SONY VT-M5 - Beautifully obsolete

[@thedddemon]

All these years and no clickbait titles, no clickbait video thumbails. Just pure quality. Thank you, it's such a joy getting a new video every Saturday.

[@PaulMDavidson]

This and Technology Connections are like KZbin comfort food.

[@Zastrutzki]

@@PaulMDavidson Don't forget about LGR.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

When you actually have things to say, no clickbait is necessary

[@halfsourlizard9319]

​@@ZastrutzkiClint has done some Sims vids just for the clicks 🤷 Not my cuppa but can't really blame him

[@AndersEngerJensen]

I recorded Bruce Springsteen live in NJ (or NY or something) from our national broadcaster in Norway back in the mid 80s. I think it was a concert from the late 70s that was aired then... and I had nothing but my cheap ass "boom box" which I placed next to the TV (a Luxor of some kind) and recorded just the speaker. I had to shush my parents because they kept talking over it! Things are much easier now, that's for sure! :D

[@AndrewBehm]

Worth it for the Boss! Those are the best tapes to come across secondhand, too. Not great for daily listening, but a neat window into another world

[@pkaulf]

I used to do this too. I recorded my favourite music from my Sega Master System and later Amiga games and demos, to listen on my walkman.

[@AdvanceAU]

Dancing Hearts is a fantastic track and is a favourite of mine to this day.

[@xsc1000]

It seems quite complicated. Since end of 60s TV sets here had tape recorder DIN output, so it was easy to record anything. You just put the same plug like when you recorded from radio.

[@mumiemonstret]

I remember recording the sound from random soap operas in the '80-s via the AUX port on the TV,, then editing my own "amusing" collages of dialogue... Didn't even need to hush my parents😀. Later, I recorded all Eurovision Song Contests onto DAT tape and listened to them on my TCD-D3 Walkman. Two use cases of recording sound from TV, but still leaving the "Audioscope" completely superfluous... Big thanks for "Retro Grooves" btw!

[@markalancirino]

In 1979, my roommate was an electrical engineer. He opened the back of my brand new 17" RCA color TV and soldered extra wires onto the speaker terminals going out to RCA plugs. Having TV sound through the stereo, even if it was only mono, was amazing to us.

[@sprint955st]

In 1983 I was 14 and had a Commodore 64 and a 12inch colour TV. The sound through the TV was woeful but I was inquisitive and took the back off the telly and ran wires from somewhere I poked around at to RCA sockets i installed that I recovered from my older brothers busted fag-ash filled boombox, and plugged in to my 2nd hand salvage repair Alba music centre. A massive, massive improvement.

[@patjackmanesq]

Max Headroom is looking well for his age, in fairness

[@ffsireallydontcare]

The decades of speech therapy seem to have gotten rid of his stutter as well! He's now ready to hack into a cable channel's broadcast of Doctor Who!

[@AfterBurnerTeirusu]

@@ffsireallydontcare I wonder if his wife still spanks him...

[@nowster]

Matt Headroom?

[@tgktgkify]

I noticed exactly the same thing! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_signal_hijacking

[@scottpoerschke8807]

No, He is Techmoan

[@Sigma-INFJ.]

"Now this is definitely not a place to be poking around if you don't know what you're doing. And I don't know what I'm doing."

[@PartarioAbdullah-Levi]

Especially not with a CRT in it, the HT cable can pack quite a wallop.

[@jeremiahchamberlin4499]

Hmmm. You knew enough to fix it, that’s something.

[@killerbee2562]

A shame adrian's digital basement is based in the US. He's done a tone of work on crt tvs.

[@agoogolofgeese]

I saw this comment at the exact time that he said it, word for word. That was weird.

[@LowOrigin]

One of my least favourite electric shocks is off the back of a CRT.

[@johnstone7697]

I worked for Sony from the mid 1970's to 1981, in their servvice division. They had some incredible products in their lineup during this period. When I went to Japan for training, I toured a tape recorder factory that was entirely robotic. Just amazing technology for the time.

[@trainluvr]

My father worked for SONY in the early 70s in Long Island City as a tech writer. The SONY name actually meant something back then.

[@toyokawashigako1643]

They Still make incredible products

[@RCAvhstape]

@@toyokawashigako1643 They make pretty good headphones and Bluetooth speakers at least. I really wish they would make some decent tape decks again. In Japan.

[@RCAvhstape]

There's a reason why Sony figured prominently in the Bladerunner scenery. Futuristic Japanese tech was a main part of that film's aesthetic.

[@offspringfan89]

Sadly, the Sony of today is just a shadow of the innovating company it once was in audio and video equipment.

