Richtige Fernseher haben Röhren!

Richtige Fernseher haben Röhren!

In Brief: On this site you will find pictures and information about some of the electronic, electrical and electrotechnical Obsolete technology relics that the Frank Sharp Private museum has accumulated over the years .
Premise: There are lots of vintage electrical and electronic items that have not survived well or even completely disappeared and forgotten.

Or are not being collected nowadays in proportion to their significance or prevalence in their heyday, this is bad and the main part of the death land. The heavy, ugly sarcophagus; models with few endearing qualities, devices that have some over-riding disadvantage to ownership such as heavy weight,toxicity or inflated value when dismantled, tend to be under-represented by all but the most comprehensive collections and museums. They get relegated to the bottom of the wants list, derided as 'more trouble than they are worth', or just forgotten entirely. As a result, I started to notice gaps in the current representation of the history of electronic and electrical technology to the interested member of the public.

Following this idea around a bit, convinced me that a collection of the peculiar alone could not hope to survive on its own merits, but a museum that gave equal display space to the popular and the unpopular, would bring things to the attention of the average person that he has previously passed by or been shielded from. It's a matter of culture. From this, the Obsolete Technology Tellye Web Museum concept developed and all my other things too. It's an open platform for all electrical Electronic TV technology to have its few, but NOT last, moments of fame in a working, hand-on environment. We'll never own Colossus or Faraday's first transformer, but I can show things that you can't see at the Science Museum, and let you play with things that the Smithsonian can't allow people to touch, because my remit is different.

There was a society once that was the polar opposite of our disposable, junk society. A whole nation was built on the idea of placing quality before quantity in all things. The goal was not “more and newer,” but “better and higher" .This attitude was reflected not only in the manufacturing of material goods, but also in the realms of art and architecture, as well as in the social fabric of everyday life. The goal was for each new cohort of children to stand on a higher level than the preceding cohort: they were to be healthier, stronger, more intelligent, and more vibrant in every way.

The society that prioritized human, social and material quality is a Winner. Truly, it is the high point of all Western civilization. Consequently, its defeat meant the defeat of civilization itself.

Today, the West is headed for the abyss. For the ultimate fate of our disposable society is for that society itself to be disposed of. And this will happen sooner, rather than later.

OLD, but ORIGINAL, Well made, Funny, Not remotely controlled............. and not Made in CHINA.

How to use the site:
- If you landed here via any Search Engine, you will get what you searched for and you can search more using the search this blog feature provided by Google. You can visit more posts scrolling the left blog archive of all posts of the month/year,
or you can click on the main photo-page to start from the main page. Doing so it starts from the most recent post to the older post simple clicking on the Older Post button on the bottom of each page after reading , post after post.

You can even visit all posts, time to time, when reaching the bottom end of each page and click on the Older Post button.

- If you arrived here at the main page via bookmark you can visit all the site scrolling the left blog archive of all posts of the month/year pointing were you want , or more simple You can even visit all blog posts, from newer to older, clicking at the end of each bottom page on the Older Post button.
So you can see all the blog/site content surfing all pages in it.

- The search this blog feature provided by Google is a real search engine. If you're pointing particular things it will search IT for you; or you can place a brand name in the search query at your choice and visit all results page by page. It's useful since the content of the site is very large.

Note that if you don't find what you searched for, try it after a period of time; the site is a never ending job !

Every CRT Television saved let revive knowledge, thoughts, moments of the past life which will never return again.........

Many contemporary "televisions" (more correctly named as displays) would not have this level of staying power, many would ware out or require major services within just five years or less and of course, there is that perennial bug bear of planned obsolescence where components are deliberately designed to fail and, or manufactured with limited edition specificities..... and without considering........picture......sound........quality........
..............The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of todays funny gadgets low price has faded from memory........ . . . . . .....
Don't forget the past, the end of the world is upon us! Pretty soon it will all turn to dust!

Have big FUN ! !
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©2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Frank Sharp - You do not have permission to copy photos and words from this blog, and any content may be never used it for auctions or commercial purposes, however feel free to post anything you see here with a courtesy link back, btw a link to the original post here , is mandatory.
All sets and apparates appearing here are property of Engineer Frank Sharp. NOTHING HERE IS FOR SALE !
All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within Fair Use.


Friday, September 30, 2011

SONY KV-FX29TA YEAR 1988.





The SONY KV-FX29 is the first television of SONY with 100HZ Digital scan Technology.The set is a multistandard and has many features including STEREO sound + teletext + still picture + 50 programs PLL synthesized tuning with OSD (Classic 80's green Sony OSD).
And of course a remote, and allows external speakers connection.

