HiFi Component TV - What? and Why?

A look at a HiFi component TV - a category that reached its brief zenith in the late 1970s
The WiFi Mirasceen Airplay/Miracast device I used in this video is currently out of stock in the UK Amazon store amzn.to/2WxRN8B - however it is still available in the US amzn.to/2Scd4pe and you can also find it on ebay ebay.to/2RvwpNy (It's not brilliant though - audio can be laggy - so don't take this as some kind of glowing endorsement - but it just about worked well enough for me to make this video).
The composite to VHF RF adaptor I used is this one ebay.to/2MJyyV4
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[@djbongwater]

I just gotta say, theres a lot of eccentric defunct gadget collectors out there but I think youre the only one with a youtube channel that concisely shares the history and context of each thing purely for the sake of informing people and for the love of the game. Truly amazing youtube channel! Thank you for what you do.

[@lashyndragon]

*flippin eck*

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

🤦

[@RabbitEarsCh]

Black & White televisions remained very common in Venezuela for a long time as we were especially late to the party - color TV was first attempted in 1969, but banned (yes, really) until 1979, at which point stations were then finally able to broadcast in colour, even though they'd been recording in colour for years. Funny thing is: no one was making black & white television transmitters anymore at that point, so the engineers just passed the signal through a filter that would strip out everything but luminance and hope for the best, but the filters weren't very good with the red channel. So, I'm told, if you were watching a programme with a lot of bright red colours in it (say, Star Trek for example), from a colour TV, you could see the faint traces of red on your screen, since the transmission wasn't really Black & White to begin with.

[@lollandster]

Thanks for the cool fun fact. I had to check if this was true (the banned part in particular) and at first glance it seemed wrong as wikipedia say Venezuela started color transmission in 1974. But with no sources stated I wasn't about to trust wikipedia over a random comment on youtube, so I followed the link to Televisora Nacional were 1980 was stated as the start of color TV. This time they had included a source and in that source the story was exactly as you told it, that is color broadcasts started in 1979 and was banned before that. The article explains how TV programs in Venezuela where made in color as early as 1972, but transmitted in black and white because government hadn't opened the broadcast band for color signals. Shows how you shouldn't trust Wikipedia. The source was www.monografias.com/trabajos13/televis/televis.shtml

[@RabbitEarsCh]

@@lollandster I know it's sort of cliché to say things like this, but my family is very involved in TV and my dad was a high-level engineer and manager in RCTV for many years, so we are very familiar with the inner workings of the system and the bizarre political considerations that went on in television in the country. He was also responsible for the first public stereo TV broadcast in the nation in 1984 with RCTV; I believe at the time they co-opted an FM radio transmitter to do the stereo sound part of the transmission if I remember my details correctly. The actual broadcast is up on my channel, look for "Astor Piazzolla".

[@Helvetica_Scenario]

Do you know why it was banned? Was this done in order to keep from having "haves" and "have-nots" when it came to color tv?

[@DG1TAL]

Do you remember if that ban was based on political or technological reasons? I could imagine that the issue was the increased RF bandwidth of the color TV signal and maybe some non-standard channel spacing.

[@LEGOpachinko]

did you correct/edit wikipedia ?

[@tomimantyla8236]

This would have been nice when MTV still played music videos. In stereo, of course.

[@IVR02]

Well, there’s MTV Classic, but they’re not exactly what I’d call “good.” They repeat too many videos, and what they consider to be “classic” is questionable at best.

[@murpesx]

I remember being able to hook my cable TV directly to the FM antenna input on my stereo and listening to MTV that way. I wish I could remember how it worked, but I was just a kid in the 80s. Perhaps my cable company just had an FM feed they provided, but it was in stereo and it sounded comparatively great. I recorded a lot of music to cassette that way.

[@Madkoifish]

would not matter much as this thing is mono. The single output is a single rca or component connector.

[@jamesslick4790]

@@Madkoifish That's because it is from 1978. There was no stereo sound on US broadcast television until 1984.

[@robsemail]

@@jamesslick4790 you're right, but there were times when broadcasters would work around the technical restrictions. All through the 1970s it was common for stereo FM stations to partner with TV stations for one-time stereo broadcasts. Usually it would be for a concert, because anything else would be unappealing to the FM station. One regular broadcast of this type was the PBS show 'Austin City Limits' which for many years was simulcast on NPR radio. By the late 70s, there were several music-video shows that aired on the major TV networks late at night on Fridays and Saturdays, and in many markets those shows were simulcast in stereo on FM radio. Of course, in such a case the device reviewed in this video would be irrelevant, because it would make more sense to record the FM signal. My main point is that the years before 1984 in the US were not completely devoid of stereo television.

