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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc. |
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11th Oct 2016, 7:51 am | #1 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
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Audio remote control
Ok, so I have vague recollections of having a TV with a remote control that worked by emitting a high frequency to change the options. It wasn't great. The TV would often randomly change channels when it would pick up extraneous noise from the outside world. Usually at the most exciting point of a movie.
I was telling my friend about this and he said I was talking rubbish, but I'm pretty sure we had one - I was quite young at the time. Can anyone back me up on this or am I wrong? Thanks. |
11th Oct 2016, 8:54 am | #2 |
Octode
Join Date: Aug 2006
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Re: Audio remote control
Yes, you are correct. Early remote control sets used ultra-sonic signals before infra-red was developed, Malc.
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11th Oct 2016, 9:26 am | #3 |
Dekatron
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Re: Audio remote control
Hi,
The earliest one I saw had two small steel bars tuned to different pitches which were struck with little hammers when the buttons were pressed. One turned the set on or off. The other changed the channel, sometimes via a motorised turret tuner. You then had to cycle it through a whole rotation if you wanted to go back one channel. ( the tuner only travelled in one direction). Needless to say that dogs hated them! Cheers, Pete.
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11th Oct 2016, 9:39 am | #4 |
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Re: Audio remote control
They were an early 70s phenomenon for main sized colour TVs before LED remote controls arrived. They were quite crude, giving sound up/down and channel up/down, but given the 3 channel world of the time they were adequate. Some young people with a particularly extended hearing range could hear them, and dogs and cats didn't like them at all.
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11th Oct 2016, 10:01 am | #5 |
Heptode
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: West London, UK.
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Re: Audio remote control
One thing I remember with the Ultra-sonic remote control system was that if you jangled a bunch of keys in the same room it would sometimes cause the TV to change channel.
John |
11th Oct 2016, 12:23 pm | #6 |
Dekatron
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Re: Audio remote control
They were certainly still about in the very early 1980s, e.g. the Philips G11 chassis. A description of the remote control handset here:
http://www.philipstv.org.uk/blog/wp-...03/G11RC-1.jpg http://www.philipstv.org.uk/blog/ear...emote-control/ My grandparents rented one until the mid-late 1980s, and the squeaky tones the handset emitted were very audible. |
11th Oct 2016, 12:32 pm | #7 |
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Re: Audio remote control
The pinger...
I think Murphy might have used a mechanical one? Lawrence. |
11th Oct 2016, 12:57 pm | #8 |
Dekatron
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Re: Audio remote control
My school was still using a Philips G9 set with a 2-button, mechanical, tuning fork, "pinger" remote control well into the 1990s.
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11th Oct 2016, 1:38 pm | #9 |
Dekatron
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Re: Audio remote control
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11th Oct 2016, 6:09 pm | #10 |
Hexode
Join Date: Nov 2010
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Re: Audio remote control
Dogs in the house were driven Mad with these.
Regards, Derrick. |
11th Oct 2016, 7:06 pm | #11 |
Banned
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Re: Audio remote control
We had terrible problems with these remotes switching electric hob units and ovens on and off. Yes, that's right, they used to vibrate the bimetals in Diamond H simmerstats. The American equivalents were not affected.
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11th Oct 2016, 7:35 pm | #12 |
Dekatron
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Re: Audio remote control
Some pictures of a Pye? "pinger". To the right of the last picture shows the two "hammers" and the two "chimes", all different sizes to get the two frequencies. I see it says Pilot on it but I don't believe it was for a Pilot TV.
John. |
11th Oct 2016, 7:46 pm | #13 |
Heptode
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Re: Audio remote control
In the early 80's my parents rented a remote controlled colour telly from Granada. It wasn't brand new, I think it was probably 2 or 3 years old at the time. It had one of the later sonic remotes which had a full set of functions, anything on the control panel of the set was duplicated on the remote so we had volume, colour, brightness, contrast and 8 channels. My sister and I were the only ones who could hear the remote working. It used to drive us nuts!
Regards, Paul
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11th Oct 2016, 8:25 pm | #14 |
Dekatron
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Re: Audio remote control
The 1961 Murphy remote control system was discussed here:
http://vintage-radio.net/forum/showt...trol+TV&page=2 About the same as the Murphy remote control TV was made Dynatron offered a three button ultrasonic control which allowed full adjustment of the sound. Volume up and volume down. Single channel stepper button. DFWB. |
11th Oct 2016, 8:33 pm | #15 |
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Re: Audio remote control
Thanks for the link to the forum discussion, I remember working on one or two of those back in the day
Lawrence. |
11th Oct 2016, 8:44 pm | #16 |
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Re: Audio remote control
Hi Lawrence,
The channel change function works as it should but I've never been able to sort out the sound mute function, evidently that was a known problem with this system. in 1976 Rank-Radio-International produced a single button remote control system. A quick push of the button changed the channel. When the button was pressed down for more than three seconds the sound would be muted. The system was also used in the later T20 and T22 models. DFWB. |
12th Oct 2016, 2:49 pm | #17 |
Hexode
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Cambridge, Cambs. UK.
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Re: Audio remote control
One quite late example of a colour set using this type of system was an ITT with the CVC30 Chassis. Remote control was actuslly the front customer control panel that could be removed and then used as a remote control. I was young at the time and could hear the comand tones from it quite clearly!
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12th Oct 2016, 6:19 pm | #18 |
Dekatron
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Re: Audio remote control
I have the ITT one on the shelf - only it has two rows of buttons not three. Anyone want it?
As usual the up-market continentals had the edge on us - remember the Saba F with full ultrasonic remote control? Not only did it adjust the brightness and so on the knobs would spookily turn round! Years later high-end audio amplifiers used this system so no electronic attenuators were used. Dogs were a great asset as were cats - ping and if the ear flipped you were OK. Glyn PS the Rank sound muting needed very careful adjustment of a coil to work, which it did for a day or two. Usually the customer gave up. |
12th Oct 2016, 11:43 pm | #19 |
Heptode
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Re: Audio remote control
I think the Saba F even had a motor operated on/off switch. It was a shame that the tubes died fast.
I once had a Rank which had remote with full functionality. The tuning also was automatic and it might have had OSD. This chassis usually came with the remote in post 16. (pre T20) I can't remember if it was ultrasonic but I think it was. When you selected presets you could choose any two digit number, but on my set you only could store on the first couple of presets. Anyone remember this set? |
13th Oct 2016, 7:41 am | #20 |
Retired Dormant Member
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Re: Audio remote control
Yeah, there were a few things that caused the dreaded channel change. It was always at the most exciting point of a movie.
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