Saba Ultracolor TV
 

This is by far my favorite vintage TV and I'm desperate. I need one!

Problem is, I live in the United States, making it even more difficult for me to find one, considering they were made overseas.

Does anyone own a Saba? Or know where I could find one?

1http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5109/...537904827c.jpg
2http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5069/...c76e0092bd.jpg
3http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5301/...2a231f2bab.jpg
4http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5304/...9546d3fdc9.jpg
5http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5028/...7729b1ec40.jpg
6http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5230/...6c57c49a59.jpg
7http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5265/...59eea3773d.jpg
8http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5262/...2891942164.jpg
9http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5265/...1721a6ee4c.jpg

I don't really think you're going to find one in the US

Saba sets are very common here in Italy, they were built really well but most had poor quality Toshiba, Hitachi and Sylvania CRTs which are weak or dead by now.
You'd have to find one of the rare models fitted with the Philips 20AX CRT which is holding up much better.

Do you think it's possible to find a Saba for sale on an Italy website and have it shipped here? I have no idea what shipping costs would be like for such a transaction.

There'd be some issues like the powerline voltage is likely 240VAC, it expects PAL color signals, the TV channels likely different frequencies and the sound subcarrier is also different. If it has audio and video inputs, a DVD player set to PAL mode would work, and a power transformer to convert 110V to 240V are not hard to find (the TV won't mind it being 60HZ vs 50Hz).

I don't follow.

Do you mean because Saba was made overseas it's functioned for overseas settings? If I were to have one, it wouldn't work in the US?

I think your only chance of finding one in the US would be if someone, who may have been stationed overseas or otherwise lived overseas, brought one back. Years ago, I ran across a Grundig 19" color TV that was obviously not built for the US market. I don't remember what was wrong with it or if I even fixed it.

Just the other day, my flea market friend picked up an '02 13" JVC that was built for non-US markets. It had a strange antenna connector on the back and I had to solder on a standard "F" connector in order to connect it to anything over here. The TV worked; but, the channel numbers were off. Channel 1, as displayed on the TV OSD, was actually equal to our channel 2. Channel 2, as seen on the TV OSD, was equal to channel 3, etc. It was designed to run on any voltage between 110 and 240 volts.

As far as shipping goes, I generally will not have a TV shipped unless it's something like a 12" (or smaller) portable. Shipping TV's can be very, very expensive and, more often than not, the sellers don't know how to properly pack a TV and the set ends up getting destroyed in shipment. Heck, I've heard stories of TV's being destroyed in shipment, despite the fact they were very well packed. I think most collectors who have a TV shipped use some type of freight service, instead of the usual carriers (UPS, FedEx, etc). I see a lot of TV's that I would like to have; but, the shipping expense + the high risk of damage causes me to stick with what I can get locally.

There are many different TV broadcast standards (NTSC, ATSC, PAL, SECAM).

NTSC was what was used in the USA, up until the DTV transition. PAL and SECAM are standards used by other countries. I have heard of some TV's that were designed to work on all of the popular broadcast standards; but, I don't know enough about foreign marketed TV's to know which ones were and which ones were not.

So, yes, you could have issues with using a foreign marketed TV on our standards.

Ahhhhhhhh.

Why does my favorite TV have to be a non-US one???!!!

What are you talking about? Saba TVs do that?

I have only one Saba, with 27'' Sylvania CRT

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/2122/dsc04178f.jpg

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/58/dsc04179i.jpg

I own all those saba sets you have the pictures unfortunately I'm in Italy. I could try to ship you a relatively small portable...

the one who shows star trek on the screen is a 16" portable. it has not video/audio inputs and you will need a modulator to feed it. It is based on Pal B/G system 625 lines 220v/50Hz. It has an infrared remote control and no automatic tuning,just a potentiometer for every preselection (8).
the first is more modern. it's a 22" with automatic tuning and 32 preselections. it also has a photo cell to control the ambient light and adjust contrast accordingly.
the last one is an huge 27". the cabinet was designed by giugiaro. it can be programmed to switch automatically on and off, and it has infrared remote and automatic tuning and 16 preselections other than on screen clock.

Please, I would LOVE for you to ship me any of the Saba's I've shown in the pictures. I'll pay for the TV + all shipping charges.

I am mainly interested in pictures 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7.

Would you allow me to buy any of those ones off of you?

Hi KGen1,

Actually operating a PAL Euro-TV in the US is no big deal, thanks to modern electronics.

Aside from the 117VAC to 220VAC transformer already mentioned above, reasonably cheap standards converters are available in the US $100 to 200.00 price range and are perfectly adequate. This gadget will convert an NTSC/525/60 signal (output of ATSC box, DVD player,...) to 625/50/PAL.

If the TV is later than 1975, it will have a SCART connector at the back, which is essentially a very complete A/V composite input & output including direct RGB.

If it is an earlier set without SCART an RF Modulator will be necessary. I have purchased All-standards (PAL B/G, SECAM L, NTSC M synthesized modulators (LED display) outputting on VHF Band III channels + UHF and all this for 50 Euros, approx US $70.00.

I have good experience in this domain as i do everything in reverse, i.e. running NTSC TVs in France.

Saba is a German brand therefore your best chance of finding a suitable model would be on E-Bay Germany. Here is the link to Germany Vintage TV section:
http://listings.ebay.de/pool1/plisti...x.html?from=R4

This link is towards modern TVs filtered to CRT sets only. You can then select the wanted brand and/or screen size:

http://video.shop.ebay.de/Fernseher-...&_sop=10&_sc=1

Good luck in finding your dream TV,

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

Wow, great post.

Thank you for all that valuable info you've given me.

I have checked eBay Germany but have had no luck finding any Saba's.

I do hope to find a Saba in the near future.

And I'll definitely keep you in mind if I have any questions regarding it.