[@FrankOlsonTwins]

Best intro yet! Excellent CRT shot. Should we hereafter call you Mat Headroom?

[@CattoRayTube]

Doesn't take much to reach max headroom on that screen :p

[@MrWombatty]

Best puppets outro yet!

[@MrDuncl]

I think he was referring to this kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYrHoYKgocqnpMU Back in the day we were amazed by the cutting edge computer graphics even if they kept glitching,The truth was it was actually a bloke in a rubber mask !

[@CattoRayTube]

@@MrDuncl Well aware of Max Headroom, hence why I quickly reworded my first reply from "maximum" to "max" to be more in line with OP's joke haha

[@6581punk]

@@MrDuncl They won an oscar or something for the computer graphics. They did use some in the background at times, although sometimes it was just animated conventionally. To see Max Headroom actor out of costume he is in a very funny buddy cop movie called Short Time.

[@robsemail]

My parents were married in 1958, and my maternal grandmother gave them a color TV as a wedding gift. I was born a couple years later, and so some of my earliest memories are of being the only kid on the block who had a color TV at home. I can remember most Saturday nights were busy around our house, with lots of neighbors visiting to watch whatever was in color on TV that night. I can remember that by the time 'Dark Shadows' started airing in color, at least one other neighbor had a color set, and so all the kids would race to either my house or Will and Stevie's house after school to watch it. My first bedroom TV, which I acquired at age 15 with my own money, was a used Portacolor. I loved that TV! It had the best-looking color image you could get other than Trinitron.

[@davidjgomm]

"My parents were married in 1958, and my maternal grandmother gave them a color TV as a wedding gift. I was born a couple years later," I guess they were more interested in the colour TV than hanky-panky.

[@robsemail]

davidjgomm, they were college students who weren’t ready to have a kid at the time they were married. I don’t want to infringe on your parents’ right to tell you about the facts of life before you’re ready, so perhaps it’s time to ask mommy about something called “birth control”. You’ll need to know about it soon after you reach puberty.

[@robsemail]

@Wyberton Cubley what do you mean by "color TV channels"? By 1957, two networks had made broadcasts in NTSC compatible color, and by that year those programs were going out in color over many network affiliates across the country. So there were a lot of TV stations capable of broadcasting color. CBS did very little programming in NTSC color, but in 1954 they debuted their new fall season with a number of color episodes, including an episode of 'Burns and Allen' which you can view right here on youtube. NBC was the only network with regular broadcasts in color at that time, most notably on Saturday night, when people were most likely to be out shopping. By having color programs on at that time, shoppers could stop into their local RCA store and see what color TV looked like (NBC and RCA were more or less the same company at the time).

[@Rebel9668]

My Grandparents were from rural West Tennessee and only got electricity in the early 50's. Before that they had the "farm" radio that ran on large batteries. They were the first around for miles though to buy a television (B&W of course) and Mom told of how neighbors from miles around used to show up there on Saturday nights to watch the boxing matches on tv there, lol. Their first set only had VHF. Later they got a UHF add on box. They had a large boom antenna mounted on one of those home towers with a rotor on it clear up to 1998 and I remember having to turn the rotor North/Northwest for CBS in Cape Girardeau, MO, North for NBC in Paducah, KY and South for ABC in Jackson, TN.

[@creakycracker]

@@robsemail I remember my Mom dressing me up and my family visiting the neighbors to watch NBC's "Ponderosa" on their new color set.

[@robertmudry4242]

I had a black and white tv in my room growing up, but swapped it out for a small portable color tv/radio/tape recorder. The screen was tiny, but it was brilliant to me! The coolest part was you could use the built in tape recorder to record live tv. I would record all sorts of shows, and listen to them when going to sleep. This was probably early to mid 80’s.

[@909sickle]

"Now, the fact you're watching this video, either means I resisted the urge to touch everything with my bare flesh, or after my demise, Sony bought the entire Techmoan estate for a few billions dollars and employed a sound-alike to finish off this voice-over in my absence." Well..... which is it??

[@MarcKloos]

Sound-alike, most likely James May.

[@JeniousJustin]

Looking forward to more Sony owned content with his sound-alike.

[@coen123]

You ain't nobody unless you die young and have the rights to unreleased material sold of to major entertainment companies in order to capitalize on them for a depressingly long amount of time.

[@AndyLundell]

The extra budget Sony can bring to this channel will be great, at least for about six months. After that, they'll stop trying to imitate Matt's style and it'll just get pointless and click-baity.

[@tedhaubrich]

Well, the end of the video DID feature a Sony version with 'more features'.

[@LemonExtras]

Never stop making videos, Matt. Love your channel.