SONY with this model developed his own 100HZ Digital scan Television , SONY KV-FX29 ,display system with increased field frequency ; digital scan converter means including field-memory means supplied with an input video signal of an interlaced television system having a selected plurality of fields per second different from PHILIPS 100HZ scan system.
In the, at the time, existing television system, a so-called interlaced scanning system is carried out. That is, one picture (frame) is transmitted by two vertical scannings (fields). This interlaced scanning system is considered in order to increase the number of scanning lines as much as possible in a limited frequency band without a flicker being perceived by a viewer.
However, in the CCIR system employed mainly in European countries, the field frequency is 50 Hz. By this frequency, the flicker can not be removed completely and the flicker becomes conspicuous particularly when the brightness of the television picture is high.
Therefore, in the prior art, such a television receiver is proposed that a television picture is displayed at a field frequency twice the normal field frequency.
The SONY KV-FX29TA is A 100HZ frame rate TELEVISION In a known arrangement, the frame rate of a television signal is doubled by using a field store. In a first operating mode, each field of the television signal is entered into the field store in this arrangement and read out twice at twice the frequency. In a second mode, only every second field is entered into the field store and read out four times at twice the frequency. In an arrangement for converting an original picture signal representing a sequence of frames, each of which is composed of two interlaced fields, into a converted picture signal which has a double field frequency with respect to the original picture signal, is for doubling the field frequency, for the purpose of noise reduction, motion compensation and line flicker reduction.

 The SONY KV-FX29 TA features also Beam Scan Velocity modulation.
When the phosphor screen of a video signal reproducing apparatus, such as, the screen of the cathode ray tube in a television receiver, is scanned by an electron beam or beams so as to form a picture or image on the screen, the beam current varies with the luminance or brightness level of the input video signal. Therefore, each electron beam forms on the phosphor screen a beam spot whose size is larger at high brightness levels than at low brightness levels of the image so that sharpness of the reproduced picture is deteriorated, particularly at the demarcation between bright and dark portions or areas of the picture. Further, when a beam scanning the screen in the line-scanning direction moves across the demaraction or edge between dark and bright areas of the picture, for example, black and white areas, respectively, the frequency response of the receiver does not permit the beam intensity to change instantly from the low level characteristic of the black area to the high level characteristic of the white area. Therefore, the sharpness of the reproduced image is degraded at portions of the image where sudden changes in brightness occur in response to transient changes in the luminance or brightness of the video signal being reproduced. The increase in the beam current and in the beam spot size for bright portions of the reproduced picture or image and the inadequate frequency response of the television receiver to sudden changes in the brightness or luminance level of the incomming video signal are additive in respect to the degradation of the horizontal sharpness of the reproduced image or picture.
It is well known that an improvement in apparent picture resolution can be achieved by modulating the beam scan velocity in accordance with the derivative of the video signal which controls the beam intensity. This video signal is referred to as the luminance signal and the derivative of the luminance signal is employed for such control. An advantage of this method over a peaking approach to picture sharpness enhancement is the avoidance of blooming of peaked white picture elements.
It is known in the prior art to apply a differentiated video signal to the input of a double ended limiter incorporating a pair of threshold circuits. The limiter consists of two separate differential amplifiers, where each amplifier is separately biased to provide double ended limiting as well as to provide coring. The limiter arrangement develops a doubly clipped signal output which does not respond to excursions of the differentiated signal which lie below selected threshold magnitudes. Thus the gain of the limiter is such as to provide sharpness enhancement for slow transients while precluding excessive supplemental beam deflection with fast transients. The coring capability of the limiter arrangement significantly lessens the likelihood of noise visibility.
Multi -standard Operation: Multi -standard sets were becoming more common even  with the international exchange of tapes and the interest in satellite TV. They must have switchable polarity at the vision detector, a sound section capable of handling a.m. or f.m. signals at four different carrier frequencies, and some means of decoding the three main colour systems. If you're content with monochrome reception all three sys- tems are to a degree compatible, provided you adjust the field hold and height on a UK set for 525-line/60Hz field .rate signals. Colour decoders that sort out PAL and SECAM already existed and more are on the way. Most of us have been used to the idea of PAL -only working for so long that a bit of information on the other two systems may not come amiss at this point. The chrominance subcarriers in the SECAM system - one for each colour -difference signal - were frequency modulated but remain in the area of .4.5MHz. Saturation is represented by frequency deviation. The two colour - difference signals Dr (red) and Db (blue) were transmitted on alternate lines, the decoder demodulators receiving their inputs directly and via a 64μsec delay line on alternate lines. Synchronised switching was required to ensure that the demodulators receive the correct signals. Since the subcarrier is present throughout the line there's no need for a crystal oscillator in the receiver. As with f.m. sound, pre emphasis was applied at the transmitter and de -emphasis at the receiver. There's a choice of ident signals, either an extended burst of Dr or Db during the back porch period or ten lines of triangular subcarrier, alternately Dr and Db, during the field blanking period. The unmodulated subcarrier present in monochrome parts of the picture showed as a "fuzzy" trace on oscilloscope waveforms. The NTSC system (USA, Japan, etc.) had a similar line frequency to ours but runs at 60 fields per second. The line period differs therefore and the vision bandwidth is narrower. The suppressed chrominance subcarrier wass phase/amplitude modulated as was in PAL, but without the phase change on alternate lines. The subcarrier frequency was around 3.58MHz, with a 9Hz burst on the back porch.
TV signals are defined primarily the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC), the Phase Alternative Line (PAL) or the Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire (SECAM) systems, and used in different countries around the world. An analog TV signal utilizes mainly two or three RF carriers, combined in the same channel band. One carrier may commonly be amplitude modulated (AM) with video content, and the other may be frequency modulated (FM) and/or amplitude modulated (AM) with audio content. An analog TV receiver functions by performing a series of operations comprising adjusting the signal power, separating the video and audio carriers, and locking to each carrier in order to down-convert the signals to baseband. The baseband video signal may then be decoded and displayed by achieving horizontal and vertical synchronization and extracting the luminance and color information. After demodulating the received signal, the resulting baseband audio may be decoded, and left, right, surround channels and/or other information may be extracted.
 - The SONY KV-FX29TA  Features a multistandard PAL/SECAM/NTSC 3.58 & 4.43 CCIR B/G/H/I/L/D/K/M. The different coding processes, e.g. NTSC, PAL and SECAM, introduced into the known colour television standards, differ in the nature of the chrominance transmission and in particular the different systems make use of different colour subcarrier frequencies and different line frequencies.

