Pic in post 18 here
http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/s...t=Fidelity+AVS

Click the image to enlarge

I can't remember what happened to ours but I do remember the turn table stopped working. When you pressed the open button, the turn table wouldnt slide out and the repair man hadn't a clue how to get into it to fix it.

The best thing about the telecentre was the tape deck. Back then we had a sinclair spectrum+2 and we used to copy the tapes and sell them for around a £1 each (my bad)

Yes, it was fairly common on those Fidelity portables - but the LOPTX has always been one of the most common causes of TV breakdown, simply because it's the part that's under the most stress.

Yes, lots of people only had a B&W licence, that must mean they only had B & W TV

I don't remember the Telecentre being portable Nigel. It was huge (well the cabinet anyway) and heavy as hell lol

It was basically a portable TV fitted in a large box, same chassis.

Some people might have been naughty and only brought a black and white TV licence despite having a colour TV!

I'm surprised that in the day of mostly dross on TV that no enterprising company has come up with the idea of a reasonably sized flat screen B&W TV, for those discerning viewers only interested in keeping abreast of the news etc, and wishing to cut costs!

One assumes that the B&W licence is thin on the ground these days as the DSO marches on, as even a working B&W TV will need an STB and modulator to keep it serviceable, technically making a colour licence necessary.

The very first place I watched colour TV regularly was, of all places, a laundrette!

I know it sounds strange but the the place was always busy in the evenings. This was of course in the very early days when only BBC2 was in colour so no arguments about the programmes. There was a member of staff on hand to keep an eye on the place. The set was a 26" Philips and it was there for a few years until prices dropped and people could afford to buy or rent their own.

I wonder if colour sets turned up in other odd locations to boost trade?

If you have a black and white TV and a set top box that doesn't record then you only need a black and white licence. If however the STB can record (PVR) or it is used with a VCR then you need a colour licence.

If it was an early set, then it most probably wasn't a 26 inch - the larger sets were only 25 inch until considerably after three station colour.

26 inch sets were essentially 25 inch ones just with squarer corners

The Thorn sets were the 3000 series (25 inch and smaller), later updated as the 3500 (26 inch).

I bought a ctv for us while I still lived at home. It was 1973 and the tv was a Ferguson 22" (BRC 3500 chassis). I got it cheap as I worked 'in the trade'.

It doesn't - as the TV is only capable of receiving the luma information, and not the chroma, even from a digibox, it still counts as being eligible for a black and white licence.

The first colour set I saw was at the Ideal Homes exhibition at about the time broadcasting started - many of us went to the show just to see the tvs and we wandered around the various stands looking at TVS and trying to work out if they were colour or not - we were imagining the colour would be very subtle and kept stopping to see if we could see any colour on the BBC test cards being shown - however at last when we saw a real colour set we were amazed. Only two things were being shown - a test card card on a few sets and an advert for British Airways (or whatever it was called then) on others - we sat and watched for ages. Only a short while later my grandparents aquired a set rented from Redifusion and supplied by cable - we were again amazed - the set looked huge compared with our tiny Murphy B&W set and had three channels - and also they could have radio on the same cable. They were some of the first people I know who had colour TV at home. I did not get one for myself until about 1985 although my parents had one well before then.

Though as I pointed out in my post above that only applies if you don't have a recording device so a PVR or VCR would mean a colour licence whereas a simple STB would allow a B/W licence.

Well that's a little bit ridiculous - a VCR or PVR or whatever is not capable of displaying a TV picture. Only the device capable of doing so matters in the B&W/colour licensing debate.

The TV is still not capable of displaying the colour information, regardless if it has another device of whatever kind attached to it.

Ridiculous or not that's what the rules are. I guess the justification is that you could record the programme and watch it elsewhere but it does seem a little strange, maybe it's just a peculiarity of the way the law was framed?

Edit: I seem to recall it was because an exemption was brought in for digital switchover to allow someone to use an STB with a B/W licence because there was no way to directly receive analogue, the rules applying to recording equipment were retained hence the anomaly.

Can't remember what make or size it was as I brought it so we could watch Princess Anne (first) wedding 14 November 1973.
Do remenmber that our Lab went ape s£&!* at the colour telly, not sure if she fancied it or she was upset by the colours!!

I can remember around 1976/77, lots of people suddenly got colour televisions--was there a change in the licence fee, or something that made them more cost effective to rent or buy around then?

Probably the prices dropped considerably around then, as the technology was fairly mature, and the sets were 'less well made' than earlier ones. "Cost improvement" it's called in the trade!

When did they become fully transistorised? I must have bought my first colour TV around that time (KV1330UB http://www.marcelstvmuseum.com/sony%...%20totaal.html )and that was definitely all solid state (apart from the big valve of course).

I had a B/W TV a couple of years before that which was also solid state but I remember my parents first colour TV from about 1970 which would have been valved I think - it was rented and always breaking down.

I just about remember our first Colour TV was a Murphy CV2214, with 'the "Rank" guy, banging the large gong' logo on the panel of channel buttons. Wooden cabinet, an attractive design, I thought (considering some of the monstrosities), and just 6 channel presets, which was obviously ample, back then! Just an RF socket at the rear, and the characteristic curved corners of the CRT, which was such the norm back then. Not a particularly ancient example, but thought I'd post it, anyway.

Scroll down to the 10th picture, in this link, for this TV (although our one never came with the stand):

http://www.oldtechnology.net/colour4.html

Oh, how I wish TVs would still be made out of wood, rather than the tacky, cheap-looking plastic of today's models

The worlds first all transistor colour TV set was the Thorn (BRC) 2000 series, a dual standard set - BRC never made anything other than all transistor colour TV's.

Presumably it was 1967/68?.

I believe the BRC2000 dual standard colour chassis was the first fully transistorised television set, colour or monochrome. Monochrome sets at the time which were almost solid state still had at least one valve, the EHT rectifier.

And it was British designed.

No, valve EHT rectifiers were relatively rare by then, even valve sets were using selenium voltage multipliers for the EHT recification.

The Thorn 1500 was a B&W all transistor single standard set, whereas the previous 1400 was dual-standard and mostly valve, but still didn't use a valve EHT rectifier.

The 1500 was 1969, the 1400 was 1967. In 69 though most other manufacturers (if not all?) B&W sets still used some valves.

The Sony portable which has been mentioned a LOT here was fairly uncommon using a valve EHT rectifier by that later time (1972), and was presumably a 'hold over' from the backward American market.


Thorn were world leaders in comsumer electronics, they introducing many new features and items.