[@user-Merovingian1980]

why are most youtubers named Matt hahahaha very odd but true

[@traxonwax]

Looks like a natural fit for your main hi fi system. Love the silver finish and those big heavy knobs and switches.

[@joeblankenship377]

That would've been awesome to serve as a Picture-In-Picture back in the day. You could flip channels on the main TV during a commercial break and see when the commercials are over on the stereo.

[@stp22]

Brushed Aluminium, stunning and built to last, compared to majority of plastic in house brands, this is amazing for the time

[@Rebel9668]

Back then Sears was also a good in store brand with their Series LXI and before that their Silvertone brand which dated back to the 1930's.. Montgomery Ward had their Airline brand that dated back to the 1930's as well.

[@garethwilliams5809]

I'm a big fan of brushed aluminium

[@onometre]

I unironically love wood grain too. It's not even nostalgia, wood grain was pretty rare when I was a kid in the early 00s.

[@AnthonyTolhurst-dw1nc]

Gareth Williams Me too. The ultimate machine age hiding, before the black plastic toy time period.

[@marcuscook5145]

@@Rebel9668 I have an old tube Silvertone radio from the '50s that belonged to my great grandmother. Still works.

[@EmanuelFrias]

The way this video was presented was really neat, I'm loving every little detail and effort put into theses videos. Great content, Techmoan!

[@KiwiExpressCream]

I need to use those GIFS! The Picard facepalm is getting old now.

[@russellhltn1396]

Where's the GIFs??? Come on, you can't tease us like that an not deliver!

[@Panzercommander121]

@@russellhltn1396 In the description, but here: gfycat.com/@TheMoans

[@zepelin33]

@@Panzercommander121 yes, yes. thank you. (Y)

[@IntyMichael]

Flippin eck

[@holderbee7811]

Number 1, I order you to take a number 2

[@andromedastrain77]

I grew up with a black and white TV in my bedroom in the 80's. I had about 40 of them. My Grandfather and I would buy them for $2 a piece and I'd pull them to bits lol I did get an arc from a flyback once. My finger got too close... It hurt... Recording of the TV audio I did by tuning my cassette radio to 100.75MHz - the sound carrier for Channel 4 here in Australia - which was the RF output of our VCR (I tapped the coaxial lead :-)

[@steviebboy69]

I remember hearing the audio on the FM band, the ABC and AMV4 in Albury as well. You could also hear the Vision carrier.

[@andromedastrain77]

@@steviebboy69 Haha yep, that annoying buzzing. My bestie and I used to sit down the river here and listen to Rage on 91.75 - Channel 3. I recorded a plethora of Top 50's from that ABC station. Good times.

[@steviebboy69]

What part of the country are you from by the way. I remember Rage, my Sister liked that one alot,.

[@litigioussociety4249]

Almost everyone in the late 80s and sometimes even in the early 90s had one of those small black and white TVs (13 inch were the most common) they used as an extra TV, usually in their kitchen, a bedroom, basement, etc. They were well suited for watching things like classic sitcoms and MTV. They were also convenient, because they used the Ohm connectors (screws,) so a kid could connect up a coat hanger to them to watch broadcast television. Unfortunately in the 2000s, everything converted to digital, so the coat hanger thing won't work anymore, and even antennas with a digital converter aren't very effective, because they can't display a weak signal.

[@gwishart]

They were also quite popular in student digs right up until the early 2000s - since the licences for black and white TVs were about half the price of colour ones. Lots of extra cash to spend on Pot Noodles and WKD.

[@InimicusSolitus]

When I was around 13 years old, our main TV was a black and white 21". I remember we actually borrowed a colour TV one time to watch a special event. Later we did upgrade to colour in the living room. I did eventually get a tiny black and white TV in my bedroom.

[@metalheadmalta]

At 5:30.. I WANTED that unit. :-) Great video, thanks! The outros were hilarious... and keep the videos LONG please!

[@eddiesolomons7418]

Another great vid, my friend. I share your passion for these wonderful devices. I bought a Realistic sta2000 in 1977, a Lab 400 turntable ,and a set of Mach 1 speakers. And I am playing these vids through it today. Keep up the great work!

[@andygelsthorpe7518]

I am 65, so I don't have long enough left to live to read all the comments, so sorry for any repetition. Our first TV was a 9 inch Bush which eventually got downgraded to my bedroom in my teens, thence to the loft when it died. (It is still there). It has a conversion on the back to enable one to tune in the new ITV. Fairly soon after stereo sound appeared, I bought a NICAM tuner from Maplin. It overheated after about 20 minutes, producing distorted sound. I was so desperate to have stereo that, rather than take it back, I cut a hole in the top above the heatsink- problem solved. No CRT in it, but I think it may have had a power amp. Excellent video, thank you.