The following explanations relate to the PAL and NTSC systems, but correspondingly apply to video signals of other standards and non-standardized signals.
The colour subcarrier frequency (fsc) of a PAL system and a NTSC system is fsc(NTSC) = 3.58 MHz or fsc(PAL) = 4.43 MHz.
In addition, in PAL and NTSC systems the relationships of the colour subcarrier frequency (fsc) to the line frequency (fh) are given by fsc(NTSC) = 227.50 * fh or 4•fsc(NTSC) = 910 • fh fsc(PAL) = 283.75 * fh or 4•fsc(PAL) = 1135 • fh so that the phase of the colour subcarrier in the case of NTSC is changed by 180°/line and in PAL by 270°/line.

The invention relates to a digital multistandard decoder for video signals and to a method for decoding video signals. Colour video signals, so-called composite video, blanking and sync signals (CVBS) (chroma-video-blanking-sync) signal is a signal comprising both the chrominance and the luminance component of the video signal. Therefore, the CVBS video signal may be PAL video signal, a SECAM video signal, or an NTSC video signal. are essentially composed of a brightness signal or luminance component (Y), two colour difference signals or chrominance components (U, V or I, Q), vertical and horizontal sync signals (VS, HS) and a blanking signal (BL).

In order to decode a video signal and restore a color image, a color TV set has to identify the color TV standard used at the emission. Conventional color TV sets are equipped with a system for automatically identifying the norm or standard of the color TV set used for the emission. The invention more particularly relates to an automatic method for identifying a color TV standard in a multistandard TV set.

Presently, the most commonly used color TV standards are PAL, NTSC and SECAM standards. For these three standards, each line of the composite video signal comprises a synchronization pulse, a burst of a few oscillations of the chrominance sub-carrier signal, then the signal itself corresponding to the image, comprising superimposed luminance and chrominance information, the latter information being carried by the luminance signal.

The characteristics of the chrominance sub-carrier in the various PAL, NTSC and SECAM standards are defined in the published documents concerning these standards and will not be described in detail here. However, the main characteristics of these various standards will be briefly reminded because these indications are useful for a better understanding of the invention.

In the PAL standard, the frequency of the chrominance sub-carrier is equal for all the lines, but the phase of one of the modulation vectors varies + or -90° from one line to another. The frequency of the chrominance sub-carrier is standardized at 4.43 Mhz. In this system, the burst signal is also shifted by + or -90° from one line to the next.

In the NTSC standard, the chrominance sub-carrier is equal for all the lines.

In the SECAM standard, one uses two chrominance sub-carrier frequencies which alternate from one line to another, at 4.25 Mhz and 4.40 Mhz, respectively. These two chrominance sub-carriers are frequency modulated.

The multistandard color TV sets must have distinct internal systems designed to decode the luminance and chrominance signals for each standard used.

Therefore, these TV sets have to previously identify the received standard.

Systems for automatically identifying the standard used already exist. Generally, for such an automatic standard identification, the systems known use the bursts of the chrominance sub-carrier signal that are present at the beginning of each line. In fact, these bursts are standardized and calibrated samples of the chrominance sub-carrier transmitted on the video signal and comprise all the characteristic information concerning the transmitted color standard. The information contained in these bursts represents the frequency, the phase of one of the modulation vectors and the frequency or phase variation of one line with repect to the next one.

- CTI Picture Improvements circuitry in which colour signal, e.g. the line-sequential colour difference signals (R-Y,B-Y), is processed by an edge steepening circuit e.g. a colour transient improver and/or a two-line delay line in which the colour signals from two lines are added. The delay line may be part of a drop-out compensation circuit in which the colour signal of line n is replaced by the signal present for line n-2. A CCD-line may be used as the two-line delay line, and an amplitude limiter included. ADVANTAGE - Increased picture sharpness and improved signal-to-noise ratio.

The SONY KV-FX29 weights 65 KG. The 2 handgrip on top side are talking enough..........................

This tellye is rare and an unique model.
It was produced for a brief period of time in 1988, no other older models are similar nor any further, even the internal chassis is pretty unique and  only developed for this model and not shared in other types.

With 180 Watts of power supply requirements runs cool and quiet offering very good pictures flicker free, even without any digital enhancements still present in much more recent models with sophisticated chipsets.

