that rejuvenators do not work well on Trinitron tubes.
In-line guns respond well to a rejuvenator, but the Trinitron gun does not and it can make things worse.
7:29 - The dust is probably what's holding everything together! :)
Most times you can get out the inner segment of the antenna with a screw. Just tool a long one, screw it into the segment and pull it out. Had a lot of old TVs and radios on my bench, and I mostly managed to get out this thing that way :)
From what I understand, the "headphone jack" that keeps the TV speakers on is actually for a tape recorder, because my Sony TV-500U has the same looking connectors, but it has symbols on it, and the one has a little tape symbol
My grandma had an early 70s colour Trinitron she watched everyday until the early 2000s it faded out.
just a note, the isolation transformer negates any safety from a GFCI.
Being a child in the 70's that had a Black and White til early 77, I would have given anything to get a color TV even in the condition shown back in 1976.. Those small TVs were built to be moved quite a bit for reception back in the day..
I have an early 70s 9" RCA B&W salesman's sample television, built with a mix of tubes and solid state. Its power cord is also incorporated into the back cover, as a safety feature: The idea is that you can't keep the TV plugged in with the back cover removed, so you can't electrocute yourself while swapping tubes. Obviously the consumer wouldn't be working on this Sony like they would with my TV, but I guess Sony still held onto the idea with their early solid-state TVs.
My favourite era from Sony.
A long time ago I had a hand-me-down battery-powered Sony TV that looked like that. And it was a brick as well. But what might have looked ugly and utilitarian back in the 70's now has the classic look of cool plastitronic design.
It's kind of amazing a 45 year old phosphor based CRT even works period. Those phosphors are going to be worn out pretty badly at this point.
Not really. The first thing to fail would be the flyback. As long as that is good a complete cap change should restore it back to nearly full health, even if the tube is dim, which this one isn't, regardless of what he thinks. I've seen and fixed plenty that were worse, he's given up even before starting. Waste of time, give it to someone who knows what to do with it instead of hoarding it and complaining it isn't perfect LOL!
It's the cathodes, the phosphor always outlast the electron gun itself.
And Trinitrons are really, really picky when it comes to rejuvenation, sometimes it works and others it just makes it worse.
@@GoldSrc_ Maybe. The point is the TV is not dead and it's not that dull. It's perfectly usable and a cap change should fix any geometry issues. For the amount of use it will get in the future it's just fine as-is with a bit of maintenance to the caps, adjusting the rings/yoke and possibly a light rejuv. The main issue is the wrong person has it.
@@johnbos4637 It's not "maybe", that's what happens.
The cathode surface gets worn out way faster than the phosphor ever will, unless it happens that the deflection fails and he keeps using it while displaying a line, because that does burn up the phosphor.
Replacing the caps is a very good idea, I had a KV-1201 that I had to replace practically every cap.
As for rejuvenation, you do not want to do that to a Trinitron tube, the chances of doing nothing or making it worse are way higher, in-line electron guns do respond better than the Trinitron single gun design.
@@GoldSrc_ You missed the point. It's working just fine as-is. Nothing is needed except new caps.
My grandparents had that tv in their kitchen in Montréal!
My mom had a "quick start" tv. Every year we had to take it in to replace the start relay unit. She turned it on & off like 10 times a day.