My 1969 Sony Trinitron KV-1210U CRT TV (pics)
 

Here's my 1969 Sony Trinitron model KV-1210U CRT TV. It was one of Sony's first ever Trinitron sets they made. I found this in my local Kijiji Toronto classifieds for $30.00 February 2014. It still works and looks like new ! The picture quality is simply amazing !
Made in Japan.
MSRP was $319.95 in 1969


Video: http://youtu.be/6KVEIk__A9M

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Neat ! Is the cabinet real wood ? Seem to remember in the early ones, it was.

Yes.

IIRC that set is technically a hybrid as it uses a 3A3(?) tube for HV rectification.....
That's one of the few 'SS' sets I actually want to find an example of.

Nope, it's all solid state. The only tube is the CRT,

The combination of three-in-one electron gun and the replacement of the shadow mask with the aperture grille resulted in a unique and easily patentable product. Officially introduced by Ikuba in April 1968, the original 12 inch Trinitron had a display quality that easily surpassed any commercial set in terms of brightness, color fidelity, and simplicity of operation. The vertical wires in the aperture grille meant that the tube had to be nearly flat vertically; this gave it a unique and appealing look. It was also all solid state, with the exception of the picture tube itself, which allowed it to be much more compact and cool running than designs like GE's Porta-color. Some larger models such as the KV-1320UB for the United Kingdom market were initially fitted with 3AT2 valves for the extra high tension (high voltage) circuitry, before being redesigned as solid state in the early 70s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitron#Trinitron

I have the plastic case version. Congrats on finding the wood one. :) my set has a hv rectifier tube in it behind a metal cover, are you sure it don't have one?

The 1210 does indeed use a HV rectifier tube. You might notice a slight delay between turn on and when you feel the HV hit the screen because of the warm up time of the tube.

Was that the model that used the "Blue Sky" fine tuning indicator.
IIRC, when you were using the fine tuner, that top of the screen would turn blue and increase in size when it was properly fine tuned.

WOW ! Very nice tv ! I got a 1205 made in 1975, I don't have the nice red/orange id tags yours has, My stuff is molded into the plastic, My color knobs are vertical below the tuner knobs, and the tuner knobs have the channel indicators in that lit up shadow display common of those sets for many years. I also have a light called EconoQuicks I think, I know this set has a constant heater voltage on the picture tube, When I got it I use to unplug it when I was not using it..... I quit using it because it has some intermittent dimming of the screen. I have not turned it on in over 15 years, Now I got some tools, so one winter I'll have to fix it... She has a very nice picture, with nice color..... My cabinet is black textured plastic on the sides and top, standard black plastic back....

Interesting, I didn't know that Trinitrons ever had any tubes aside from the CRT.

That's pretty boss for a small set. I would like to have the largest early table-top Trinitron available.

A little 'dirty' secret of the TV industry is that many early 'SS' sets had tube HV rectifiers in them. Tubes were cheaper, and some of the early SS HV diodes were quite failure prone...IIRC some SS sets into the early 80's still had HV rect tubes in them.

IIRC the early Quasars and the RCA 2000 had issues with the SS HV rectifiers, and Quasar actually switched back to tubes for a while to deal with it.

I should open it up and snap some pics !

I just wish I could get my KV-7010U back from that dude in Ohio.. For those of you who weren't around in the late Sixties/early Seventies, you don't understand how BIG the Trinitron was..The biggest thing in TVs was the switch from Roundies to rectangular sets in '65... Here on VK, we typically "Tweak" sets to optimum performance, but back then, they often WEREN'T, & picture quality ranged from good to awful...Trinitrons were RAZOR sharp, had INCREDIBLE brightness & contrast, & were just overall, a superior product..

Yah, all this 3a3 talk makes me wanna pull out my set and take a look...... Maybe that is even the source of the trouble with my Sony.....

E.M. has a point on those early SS sets with a HV rect. tube..... Makes those sets kinda special......