[@CptJistuce]

Part of the problem is that while US and Japan both used NTSC for video encoding, they broadcast on different frequencies and had different audio offsets. So while NTSC J and NTSC U are effectively interchangable over composite, they're almost completely incompatible over RF.

[@grossefonc]

Yeah exactly I had the same issue but quickly realize that my RF modulator did have an option to set different frequency audio offset and fixed the problem.

[@ReubenThompson]

Same with PAL-I in the UK vs PAL-G in Germany etc - you could watch the video but not get audio unless you could change the offset. There's technically a difference in video bandwidth too in both cases but I'm not sure it made a lot of practical difference.

[@Nezuji]

Just to add to this, the Japanese originally allocated some broadcast spectrum to TV which was used for FM radio in many othe countries. That's probably how TM is picking up local FM stations at one end of the dial. In the early 2010s, after the end of analog TV transmission, the government reallocated those frequencies to FM audio broadcast in Japan as well. Radio receivers capable of tuning in to the new "expanded" range of frequencies were labelled "Wide FM', which you can usually still find written somewhere on the box even on radios made today. Prior to that it wasn't uncommon to see radios labelled "TV Sound", as many were made with tuners designed for global markets, and so could tune into the audio of the lower Japanese VHF stations.

[@Muzer0]

"Effectively interchangeable" the "effectively" is right, but just to add an extra wrinkle to this, they have different standards for black level. This is the source of many an issue when using modern video capture devices for example designed for one market in the other, when blacks might appear washed out (NTSC-U signal captured with NTSC-J equipment) or alternatively shadow detail might be crushed (vice versa). So while you'll see a picture you won't get the best result, at least not unless something is done to compensate for the black level difference.

[@CptJistuce]

@@Muzer0 The black level is actually what I was thinking of when I said "effectively interchangable". It is a difference that can cause problems under specific circumstances, since the black level on NTSC J is the same as the blanking level. This can cause some older displays to mistake black for a sync pulse(and is why NTSC U set the black level above 0V in the first place). If you ever wondered why your PlayStation manual includes a note that some TVs won't work right, I am pretty sure this is why.

[@deleted_redacted]

One of the many reasons I sub and support is being introduced to stuff that I didn't know existed. What a delightful bit of kit this is! I imagine back in late '70s Japan, this was quite a marvelous device to use. Thanks for showcasing this, Mat!

[@xsc1000]

Sony also made similar device later. It was in other case - non HiFi style but it had preselector for 8 programmes and no CRT. It was made for european standard so with 5,5/6,5Mhz sound.

[@WoodsPrecisionArms]

TM is a straight up audiophile - this guy has shown me stuff I never fathomed existed, I just love his channel and British accent cool to listen to as well lol

[@rabidbigdog]

And shows the 'classic' Sony of superb quality in every direction.

[@reyluna9332]

This video plays like a greatest hits of Techmoan. We get vintage tech, new tech, mix and match video and audio formats and electrical currents, sticker peeling. And even a teardown to find the flaw in the puzzle. It's all so cool!

[@NasaZombieDragon-vc7pl]

I guess we are living in a cyberpunk dystopia... But now like what we expect.

[@carlpollington5059]

A lovely bit of history given the Techmoan treatment. Thanks!

[@danieltobey]

Always love to see the Frankenstein-ian amalgamation of cables, adapters, connectors etc. it takes to get certain tech running right. Great video!

[@fsphil]

Your UK (System I) RF modulator would be transmitting the FM audio 6 MHz above the video signal, whereas your Japanese receiver uses System M and expects the audio to be at +4.5 MHz - so that'll be why you couldn't get both at the same time.

[@RemoWilliams1227]

That makes sense

[@steviebboy69]

And I think in Australia it was 5.5Mhz above the vision carrier for the audio.

[@just_passing_through]

@@steviebboy69Indeed. Australia used PAL B and the sound offset was 5.5 MHz

[@steviebboy69]

@@just_passing_through Yes, thanks for clarifying I thought it was from memory.

[@grossefonc]

I had the same issue and then realize my RF modulator can switch offset between 4.5 5.5 and 6 Mhz

[@video99couk]

When I was a youngster I remember connecting some wires to the speaker output of my first ancient TV, an all-valve 405 line junker, so I could record audio. It worked. Only later did I realise how dangerous that was because it was a live-chassis TV, as most were in the day. If it hadn't been for the audio transformer before the speaker, it would have resulted in a big bang or worse.

[@xsc1000]

Since late 60s all TV sets made by Czechoslovak Tesla had DIN tape recorder output. Those sets were also hot chassis, so recorder output was connected through small audio safety transformer. It was connected to demodulator output, so there was signal regardless volume setting.

[@jhonwask]

I did the same thing with our Silvertone TV, but i knew it was dangerous having repaired all-tube chassis TV's since 1971; I was 7 then.

