Hello,

today I had a telephone call from a publishing house in Hanover, they need a photo from the first PAL color television receiver in the world for a journal. They got their photo.

When Walter Bruch developed the PAL color system for Telefunken in Hanover, he also was involved in the development of the first PAL colour television receiver.

The Telefunken PALcolor 708T was already produced in early 1967 and used for training lessons for the tv servicemen in Germany. The cabinet and bezel is made of wood. Here are some high-resolution photos of this set:

http://fernsehmuseum.net/telefunken/img/IMG_2959.jpg
http://fernsehmuseum.net/telefunken/img/IMG_2960.jpg
http://fernsehmuseum.net/telefunken/img/IMG_3017.jpg
http://fernsehmuseum.net/telefunken/img/IMG_3027.jpg

Especially this set is one of the very early ones, and the picture tube A63-11X is still very strong, which is a rare case.

A Youtube video shows this set in operation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_fqtE2HuU0

Kind regards,
Eckhard

beautifull pics!

Uh-huh. Gorgeous ! Love the wooden bezel-That must have driven the cost accountant boys up the wall...

Early European color sets were top luxury items and were built accordingly, we got the cheaper cabinets with woodgrain vinyl and plastic bezels when color sets came down in price and began to sell in millions in the mid 70s.

Kiwick, you are alright. The early colour tv sets from the 1960s were IMHO the most beautiful colour tv sets ever built over here. The Telefunken, Saba, Graetz and Kuba colour tv sets from 1967 and 1968 were top in wood and cabinet.

- Eckhard

BTW, in the 1967-1972 time frame, several Italian manufacturers were making color sets for the German market, have you ever seen one over there?

My favourite was a Phonola set, it had a hybrid chassis with solid state signal circuits and tubes for the sound, deflection and HV sections, i have a few pics of it on an old TV repair book and it looks really nice!

other Italian sets made for the German market were the Autovox "110 volltransistor SE", the Philco-Ford, the Zanussi Realcolor, the Emerson, the Indesit and several others...

I know that Grundig produced colour tv sets in Italy in the 1970s. Maybe that Koerting produced in Italy. That's all of informations which I have.

Korting had an Italian plant in Pavia where they made TV sets in the mid-late 60s using all-Italian engineering and components, but AFAIK they were B/W sets.

Grundig also had an Italian plant in Rovereto but it was mainly used for final assembly of their German sets.