So Rob, that Sony has rounded corners on the plastic around the screen, I forgot to look close at mine, Does it scan into a sharp corner like newer Sony's or is the part of the screen that lights up also a soft rounded corner....?

I think mine is a little softer round than the sharp corners of later Sony's.

I believe Sony was the first Company to win an Emmy for their contribution to Television.

Nothing came close back then but Sony charged dearly for the privilege.

Did GE feel any shame at all for selling the Porta-Color during the same era? :D

I remember the emmy.... They used it in their ads......

Now that's funny........

:thmbsp: you got that right. I have mine running side by side, poor little PC needs some love.

Sony Emmy:
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/Corpora...tory/2-14.html
jr

I was wondering if a solid state rectifier stick replacement could be used in these?

If the reverse breakdown voltage and forward current ratings of the stick are the same or higher than that of the tube, then I see no reason why it would not work....Though the tubes are probably cheaper and more plentiful these days.

A photo of the HV tube in this model.

[IMG]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...581bab792e.jpg[/IMG]

The corners are indeed sharp. This set is a later production model. It has the "cheese grater" style speaker grill. The original had the flat metal with round holes. Beautiful set.

saw my first sony at jimmy rea electronics about 1970.i must admit,it was awesome.revolutionary for time and to this day,those old sony s produce possibly the best color picture ever.

Thanks Robb for showing this Sony.She looks beautiful right out of the box from the store.I have that set here somewhere in my basement or in the garage .I think my set still works.I used it in old my apartment kitchen for years.




I have to say I enjoy your threads of your mint condition TV's on here and ARF forum .

By the time I get my sets.They are well used and trashed.

You could rent your collection out to Hollywood as props for old movie or TV show scenes.

No way ! They wont come back in 1 peice ! :sigh:
Money comes and goes, but vintage things (in mint shape) arent that easy to find !

Yes I agree 100 percent.They probably trash it on the set or it will get trashed in shipping on the way there or back home.

They made a solid state plug-in replacement, HV rectifier.
I used them when the HV rectifier filament winding would arc through. I just cut away the winding and taped it up. Then I used a SS replacement.

That's the thing....IIRC, even in '69, you STILL had to get somebody out to yr house & "Set Up" yr new color set for you.. The Sony, you brought it home, plugged it in, hooked up an antenna or cable, & you were Good to Go...Of course, the appliance store dealer made up on the service call DOUBLE what he'd "Given back" to you on the GREAT deal he gave you when you bought the damn TV in the 1st place.. I also remember how dreadfully "Cheap & Nasty" American consumer goods were getting about this time.. Plastiwood & fibreboard cabinets, except on the very "TOTL" stuff, "Carnival grade" plastic buttons & fitments, the whole business of being built DOWN to a price, instead of "Up to a Standard". The SAD fact of the matter was, Sony had a superior product, in many respects, & the American consumer electronics industry got caught being flatfooted.... Christamighty, WE developed Television-For the most part, anyway, & UNQUESTIONABLY developed COLOR TV, & we let it get taken away from us...But we have only ourselves to blame...

I wish Sony stayed focused on their electronics products then buying out interests in the Hollywood entertainment industry.

I know that you prefer sets from 1950 and before, but I wouldn't say quality was *that* bad just after 1969. Even my Zenith has parts like that, but that set is by no means junk.

I dunno, man.... If a 12-yr-old boy like Moi could notice the drop in PERCEIVED quality, I'm SURE the Adults who actually BOUGHT STUFF could as well...And THEY could remember when ALL our stuff was made "Ship-Shape"...

Well, who taught the Japanese about electronics and car manufacturing ?
It was the Americans.
Overtime, the Japanese just perfected what they were taught... I think.

You mean made out of iron?

