Hitachi Color Console
 

Many of us get emails from people wanting to know info about a particular set, or what it's worth (which usually turns out to be not much if any).

Today, I got an interesting photo from a lady asking those questions. At first, I did not know what brand the set was in the photo, but I kinda thought it was a store brand like Truetone or Airline. It looked like early-70's... I notice the UHF tuner appears to be continous.

Later, I found out the set was a Hitachi. I don't think those are very common... although I'm sure a few people had them.

The only other "early" large Hitachi I've seen was the roundie set that was posted here several years ago, but that photo was lost after the "big switch" I'm sure. I thought I had kept a copy of that set, but can't find it.

This 70's Hitachi is kinda interesting... only because it's something you don't see very often. She says it works well. It would be interesting to see the guts.

Most interesting ... seldom see an imported set of that vintage in a console anymore ... hollow or solid state? Even the cabinet is acceptable on this one ... most of the Japanese consoles fron that time period I have seen appear rather simple and uninteresting ...

I would assume it's solid state... although it may have tubes in the high voltage section.

Curious... when did the government mandate the swtich over to detented UHF tuners? Was that 1973-ish?

If it wasn't for the radio-dial looking tuner on this set, I would have thought the set was newer.

Just got another email from the lady. Come to find out, she's in British Columbia. That might explain a few things... perhaps they did not change their UHF tuners over at the same time we did.

Odd (to me, at least) to see a foreign brand on an American-style console. I wonder if the chassis was imported and mated on this side of the Pacific with a console made on this continent. Would have saved shipping space?

I saw a big Hitachi (similar looking but wider) sold new on the Canadian market
in the summer of 1973. Regarding continuous UHF tuners in Canada, those were
still being sold as late as 1977.

I trust this Hitachi is all solid-sate (even for the HV rectifier).

Hi , Nice Hitachi.
The US required detents for UHF tuners starting in '75.

I wonder if the cabinets were made in US and electronics put in here
Glen Waters mentioned that Curtis Mathes made some cabinets and installed
the electronics for other brands besides theirs could have been Hitachi.
http://curtismathes.webs.com/curtismathesroyaldane.htm

A CM passed through the shop I worked in, but the elderly tech worked on it. He was so amused at the PC board lettering for some yoke wiring, it sad pupl instead of purple. The board said Goldstar on it. I also stumbled on a Goldstar chassis in my brother-in-law's Teknika.

Not surprising I think they quit making the actual electronics long before the 80`s maybe before the 70's. I think they may have used Nec electronics for years, their 60`s tube stuff had nice cabinets their but their
electronics weren't that great.

My mid-80's CM 19 inch color set is marked NEC inside... all of the boards and the CRT.

I have a 1970 CM B&W 23" all tube mini console. Chassis is made by Matsushita(Panasonic). Nice all real wood cabinet. CRT is American made.

My '63 CM b&w entertainment center had Matsushita many oil-filled capacitors... just the .047's. My ex-mother-in-law had a Teknika 25" console... was wearing out by the time I came along. My first thought was You bought a console tv with a name like Teknika?? Perhaps they did not cost much compared to other consoles.

My parents' had a Hitachi 36" black plastic box they bought in the early 90's... my brother has it now. Made a really nice picture... but wow that thing was heavy and awkward to move. I've seen older Hitachi sets, but they were usually small.

I used to have a TEAC MV-550 hifi VCR... was a really cool machine. Someone told me it was actually made by Hitachi. Seems hards to believe that Teac would have someone else make their stuff for them. But then, I also used to hear that all VCR's were only made by 3 manufacturers. Don't know if that was true or not.

Hitachi is pretty damn big... I suppose you could call them the "GE" of Japan.

Found it!
 

Earlier I mentioned that "really old" Hitachi color set... well I finally found it. Had to dig thru some floppy disks... wow... remember floppies???

Anyway, here it is. It really should be in the roundie section... I think I will start a thread over there and include it... but thought it was fitting here being that we aren't going to have too many threads with two different Hitachi color consoles.

Check out this video starting around 4:48 in:

Iranian Shahab Hitachi color TV commercial - late sixties