American portable TV for an artist

[Michael Maurice]

A lady contacted me saying she had some 14" TV's that she's shipped over from the US and wanted to see if I could convert them for use in the UK.

She likes them because they have a clear perspex cabinet.

Now looking at the chassis it looks sort of 'Daewoo' to me. Anyone concur?

Personally I think the best way forward would be to swap the chassis to UK one which had the same dimensions.

The chassis is 25cm x 25cm.

The next part of the project would be to actually remove the chassis and put it in another box say a meter or so away.

This means extending the EHT, A1, aquadac earth wires, scan cables and video cables.

The video cables would have to be screened, the EHT cable is available from RS, (I'd have to make a suitably insulated join!) the others can use normal wire from stock.

Can anyone see any drawbacks?

[ben]

These transparent TVs were made for the prison system to avoid contraband. Might be worth seeing if there`s a UK supplier.
I vaguely recall separating the tube from the circuit board in a CRT art installation myself years ago, I think the results were good enough.

[1955APREN]

HI Michael
I have a chassis made by orion and also the crt
As far as Know these are both ok > The chassis is uhf only
No freeview but does have a scart socket> The crt is !4in complete
with scan coils, but I do not have the remote control> In my Junk box is a Matsui remote that should work . Let me know if these items would be of use
Regards Derrick

[emeritus]

I have an Icecrypt T5000 Freeview Digibox that has an RF modulator that can be set for several anlogue video standards, including NTSC. The manual that came with mine, evidently intended for the UK market, does not give details of the multi-standard functionality, but the setup menu provides for B/G, D/K and NTSC options in addition the the default UK system I. As I have a multistandard set that will work on UK PAL and European PAL, I confirmed that these options are active and work, but I have no NTSC equipment to try the NTSC option. Selecting NTSC gives an unlocked display and a buzz for sound, so it could well be a 60Hz raster. The technical data on the Icecrypt web site for this model is more informative, and refers to the NTSC picture size being 720 x 480, but is silent as to frame rate.

If the NTSC option does output US-type NTSC, then on the face of it, it would be possible to use the unmodified American sets in the UK by using an Icecrypt freeview box, and of course a transformer to provide the 120V AC supply.

See the Icecrypt web site http://www.icecrypt.com/products/fre...ers/t5000.html

[ben]

Another thought, if pushed for space you could maybe try a `Squad` chassis from a Sharp 14" (37GQ xxx) they were tiny!

[paulsherwin]

Some Freeview system that can output NTSC would seem to be the simplest solution. Possibly something built around MythTV would be the way to go.

[Michael Maurice]

It would need to display the output of a DVD, the Orion might be a good way to go, because although the Icecrypt would output in NTSC, you'd still have to get PAL signals into it.

[emeritus]

It might work if the DVD player provides composite video output as the bidirectional VCR SCART only accommodates Composite video, not RGB. While the TV SCART has both RGB and Composite video functionality, it is for output only.

[Nicklyons2]

Some cheap DVD players will play discs in a variety of outputs. I have a Mustek which has a TV System button and it just toggles around the TV systems each time you press it. Therefore you can play a PAL Disc and O/P it as NTSC or play an NTSC Disc and O/P it as PAL etc. The other alternative is to use a Panasonic DVD recorder (which cannot convert) but can work in either NTSC or PAL. If you can originate your material in NTSC or if not originate it in PAL and pay someone to convert the PAL 'original' you can the just play out from the Panasonic machine in NTSC. I feel all this would be cheaper & easier than converting the sets, which may in the long term be collectable in themselves if left unmolested.

P.M. me if you need any more info.

Nick

[hamid_1]

Since there is more than one of these TVs to 'convert', I think it would be easier to provide a source of NTSC signals than to try and obtain several identical PAL chassis to replace them all.

There are several ways to obtain NTSC signals. The only problem is that the clear TV looks like it only has RF input - I can't see any AV sockets on it. If that's the case, you'll need an American NTSC-M modulator. If it does have AV input, that's even easier - no modulator needed.

Many cheap Chinese DVD players sold in supermarkets produce NTSC output if you set the TV System to NTSC in the setup menu. They will play a PAL DVD and convert it to NTSC video. Examples include Pacific DVD1002 and Durabrand DVD900 from Asda, Dansai and Technika players from Tesco, and many others. These cost less than £20 new, and next to nothing secondhand. It's simply not worth the effort of modifying a TV when a converting DVD player is so cheap.

