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Old 21st Aug 2020, 12:39 pm   #101
malvision
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

Lets not forget the Granada Finlandia 22in crt ,and the dreaded thyristor problem
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Old 21st Aug 2020, 1:02 pm   #102
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

Most of those sets mentioned in post #100 were pretty good. We all liked the Korting and some wore out several tubes. The only downside was the long warm-up time. The massive Saba hybrid was a good reliable set, and the Kuba Florence was good once you got to know it. I only saw a couple of Finlux Peacocks, luckily.
I only saw one Tyne in which someone had tried to replace the frame IC by using a poker. The famed modules weren't available, then. I suppose the idea of board replacement was attractive back in the day. Which manufacturer had the advert "Which would you prefer - a reliable TV repairman or a reliable TV?" Bet that sold a few sets...
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Old 21st Aug 2020, 8:49 pm   #103
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

I found the Tyne signal panel. Isn't that sound IC the one that the terrible Fidelity record players used? Run it with the speakers disconnected and it promptly died!

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Old 22nd Aug 2020, 11:10 am   #104
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

They may have omitted a snubber (boucherot network) in the Fidelity.
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Old 22nd Aug 2020, 8:41 pm   #105
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i found the tyne signal panel. Isn't that sound ic the one that the terrible fidelity record players used? Run it with the speakers disconnected and it promptly died!

;d
sn76003??
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Old 22nd Aug 2020, 10:12 pm   #106
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

I heard the Soviet made 5 inch Vega and Regonda TVs, were hard to work on, as the insides were tightly packed, and the boards were joined by very short thin wires that would easily snap when moved for testing.
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Old 23rd Aug 2020, 6:32 am   #107
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

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Lets not forget the Granada Finlandia 22in crt ,and the dreaded thyristor problem
Are you referring to the C22PZ1, Thyristor Line O/p.
I really cant remember having any enthusiasm for a single Telly that had a Thyristor line stage be it Grundig, Normande, Tanbergs or Thorn 4000.
A possible exception may be a Rediffusion Mk3, but I did not see many.
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Old 23rd Aug 2020, 11:57 am   #108
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

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Isn't that sound IC the one that the terrible Fidelity record players used? Run it with the speakers disconnected and it promptly died!
Run it with the speakers connected and it promptly died..

That range of IC/s were terrible.The SN76013N I believe was used on the later models but was no better.

A similar I/C the SN76033N was used in the frame circuit of the horrible Thorn 1600 [not 1615] series with similar catastrophic effects. What were they thinking of? John.
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Old 23rd Aug 2020, 2:35 pm   #109
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

Yes some British made stuff was junk ! As you say what were they thinking? It's incredible that Fidelity would make something with unpluggable speakers that would blow the amp if they were unplugged! I did repairs for Woolworths at the time and the returns were huge. Sometimes the customer would not return the speakers with the unit for repair, to replace the chips and not check the speakers would mean there was a fair chance it would come back again because often the speaker wires had been extended with Sellotape joins and or shorts in the din plug . I wonder how much they saved per unit by not adding protection?
Talking of audio amp chips being used for frame output wasn't there a set, possibly a portable? That used a TBA800 for frame? ISTR replacing them and squeezing the heatsink back into the slots trying not to get the chip too hot whilst doing it!
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Old 23rd Aug 2020, 10:43 pm   #110
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

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Originally Posted by its ur aerial View Post
I really cant remember having any enthusiasm for a single Telly that had a Thyristor line stage be it Grundig, Normande, Tanbergs or Thorn 4000.
Tandberg sets didn't have thyristor line stages. I did a lot of work on Tandbers sets, especially CTV2 which were easy to work on. The only tricky bit was the power supply which needed a kit of "matched" parts installed when the BU126 shorted. If these parts didn't match the BU126 instantly shorted again.
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Old 25th Aug 2020, 3:46 pm   #111
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

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Hi.

Whilst the Amstrad CTV2200 weren't the best sets, I always managed to repair them OK. The field o/p IC TDA3652, I think, became obsolete and an alternative was issued with a few small mods around the IC. I think it was a TDA3654. I'm pretty sure the Thorn TX10 used the same IC.

Agree with Glyn, by far and away the worst chassis was that Sharp CS. Quite a compact unit but had some expensive and nasty fault habits.
There was another digital chassis possibly an Onwa unit that was quite awful. I remember the long delay after pressing the buttons on the remote control and getting a response from the TV particularly in the teletext mode. That long delay effect was also a serious problem on those early Nokia OnDigital set top boxes.

There was also a Fidelity digital chassis, ZX5000 I think that wasn't bad.
Anyone remember the ITT Digivision?

