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Old 27th Jun 2021, 7:14 pm   #1
bobhowe
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Default Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

Hi my wifes mother bought one of these tv when they first came out in 1979 1980 ? & it got retired in 2010 due to the CRT going flat in over 30 years it never had the back off for repair were these all these sets reliable ? must have been a great set for the rental trade ? has anyone had any experiences working or selling or renting these sets out kind regards Bob
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Old 27th Jun 2021, 7:41 pm   #2
Nickthedentist
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

Most Japanese sets of this era were astonishingly reliable.
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Old 27th Jun 2021, 10:38 pm   #3
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

The Mitsubishi sub brand was Black Diamond. Most of them used Vestel Chassis and normally were surprizingly reliable. In Ireland at least they were everywhere in the 90's/early 2000s, i know at least 10 people that had them and very rarely they had issues.
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Old 28th Jun 2021, 10:09 am   #4
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

I think you might have your diamonds confused Luke!
Blue Diamond was a trade name Mitsubishi used in the early Eighties as the CRT had a definite blue tint to it which actually did colour the picture slightly. These used a horizontal circuit board with vertical boards up the side depending on the features required. As you say, they were very reliable. The most common fault was a dry jointed line driver transformer. Large screen versions had two electrolytic capacitors in the frame stage that failed - maybe 330uF?
There was also a 2.2 ohm resistor in the sound circuit and one in the standby circuit for remote models. Either could fail for no reason.
On remote 26" models intermittent sound was cured by removing and hard wiring plug and socket UC. As the nice man from Mitsubishi told me back in the day "remember Uncle Charlie and you won't go wrong!"
I have two of the 26" ones, both working well, one of which was still in daily use by a customer until she beat it to retirement in 2018.
Later Mitsubishis were made in the UK and were nothing special.
Black Diamond was a brand name used much later to house the Vestel AK series chassis, usually the AK45 or AK49. These had their fair share of faults, often the EEPROM on the AK45 and the LOPT on the AK49. I wasn't aware of any connection to Mitsubishi.
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Old 28th Jun 2021, 10:17 am   #5
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

From the Mitsubishi Electric website. The history of the three diamonds trade mark: https://www.mitsubishielectric.com/e...logo_more.page

DFWB.
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Old 28th Jun 2021, 11:09 am   #6
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

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Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak View Post
There was also a 2.2 ohm resistor in the sound circuit and one in the standby circuit for remote models. Either could fail for no reason.
Just a bit...I must have changed the resistor on just about every one that was sold at a place I worked, having said that I liked the Mitsi's.

Lawrence.
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Old 28th Jun 2021, 4:01 pm   #7
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

It was better for the rental trade to have a customers TV break down on the odd occasion. If it never failed like the Mitsubishi, they thought they were not getting value for money and wish they had purchased rather than rented.
This could be partly overcome by the 'courtesy call' maybe once a year to check and possibly adjust the TV for the best performance. John.
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Old 28th Jun 2021, 4:06 pm   #8
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

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Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak View Post
I wasn't aware of any connection to Mitsubishi.
If there wasn't a Mitsubishi like logo to go with the name, there probably wasn't a connection. Some other brands that wanted to maintain a presence in the market did use Vestel to do that, but rather under their own name or it wouldn't have made much sense.
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Old 28th Jun 2021, 4:17 pm   #9
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

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Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort View Post
It was better for the rental trade to have a customers TV break down on the odd occasion. If it never failed like the Mitsubishi, they thought they were not getting value for money and wish they had purchased rather than rented.
.
I remember that Mitsubishis in the mid-90s used their "Diamondtron" CRTs - essentially a Sony Trinitron clone after some of Sony's patent expired. Lovely-quality picture but heavy as hell if you needed to drag one up several flights of stairs! We had some Mitsubishi Diamondtron computer-monitors in the late-90s and they never seemed to go wrong. Sonys and Mitsubishis with their impressive reliability really did sound the death-knell for many established TV-brands in the UK, along with TV-repair-men!

My friend in the TV trade would lend what he perceived as his more-cash-rich customers a new, bigger, top-of-the-range model while he took their old one away for repair. When phoning to arrange the return of the repaired one he'd ask the customer how they liked the loan-one, pointing out that (if it was rented) just how little extra-per-month the newer one was, or (if it was bought) saying that the trade-in on the old one would cover all the credit-deposit and half the cost of the new one.

Many sales were made that way!
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Old 28th Jun 2021, 4:21 pm   #10
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

For computer monitors at higher resolutions, I found both the trinitron as well as the diamondtron picture quality unsatisfactory compared to the usual inline tubes using delta masks. They never succeeded in lowering the aperture grille pitch to numbers that would support their misleading advertisements (for example they advertised it as 0.22 or variable from 0.22 to 0.25 depending on the tube model, so it looked lower than the 0.28 or less of the competition which in fact corresponded to a 0.21 vertical pitch). Also the convergence and geometry were slightly less optimal on the less expensive models.

