Sinclair MTV1 Handheld Television
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- čas přidán 28. 07. 2023
- A look inside a classic mini TV from a classic brand. Enjoy!
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Clive Sinclair was a genius,
And a madman.
@@Landrew0 "Jet Set Fucking Willy!"
...until he put 3 wheels and a motor into a bathtub 🛀
@@MasseyLee That was genius as well,, it's an E-Bike but 35 years ago.
@@MasseyLee He didn't.
Was your comment about Sinclair quality meant ironically, because from watching this I am confident that this device is the highest quality product _ever_ to come from Sinclair, with metal case, metal chassis, and non-sandpapered-off IC labels. The tube is a wonderful electrostatic-deflection device, unlike most TV tubes which use magnetic deflection. The voltage ladder caps look quite modern - replacements perhaps?
I knew Clive Sinclair (he convinced me to join Mensa, one of the most boring experiences of my life), and he was a good bloke, who was more interested in getting his ideas to market than making a fortune. Here in UK people with capital do not want to invest in ideas unless they can make an immediate return, and they believe that their money contributed more to the product than the ideas of its creator. So it was with Sinclair - he developed prototypes and had to sell them early to make money, so most of his stuff was shoddy and tawdry, but with genius hidden within.
By the way, the word "tawdry" comes from the town, St Ives, where Clive's factory was - in the old mill by the river Great Ouse (technically it is in the parish of Fenstanton). The Abbey of Ely was founded in 673 by Etheldreda (Audrey), who was canonised, and Ely became a site of pilgrimage. The route of pilgrimage passed through St Ives - along what is now St Audrey's Lane, and along this way stall-holders sold fingers of St Audrey in boxes of a dozen, together with other rubbishy St Audrey ('tawdry) relics and goods.
I have the later 1B version of the TV, which has a plastic case, was built to a price (£0.01) and is so insensitive it can only pick up transmissions from immediately below the Sutton Coldfield transmitter mast. But after watching this video I'd quite like a 1A.
Thanks for that nice bit of history and etymology!
I now live in the area near Bluntisham, and although I was aware that Sinclair started in this area, I did not know the other interesting details.
Sinclair one of our UK mad geniuses'. Love it Fran 👍👍
I was practically screaming at the phone that antenna had to come out! 😂
I used a later model, possibly smaller still, in 1984 when I worked for a TV news crew. The power came from single-use batteries produced by polaroid (as used in some of their cameras?). Our receiver was used as a simple off-air back-up. It was small enough to fit in a reporter's coat pocket to prompt them during live handovers. The only snag was having to quickly fade down the earpiece sound, otherwise the slight terrestrial delay would be distracting to the reporter during his spiel. Still not as extreme as satellite delay times though. It really was revolutionary, at a time when our 'mobile' phone (no screen!) was built into the car dashboard, and the TV camera ran from a battery that was way heavier than Mr Sinclair's entire TV.
That sounds like a "Polapulse" battery... originally developed by the Polaroid camera company for their SX-70 model. In those cameras, each film pack contained a battery.
@@moi01887 it is the joke was "the battery started off FLAT to begin with" because they ran out quickly. Like EV miles range anxiety you might miss end of program
That would have bee one of the flat tube models. The electron beam came in from the side, parallel (ie nor perpendicular) to the tube face.
@@geoffmorrison3648 Oh yes you're right. I'm confusing between the Fran's USA market Microvision in video to this later example in the comment that came out in the UK: "TV80" in '82 or '83 . used the flat battery and the sideways CRT like used in video intercom doorbells .
@@geoffmorrison3648 thanks, that would make sense for the pocketable device I remember.
I actually won one of these in a tech competition (first prize) back when they first came out. Its long gone now, but it was the thing to have in those days and ahead in technology!
How awesome! My parents won a Sinclair MTV1 as a raffle at a New Years Eve Party in 1979. I hijacked it and used it through 1982. I have a very distinct memory of watching the movie Catch 22 on it. It wasn't the best way to watch a movie, but if that's all you have, that's what you use! Thanks for posting.
You was lit that’s like having a iPhone back then. I would have been watching th and stuff everywhere.
Must have been so bring with no on demand entertainment
Looks like the same CRT they used in the SC110A portable oscilloscope - very unusual to have electrostatic deflection in a TV. There is a service manual for this online with schematics.
Yes made in Germany telefunken i think super rare but there are actually some new old stock in a warehouse but I can't see anyone wanting one
Yea - and I was so enamored with the board origami that I totally missed the obvious.
@@FranLab doh! The TFK logo is there on it. I've got a SC110 myself and never noticed logo
Interesting device 👍😎
I noticed right away it had no magnetic deflection so I found the PDF online and yep, a form of electrostatic deflection like a scope, rather unique for a TV in that time frame. It would make a good restore project for someone dedicated to that kind of stuff.
I am bit disappointed Fran don't want to restore it. That battery leakage don't seem too bad. After some cleaning connect 5V power supply instead of battery to give it a try.....
Wow. Your covering Sinclair. Such a big part of my childhood growing up with my father owning the first calculator that used the pulsed battery cycle, then the watch. He also had a host of computers from the ZX80 to the toast rack 128K. I remember the microdrives and tape loading. We also owned the ill fated QL. Sinclair is just so iconic here in the UK and ironically I live less then a mile away from the Sinclair research mill road headquarters. Great to see you covering something like Sinclair as most do Timex who they partnered with. It's interesting as Sinclair research ltd really was in many ways a mirror of apple. They started off hifi and radio based, moved into calculators, watches,TVs,then home pc market, portable pc then electric vehicles. Obviously apple is successful but one could argue that Clive Sinclair was just trying to bring things to the masses ahead of their time.