[@eduardoreyesfraire1325]

😊​@@jhonwask

[@UnkeptJ]

"This device had a very tiny window of life, but that doesn't make it any less beautiful". Just like us humans. I wasn't expecting to feel so emotional from you talking about a piece of Sony hardware from the late 70's, but there you go. Really enjoyable video and I loved how you took the time to make it work despite how "obselete" it was, fantastic.

[@bobbydigitales]

How many people would have been able to figure out how to make this thing dusplay a picture!? Great stuff :)

[@xsc1000]

In 70s you just plugged antenna and tuned it like your standard TV set.

[@jeremiahchamberlin4499]

I agree, he is an ancient tech whisperer, a few gentle touches, an incantation or two, and viola, it springs to life.

[@penguin44ca]

Jus simple contact cleaner and an antenna

[@DonCarlsen85]

Final! after all these years, we now know who the real Max Headroom is. :D

[@CptJistuce]

Matt Frewer.

[@joeblankenship377]

Now that's a proper piece of gear for watching TechMoan videos.

[@Cre80s]

... AND converting them into an audio-only library, too!

[@Sigma-INFJ.]

Never can get enough of that "Oh yeah" music when you're peeling plastic. It always makes me laugh.

[@jhonwask]

Ha ha! I thought the same thing.

[@RaccoonHenry]

especially since there's some guy out there who loathes it and always complains!!

[@voltare2amstereo]

And there's that guy that complains of he does it to fast ​@@RaccoonHenry

[@JonnyMack33]

Can you imagine having your TV on your stereo stack in 1977!! Ohhhh man! Super futuristic!

[@CoolDudeClem]

When I was a kid I thought radio was the exact same thing as a TV but without a screen.

[@volvo09]

When my dad hooked his hi fi to our TV as a kid I thought it was awesome! Watching NASCAR races or football games with the big speakers on.

[@RCAvhstape]

@@CoolDudeClem Well, it kind of is. An analog TV is an FM radio receiver that can process video.

[@donbest5024]

I saw one of these at jc Penneys in the late 70s in Orlando Florida.

[@rocketman221projects]

​@@RCAvhstape Before the analog TV broadcasts were shut down, you could tune most FM radios with analog tuning just past the bottom of the FM band and pick up the audio for NTSC channel 6. The audio carrier was at 87.75MHz. It was quieter since the FM deviation was lower for TV audio.

[@trublgrl]

I am a huge fan of comedies, and a lot of comedy works without the picture. In high school, I dubbed Marx Brothers movies, and Fawlty Towers, and Mr. Show onto cassettes and listened to them on my Walkman. Animated shows like The Critic, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Futurama are so well crafted, they can really be enjoyed without the picture. Nowadays, I will stream shows and minimize the window while I work. It's converting motion pictures into theater of the mind, and I suggest everyone try it and see if it appeals to you. AND, never forget Golden Age Radio, some of those shows are just amazing.

[@GrrAargh1]

I used to record TV comedies too. Especially sitcoms where I knew the actors well and could picture their expressions etc in my mind as I listened.

[@wobblyboost]

Young Ones, if you watched the episode once or twice, are very suitable to audio only. ABC rural radio used to play fawlty towers episodes as late night fillers when I was a lad :)

[@ClayMann]

That is just so cool to hear trublgrl, really made my day hearing someone else did this! I did almost the same. I'd rent movies and then record them onto tape. Some of them like "Kentucky Fried Movie" I would have listened to dozens of times. I had so many movies on tape. Even stuff that made no sense like action movies. I still listened to them because there really was nothing much else to do in those days. No games consoles or Internet. No TV in my room just one TV in the entire house that was always showing the news or some crap I had no interest in. So tape was weirdly very important. Horrors worked especially well in audio only at night. I really had no idea other people did this. None of my friends did. This video really triggered some buried memories I'd just completely forgotten heh.

[@trublgrl]

@@wobblyboost Yeah! That was one I had! That show was so very metal.

[@trublgrl]

​@@ClayMann Honestly, cassette tapes were a game changer, we had nothing to record with before them. My dad was a hi-fi kind of guy, so we actually had a reel-to-reel, but the tapes were too expensive to actually use. When Walkmen came out, and we had cassette recorders, we could record ourselves, the radio, record from vinyl, or CD. It was just a way to manipulate and use the recording process and make something of our own. Me and my friends made a comedy album in High School. I recorded some great band practices with the simplest tools. And, uhm, I became a recording engineer as a career. It all started with cassettes. No, you were never alone. We're not super common, but we're out here someplace!

[@RockRedGenesis]

I just love the simple look of Sony gear from around this time. That brushed aluminium finish and the fact that it screams "quality" The saying "They don't make them like they used too" definitely applies here!