The Trinitron colour tube, designed by and used exclusively by Sony in all its colour receivers, was the first to have an in -line gun arrangement. The Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) has been slowly changing since its con- ception about 50 years ago. Since then the emitter, accelerator and focus structures at the “gun” end have been added to the vacuum tube to shape and control the amount of electrons from the gun. At the target end of the CRT, the luminescent screen is made of a phos- phor mixture. Phosphor glows white when struck by electrons. Phos- phor brightness is directly proportional to the amount of electrons that strike the phosphor. The CRT sport brightness was controllable with a gun and phosphor screen. The electron beam produced a spot of light that was stationary on the phosphor screen. Placing an electromagnetic field near the electron beam after it left the gun created movement. The spot intensity and location were now controllable and the CRT became known as the pic- ture tube. To produce a color picture on the CRT screen; three independent gun structures are used. The electron guns produce different amounts of electrons targeted to their corresponding Red, Green and Blue phos- phors. Red, Green and Blue are the primary colors for light. In 1968 the Sony Trinitron picture tube was a departure from the tradi- tional three-gun color picture tube. Three major changes to the old color tube created a distinctive Trinitron picture tube:
 1. Instead of three small electron guns, focus was improved using one large electron gun structure that all three beams pass through.
 2. Electrostatic convergence plates were added to bend the outer elec- tron beams so they would land on the corresponding red and blue color phosphor.
 3. A continuous vertical slotted aperture grill at the screen end that: • Reduces the effects of terrestrial magnetism. • Prevents adjacent and stray electrons from striking the wrong phos- phor. • Allows more electrons to pass, increasing brightness without short- ening life. • Results in a flat screen. This reduces annoying room light reflections (glare).
It has a single gun assembly with three cathodes mounted in line horizontally, a striped -phosphor screen, an aperture grill with vertical slots instead of the traditional type of shadowmask, and a faceplate with cylindrical rather than parabolic curvature. The Trinitron tube produces a very good display - some people, including the   Obsolete Technology Tellye ! - author, would say the best aven if some exceptions with the PHILIPS ERF Series. There are sound technical reasons for making this claim, for example the design of the large electron lens which provides excellent resolution. An advantage of the cylindrical in comparison with the traditional parabolic faceplate is the fact that most of the external light that falls on it is reflected away from instead of towards the viewer, thus improving the. contrast and reducing eye strain.
The Black Trinitron introduced a couple of years ago gives a further improvement in this respect (the faceplate has been darkened to a black colour). Since the first Trinitron tubes appeared in the UK in the late sixties there has not been a great deal of change in the design, though a number of improvements have been introduced. More recently we have had the Black Trinitron mentioned above and the Pan -focus gun which gives uniform focusing over the entire screen area, eliminating any need for dynamic focusing but further added in large screen models in the 70's and 80's and 90's.

Any model with 100HZ scan tech coming after this SONY KV-FX29 ta is a different model and technologically different.

The set is build with a Modular chassis design because as modern television receivers become more complex the problem of repairing the receiver becomes more difficult. As the number of components used in the television receiver increases the susceptibility to breakdown increases and it becomes more difficult to replace defective components as they are more closely spaced. The problem has become even more complicated with the increasing number of color television receivers in use. A color television receiver has a larger number of circuits of a higher degree of complexity than the black and white receiver and further a more highly trained serviceman is required to properly service the color television receiver.
Fortunately for the service problem to date, most failures occur in the vacuum tubes used in the television receivers. A faulty or inoperative vacuum tube is relatively easy to find and replace. However, where the television receiver malfunction is caused by the failure of other components, such as resistors, capacitors or inductors, it is harder to isolate the defective component and a higher degree of skill on the part of the serviceman is required.
Even with the great majority of the color television receiver malfunctions being of the "easy to find and repair" type proper servicing of color sets has been difficult to obtain due to the shortage of trained serviceman.
At the present time advances in the state of the semiconductor art have led to the increasing use of transistors in color television receivers. The receiver described in this application has only two tubes, the picture tube and the high voltage rectifier tube, all the other active components in the receiver being semiconductors.
One important characteristic of a semiconductor device is its extreme reliability in comparison with the vacuum tube. The number of transistor and integrated circuit failures in the television receiver will be very low in comparison with the failures of other components, the reverse of what is true in present day color television receivers. Thus most failures in future television receivers will be of the hard to service type and will require more highly qualified servicemen.
The primary symptoms of a television receiver malfunction are shown on the picture tube of the television receiver while the components causing the malfunction are located within the cabinet. Also many adjustments to the receiver require the serviceman to observe the screen. Thus the serviceman must use unsatisfactory mirror arrangements to remove the electronic chassis from the cabinet, usually a very difficult task. Further many components are "buried" in a maze of circuitry and other components so that they are difficult to remove and replace without damage to other components in the receiver.
Repairing a modern color television receiver often requires that the receiver be removed from the home and carried to a repair shop where it may remain for many weeks. This is an expensive undertaking since most receivers are bulky and heavy enough to require at least two persons to carry them. Further, two trips must be made to the home, one to pick up the receiver and one to deliver it. For these reasons, the cost of maintaining the color television receiver in operating condition often exceeds the initial cost of the receiver and is an important factor in determining whether a receiver will be purchased.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide a transistorized color television receiver in which the main electronic chassis is easily accessible for maintenance and adjustment. Another object of this invention is to provide a transistorized color television receiver in which the electronic circuits are divided into a plurality of modules with the modules easily removable for service and maintenance. The main electronic chassis is slidably mounted within the cabinet so that it may be withdrawn, in the same manner as a drawer, to expose the electronic circuitry therein for maintenance and adjustment from the rear closure panel after easy removal. Another aspect is the capability to be serviced at eventually the home of the owner.