[@brianolson6366]

I vividly remember watching my black and white tv in my bedroom late at night when I was supposed to be asleep.

[@Techmoan]

GIFs are available here: gfycat.com/@TheMoans m.imgur.com/gallery/Axp1nkm

[@Sheevlord]

It sucks when KZbin does weird things like this

[@zzstoner]

JIFs :)

[@BryanHancocks]

You should do the puppets as a standalone video for more "Engagement"

[@The_Studioworkshop]

Techmoan it’d be interesting to see review of the popular Thorn 1500 chassis television from the 70s. One of the most B&W 625line TV to date in the UK.

[@axemanracing6222]

First link gives me this file to save (no GIF) QueasyPersonalGartersnake.webp Second link lets me "save video to" Where are the GIFS (I'm using Opera, NOT Chrome!)

[@MrJgsmith]

Your voice and acting style just makes me happy. Keep up the amazing work. It brightens my and many other people's days!!!

[@olli_k]

Oh how i miss the days of when I had my little B&W tv. I remember staying up late and watching Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, David Letterman, Maude, Fish and then the "Bedtime Movies" with the bedtime movie hostesses. All of this was from an independent station, not a network affiliate. They played whatever they wanted. And they really didn't censor out much. Then on Saturdays it was old episodes of Tarzan, Three Stooges, wrestling and then Godzilla movies every Saturday from that same station. My little B&W tv started to give up the ghost after five or so years. It got to a point that i could turn it on, go to the kitchen and make a bowl of popcorn and a sandwich before it was done warming up and displaying a picture full screen. It finally gave up the ghost and I ended up getting a smaller color tv. It just wasn't the same.

[@NJRoadfan]

Its interesting that this product category vanished right before decent television audio became a thing. MTS stereo sound (BTSC) showed up in 1984 in select markets of the USA. Of course by then the "new" Hi-Fi VCRs came with built in MTS tuners with handy RCA output jacks to connect to a stereo. Its debatable that something like this would have been cheaper than a Hi-Fi stereo capable VHS or Betamax deck, maybe for a year or two before prices came down.They didn't have the cool oscilloscope though. :( Does anyone here remember when FM stations did stereo simulcasts of TV events because they offered higher fidelity stereo sound? I remember them lasting into the 90's here in the NYC market. Even with MTS stereo, NTSC TV audio didn't have the frequency response of a FM stereo radio station.

[@DimensionDude]

My local TV cable service had stereo simulcast on FM through the cable of MTV back in the 1990s, when MTV actually showed music videos.

[@5roundsrapid263]

I remember PBS simulcasting on FM up into the early ‘90s.

[@ianhelps3749]

Yes. Back in 1982 BBC showed the film "Tommy", and the soundtrack was simultaneously broadcast on Radio 1 FM. I don't know if it was ever done again.

[@williamberger2178]

Very interesting, I was working for JCPenney Advertising at the time and I never saw this product. In 1978 JCP was starting to sell VHS player/recorders and that seemed to sell well. I believe the JCP VHS units were made by Hatachi originally and they seemed pretty good. Thanks for the research.

[@williamberger2178]

Spellcheck is a bitch, thanks

[@creakycracker]

I remember I worked as a teenager at a General Electric TV factory in the 80s. Hitachi toured the plant to buy it. Someone in management told me the deal fell through for 2 reasons: One was Hitachi was aghast at the waste in the American factory saying they could produce another production line from the components found on the floor, and the Other was they were shocked that we didn't make our sets with better components. The rumor was Hitachi used computer - grade components in their sets. Three years later GE packed up the whole thing and had the sets made in Singapore.

[@channelzero2252]

When I was a kid, my family had a B&W TV as the main TV until Fabruary 1987. I was 8 at the time. Within three months, colour TV, a Commodore 64 and a VCR. Recording Thomas and playing "Asterix And The Magic Cauldren" had this 8 year old in heaven.

[@falcore91]

This video exemplifies why I love this channel. You cover a lot of device categories I never even knew existed.

[@MrGeocidal]

I thought I was the only one who loved small CRT televisions!

[@onometre]

every time I find a portable TV at a thrift store its an instabuy

[@Trenchbroom]

My first TV was an early 70s Zenith black and white, bought with my lawn mowing money from the town pawn shop for $40 in 1984. Took it home, hooked it into the spliced cable (cable splicer and extra coax purchased at the town Radio Shack on the same trip of course), turned it on, waited for it to warm up. "It works!" Tuned it to WTBS Superstation and the Brady Bunch was on. Tube had a faint horizontal line that would crawl up the screen, otherwise the picture was glorious! I plugged my ear plug into the 'EAR' jack on the side, and watched it like 1971. Great day.

[@qibble455]

The switch gear is just gorgeous, It's what I love most about this era. Great video.