[@wobblyboost]

Alas poor Sony, our beloved electronic son, the power went to his head and he has lost his way.

[@RockRedGenesis]

@@wobblyboost Amen!

[@yarly3180]

Wow a rarity nowadays: a YT channel without annoying ads and begging for subscriptions ... excellent! (subscribed 😉)

[@Jackpkmn]

holy moly the nostalgia smashed me in the face like a sack of potatos when i saw that thumbnail. A version of this (but with only one large overlay, not sure exactly but those paddle switches are unmistakable) was the first TV I had in my bedroom as a kid. Fished it out of the trash in the late 90s and set it up with my NES I bought from a rummage sale. I was unfortunately not very kind to it. It eventually ended up in the trash again after I dismantled it to it's bare components to learn more about electronics.

[@RaccoonHenry]

you played NES on a screen THAT SMALL?!?!

[@Jackpkmn]

@@RaccoonHenry My impetus for taking it apart the first time was to remove the plastic grating that made up the scope readout overlay portion. Duck hunt wouldn't work with it on. After removing it I learned that duckhunt gets easier the smaller the screen you use as long as the screen is bright enough because the aperture of your gun stays the same size.

[@RaccoonHenry]

@@Jackpkmn hah, so an inconvenience turns into a hack! brilliant!

[@ruk2023--]

1:54 takes me back to the 80;s when TV's slowly turned faded off when you powered them off.

[@DumahBrazorf]

Thank you for the little peeling moment. Much appreciated.

[@snappers_antique_firearms]

Seeing the thumbnail of this device, it reminded me of a car Stereo my dad bought in the very early 90s. I remember being blown away as a small kid that we could watch tv on a extremely small screen in the car.

[@keirthomas-bryant6116]

It's not just about the switches and dials having a certain aesthetic. It was the concept that we would always want and need manual control over all aspects of our gadgets. The idea of something being automated, via integrated circuits. had yet to establish itself when this device hit the market. So, getting the best quality was very much down to the individual. This is why equipment like this looks so retro to us nowadays-it's because it offers control over how it works. This has been taken away from us. If we record audio on our phones we don't even have to think about things like line level, or impedance. It just works, and works very well.

[@Spearca]

Automatic systems generally succeed because they work _well enough_ for most people and applications. If you're more picky, or trying to do anything unusual, you're still better off with more controls. But then you need to learn to use them.

[@FatNorthernBigot]

Look at that impressive 70's design. There's no menu-diving, just clear dials and switches which indicate their current value at a glance. We really have lost our way when it comes to design and aesthetics.

[@ian_b]

In a way, but to be fair many interfaces are menu-diving these days because there are many more function which would make control-per-function expensive and/or cumbersome.

[@edgarwalk5637]

@@ian_b Menus are cheaper yes, better or easier to use no.

[@tomsixsix]

@@edgarwalk5637 but you wouldn't be able to fit hundreds of controls onto a product without menus and touchscreens, that's the point...

[@my3dviews]

Even cars have too many controls hidden in menus now. My car has a large touch screen with some of the heater controls on it. The sound system is all touch controls, except for the volume knob. Some menus are fine, but we shouldn't be trying to find the correct one while also driving.

[@ruk2023--]

@@edgarwalk5637 That's not why we have menus. 70's devices had 10 functions. Modern devices have hundreds.

[@RCAvhstape]

This right here is classic Techmoan awesomeness. Beautiful 1970s Japanese tech, obsolete but still amazing. Also, having a working black and white TV set alone is pretty cool now.

[@nigew25]

Now then what a rollercoaster, me heart sunk when it didn't work! Then you got it going! I will be at peace now for the rest of the day!

[@mattclarke8791]

When the BBC repeated a bunch of old Dr Who stories (An Uneartly Child etc), maybe in the early 80s, a friend and I taped them carefully onto cassette to listen to again.

[@stephenpalmer9375]

The 5 Faces of Doctor Who.. An Unearthly Child, The Krotons, Carnival of Monsters, The Three Doctors and Logopollis - all preparing us for Peter Davison,

[@RaccoonHenry]

what a time to be alive... and to think the BBC THEMSELVES taped over some classic Who episodes...

[@stephenpalmer9375]

@@RaccoonHenry well there’s context to that. The BBC and ITV disposed of a lot of recordings of all kinds of shows. Doctor Who gets a lot of attention, but there are missing episodes of Dads Army, Dixon of Dock Green, The Goodies, Hancocks Half Hour, the Likely Lads, Morecambe and Wise… and that’s just scraping the surface. But at the time the idea of repeat showing was actually not that common, and contracts may have precluded it. And the concept of home media was 20-25 years away. The media was bulky, and needed careful storage. Space alone meant that it was likely to be destroyed

[@gummboote]

All the lost Who episodes exist as audio recordings, so people were doing that first time around.