(To see the Internal Chassis Just click on Older Post Button on bottom page, that's simple !)


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An Increasingly Versatile Device The domestic television set used to be simply the thing that reproduced the programmes transmitted by one or other of the three programme networks  unless you happened to be connected to one of the wire systems that have experimented with local TV and pay TV at various times. But have you noticed what an increasingly versatile thing the TV set is becoming?
- The first major extension to the domestic TV set's possibilities came with the VCR, enabling you to record off air or replay prerecorded tapes. Domestic VTR systems have at a price  been with us for roughly a decade now, but till the advent of the easy to handle VCR most low-cost VTR systems were intended for use with monitors, with the signal interconnections at video and audio frequencies.
- Then came TV games, first found in the pubs and amusement arcades, later appearing in compact, relatively inexpensive packages for home use. The significant point here was the entry of digital techniques on the domestic TV scene. On the broadcast side, digital techniques had been making a substantial contribution to operations for some years, starting with the BBC's sound-in-syncs system (1969) in which the TV sound signal is compressed, converted to digital form and inserted in the line sync pulse period, and culminating with the IBA's famed DICE, which provides electronic standards (lines, fields, colour) conversion by converting the signals to digital form, processing them, then converting them back into analogue form.
Rather far from TV games you might think, but it's all part of the same process - the increasing impact of digital techniques on the world of television. In fact the technology of TV games has evolved considerably since their first appearance.
The approach then was to employ a fair number of standard digital i.c.s to build up the circuitry required. But why not go about it in the same way as the calculator manufacturers?
It didn't take long for the semiconductor people to see this new possibility for using their l.s.i. technology. This made it a relatively simple matter to provide a range of games with just a single i.c.  the basis of the present generation of TV games.
Add a second i.c. and the whole thing comes up in glorious colour. But it doesn't end there. The talk was now is of adopting microprocessor technology and making the system programmable, so that an almost unlimited range of games of varying degrees of complexity can be played. The favoured system seems to been to use prerecorded cassettes to provide the various programmes. And once you do that, you can extend the system to all sorts of other uses - teaching systems and so on. In fact you've made the TV set into part of a home computer installation - as we outlined in Teletopics last month. It's not impossible then to imagine some "viewers" using their TV sets for games, instruction and VCR use, while keeping up to date with teletext news and getting extra information via the PO's Viewdata system - and never watching a transmitted programme at all! We've come a long way then from the days of the TV set as a goggle
(goggle ????? or gooooooooooogle).................. box.
Teletext decoders and TV games were already being built into a few sets. What other digital innovations can we expect in TV sets? (may be DVB)
One now well established use of digital techniques is to provide all electronic channel selection.
The varicap tuner simply asks to be controlled in this way, and the system lends itself readily to remote control operation. Once you're controlling the tuner and generating various signals digitally there are other things you might as well do. Like flashing the selected channel number on the screen, or the time (coming shortly in Television!). Sets which do this sort of thing have been available on the Continent for some while now.
- The latest development along these lines is the picture within a picture a reduced size picture from another channel being inserted in the corner of the main display (PIP), so that you can watch two progrpnmes at once or see when to change over to a programme due to start on another channel. This involves some interesting digital processes - you've got to lose lines, and compact the video information by reading it into a memory at one speed and reading it out at another, in effect operating at two standards simultaneously while keeping both in sync (remember how difficult it has sometimes been to keep a set in sync on one standard!).
- There's only one thing that prevents a space-age TV installation in every home: cost.
But the cost of electronic hardware has a habit of falling dramatically once production has achieved a certain level. TV games are already commonplace, and teletext decoders have  become a lot cheaper once specialised i.c. modules for the purpose go into large scale production. From this point in time, it already seems that one can regard the days when the TV set simply displayed one of the programmes available as the age of stream TV.

....................................But we all know how it ended !


One more comment about digital in 2000..............


Over the years we have learnt that one of the most important things in video/ TV technology is selecting the best system to use. We have also seen how difficult this can be. Prior to the start of the colour TV era in Europe there was an great to-do about the best system to adopt. The US NTSC system seemed an obvious choice to start with. It had been proved in use, and refine- ments had been devised. But alternative, better solutions were proposed - PAL and Secam. PAL proved to be a great success, in fact a good choice. 
The French Secam system seems to have worked just as well. Apart from the video tape battles of the Seventies, the next really big debate concerned digital TV. When it came to digital terrestrial TV (DTT), Europe and the USA again adopted different standards. 