[@jonw.1043]

I love your videos because of your passion for stuff like this. I was born in '85. There was so much stuff in catalogs I saw as a child that I was never allowed to purchase or see. I feel like I get to finally play with those things when I watch your vids. One thing I'd always wanted was a "Jeep Box", which was an LCD and car stereo placed into a toolbox by Jeep (Chrysler). Probably wouldn't make for much of a video though! Anyways thank you for the content.

[@saiforos7928]

your cruise joke became a lot more topical

[@CornishMotorcycleDiaries]

Puppets! Yay!!! That JC Penney device is the Old Skool equivalent of all those Apps that allow you to download the music off KZbin videos.

[@Horowitek]

great montage on this one! technology knowledge/humour ratio presented on this channel really relaxes me

[@k3ntris]

That intro is like something out of a 90s tv documentary. Damn Techmoan, your informative content, delivery and editing is on point. 👍🏼👍🏼

[@lorenmars8181]

I like the most ODD and RARE stuff. Fun to learn from you. Looking forward to the next episode. I understand your space constraints but, could you feature the console stereo? Not a history lesson, really. Just an old Zenith Behemoth-tron. I have a 1966 Zenith console AM/FM Phono. Tube drive. A Mid-Mod Danish look masterpiece. Just found a 1950 Zenith porthole TV too. Thinking about restoring it. Thanks man........

[@stnickwoods]

6:24 RIP Techmoan....Hello hand model. (I assumed they used the same technology from Ebert for his voice)

[@OMM-bo9fr]

When I was little, we had a 70s portable black and white TV I used to play around with quite a lot. It was a real minimalistic space age design thing and I loved it. It was orange-yellowish and had only three dials in the front, two larger ones for channel selection and adjusting contrast / brightness and one smaller for the volume / on-switch. It breaks my heart, but one day, when I was away for university, my mother threw it out. I loved that TV. It would be useless nowadays with digital TV broadcasting but still, I grew attached to it. Not to mention what you could get for it on ebay. But I would never sell it. RIP old 70s TV, I will never forget when I watched "who framed roger rabbit" on your wonderful little black and white screen.

[@NigelMarston]

This channel is costing me a fortune on eBay. I'm addicted.

[@1001hifi]

A similar TV receiver, the National Panasonic TR565G, was once advertised as "The first TV in the U.K. designed as a Hi Fi component"

[@CommodoreFan64]

I remember in the early 80's around 83/84 I had B/W TV in my bed room, but shortly afterwards it died, so my father got my 13in Sharp TV that lasted well into the late 90's before by brother knocked it off the table in our bedroom, and it killed it. Also my grandmother for many years had a 2nd B/W TV in the sun room where she would do her sewing, and other crafts that she would watch(mostly listen) her soaps on it, or just catch the news.

[@s.sestric9929]

Cool Starry Bra! i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/159/414/Cool-Starry-Bra.jpg

[@bryanpratt3933]

I need to know how your brother knocked a CRT TV off a table, even a 13" isn't exactly featherweight.

[@phalanger1]

I have no idea why but part of me really wants a device like this. Your videos are strangely addictive, I really enjoy your approach to making videos about these vintage devices.

[@Audiorevue]

I just turned 32 and despite my relative youth I can confirm that as a child my brother and I did indeed have a black-and-white television in our room as our TV. My parents were older when I came along in fact my dad would be in his mid-80s if he was still alive and because of their age and my moms ever demanding insistence that we hold on to everything we owned and never threw anything away when it came time for my brother and I to demand a television of our own lo and behold we ended up with a Magnavox 13 inch black and white television. And I very distinctly remember when the PlayStation came out my Brother very much wanted one and it was something my father was very much against however through a battle of attrition or year or so after it came out one found its way under our Christmas tree. And I have interesting memories of playing Crash bandicoot on that television. We had some good times

[@Daytona574]

I've run into a few JCP-branded electronics over the years, and have always been surprised by the quality. I initially assumed them to be bottom-rung money makers, but as you pointed out they're OEM'd from respected manufacturers and are quite decent.

[@h8GW]

Presumably, JCP was also much more respected back then, too.

[@Coineno]

Hi Techmoan Thanks for this video, did not even know this tv (stereo rack style) existed. And lucky me, I managed to win one on Yahoo Japan for just 60 Euro Sony VTM5

[@GuilleSpiegeler]

Always loves these bits at the end. Keep up the good work mate! flippin eck

[@afr1952]

Thanks for putting this up. I had forgotten all about this component. I actually bought this when it came out. It was pretty cool for it's time. J.C. Penney had some nice equipment back in the day.