[@RaccoonHenry]

@@stephenpalmer9375 of course, the cost of media and the storage would be a huge issue, it just seems insane to dispose of so much hard work... I guess now with the benefit of 60 years of Who history we also have a different perspective than seeing it as just some semi-educational sci-fi for kids...

[@LinHolcomb]

I have the MSC version of this made for the US Department Store chain JC Penny. It still works great and will revive the one and only NTSC broadcast signal still on the are in my area a so-called Franken FM CH6. It also plays from a similar Roku device I found at an estate sale. These were also handy for putting sporting events on your HiFi for parties. I remember going to a Kentucky Derby party at which the host had one of these bay around 1980.

[@jonleonard1555]

WOW! I used to actually watch tv shows on that exact device 30 years ago! We had a bigger TV in the living room, of course, but this one was sort of the "let the kids watch what they want to" tv in another room. Awesome!

[@andywatts8654]

?! In the mid 90s!

[@Blackadder75]

this was probably more expensive than another (low-end) tv, so how did your parents end up with it?

[@jonleonard1555]

@@Blackadder75 My dad was a technician and a bit of an audiophile.

[@billyruss]

As you say, what a wonderful piece of beautifully obsolete hardware! Incredible that this kind of technology existed way back in 1977. Incredible, too, the pace at which things move on - as you say, this was to be replaced in a few years by VHS and the steady progress forward from there. Like Blockbuster, there was just that small window of usefulness 🙂 Kudos on getting the thing to work, and the perseverance with the various unconnected bits of hardware to make that happen.

[@kobolila-yt]

Awesome. Brings back memories. We connected a wire to the speaker leads in our tv which we then fed into a tape deck recorder (8 Track & cassete!) so we could listen to the audio of our favorite movies on road trips.

[@fustigate314159]

I love that you have all those different components and cables (don't throw them out!) to piece together different test setups.

[@thevideoman12]

I'm now 98% sure that Techmoan is behind the Max Headroom incident

[@DavidLye-no4ht]

I love all your reviews, but it's the retro tech wot I grew up with like this that keeps me coming back!

[@stuartmcconnachie]

1:26 “Remove the reading plug from the wine”. Absolutely! 🍷

[@skald9]

"please ask your flower vase store."

[@spooforbrains]

I would just like to express my appreciation for the extra effort put into tje dynamic shots in the segment at the end. It would have been very easy to just shoot it head on and with the camera static. It's little touches like that that really elevate your channel above so many others

[@davewhite7182]

Amazing device. We need to thank TV audio recording enthusiasts for preserving many of the missing Dr Who episodes (mind you they had to dive into the tv to make direct connections for the highest quality). Great find and a brilliant video.

[@vincei4252]

I never knew this thing existed. Imagine how futuristic you'd feel owning one of these in the 70's! I remember when my father bought our first VCR back in the 70's. It was a format that pre-dated VHS manufactured by Philips N1502.

[@Xeshiraz]

Mr. Techmoan. I just want to tell you one thing: I love you and your videos. ❤

[@Cyberpunk001]

When I was about 13 (I'm 51 now) I got into music with the purchase of my first Walkman with paper round wages. A family friend had something like this, and gave me a copy of the audio of Queen Live at Wembley taped from a VHS cassette. This was about ten to fifteen years before Queen released it as an official live album.

[@siskokidd]

My secret to recording TV audio in the early 70's: Build a "sound isolating tent" around a small box speaker (8 inch woofer with built-in whizzer tweeter) made from record album jackets with a blanket laid over top. The speaker was connected to the aux speaker jack at the rear of our family TV. For the recording device I used a portable GE tape cassette recorder (Christmas gift), with the wire connected microphone attached, which was placed inside the speaker tent. Even at low volume with that setup, the recorded sound was quite good. All that was needed from me was to press record, then pause whenever a commercial was aired.

[@dfc99nyc]

I recorded the audio of a TV broadcast announcement of Richard Nixon's resignation by connecting an audio cable from the audio output of a Sony Trinitron (mono of course in 1974) to the 'aux' input on a mono Sony cassette recorder. IIRC that Trinitron had both an earphone output, and a volume controlled audio output which did not cut the sound out. I did test recordings to get the output volume correct for recording. I still have those cassettes somewhere in my basement but I don't know if they are still playable.

[@livesportsvideo]

My first TV recording using a tape cassette placed in front of the sets speaker, was H R Puffnstuff. I listened to that recording for hours. We later moved house and sitting on top of the lounges window sill was a rediffusion box. I had no clue what it was back then but found out that if connected a speaker to two of the wires sticking out of it and turned the switch I could listen to TV. They finally switched the service off in the middle 80's when satellite became a thing.