One major difference is the modulation system used for transmission. Coded orthogonal frequency   division multiplexing (COFDM) was selected for the European DVB system, while in the USA a system called 8VSB was adopted. COFDM uses quadrature amplitude modulation of a number of orthogonal carriers that are spread across the channel bandwidth. Because of their number, each carrier has a relatively low bit rate. 
The main advantage of the system is its excellent behaviour under multipath reception conditions. 8VSB represents a rather older,  pre phase modulation technoogy: eight  state amplitude modulation of a single carrier, with a vestigial sideband. The decision on the US system was assigned to the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), reporting to the FCC. The system it proposed was approved by the FCC on December 26th, 1996. The curious date might suggest that there had been a certain amount of politicking. In fact there had been an almighty row between the TV and computer industries about the video standard to adopt, the two fearing that one or other would gain an advantage as the technologies converged. It was 'resolved' by adopting a sort of   "open standard"  we are talking about resolution and scanning standards here - the idea apparently being that the technology would somehow sort itself out.

 There seems to have been rather less concern about the modulation standard. 8VSB was adopted because it was assumed to be able to provide a larger service area than the alternatives, including COFDM, for a given transmitter power. Well, the USA is a very large place! But the US TV industry, or at least some parts of it, is now having second thoughts. Once the FCC had made its decision, there was pressure to get on with digital TV. In early 1998 there were announce- ments about the start of transmissions and broadcasters assured the FCC that DTT would be available in the ten areas of greatest population concentration by May 1999. Rapid advances were expected, with an anticipated analogue TV switch -off in 2006. So far however things have not gone like that. At the end of 1999 some seventy DTI' transmitters were in operation, but Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association estimates suggest that only some 50,000 sets and 5,000 STBs had been sold.

 There have been many reports of technical problems, in particular with reception in urban and hilly areas and the use of indoor aerials, also with video/audio sync and other matters. Poor reception with indoor aerials in urban conditions is of particular concern: that's how much of the population receives its TV. The UK was the first European country to start DTI', in late 1998 - at much the same time as in the USA. The contrast is striking. ONdigital had signed up well over 500,000 subscribers by the end of 1999, a much higher proportion of viewers than in the USA. Free STBs have played a part of course, but it's notable that DTT 's reception in the UK has been relatively hassle -free. In making this comparison it should also be remembered that the main aim of DTT technology differs in Europe and the USA. 

The main concern in Europe has been to provide additional channels. In the USA it has been to move to HDTV, in particular to provide a successor the NTSC system. There have been plenty of channels in the USA for many a year. For example the DirecTV satellite service started in mid 1994 and offers some 200 channels. Internationally, various countries have been comparing the US and European digital systems. They have overwhelmingly come down in favour of the DVB system. There have been some very damaging assessments of the ATSC standard. The present concern in the US TV industry results from this poor domestic take up and lack of international success. Did the FCC make a boob, in particular in the choice of 8VSB? Following compara- tive tests carried out by Sinclair Broadcasting Group Inc., the company has petitioned the FCC to adopt COFDM as an option in the ATSC standard. Not only did its tests confirm poor reception with indoor aerials: they also established that the greater coverage predicted for 8VSB failed to materialise in practice. Could the USA have two DTT transmission standards? It seems unlikely. It would involve dual standard receivers and non  standardisation of transmitters. In the all important business of system selection, it looks as if the FCC got it wrong.
              ....................................   It is obviously wasteful to duplicate terrestrial TV transmissions in analogue and digital form. Sooner or later transmissions will all be digital, since this is a more efficient use of spectrum space. The question is when? It would suit some to switch off the analogue transmitters as soon as possible. 2006 has been suggested as a time to start, with ana- logue transmissions finally ending in 2010. All very neat and tidy. Whether it will work out in that way is another matter. Strong doubts are already beginning to be aired. 
 The government has, quite properly, laid down conditions to be met before the switch off occurs. Basically that the digital signal coverage should equal that achieved for analogue TV, currently 99.4 per cent of the population, and that digital receiving equipment should be available at an affordable price. The real problem is that there is a difference between a coverage of 99.4 per cent and 99.4 per cent of the population actually having digital receiving equipment. Why should those who are interested in only free - to -air channels go out and buy/rent a digital receiver? It is already becoming evident that this represents a fair chunk of the population. 
The ITC has warned the government that the 2006-2010 timetable is in jeopardy. Peter Rogers, the ITC's chief executive, has said "we need to persuade people only interested in watching free -to -air television to switch to digital. "
Unless we do, there will be no switch - over." Well not quite, because the analogue receivers will eventually wear out and have to be replaced. But that could take a long, long time. Meanwhile many people will expect to be able to continue to watch their usual TV fare using their existing analogue receivers. 

Research carried out by Culture Secretary Chris Smith's department has established that between forty and fifty per cent of the population expects the BBC licence to cover their TV viewing, which means what they get at present in analogue form. A substantial percentage of the population simply isn't interested in going digital. In fact take up of integrated receiver -decoders, as opposed to the free digital set -top boxes, has so far been very slow. 
Of five million TV sets sold in the UK year 1999 , only 10,000 were digital. There are important factors apart from overall coverage and how many people have sets. There is the extension of coverage, which becomes more difficult to achieve eco- nomically as the number of those not covered decreases. There is the problem of reception quality. And there is the question of domestic arrangements and convenience. Extending coverage to the last ten fifteen per cent of the population by means of conventional terrestrial transmitters will be expensive. Mr Smith's department seems to have conceded that other methods of signal delivery may have to be adopted - by satellite, by microwave links or by cable. The latter has of course never been economic where few households are involved. 
The frequency planners have been trying to find ways of increasing coverage even to well populated areas. There are so many areas where problems of one sort or another make the provision of DTT difficult. Satellite TV is the obvious solution. 
The time may well come when it is wondered why anyone bothered with DTT. Signal quality is becoming an increasingly important factor as the digital roll out continues. In areas where the signal is marginal, viewers could experience the extreme irritation of picture break up or complete loss like even todays. This is quite apart from the actual quality of the channel, which depends on the number of bits per second used. There is a maximum number of bits per multiplex, the total being shared by several channels. The fewer the bits, the poorer the picture in terms of definition and rendering. 