[@MrDuncl]

That explains the Montgomery ward Music centre with a built in TV. Unlike a portable TV I couldn't understand the point of it. Anyone else remember the top end Sony Profeel TVs. They thought that if they made it from components like a HiFi they could charge a premium price. Regarding Portable Colour TVs, back in 1980 the department I was in at work, who already had a Commodore Pet bought a colour computer to evaluate. Someone was sent to Dixons to buy a Portable Colur TV to use as a monitor. Word spread around site and for the next week or so we had loads of visitors to see the new purchases. About half had the reaction "my goodness a Colour Computer, whatever will they think of next. " an equal number had the reaction "MY GOODNESS A PORTABLE COLOUR TV: WHATEVER WILL THEY THINK OF NEXT" .

[@spuds6423]

I guess that is the unit Trevor Horn of the Buggles refers to in "Video Killed the Radio Star"... Ironically the first video played on MTV.

[@spuds6423]

@surfitlive I knew it!!!!😄😄😄😄😄

[@jenky1044]

That was a good video and brought back some memories. I grew up in a very small rural town (2600 people) in the U.S. and my mom worked at an electronics and appliance store. My parents had purchased a color tv for the living room (quite a few people owned a color tv by then). At Christmas we got our first VCR (we were probably the 3rd family in town to purchase one). I thought it was great to get a 13" black and white portable tv for my bedroom in the late 70's at my age at almost double digits. Also loved your puppet show and the end.

[@scotttrindl1192]

Oddly enough, I have one of those MCS series component TV's. Exactly like the one in the video. I bought it in the late 70's at a JC Penny catalog outlet store that I went to periodically looking for bargains. I bought other pieces from their MCS series as well, I know I had an integrated amp as well as a cassette deck. I used this TV more for the wave form screen. It looked pretty interesting sitting on the shelving with my audio system components , with the inputs hooked to the speaker outputs on my power amp. It gave a reading of the power output going to the speakers. I don't have the integrated amp or cassette deck any longer, but I still have the component TV. I haven't used it in quite a while but it's sitting in storage maybe 30 feet from where I'm sitting now. I may have to pull it out and see if it still works.

[@ZipplyZane]

My grandparents had a radio that also let you switch to VHF mode. But they didn't give it a screen. And you could only use its included antenna. Still, I remember tuning in and listening to Wheel of Fortune, exactly the wrong kind of show to just listen to.

[@VectraQS]

Some early episodes of Wheel of Fortune (1975-ish) have survived... on audiotape. Fortunately, a few individuals have undertaken the work to reconstruct the footage to make it at least semi-watchable.

[@5roundsrapid263]

I think you’re talking about a scanner. We had one when I was a kid. I hooked up an old rooftop antenna and could get analog cordless phones...😄

[@dougbrowning82]

Too bad that mode was rendered obsolete by the switch to digital TV. I have a Venturer miltiband with a TV band (actually two bands, VHF low and VHF high).

[@ZipplyZane]

Doug Browning I haven't checked in a while, but there was a point after the move to digital that we could pick up a single, very local station, the same one that would simulcast the local FM station if it didn't have other programming. Was there any sort of exception for local stations for small local stations?

[@5roundsrapid263]

ZipplyZane That was probably a “nightlight” station; each market had one for a month. All low power stations didn’t have to switch until 2017.

[@ZackTheLightningNinja]

I didn’t hear much of a problem the first time, but this is good too.

[@Techmoan]

It only kicked in after the video had been live for five hours.

[@jacobb.]

RF modulator brings back memories. Used to not be able to live without it

[@swiftfox3461]

Your long form content is so enjoyable. It's like comfort food of online videos.

[@carlwells9504]

You could hook it up to your B speakers from your favourite Int Amp/Reciever to get those pretty displays without having to run main output through it

[@SlyEcho]

Well, I have a DVD player in my stack for playing CD's, so maybe it's a good match for that.

[@holton345]

My JC Penney MCS Series component stereo system was a monster with outstanding speakers (huge, too) and a very sensitive receiver unit. The dual cassette unit and the turntable were also quite nice, and the EQ unit was tons of fun to play with. I loved that system and the nice glass-doored cabinet. I got it for Christmas of 1977 (I was in the 7th grade) and dragged it around with me through my time in the US Army and finally sold it in my 5th year of college due to student poverty. I have always bemoaned the loss of that stereo. I would have *loved* this video unit as I taped lots of TV programs like the Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic telecasts from that era. Holding a wired mic to the TV set and demanding that everyone leave the house for the next two hours was difficult to say the least. This was a brilliant way to solve that issue. Great post!

[@keithvincenttucker9923]

My father bought his first color television in 1987. For years before that, we were the only family in the area still using black and white. He also used to record off the TV by putting a mono tape recorder by the TV speaker. Mostly, he recorded the Tommy Hunter show. I think that show might have been Canadian only.

