Manufacturers are abandoning small TVs – are you doing the same?

The TV that impressed me most was the 17 inch black & white model that my parents bought when I was six.

Previous to that Wavechange was 11/12/14 inch models and was followed by the “modern ” 19 inch and 23 inch models , the old range being 17 inch and 21 inch , rich people had the 23/25 inch TV,s which cost a fortune in those days , they usually had a car as well. Big TV,s took up a lot of space and were very heavy with a large number of valves in beautiful wooden cases all polished up. Then the age of the plastic cased TV,s came in as opposed to bakelite TV,s which weren’t called plastic in those days but wood was preferred to bakelite which was looked as “downmarket ” even though they are prized now. There were also the projection TV,s very small tube at a high voltage projecting the image onto a lift up “screen ” – projection screens TV,s MK 1 so it is not a new idea as well as TV/radios all in one . Young people don’t realize the amount of innovation we used to have , now a lot is imported , look at America a lot of the best minds now are from India/Pakistan because of the low brow big mac/fries /popcorn and soaps or sport on cable. Yes I remember when this country was “Great ” at innovation thats why I dont want it to end up like the USA, consumerists watching TV and being told what/how to think and buy.

That’s a little before my time. My parents’ TV had a smart veneered case, walnut I believe. The more expensive models had doors concealing the screen and speaker.

According to the Which? guide, when sitting on the sofa I should be watching a 65+ inch screen when viewing from my favourite chair, reduced to 55 inches if I sit on the sofa. No thank you.

See – even your parents’ TV was smart in one respect. Who said Smart TV is new? 😉

I had not thought of that, Roger. Just a different interpretation. 😉

A smart tv, in my book, would switch itself off when there is nothing worth watching- probably quite a lot of the time. 🙁

Agreed Malcolm. I could live without TV but would miss radio.

What !! Which guide says 65 inch + screen when viewing —where from the swimming pool ? come on its April isn’t it . Now if I knocked a hole in the wall sat in the garden it might just look alright . Sorry dont accept that -plain out and out advertising . Already there are complaints on websites about sore necks as in Wimbledon .

Screens too high can give sore necks especially with wall-mounted. Our TVs are on low-level cabinets, so no sore necks.

Alfa- I am watching the Ninth Gate for the fifth time on my PC in HD and high quality hi-fi separates on my Dell 24 inch ISP monitor . It is actually more inviting/personal than any big screen TV , I can “get into ” the film more emotionally . having to move your eyes to see whats happening at one side of the screen can give you eyestrain.

TVs need ventilation to dissipate the heat they produce, especially those with plasma screens. Using them in a cabinet could lead to overheating and increase the risk of fire.

Exactly Colin but obviously somebody doesn’t agree with me and marked me down , now I wonder if it was a company selling big screen TV,s ? Its amazing how advertising and worrying about the Jones.s affects peoples sense of practicality and realism and the “mine,s is bigger than yours ” syndrome you would think finished at primary school.

Perhaps there is a market for nice watercolours to hang over massive screens when they are not in use.

Or maybe they could have a wooden surround with “smart” bi-fold doors… 😉

The first colour TV we had was an ITT one which came in a lovely teak cabinet with slide across curtain style doors to hide the screen when not in use. Very Hyacinth Bucket! I have to confess that when the set died, we stripped out the innards and used it as a drinks cupboard for a while.

I’m hoping someone will link you to my “radiogram” post if you’re interested Colin – I;’m rushing off out.

Hi Colin – This is the post that Roger mentioned: https://conversation.which.co.uk/technology/black-and-white-tv-licence/#comment-1527351

Thanks. I still have grandfather’s Grundig radio from the 50s. I think it was one of the first to get VHF (FM) signals (assuming you had a roof aerial). It still worked on Long Wave when I last tried it a couple of years ago. 4 speakers, bass & treble tone controls, beautiful sound.
My other grandfather had a TV in the 50s which might have had the first remote control – a little box attached by a cable with thumb-wheels to alter the volume and contrast.

Edwin Armstrong patented FM radio in the 1930,s (among other ones like the superhet circuit ) Colin , we were way behind due to British “conservatism ” -IE- “fuddy duddies ” -old world thinking occupying positions of power . Not till -1955 did FM become a fact here in the public’s eyes. Grundig was a quality product and THEY had FM long before us (post war ) due to the mean attitude of the winning forces stopping Germany from having any useful medium wave frequencies so they went for FM to overcome restrictions on their broadcast activities ( shades of Lord – “Haw -Haw ” ) on Ultrakurzewelle – (UKW) – “ultra short wave ” . Conservatism played a big part in British power dogma – many committees , many “Standards Committees ” -cant have that old boy too innovative-re -designer of the Spitfire .