There have already been complaints about poor quality. The question of domestic arrangements is one that has not so far received adequate public attention. Most households 2000 nowadays don't have just one TV set that the family watches. They have a main one, probably, almost certainly one or more VCRs, and several other sets around the house to serve various purposes. What 'the percentage of households that have digital TV' should really mean is the percentage willing to replace all this equipment. It will be expensive, and people would not be happy if they were told to throw away their other equipment when they get a single nice new all  singing all dancing widescreen digital TV set. It fact there would be uproar. The move from analogue to digital is not like that from 405 to 625 lines, which went fairly smoothly.

In those days few people had video equipment or a multitude of sets. The transition to digital is not going to be smooth, and the suggestion of a switch off during 2006-2010 already looks totally unrealistic. Unless the government subsidises or gives away digital TV sets - and why should it? - people will expect their existing equipment to continue to be usable.  

So it's likely that analogue TV will be with us for many years yet. But that would be the end of analogue too. 

.............................Indeed...............................


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Sony Corporation (Sonī Kabushiki Gaisha) (TYO: 6758, NYSE: SNE), or commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate with revenue exceeding ¥ 7.730.0 trillion, or US$77.20 billion (FY2010).  Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its eight operating segments – Consumer Products & Devices (CPD), Networked Products & Services (NPS), B2B & Disc Manufacturing (B2B & Disc), Pictures, Music, Financial Services, Sony Ericsson and All Other.  These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, and Sony Financial. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. Its founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka derived the name from sonus, the Latin word for sound, and also from the English slang word "sonny", since they considered themselves to be "sonny boys", a loan word into Japanese which in the early 1950s connoted smart and presentable young men. History Masaru Ibuka, the co-founder of Sony: In late 1945, after the end of World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop in a bomb-damaged department store building in Nihonbashi of Tokyo. The next year, he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K., (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). The company built Japan's first tape recorder called the Type-G. In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs' invention of the transistor.  He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company. While most American companies were researching the transistor for its military applications, Ibuka and Morita looked to apply it to communications. Although the American companies Regency[disambiguation needed] and Texas Instruments built the first transistor radios, it was Ibuka's company that made them commercially successful for the first time. In August 1955, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo released the Sony TR-55, Japan's first commercially produced transistor radio.  They followed up in December of the same year by releasing the Sony TR-72, a product that won favor both within Japan and in export markets, including Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. Featuring six transistors, push-pull output and greatly improved sound quality, the TR-72 continued to be a popular seller into the early sixties. In May 1956, the company released the TR-6, which featured an innovative slim design and sound quality capable of rivaling portable tube radios. It was for the TR-6 that Sony first contracted "Atchan", a cartoon character created by Fuyuhiko Okabe, to become its advertising character. Now known as "Sony Boy", the character first appeared in a cartoon ad holding a TR-6 to his ear, but went on to represent the company in ads for a variety of products well into the mid-sixties.   The following year, 1957, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo came out with the TR-63 model, then the smallest (112 × 71 × 32 mm) transistor radio in commercial production. It was a worldwide commercial success.
  University of Arizona professor Michael Brian Schiffer, Ph.D., says, "Sony was not first, but its transistor radio was the most successful. The TR-63 of 1957 cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics." By the mid 1950s, American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1968. Sony's headquarters moved to Minato, Tokyo from Shinagawa, Tokyo around the end of 2006.
  Origin of name When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a romanized name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials, TTK. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TKK.
The company occasionally used the acronym "Totsuko" in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was "Tokyo Teletech" until Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name. The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word Sonus which is the root of "sonic" and "sound" and the other was "sonny," a familiar term used in 1950s America to call a boy.
The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955 but the company name did not change to Sony until January 1958. At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui, had strong feelings about the name. They pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company name tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Bank's chairman gave their approval.