[@RodBeauvex]

One of these appears in the background of Smash Mouth's Walking on the Sun at 30 seconds in.

[@volvo09]

gotta check that out, neato!

[@napunch]

Cool -- did see that.

[@aterack833]

I thought you meant the puppet gifs because I hadn’t heard of that song so thought maybe it was new or something and then saw it was 9 years old (or more) and thought “oh maybe it’s the same thing but the video isn’t original or maybe he bought these puppets or made his own, puppets were pretty big in music videos for a while there” then I see it at 31 seconds in.... flippin eck

[@Themanwithnoscreenname]

It's like the Reese's chocolate peanut butter cup of electronics. "You TV in my hi-fi component!" "You got hi-fi component in my TV!"

[@sweethomeboston2720]

Great comment--very funny. Since a lot of people will LOL over this, you might want to edit it and put in the word "got" in the first line where you left it out: "You _______ TV in my

[@dougbrowning82]

These devices were made by Sony and Matsushita/Panasonic, companies known to make both TV and Hi-Fi products. It's only natural they'd come up with a TV device for Hi-Fi systems.

[@mr.y.mysterious.video1]

Does that mean while watching it you get a distinct taste of vomit in your mouth?

[@willyarma_uk]

It's amazing how compact the electronics are! When I was younger I would use the audio out on the VCR to record audio, I had a Sony C5 Betamax in my bedroom, it was enormous!

[@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21]

I have a Hitachi version of one of these 5" component devices. I remember seeing one just once in a HiFi shop window in Retford around 1978. I subsequently bought a working used one which I still have in 1990. Richard (UK)

[@ColdInferno]

If you’re re-uploading then i’m rewatching. Losing views is never fun.

[@ChamplainValleyRailSnapshots]

The screen looks like something that came right out of Fallout.

[@tpommischiefmaker]

Well, yeah. The TVs and monitors in Fallout are all based on old-school CRTs. Some even use the exact same designs as ones that have actually existed, most notably the Philco Predicta.

[@chrissalter9916]

That's because the game has a divergence that takes place in the 1960s

[@super-gerald]

When playing audio, that screen's really cool. I could watch that for hours.

[@juandenz2008]

It's amazing the gizmos you manage to track down. I'm always surprised as well that somebody has kept this sort of thing sitting around in a box somewhere too. That component looks almost like new.

[@markmarkofkane8167]

Thanks, I watched 12 hours ago before the reupload. It was fine. I was using the KZbin app, though.

[@Techmoan]

The fault only kicked in after the video had been live for five hours.

[@ExplosiveAction]

@@Techmoan that's one peculiar fault.

[@seb_gibbs]

vinyl video? didnt know that was a thing.

[@RobCamp-rmc_0]

Seb Gibbs Mat did a video on it fairly recently, last couple of months; go have a look

[@AlexanderChapin]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nHS6fZR3rNdmqa8

[@averykeimig4983]

I just bought one of these because of this video! When I get home from work it should be there in the mail. I’m sooooo excited to get it up and running! I spend a lot of time hanging out with my HIFI and would LOVE to put on some Netflix when I’m listening to some tunes!!! This is soo cool

[@garyallsebrook3493]

Very cool you reviewed this. I bought one from Penneys. Years ago and it’s still operating in an AVR rack I have. I only use it as a tone generator/waveform monitor now.

[@willyarma_uk]

As far as i'm concerned Jif is the old name for Cif, the kitchen cleaning product.

[@willyarma_uk]

Also Jif lemons, the lemon juice that I have on pancake day.

[@Best-Match]

Jif is also a brand of peanut butter here in the States

[@surisuri8993]

Crikey, I thought it was still called Jif. Shows how much cleaning I do.

[@spacemonkeyjim]

jiff is also a image file extension, which is not at all confusing in any way...

[@litigioussociety4249]

I always pronounced gif as jif prior to the debate starting around 10 years ago, because that's what the peanut butter is called. Acronyms don't usually encompass the pronunciations of the letters in their words, because then the vowels would be all screwed up, and several acronyms that start with ph, ps, ts, and other silent letters, diphthongs, compound letter sounds, etc. wouldn't work. Also, acronyms starting with things like "ce" are typically pronounced with an "s" sound even when the "c" stands for a word where it starts with a "k"sound, because of the nature of English words.

[@hmoham]

KZbin still recovering from the New Years celebrations it seems, still having issues being encoded and now video's are going out of sync.

[@Yeen125]

hmoham If I were to take a guess, it’s because KZbin is switching over to a new video codec (AV1) and are still working out the bugs when re-encoding it to and from h264 and/or VP9.

