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#17
01-06-2006, 09:33 PM
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#18
01-06-2006, 10:24 PM
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There must be at least two manufacturers of those things that I've seen in stores lately. A few months ago, I bought one at CompUSA for about $12 that had a built-in AM/FM radio; both the radio and TV tuners were separate but had 'direct' tuning (just a pair of knobs with numbers on it), with the radio tuner being a variable cap that rotates 180 degrees mounted one one side of the cabinet, and the varacator-type TV tuner being tuned by a variable capacitor that rotates 270 degrees (or whatever) on the other side of the cabinet. Ease of tuning wasn't too bad even on UHF, even though it covers to ch 83. The cabinet is very plain and cheaply made of black plastic, and (taking it apart) it appears that liberal use was made of a hot-glue gun to hold the internal wiring in place.  Picture quality is fairly 'soft' and geometry isn't great either (and not really adjustable), and there's no DC restoration (you'd think in a TV that's mostly made up of IC's, they could have bothered to include at least a measly diode in the circuit for DC restoration...). However, the front end is almost *amazing*. It picks up every local channel here reasonably clearly on its little telescoping monopole antenna, which is more than I can say for just about any other TV I've seen, even with dipole rabbit ears. It has A/V input jacks, which seems a bit overkill for a little B&W set, but, hey, that's a pretty fancy feature compared with most small B&W TV's, so I won't complain..!It came with a 12VDC car-cord, but no AC adapter, and for some reason the built-in battery holder takes 10 (yes, 10 -- not 8) size 'C' cells, though the DC power input is intended for 12 volts. A week or so after getting that set, Best Buy had their little Sylvania-branded 5" B&W set on sale for $12.99, so I went over there to check it out in the store. The Sylvania looked much like some Coby-branded sets I've seen before, so it's probably the same manufacturer. It had slide-rule tuning, but it's misleading-- there's no "dial cord" or other gearing involved, so it's actually direct tuning with a linear indicator. Like the CompUSA "Norwood Micro" set, this one also had an AM/FM radio, but this time the tuning cap (for the radio) was evidently ganged together with the variable resistor (for the TV), so the TV tuner only uses 180 degrees of the tuning knob's travel. This made it really tough to tune UHF, especially since the knob also has a lot of friction and sticktion (in part due to being mechanically coupled to that slide-rule indicator), and the fact it covers up to channel 83. It also didn't seem to be nearly as sensitive as the CompUSA cheapie, and picture quality was no better. ...But it did have a white plastic case in a pearlized-like finish, and came with a few interchangable faceplates in different colors. (!) Fit and finish didn't look so good though. I think it came with both a DC car adapter and an AC adapter, and the internal battery holder was for 8 'D' cells, which makes more sense. In any case, how in the world can *anyone* make money on a brand-new TV set (no matter how modest in size or performance) that sells for 12 bucks retail?? For that matter, I wonder how many buyers of these little portables realize that none of these TVs will be able to receive TV programs by antenna in the not-too-distant future..? 
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#19
01-07-2006, 12:26 AM
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#21
01-07-2006, 08:11 AM
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The spec listings for these TVs mention world standard, but I don't know if that means that they are all world standard or that they can be ordered for any standard. Being B&W I wouldn't think that PAL/NTSC really comes into it, they should be able to sync to 50Hz or 60Hz equally well. They are probably continuosly tuned, so you should be able to get something even if there are some differences at the bottom or top of the band. They only thing I wouldn't be so sure about is the sound carrier.
A long time ago now a lot of Eizo Flexscan 6600 21" hires B&W monitors showed up on the surplus market here. I never bought one at the time as I couldn't think of a use for it, but they would have to be about the nicest B&W monitor I have ever seen. Unlike most of the other large B&W workstation monitors they actually produce a true greyscale image from an analog RGB input. I'd grab one now if I found one, not that I really need anymore large CRTs (still I feel these need to keep a stock of CRT monitors that will last my life out, I don't like LCD/Plasma displays). Clinton electronics, Megascan, Dataray and probably others are still making high resolution (some models claim up to 3000 lines) 21" B&W monitors for medical imaging applications. Most are portrait displays, but being B&W sticking one on it's side shouldn't be a problem. I'd hate to ask for prices on these, but if they ever show up on the surplus market they should be reasonably cheap (after all, how many people want B&W CRT monitors these days).
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#23
01-08-2006, 05:14 PM
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Some more new Chinese-made 14" and 17" B&W sets:
http://www.ceiec-fj.com/lucy/newpage6.htm http://www.ceiec-fj.com/ceiec-fj/zheskming/tv14.htm http://www.ceiec-fj.com/ceiec-fj/zheskming/tv17.htm Note that some of these even have remote controls...
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#24
01-08-2006, 07:15 PM
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Some of these look like early-mid 70's sets! You would think they'd only be making the "modern" styled ones these days....
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#25
01-09-2006, 04:40 AM
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Isn't there some place in India where they are still making some English motorcycle from the 50s? Someone bought the entire plant, shipped it over and restarted production.
Maybe that's where these 70s style TVs are coming from. Someone took over an old factory and restarted production as if it was still 1978? I guess the only way to tell would be to find one of these sets and have a look inside. Are they just 70s style or are they a complete 70s design?
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#26
01-15-2006, 09:39 AM
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Linear Mode