I also thought the Philips Charly deck was OK. I recall the procedure for replacing the pinch roller/rack assembly involved using a battery to turn the loading motor in order to remove a plate to access the pinch roller. The Charly deck was actually quite simple and surprisingly robust despite many plastic components. It would be interesting to see what condition the plastic parts are in for what survivors remain.

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During the 1980s, I had an ITT agency and I must confess that I never was a fan of their "Digivision" series. The picture quality was inferior to the contemporary sets from the Philips/Pye stable that we were selling at the time.
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Old 25th Aug 2020, 3:56 pm   #112
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

Digivision....Dodgyvision

Worked for an ITT main dealer in Cornwall when those came out, went to the training lectures etc but got out of the telly game not long after that.

Lawrence.
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Old 25th Aug 2020, 4:34 pm   #113
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

Which was the worst? Hmm, a few. The following brands by the mid-1990's would induce shivers(!)

Amstrad, Amstrad Fidelity (all those wires - hot glued in, some were soldered, nothing labelled).

Anything NEI.

Has anyone encountered Nokia TV's? They did exists, worked well when working, dust on the chassis & static would soon damage the main IC in the set … which could only be bought from Nokia, who by the mid-90's, made phones & forgot about their TV's!

Tatung? Oooooo(!)

The Panasonic TC800G was a cute set, quite a packaging exercise too. Excellent picture, but if the LOPT started to leak, the resultant lightening flash would zap pretty much all semiconductors in the set, which opened out like a book, only, all the internal wires were too short to open fully.

We had a run of ITT sets too. Looked just like the 14" white Ferguson portable of the late 70's, complete with black control/speaker panel, but, was full of thyristors, one particular set was not a happy bundle.

Vaguely recall Hitachi 'Hybrid' TV's, the frame was driven by a ceramic pack, with through-hole devices mounted like SMD's, and the Instavision Hybrid, which always lacked contrast, all electrolytics being placed right next to, or between wire wound resistors or in the 'U' of heatsinks!

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Old 25th Aug 2020, 8:28 pm   #114
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

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Originally Posted by mark2collection View Post
W
Has anyone encountered Nokia TV's? They did exists, worked well when working, dust on the chassis & static would soon damage the main IC in the set … which could only be bought from Nokia, who by the mid-90's, made phones & forgot about their TV's!
Mark
I never had much luck with those. The worst I think I had was the Stereoplus (or was it mono plus?) chassis, it basically seemed to be a 14" chassis with loads of bits added on and shoved into a 24" plastic cabinet... i2c bus problems I found impossible to diagnose. Those sets were also rebadged as Akai and Pioneer IIRC. Probably fooled a few hi fi buffs!

Hotels used to always have them back in the 90s and early 00s. Granada hotel chain I think had something to do with ITT which would explain it.
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Old 26th Aug 2020, 6:20 pm   #115
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

Yes - Hitachi used the Nokia Mono and Stereoplus chassis as a badge set after the Salora N chassis. They sold very few - the course I went on to explain them made me grateful for that! Sold one Stereoplus TV and, astonishingly, never saw it again.
For some reason Hitachi used Salora and then Nokia as their upmarket chassis. Side by side with their ordinary homegrown sets the pictures to our mind were inferior, especially the digital M chassis.
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Old 26th Aug 2020, 8:58 pm   #116
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

This dinosaur has a Salora 26 inch C chassis with thyristors ... it was working last time it was switched on, but that was many years ago.
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Old 26th Aug 2020, 9:08 pm   #117
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

Telpro? Anyone remember these?
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Old 26th Aug 2020, 9:48 pm   #118
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

Telpro, yes. Decca 30 chassis, different layout but not as reliable. It seemed more cramped, I think they were only sold by Trident.
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Old 26th Aug 2020, 10:18 pm   #119
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

Telpro were made by Telefusion. Dreadful sets ,built down to a price.

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Old 26th Aug 2020, 10:25 pm   #120
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Default Re: Which was the worst TV set / chassis you had to repair

I wouldn't say the Telpro sets were that bad though... Certainly not the worst by any means!
I bought a van load of ex-rental ones from a firm in Leicester in the early 1980s.
They were very cheap as they were supposed to be write offs due to the tubes being duff.
I wanted some cheap sets at the time for budget rentals and thought that even after I had bought a regun tube they would still be cheap enough to do the job.
When I came to have a look at them I found the tubes were fine, every set either worked or had only minor faults. I think they had been written off because someone who worked there wanted rid of them!
The biggest problem I had was that they only had a 4 push button tuner and in Peterborough we could get Anglia and Midlands ITV so when channel 4 opened there weren't enough buttons!
You would think that most people wouldn't worry about two ITV channels that mostly showed the same programmes but there was the odd late night film that was different and if you had gone to the expense of a Midlands aerial you wanted Midlands! Some people also had Yorkshire ITV as well.
I got a few years out of the Telpro sets before they were flogged off, scrapped or nicked!
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