The Icecrypt T5000 Freeview box, as mentioned, will receive Freeview from an aerial and convert the programmes into NTSC, but won't be able to convert any other sources. There are a few free-to-air satellite boxes that can do this as well, but official Sky boxes cannot.

I already mentioned the cheap ALBA RDVD1002 DVD recorder in this thread - this and its 'clone' models (Goodmans, Mustek, Tevion) will convert 'live' PAL video to NTSC as well as DVD playback.

You could also use a PC or laptop that has a 'TV OUT' (video out) socket. Just set it to NTSC. PC's can play pretty much anything, or even show 'live' TV, but are a bit more complicated to set up.

[colourking]

Originally Posted by emeritus

I have an Icecrypt T5000 Freeview Digibox that has an RF modulator that can be set for several analogue video standards, including NTSC. The manual that came with mine, evidently intended for the UK market, does not give details of the multi-standard functionality, but the setup menu provides for B/G, D/K and NTSC options in addition the the default UK system I. As I have a multistandard set that will work on UK PAL and European PAL, I confirmed that these options are active and work, but I have no NTSC equipment to try the NTSC option. Selecting NTSC gives an unlocked display and a buzz for sound, so it could well be a 60Hz raster. The technical data on the Icecrypt web site for this model is more informative, and refers to the NTSC picture size being 720 x 480, but is silent as to frame rate

I have a Televes rsd 7118 (SD only, no HD) satellite receiver and it too has a UHF RF modulator that is similarly versatile, it can output anything (modern) except the French System L and SECAM colour.

Note the carrier frequencies also change to the American UHF channels when NTSC is selected (are you retuning when you try NTSC?) . The only UHF channel that is the same video carrier frequency for both here and America is UHF channel 42, so perhaps try UHF Ch42 when experimenting what happens when you switch to NTSC.
Don't use any UHF channel if it clashes with a UHF channel with DTT (Freeview) in your area, the lists in the link below show the carrier frequencies for both UHF plans:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televis...el_frequencies (for example their Ch22 matches our Ch27 (519.25MHz ), 3 out of 4 NTSC channels will be significantly out of tune from any European channels

A Beko CRT TV (NR21271TDS) I have I tried the above's NTSC signal (no sound of course) on will only have a locked NTSC picture if its saved on the TV's Channel 0 - intended for VCR modulators. If its saved on another preset channel the picture is vertically out of lock, but NTSC colour is still decoded!
The same thing happens with 'PAL60' (525-line with our PAL colour subcarrier output from PAL VCRs that can play NTSC tapes)

[Brigham]

Reading between the lines, I think the idea might be to have the cabinet 'empty' except for the CRT, as a Damien Hirst-style 'artwork'.

In which case we have to be thankful that the sets are just 'prison-issue' castoffs, and not something intrinsically rare.

[cheerfulcharlie]

Stick a flat screen in there,
make a CRT type back out of plastic and replace the original internals (not connected of course).

[Michael Maurice]

Brigham, we want the TV to work

Cheerfulcharlie, please come up with something sensible!

The Televes system might be the way to go.

I'll be speaking to her tomorrow.

[cheerfulcharlie]

Originally Posted by Michael Maurice

Cheerfulcharlie, please come up with something sensible!

Sorry sir I'll go to the back of the class and be quiet.

Considering the health and safety rules regarding exhibitions etc these days (which these monitors may find themselves in). I just thought something with CE compliance would be the best way to go..that is all.

[Brigham]

Originally Posted by Michael Maurice

Brigham, we want the TV to work...

Yes, I'd grasped that. I spotted the clues in the original posting!

I'd also noticed that the 'finished product' involved the chassis being housed in a remote box, presumably leaving the clear perspex cabinet to hold only the CRT, or perhaps formaldehyde, or tropical fish.

At which point it struck me that we weren't actually restoring an unusual and arguably vintage TV, which is the general purpose of this forum, but instead making something else out of one.

In which case we have to be thankful that the sets are just 'prison-issue' castoffs, and not something intrinsically rare.

[Heatercathodeshort]

If this is the same person carrying out this project, I spent a day at the Museum with her last week explaining all the difficulties. Of course it may not be but the project was identical. John.

[Panrock]

Is THIS the same lady?

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...light=engineer

Steve

[Heatercathodeshort]

Yes.J.