Back. Thanks to Wave for the link and to Duncan for the background Armstrong information. We do have quality informative posts in here.

My (brief) encounter with Grundig radio was a tranny – I think it was a Yacht Boy. One of my friends had it and it needed some minor attention. For a portable it was very heavy! My uncle had a lovely 5 3/4″ reel-to-reel Grundig tape recorder.

I have a Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder that has not been used for many years, but might be restorable. I had problems with it soon after I bought it, around 1970, and the retailer was unhelpful. I eventually resoldered a dry joint myself. Yes it’s heavily built but it was my first introduction to the fact that expensive products are not always well made.

I am guessing it is – nears as dammit – same size as the ones I remember, 1 1/4″ thick proppable/removable lid over a 6″ tall 20″ square (with rounded corners) chassis?

Several friends (and their parents) had these and I reckon I touched up dry joints on half of them, mainly around valve bases and their anode resistors!. Not just Grundig but the lookalikes… Philips, Elizabethen… The problem was that there was no fan cooling and all the heat used to collect in the top. There was one element of the design which – even for me as a 10 year old – was poor – the dropper resistors ran too hot. Bigger ones were needed to keep the temperature down.

The dry joint in my Grundig tape-recorder was on an Earth connection, so heat was not an issue. I took the opportunity to resolder other dubious joints. We often complain about the build quality of modern products but now that automated soldering has replaced hand-soldering, dry joints are rare.

In order to have half-decent speakers it would be necessary to have TVs that are wider to accommodate speakers at the sides of the screen and also deeper. That would mean a huge box, hence the move to using sound bars or a separate amplifier and speakers. In an old Convo we were told that Which? had changed its scoring system for sound quality of flat-screen TVs because the standard is not as good as in the days of CRT-TVs, which were deeper and could easily accommodate better speakers.

Ten years’ ago I’d have agreed with you. However, I truly believe now with DSP and Bose-esque plumbing in front of the speakers, this could be overcome technically within slimmer cabinets (perhaps needing a 2″ deep “power bulge”). But I bet there are swathes of “thank you for not doing so” back-handers flying from Sound bar/5.1 system sellers to the Samsungs, Sonys and Panasonics of this world.

Thats why I have a high -fi quality power amp connected direct to the analogue (stereo ) output of my flat-screen and hence to floor standing Tannoy speakers

There’s no doubt that the quality of smaller speakers has much improved but there’s a vast number of slim TVs with rotten sound quality. Like John, I’m disappointed, but as you point out there are solutions.

My first flat-screen TV had respectable speakers at either side of the screen. Now I use a separate amplifier and speakers.

🙂

I had better be careful – I may get an “off topic” slap here. Ten years ago if I could have afforded it I’d have gone for a decent pair of B & W speakers – not the snail-topped ones but the next ones down – driven by my own amp – which would have been rather simple actually – based on the Texan amp that appeared in one of Camm’s Comics back in the day – but with (then) modern VFETs in the output – and a prime mover supply with an enormous torroidal TX, full wave rectifier and a huge capacitor!

However, I now have Sonos everywhere – and love it.

Recent discussion is not entirely irrelevant because sound quality has been affected by the move to modern large and thin TVs.

You built “the Texan Roger ? thats legendary and VFET,s exactly as recommended using in his power amp designs by JLH in WW/EW -better sound quality in them which he went to great technical points to prove . I built his 80 W JLH designed power amp well advertised in a series of articles in the ETI magazine-circa -1984 , I also refined both mono bloc units to output – 20 W class A meaning a heavier power supply -again mono bloc and very large heatsinks adding in other stages to reduce THD -the COMP capacitor was critical I adjusted it with a very low distortion sine wave and watched on my scope at the output along with his latest designed preamp – again monobloc using his “approved ” SHUNT feedback but NOT approved by his “enemy ” Doug Self who insisted on series feedback who criticized him continually. I was a JLH “neophant ” converting to his Audio “religious ” philosophy completely including his tests on “audio grade ” capacitors , again well documented in ETI and WW/EW – starting with “rubbish” electrolytic,s (tone wise ) up to Polypropylene ( not wrapping grade but audio grade ) and better with Polystyrene at the top ( look at the price of them now )? Enjoyed every minute building them and ironing out the faults . While JLH used complicated power supplies , again heavily criticised by DS who advocated simple supplies , DS even attacked me when I sided with John.