Sony XAV-U50 Indextron Car TV - Help Please !

[jhalphen]

Hello to all,

I recently acquired a Sony XAV-U50 Indextron color TV, a model made for TV reception in cars, boats, etc.

This is an astonishingly compact unit, the pack of cigarettes gives a reference of scale.

This is a diversity TV receiver, so there must be at least 2 antenna inputs.

It was apparently the center display unit for a sophisticated stereo system, but all i have is the Indextron with no cables, remote control unit, trunk CD player, audio power amplifiers, speakers.

I'm just hoping the TV can work standalone. At this point i don't even know if it's an NTSC or a PAL unit, but i did purchase it Europe so it may be PAL.
It may not be possible to receive stations without the remote control for programming, i don't know.

First step is learning how to power the unit. Several pictures show the multipin specialty Sony connector at the rear of the unit. The thick cable also seen is a Ground connection.

I am searching for the user manual to hook up & power the unit + the service manual. Also the mating Sony connector to avoid bypass direct hookups inside the unit.

One of the pictures i found on the net show a glimpse of the connections to peripherals.

Any help, hints, suggestions to get this TV running gratefully accepted.
Many Thanks ! in advance,

Best Regards

jhalphen

[kx250rider]

What a nice find! I've neither seen nor heard of that set here in the USA, so I bet it's a Europe-only model. It is (or always was) illegal to have a dash-mounted TV in the USA, so there weren't really any sold here. Nowadays, with navigation units and car DVD players, I guess that the anti-car-TV law is rescinded or they stopped enforcing it. Sony did make an LCD version of basically the set you found (component car unit with separate control box, tuner, monitor, etc,) but definitely ours was LCD and not Indextron tube.

The only Indextrons I've run into here are the 5" KVX-370, and the portable projector FP-60 & 62.

[dr.ido]

I have never seen this system so I could be very wrong, but I doubt the tuner is in there.

Posts on various auction sites suggest the tuner is actually in the the outboard trunk mounted unit.

Here are a couple of not so great pics of the complete package found on auctions sites:





My guess is that it is an NTSC system that tunes the Japanese TV and FM bands.

Similar elaborate systems find there way here every now and then when people import used luxury cars from Japan. The new owners rip them out to install something with more amplifiers and subwoofers.

I once bid on a very elaborate Pioneer system at a local (not online) auction. It consisted of a double DIN head unit (LCD display in this one), seperate TV tuner/AV switcher, 12 disc CD changer, sat nav unit (which had a CD changer in it for map cds), GPS receiver and power amps. Five seperate units and lots of cabling with weird custom connectors. I didn't get it, I could only justify so much for something which while cool to play with would be completely useless in the country. I doubt they buyer that did get it realised this.

[Sandy G]

Wow...Just "Wow"....(grin)

[jhalphen]

Hello Charles, Dr Ido,

Thanks! for the replies.

I'm disappointed to learn that the XAV-U50 has no TV RF section; oh well if at least i can make it work as an NTSC monitor, that's fine.

I have an archive picture found on the Net (Japan) which shows the unit displaying the CD player menu.

Guess if nothing shows up in terms of a manual, i will open the unit to find the 12V B+ line and a coax for video.

Best Regards

jhalphen

[dr.ido]

If all the video processing is done in the outboard tuner unit you may find that the video input on the head unit itself is RGB rather than NTSC. This would make sense for displaying text/graphics after all as why encode such displays as NTSC only to have to decode them back to RGB in the head unit.

Such an approach would also allow them to sell a PAL system by supplying a PAL TV tuner without needing different head unit for PAL. There's definitely enough pins on that connector for an RGB input.

If it is an RGB input it should be possible to wire up a SCART adapter for it and drive it with the RGB output from a suitable DVD player or set top box.