Last edited by Maarten; 28th Jun 2021 at 4:26 pm.
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Old 28th Jun 2021, 4:27 pm   #11
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

Anyone made bogus claims from the manufactures U/G schemes, some manufactures used to cough up no matter what was submitted.....(At the bosses request..!)

Lawrence.
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Old 28th Jun 2021, 5:32 pm   #12
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

An older couple I know were using a 1980 Mitsubishi as their main set until DSO. Never went wrong in its life, sent to WEEE in full working order, they said.
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Old 28th Jun 2021, 10:32 pm   #13
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

I was given an early 1990s Mitsubishi set by one of my Dad's friends when I moved into my flat in 2009.

He had lost the remote but still had the instructions & brochure. I could get the basic controls with a universal remote.

The picture was a bit red on the aerial but looked OK when connected to a digibox through the RGB Scart.

It was briefly my main set until my Dad brought round my Philips set, when it was moved into my bedroom.

Eventually I gave it away after the digital switch-over, & stupidly gave the new owner the brochure!
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Old 29th Jun 2021, 4:29 am   #14
IKC2E51R8
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

Quote:
Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak View Post
I think you might have your diamonds confused Luke!
Blue Diamond was a trade name Mitsubishi used in the early Eighties as the CRT had a definite blue tint to it which actually did colour the picture slightly. These used a horizontal circuit board with vertical boards up the side depending on the features required. As you say, they were very reliable. The most common fault was a dry jointed line driver transformer. Large screen versions had two electrolytic capacitors in the frame stage that failed - maybe 330uF?
There was also a 2.2 ohm resistor in the sound circuit and one in the standby circuit for remote models. Either could fail for no reason.
On remote 26" models intermittent sound was cured by removing and hard wiring plug and socket UC. As the nice man from Mitsubishi told me back in the day "remember Uncle Charlie and you won't go wrong!"
I have two of the 26" ones, both working well, one of which was still in daily use by a customer until she beat it to retirement in 2018.
Later Mitsubishis were made in the UK and were nothing special.
Black Diamond was a brand name used much later to house the Vestel AK series chassis, usually the AK45 or AK49. These had their fair share of faults, often the EEPROM on the AK45 and the LOPT on the AK49. I wasn't aware of any connection to Mitsubishi.
I probably do have then mixdd up but at least over in Ireland they were very heavily marketed as a Mitsubishi brand, even though they were all Vestel made sets, in fact every single retailer that sold them sold them as 'Mitsubishi Black Diamond'

I know a few people that had Black Diamond sets with the AK19 in them and they usually were trouble free, ive a Ferguson Badged AK36 set that i bought new in 2006 and its still working perfect and has never given an ounce of trouble. I guess they were very hit and miss reliability wise
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Old 29th Jun 2021, 10:28 am   #15
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

If they were marketed as Mitsubishi and no court cases followed, they would have likely been marketed by Mitsubishi and carry their logo as well, so that was apparently the case then.
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Old 29th Jun 2021, 10:35 am   #16
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nickthedentist View Post
Most Japanese sets of this era were astonishingly reliable.
A lot ofJapanese sets were imported during the barber boom, it was found that when the sets were unboxed, every one worked first time and kept on working, bit of a shock to the British radio industry at the time when many locally made TV's needed remedial work before sale.
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Old 29th Jun 2021, 10:40 am   #17
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

Without wanting to go off topic - so many makes ended up being fitted with Vestel chassis, so it is no surprise that Mitsubishi would have ended up doing this.
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Old 29th Jun 2021, 11:23 am   #18
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

We used cringe at Vestel chassis but were they really that bad. At least they were predictable. the IC2 bus system did have its issues but Sharp were just as bad. (The FW and GF range), So many went over to Vestel, looking back I liked them.
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Old 29th Jun 2021, 11:25 am   #19
IKC2E51R8
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

Quote:
Originally Posted by Maarten View Post
If they were marketed as Mitsubishi and no court cases followed, they would have likely been marketed by Mitsubishi and carry their logo as well, so that was apparently the case then.
I recalled just this morning that on all the stickers on the back of the sets it announced 'manufactured for Mitsubishi Electric'

Found these two sets with the same wording this morning on google, an AK19 and Ak36 set
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Old 29th Jun 2021, 12:17 pm   #20
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Default Re: Mitsubishi Blue Diamond Tv

You live and learn! Odd that they chose 'Black Diamond' rather than blue...
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