Not necessarily... Just made better overall, than stuff made today.. I have a 1935 RCA AR-60, their TOTL SW set then. It was $495 that year when $650 would buy you a Ford V-8... It was designed to last virtually FOREVER, & if something broke, it was designed to be fixed. The ONLY stuff that's made anywhere CLOSE to those standards today would be a few commercial items, & certain military goods... I seriously doubt ANY consumer goods are made today to THAT sort of standard..

There's no incentive to build quality: technology renders the new purchase obsolete soon after you finish paying for the item and the price point battle makes something that is priced above the crowd unsellable.

Depends on the mentality of the buyer. Some like me would rather have a product that solidly outlives the life span that I consider it useful to most people for (which is usually a ways past obsolete) and is not the cheapest then some piece of crap that dies or becomes barely usable before you even start to see decent benefit in upgrading to the latest feature set.

I'm just frugal and like to keep things to fully amortize the price way past normal. Frankly obsolete is in the eye of the beholder as well. I am perfectly fine with old sets that make a good pic. Cheap junk that has to be replaced do to perceived obsolete things can waste a lot of money.

I see a big ol' gap coming in technical history as none of today's junk sets will be around in the decades to come. Surface mount=not repairable.
One word: implosion. If any production company wanted use of any of my sets, I would have to take it there myself and be able to keep an eye on it the whole time. Otherwise, no deal.

Those Sony sets were often purchased by folks in the old-money suburbs and rural estates.
A favorite of Doctors and other brahmin-type professionals, who totally eschewed television as entertainment.

It was usually their only set and placed on a bookshelf in a study or other room generally off-limits when entertaining (showing off).

Being surrounded by books somehow offset the cultural faux-pas that was being committed.

By the time these fine instruments came into the shop, the jugs were tired and the controls scratchy, not much else.

In 1982 plunked down $100 for a new jug in my KV-1210U, an excellent receiver of beyond-fringe analog back in the day, to use it as a monitor for the Commodore 64. Now it is simply my true go-to portable. I'm sure Ive seen similar models in a monitor configuring.

I agree. Flat screens with modules, however, will be repairable, albeit not at board level due to, as you mentioned, surface-mounted components. Most FS TVs only have three such modules and, of course, the LCD panel; when these sets develop problems, they can almost always be found on one of those modules, which of course can be replaced. The LCD display can be replaced easily enough, but the problem is that the cost of a new panel, plus the shop's labor charges, often (more often than not) equals or exceeds the cost of a brand new TV. I personally would not even bother having a flat screen (with a name I never heard of) repaired, for just that reason.

Any flat screen TV that lasts anywhere near ten years will be one for the record books, as these sets are simply not meant to last that long. Replacement of components such as burst electrolytic capacitors or capacitors with bulges (the main cause of total failure in flat screens) is beyond the abilities of most non-technical people, so when any flat screen goes bad after the warranty expires, the set will be put out for the trash and a new one purchased. I saw a Westinghouse 24" (approximately) flat screen in the trash behind my apartment last year; it wound up there probably due to a defective capacitor or even a broken screen. I couldn't tell the condition of the panel, since the TV was placed with the screen facing one of the trash barrels. My best guess is a component failed, probably a power supply electrolytic.

It's a shame that very large flat screens (which includes the newest 4K and UHD [ultra-HD] TVs now appearing in stores), which cost upwards of $1k (not chicken feed to most people), are junked after the warranty expires, and it is very wasteful to junk a smaller set when it eventually quits. Stores such as Best Buy do have recycling programs for old, defective flat screens, but just how many people take advantage of them is anyone's guess unless the store recycles the old sets as soon as they come in.

The later-model console TVs I scrapped had surface-mount resistors all over the underside of their boards. Looks like certain PCBs which are so thin they're translucent even have traces running through the board, so if one of those goes bad it's game over.

I saw a flat screen set that was about 30" out with someone's trash just a couple of days ago. The entire screen was bashed in. Whether something accidentally hit it or that was what the owner did to it post-failure I'll never know. I wouldn't have picked it up even if the screen were intact.