[@andyhello23]

Always amazing to see what you find next Have not seen your channel in a while, and its amazing you are still finding stuff from the past.

[@peterresetz1960]

I had a Sony TA-F40 integrated amplifier that I bought in a U.S.Army PX while stationed in Germany. Paired with a set of Small Advent speakers, with a homemade sub (25-85 Hz), played just loud enough to annoy the neighbors with a measly 50W per channel. Clean, transparent, with well defined stereo separation. Every one loved the sound quality of the system. This home system included a TEAC C-3X, dbx 222, ADC SS One IC, Philips 312 w/Micro Acoustics(forgot model). Lost it in house fire years later. Life really sucks at times. Sony was one of the under appreciated home stereo system brands, that were overshadowed by non-high-fidelity brands such as Pioneer and Marantz.

[@keithmockett3810]

you must be the "king of connectors"! "as always" really enjoyed!

[@nazznomad]

FYI for those who arent aware. He did a video on a very similar item some years ago, an MCS VTR unit. Might be interesting to watch that and then watch this, and compare both items. Both are very cool, but the Sony is a much higher build. Cheers and peace from Canada

[@AtheistOrphan]

Indeed, as he mentions right at the beginning of the video.

[@nazznomad]

Quite the burn

[@Shineyongs.]

Thank you for learning a lot about the forgotten HiFi/AV ​​system through this channel! In the past, there were attempts to connect a Hifi system to a TV.

[@Longplay_Games]

What a neat thing! I love stuff like this from your channel.

[@3AMREVIEWS]

I disagree about recording the snooker audio, makes great ASMR😄. Great vid as usual.

[@robertlawrence9000]

That's definitely an interesting piece of A/V equipment history!

[@pascalbruyere7108]

Thanks for the nice museum tour! This repair was magical 😁

[@DaveChurchill]

9:50 - Brilliant Transition, bravo

[@captcorajus]

I remember as a kid in the 1970s I had a radio that had UHF anf VHF in addition to AM and FM. Advertised as a 'TV Radio'. I remember thinking how coll it was to get TV audio on my radio.

[@AtheistOrphan]

They’re the same thing. VHF (Very High Frequency) is British terminology for FM (Frequency Modulation) which is American. And UHF (Ultra High Frequency) is British terminology for the American AM. (Amplitude Modulation).

[@KeritechElectronics]

A thing of beauty, a joy for ever. Most interesting. Whenever I saw CRTs in hi-fi gear (not in person though), these were always for waveforms and correlation displays, and I never heard of an integrated TVs. I'd surely love to hook it up to a C64 for the fun of it.

[@user-mgc]

Thanks TM, as always it's been a pleasure to watch.

[@fab1604]

Peak '70s design, my God it's beautiful

[@doctormario777]

I found one of these in a used shop in Tokyo in 2020 and have loved having it in my HiFi ever since.

[@Ylyrra]

One of those devices I'd love to know the story behind the development of... what possessed Sony to think there'd be enough of a market to develop such a niche device, especially given the level of complexity involved in making it work. The "why was this built?" seems more interesting than the device itself!

[@kevinh96]

I was lucky enough as a young teenager to be given a Hitachi TV/Radio Cassette Recorder for Christmas in around 1981, a very expensive device back then. I used it for a few years to record tracks from Top of the Pops to make mix tapes and the odd concert that was broadcast on TV onto cassette. Of course I would also record tracks from the Top 40 on a Sunday night too. I actually kept it for years after upgrading my setup, using it as the main display in my bedroom for my various 8 bit computers until I was able to buy a dedicated monitor years later. Using a 5 inch black and white TV to play video games wasn't ideal but we made do back then.

[@yyzkevin416]

I love the brushed metal front panel, I can almost feel the electrical leakage brushing my arm against it.

[@ogami1972]

My dad had one of these (or similar) when I was a little kid, like '78 or '79. I was 7 and would spend hours goofing with this while he was at work during my summer visits. Really cool to see it again. Dad was one of "those" guys, had a betamax before anyone, had a quad stereo setup, reel-to-reel, etc. Being the apple from that tree, I would love something like this to play with today.

[@splittin2atoms]

Just this morning I was thinking, when will techmoan put out another retro tech video. Boy did he deliver, good job Matt.

[@dr_jaymz]

I was also manufactured in the latter half of 1977. Its lovely to see the styling at that exact time. It doesn't look old fashioned to me now so it must have seemed amazing and futuristic at the time.