[@j.harbottle8928]

FWIW I had a b&w telly in the eighties as a teenager, for me computer games and Saturday Night Live - Ben Elton in his sparkyl suit ! It was aJVC w an FM radio, 14 inch

[@AtheistOrphan]

‘Little bit of politics’

[@knockshinnoch1950]

I had a portable PANASONIC TR1200G cassette/radio/B&W TV combo. Bought in late 1979 when I left home for Uni. It caused quite a stir in the halls of residence! No more having to sit inn the awful TV viewing room with folks arguing over which channel was on! It was a pretty robust machine still in use until I started working and bought my first Hi Fi separates.

[@eNodeTG]

I watched the original and was wondering; How the flippin eck, is the audio, *in a Techmoan video* out of sync?! *_Especially in the all-important outro??_* Is there anything KZbin and it's parent companies can't screw up?

[@eNodeTG]

Well so long as it's eco-friendly air, produced with green energy.. and natural/organically,... GMO free, vegan, wheat free, vaccine/lead free, ETC. and all of that certified, 4 color process printed on an aesthetically conscious label; then I, for one, welcome our new atmospheric overlords, where can I pick up a can?

[@J0r]

When are you going to start shooting in 4K?

[@Techmoan]

2015 It's processing.

[@GeekTherapyRadio]

Flippin' eck this was a fascinating extended GIF of a VTR!

[@UNOwen1]

+Techmoan; I LOVE those 2 green guys you've now got working with you! They add the right amount of...'colour' (😉). Your tech stuff videos are - without exception - always informative, humorous, and well-detailed.

[@DFXPony]

I love your videos featuring oldschool hardware. Thanks a lot!

[@chrismorgan5474]

Being interested in all things hifi, I didnt know these ever existed, lol...As usual, thanks for an informative and well produced vid!

[@gotthefeelin]

I'm 37 and had a portable B&W TV called a Logik with a built in clock radio in my bedroom. A very 80s one in white from Dixons in the U.K. It was bought for me in the late 80s. I had it until about 2003! Amazing to think I had one and how things have moved on in such a short space of time.

[@dashcamandy2242]

The TechMoan impersonator that finished out the video was spot-on! The mono audio output jack would be a great way to add in an era-appropriate color organ.

[@deltanine6497]

Very cool component. Back in the 70s I'd always wander off to the electronics department when visiting a dept. store to check out the records and stuff. I recall in the late 70's being really intrigued by the tiny b/w portable televisions that were appearing in the stores then. Seemed very new and very exciting. Thanks for the video, and it was nice to see Lemmy too! :-)

[@Static1701]

Thank you for the video, I picked up 2 of these last fall and did not know that it had a lighted scale. The one I have tired does not light up but after watching your video I looked with a flash light and I see it.

[@bluesfish55m51]

I remember these. My first stereo as a team was an MCS receiver and a pair of Panasonic thrusters. Great video on and a unique device bringing back old memories

[@Qddens]

Thanks for making such amazing videos, Love this channel!

[@kylosalvesen]

I had a black & white commodore 64 monitor in my room in the late 90's. Fond memories of playing Metal Gear Solid on the original Playstation connected up to that monitor.

[@JohnCookNet]

Amazing find. My MCS (Technics) cassette player from early 80's still works today.

[@t.s.gilmer8397]

Love the info and the humor, plus brings back memories!!!😎

[@suburbanhunter-gatherer3071]

Love the GIFs! Great vid as always.

[@tekvax01]

this is awesome! I'd love to have one of these units!!

[@melodychest9020]

A room with a TV, bed and breakfast style! Exactly what I got when I was a lodger in Oxford about 30 years ago from my landlord .. a really small black and white TV in which I had training in all forms of the English accent, UK style!

[@joetylerdale]

Love it, I'm so glad I found your channel!

[@napunch]

Really cool to see this! I still have mine, purchased at JCPenney in 1979.

[@guerrillaradio9953]

I was born in 82, and my first TV was a 1976 Zenith b&w 19" which I paid $9 for at a yard sale in 1991. Played my original Nintendo on it for about a year before the vertical yoke went bad. I was on top of the world for a 9 year old; the only other kid in the neighborhood with a bedroom TV was several years older than I was. Thanks for the nostalgia.

[@AgamemnonTWC]

I love the aesthetic of that waveform and its scale so much

[@Mychannel-ub6bf]

Glad you did a video on this item. I bought one new in 1979 for about $150.00 US. I never recorded TV sound or even used the TV, rather, in the realm of cool displays and blinky lights, I still enjoy the wave form and use it as an output power meter.

[@ashleyrayner7949]

Great vid...i had a brown pye rambler obviously black and white...still got it in my loft..and it still works..got it about 1981 Christmas..