There is one of these Italian TVs on You-Know-Where about to go out, w/a starting bid of $1800...I've seen a fair number of these for sale, always w/absurdly high starting bids. They DON'T look to me like they're anything all THAT special, certainly not warranting their sky-high prices..Is this just an example of an overzealous seller, or are these things really THAT hot stuff ?

they are also getting more and more pricey here in italy as they're considered a modern design icon.

Brionvega TVs are nothing special technically wise, their portables can be a pain to service, and their larger 70s-80s color sets actually gave lots of troubles

other Italian manufacturers like Magnadyne, Philco or Phonola actually made better sets, and sometimes made some really cool plastic portables, but they just don't have that name slapped on them so no one wants them now, but IMHO the coolest plastic portable set of all times is the barrel-shaped Philco from the early 70s

Hi Sandy,

Try this one in Holland, second hand, works, at least it starts low - 1 Euro, no bidders:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Brionvega-Algol-Color-TV-Remote-User-Manual-likenew_W0QQitemZ130352883374QQcmdZViewItemQQptZTe levisions?hash=item1e59a326ae

(not my auction & no link to seller)

The usually high price is justified by the fact that the original B&W Brionvega was designed by famous Italian stylist Mario Bellini. The color model you saw as well as this one in Holland has the same unmistakable shape as its B&W counterpart, but uses far more advanced technology.

The TV's tuner is multistandard France/UK/Europe and via the A/V SCART port baseband NTSC can be displayed so it would work with the SD output of an ATSC box.

Pictures: 1st one, the original B&W Brionvega. Came in typical "flashy" 1970s colors: Orange, Green, Black, White

Pix 2-5: the color version.

Maybe some of our Italian members have more pictures of the B&W original set.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France