[@smakfu1375]

That thing is exactly the kind of silliness that once made Sony great. It’s really just intended to look really cool in a full stack of sister components in a rack. Just imagine: a cocktail party, music playing, and all your fellow higher-level “salary men” executives being impressed that your rack system has a CRT with waveform display. It’s peak consumer electronics one-upsmanship, and it’s completely awesome.

[@martifingers]

Ah but does it have Mic Vol and a way of equalising your graphics?

[@smakfu1375]

@@martifingers Yep, so clearly you’d need the matching components for that. Look, I’m kinda what you’d call an expert (e.g. idiot) on getting roped into “most impressive looking rack” syndrome - I have a mid 90’s Sony rack (which I bought new) and won’t give up, because it still looks bitchin. We’re talking tuner/amp (with all kinds of programmable Dolby Surround functionality), laser disk, CD carousel, tape deck, equalizer, and DAT. Everything using matched industrial design (with black anodized aluminum front fascias), with lots and lots and lots of electroluminescent displays and buttons. It is a magnificent tower of bouncing lights and retro-high-tech. It also all still works perfectly (and when I checked all the Nippon Chemi-Con caps last year, they were still good). 29 years of constant use and it still amuses me far more than the “higher audio quality” setup in my living room.

[@AtheistOrphan]

@@smakfu1375 - I don’t think you got Martifingers’ reference!

[@AtheistOrphan]

@@martifingers- Mic Vol is the name of the man who designed it!

[@toyokawashigako1643]

umm Sony is STILL great

[@mikequinlan9585]

This is super cool 😎 It works really well and is a beautiful piece of old tech.

[@stvlu733]

Reminds me of my brother recording episodes of Star Trek from the VCR out years ago with a cassette recorder and listening to them in the car.

[@perrybarton]

With a new Techmoan vid, it's officially Saturday morning here in the States. As a pre-teen in the pre-VCR early '70s I would sometimes record the audio of a TV show with my portable reel-to-reel unit, (the "Mission: IMPOSSIBLE" Craig 212) by simply putting the microphone close to the TV speaker. A primitive solution, but it served its purpose. BTW, nice Mary Tyler Moore cameo at 8:34.

[@dfc99nyc]

That's right. Saturday mornings in the US is 'Breakfast with Techmoan' time!

[@Marshal_Dunnik]

What a delicious bit of vintage kit!

[@dhpbear2]

WAY back in 1970, I recorded Star Trek off-the-air on (US) Channel 6 using my dad's HiFi FM tuner. Ch. 6 appears at the lowest end of the FM Broadcast Band (87.75 MHz) . I was able to record the show in GREAT quality - It's FM audio, after all!

[@hisownsidekick]

"I don't even remember buying the thing." The oddities in this man's collection that even he doesn't remember acquiring must be truly fascinating. Makes me want to see a video highlighting them.

[@xavierhuc2125]

Thank you for this fantastic bit of trying to get things to work just for the sake of it. Such vital work you do.

[@bsimpson6204]

I love these retro HiFi pieces, thanks for bringing them back to life

[@button-puncher]

It'd be fun to get one of those and hide an ATSC (HDTV) tuner inside. Relocate the IR receiver to near that signal gauge or something so that the remote still works. Thanks Matt! Another great video! What a beautiful piece of equipment.

[@jayducharme]

This would have been my dream component when I was in my teens. I used to use a little portable cassette recorder placed next to the TV to record the audio from shows I watched. I still have dozens of cassettes from that era. The VT-M5 would have made my task so much easier, and produced better quality recordings.

[@DavidMcMillan888]

I lament abandoning my CD4 quadraphonic LP setup from 1979 that had a brief life with limited discs but an impressive amp unit taking input from a B&O tangental arm player. Even had Tubular Bells as CD4 that uniquely included a bee swarm sound on the disc’s run-off groove at the end. I hope someone, somewhere kept a copy!

[@voltare2amstereo]

When these became less about recording audio , they were used as monitors to keep an eye on a 2nd channel you were recording from or waiting for a program to start. Likely became a bedroom tv with some speakers or headphones hooked up

[@ShadowWizard123]

I loved the final segment where your image appeared on the device.

[@petercarter9034]

I just love your videos it takes me back to my teenage years wandering around Dixon's looking at the latest technology

[@AtheistOrphan]

Same here. I would occasionally make the pilgrimage to Tottenham Court Road for even more exotic tech!

[@alantheskinhead]

I love these videos. I have a lot of stuff with adapters and power supplies plus leads and converters! I am not the only who like old tech!

[@CuriouserArchive]

The US and Japan used different frequencies for their TV broadcasts, even though both were NTSC. This is why the Roku wasn't able to fully work, because the offset between the audio and video frequencies was not what the tuner was expecting. You'd need an old RF modulator from Japan to get it to work properly with this thing. Also, you were able to pick up FM radio signals because analog TV audio literally was broadcast in the same way as FM radio.