By Japanese standards Sony is a comparative newcomer. It started out in May 1946, recently celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Most of the major Japanese companies in the consumer electronics field were formed much earlier. Hitachi and Toshiba for example date from the nineteenth century, Matsuhsita from the early years of the twentieth century. During those fifty years however Sony's achievements have been second to none. Sony started operations as Tokyo Tsuchin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). Its aim was "to make unique products", and to "create and introduce technologies that larger companies cannot match". One of its earliest achievements was Japan's first reel-to-reel audio tape recorder, which was launched in 1950. The tape to go with it, also developed by the company, was called Soni-tape. In 1954 the company launched the first all -transistor radio to go into production anywhere. When, in the following year, it decided to start exporting, a simple brand name that would be easily recognised in any part of the globe was required. Sony was the obvious answer, and in 1958 the company changed its name to the Sony Corporation. The Sony Corporation of America was set up in 1960. Sony UK, in 1968, brought Sony to Europe. Innovation continued apace. In 1960 Sony launched the fast fully transistorised portable TV receiver. Five years later the first open -reel video tape recorder for domestic use was introduced. The Trinitron colour system arrived in 1968. It was incredible, though typical, that Sony should develop its own colour TV tube from scratch. While relying on the traditional three primary colour phosphors and a shadowmask, the phosphors were laid down in stripes, the mask became a shadow grille, the guns were arranged in -line and the faceplate became much flatter. This was to be the way tube development would go. The Betamax VCR system was introduced in 1975. It is today generally accepted that it was the best of its time. But, as with the Trinitron system, Sony wouldn't licence it to other manufacturers. That mistake led to its demise, and wasn't repeated. The 8nun video system, which has come to dominate the camcorder field, was launched by Sony ten years later, in 1985. Meanwhile Sony had had an extraordinary success with the Walkman portable audio system, which was launched in 1979. This is claimed to have been "the single best-selling consumer electronics product ever marketed". Sony kept up the pace of development, moving on to digital systems. The MiniDisc, capable of both record and playback, arrived in 1993. In 1995 Sony was first to launch a digital camcorder. A home DV recorder is due later this year, along with a device called the DV cap: this links a DV camera to a PC for editing and image manipulation. There have been a number of other significant developments in recent times. The highly successful PlayStation established Sony in the video games market. Sony is to introduce its first PC later this year, while "a true living -room computer" is promised for next year. Plasmatron large, flat screen TV sets are already available in Japan. DVD players are another imminent prospect. All in all it has been an extraordinary story, and Sony's position at the centre of electronics development looks set to continue indefinitely. The company has combined world -class R&D capabilities, manufacturing excellence, the ability to read and to create markets, and remarkable marketing skills. The UK's main CE innovator for a long time, Amstrad, makes a sorry contrast. For a time Amstrad couldn't do anything wrong. It came up with a string of innovative ideas and products, skillfully meeting and developing user requirements. Packaged audio, wordprocessors then an IBM PC clone. There were the combined TV/VCR units, then the video Double Decker. Amstrad was in and out of audio, video and TV, always with highly competitive products. The company came up with the first Sky package at under £200. But while it came up with products that met contemporary needs, it never seemed to take root and grow. We are now witnessing its final dismemberment. Psion, the hand-held computer manufacturer, is negotiating to take over Amstrad's digital telephone interests, which fit in with its own product development programme. Amstrad's loss - making consumer electronics interests are to be split between Betacom, an affiliated company, and a new company to be called Digicom Technology. The latter will take over Amstrad's analogue satellite business and inherit a small R&D operation. How did Sony succeed, starting out with twenty employees, no machinery and negligible capital, while Amstrad simply shuffles off stage? Because Amstrad never developed a comprehensive business strategy. It came up with bright ideas, subcontracted production, stocked up then walked away as soon as the market turned.

It's the tragic story of much of UK and European industry.
R.I.P. EUROPE........................................................

Partial list of other aperture grille brands


More Some  References and  Further Notes:

"You Guys Can Do It!". Sony Global. Sony. 2002. Archived from the original on 2010-06-25. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
Ed Reitan, "CBS Field Sequential Color System" Archived 2010-01-05 at the Wayback Machine, 24 August 1997
Ed Reitan, "RCA Dot Sequential Color System" Archived 2010-01-07 at the Wayback Machine, 28 August 1997
Gould, Jack (4 January 1954). "Television in Review: NBC Color; Tournament of Roses Parade Is Sent Over 22-City Network". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2019-05-04. (blog about this article, (archived May 4, 2019)
Sony, pg. 42
Edward Lucie-Smith (1983). A History of Industrial Design. Phaidon Press. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-7148-2281-5.
Sony, pg. 43
Sony, pg. 44
Sony, pg. 45
Sony, pg. 46
Sony, pg. 47
"Sony Trinitron color television receiver, c 1970" is a common publication claiming that Trinitron and Chromatron are the same.
Albert Abramson (15 September 2007). The History of Television, 1942 to 2000. McFarland. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-7864-3243-1.
Sony, pg. 48
"Trinitron's High Quality Image Wins Computer Displays Applications". Sony History. 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-03-29.
"KX-20PS1"
"Sony PROFEEL"
"Sony Pulls Plug on Historic Trinitron TV" Archived 2008-08-21 at the Wayback Machine, IEEE Spectrum Online
"Sony to stop making old-style cathode ray tube TVs", Wall Street Journal MarketWatch', 3 March 2008
James, James; Hansell, Saul (10 March 2005). "Samsung Is Now What Sony Once Was". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2018-05-27.
Shu-Ching, Jean Chen (26 February 2006). "Sony Jilts Samsung For Sharp In LCD Panel Production". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=33373&page=3
"24" Widescreen CRT (FW900) From Ebay arrived, Comments". HardForum. Retrieved 25 November 2012.

Bibliography:

John Nathan (April 2001). Sony. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0-618-12694-5.

External links

Trinitron: Sony's Once Unbeatable ProductSony Trinitron Explained