[@McAster99]

"Kong sized hands" is a phrase that's going to live with me for ages, thanks for that unexpected treat in a video about an audioscope.

[@spunker88]

The US RF modulator can output on channel 3 or 4 which are around 60 to 70MHz. In Japan the analog TV frequencies are different, the lowest RF channel starts at around 90MHz. This is why the US RF modulator didn't work with it and also why you could pick up FM radio since the low end of the Japanese TV band partially overlaps with FM

[@WoodsPrecisionArms]

TM - you have the best videos in the world.

[@jhonwask]

Before VCRs, I recorded every episode of Space:1999 onto cassettes. By 1979, I had them all memorized, word for word. Then they introduced the first VCR, so I wanted one of them. By the time I finally bought one in 1984, they stopped broadcasting the show. What a bummer, ha ha.

[@TsiolkovskySportingLocks]

Not for years.. I used to record the audio from TV when I was child. I remember recording the audio from the Gerry Anderson's Terrahawks. I used a cheap Pye mono recrorder that normally hooked up to my ZX-80. This video brought this back some happy memories.

[@Henchman1977]

I remember growing up in the 80s when VCRs were already common and finding audio cassettes of TV shows (usually a cbc show in our house) and being confused why anyone would only capture the audio from a tv show.

[@mabbaticchio]

My heart warms every time the SuperScope comes out to play.

[@mrfrosty3]

Its gorgeous.

[@KR1275]

In the Netherlands the audio of the public TV channels were broadcasted over FM radio as well.

[@andywatts8654]

Was there a delay though? Or could you turn the tv sound down and watch with fm?

[@thesteelrodent1796]

Danish Radio did that too for certain important events. They still send the audio over radio (on DAB) for the queen's (well, now we have a king) New Year's speech and important announcements, like when we went into Covid lockdown

[@shaun5552]

@@thesteelrodent1796 In Australia during the 1980's there were quite a few concerts by major artists at the time broadcast on TV either live or recorded. This was done as an audio simulcast via a separate radio station, a normal station that normally has no association with the TV network apart from this one-off broadcast. Reason was simply that most people at that point owned an FM stereo receiver but practically all TV's were mono with just their internal small speaker. So the idea was turn the TV on with the sound off, tune the radio to the specified station, and now you've got FM stereo sound and a picture broadcast not just separately in the technical sense, but being broadcast but unrelated companies. Technically it seemed pretty flawless.

[@zecretw7272]

In Sweden in the 70s they would send a Swedish language dubbed version of the audio on some kids movies over fm. They always first instructed the audience NOT to put the radio ontop of the TV set as it could be a fire hazard. (Everything had vaccumtubes back then and got realy hot.)

[@enownowe]

That is a beautiful machine! I do think the waveform display with the grid is fascinating enough to make it worth keeping just for a hi-fi visualizer

[@FlixTV]

NTSC US 3, 4CH is 65.75, 71.75MHz audio, Japanese lower VHF 1~3CH is 95.75, 101.75, 107.75MHz audio.

[@beatxt]

I thought I was really clever in the 70s when I invaded the back of our Radio Rentals tv to wrap a wire around each of the tabs where the speaker was soldered-up, with a jack plug on the other end going into the mysterious Aux socket on our portable cassette recorder. Mainly for Beatles' films and Old Grey Whistle Test concert shows. No more propping the microphone in front of the speaker and keeping quiet!

[@cool386vintagetechnology6]

The UHF modulator you tried has different vision to sound spacing (6MHz for UK), rather than 4.5MHz for Japan and the U.S. Some of the Japanese VHF channels are in the international FM band, so reception of FM stations is possible, especially with the split sound IF used here. Although designed for 525 lines 60 fields, it will work on 625 lines 50 fields with an adjustment of the vertical hold and height control.

[@Brookspirit]

I remember back in the 80s hooking up a radio to the RCA audio inputs of a VCR so i could record a live concert while i wasn't home, It was too long for a cassette tape and i couldn't set a timer anyway, so a VCR seemed a good solution, i set the timer and used a 3hr tape.

[@livingretro79]

i have so many reel to reels with tv shows audio from the 70s. it was definitely a different time, but so cool to hear. this unit is so damn cool i really want one.

[@jussikuusela7345]

The NTSC and PAL likely have the audio subcarrier at a different distance from the main carrier... so you can only tune one or the other in with a foreign source, unless the receiver allows tuning of the subcarrier separately. Northern Estonia has fair reception of Finnish broadcasts, and in the Soviet era that was a way to see programming from the west, but their receivers were made for the Soviet system, so they had a similar challenge... of course some people modified their receivers accordingly.