I remember Sinclairs products well and trying to get the kit built ones working was a challange.
He had some great ideas, but the components used were just not capable of working for any length of time
and the thin brittle plastic used just falls apart, hence the sticky tape on this TV.
@@Barbarapape Yes agreed. As with most Sinclair products, the manufacturing standards and practices just wasn’t there yet for the types of technologies he was creating. Pretty much a case of fantastic products hobbled by cheap build quality. And in the case of many products he just simply pushed to hard to bring them to market before they was ready. The QL was killed because of this. But theses rushed practices was apparent on other projects like the 2nd portable TV, Sinclair watch and finally the C5.
@@blackhawk69100 The poor quality components and the use of semi-skilled people to assemble them
led to Sinclair products quickly attracting a bad reputation.
The electronic magazines were full of adverts for the kits, but the chances of them working even after
careful assembly was very low, most of the transistors needed replacing on the simpler kits, the infamous
Black Watch was nortorious for not working even if you bought a factory made one.
They kept me busy until buyers wised up and stopped buying them, this is why the goverment had to bail him out.
Still have my QL, with an ice cream tub full to the brim with microdrive carts.
@@Petertronic Some Sinclair products can last for years. others didn't work
when they left the factory.
Hence his poor reputation, just keep using it, the worst thing you can do is leave
it unused for many years, that's when the capacitors dry out.
It would be cool to see this restored and up and running, just for the novelty of a tiny tv! This reminds me a little bit of the old Sony Watchman I had back in the late 80's.
Wow that put real tears in the tear down. 😢😅
It'd be great to see that CRT running in some other project. The rest looks pretty crusty.
They were really pushing the limits of technology. Cool!
I'm thinking about it. The tube is in great shape.
I would repurpose it as XY scope for audio. Some masterpieces of mr. Jerobeam Fenderson might play well on this tube.
@@JanicekTrnecka I would repurpose it as a video monitor, because it has white phosphor, which is unique for such a small electrostatic deflection CRT.
@@FranLab I do wonder, though. Watching Adrian Black work on CRT TVs has taught me that you never know if a tube still has much life left in it till you actually get it fired up
@@FranLabif you can't fire it up easily I suggest give the tube a shake and listen if there's anything rattling around inside like bits of broken glass electrode supports rattling around
What a cool device - considering that they had to pack in both high voltage and electronics for the range of TV channels. If the batteries hadn't ruined everything it would have been cool to connect it to a converter and see a current TV station on it.
Restauration should be no problem but there are no longer any analoge TV-Station transmitting at least here in Europe.
@@greekstraycats "Video Sender" from the 1980s 90s was a little box with antenna that made a TV station, you plugged it in the back of VCR or DVD so you can watch through an analog TV wirelessly
@@jagmarc connecting the old Sinclair ZX81 should also work out the box 🙂. I still have some of those. So we had vintage portable computer....
I had a some larger portable B/W TV from Philips in the 1980th when I attended evening classes I was able to watch "Dallas" in the car after the lessons.
@@greekstraycats any computer , game console or dvd player etc. with the "TV channel 36-39" output will work. Anything containing a 'modulator' . Sinclair used ASTEC ones in their ZX80/ZX81 & ZX82 etc. models
Back in the day, I integrated a Sinclair Computer with a Sinclair flat screen television and an aftermarket keyboard into what would today be called a laptop computer. The frame that held the television was on a bracket attached to the aftermarket keyboard and could be closed against the keyboard. I even added a micro cassette recorder as a memory. Sometimes all that is required is the recognition of an innovation.
The sad thing is the recognition seldom goes to the original inventor.
@@anonymous.youtuber yes that's so true, the Cambridge based team that had wrote Sinclair BASIC were supposed to had received royalties on every ROM delivered but didn't
I bought my Sinclair micro vision new in the late 70s. I use it for about two months and it broke when I showed it to my senior aged uncle. I still have it but I have no idea where it is. I haven’t seen it in 35 years. Fran, I just want to tell you that me and my wife really enjoy your videos. Keep it up the best to you!
THAT, was a lot of fun! Thanks, Fran!
Thank you very much Fran for another wonderful video!
I have one of these on the shelf in very good condition. I actually didn’t know there were batteries in it so thanks very much for this tear down information.
I do too, it still worked a few years ago on 6 volts and when there was a signal. My dad bought it new. As a kid I thought it was amazing.
I am very fond of Sinclar. In my freshman year of college, I had a Sinclar calculator. It served me well. Later I changed to an HP calculator, but both used the same logic and was an essay adoption.
It was a cool tech gadget for the day. I remember seeing the adverts for them. I just couldn't imagine trying to watch any show on that small screen.
They really packed everything in tight into that brick. I didn't think the gunk and corrosion was that bad for a device made in 1978. I've seen some battery leakage that was just over everything. Obviously not much thought was given to much repair access, as those batteries are right in the middle, and only a few adjustable pots at the back.
Sinclair came out with some very unique things, back in the day. Though their reliability left much to be desired.
I actually had one of these, my parents bought it for me in the late 70's. I had a great interest in long distance tv reception particularly in the summer months on band I. I received signals from all over Europe from Iceland to Russia. Never manged any reception from the US though, but others did in the UK I believe.
Thanks, Fran! Another great teardown of an iconic piece of historic technology. Sinclair made several of these way-ahead-of-their-time electronic gadgets. I had a pair of terrific-looking walkie-talkies which never actually worked but they were impressive looking. 🙂
The other iconic portable TV receiver was the Sony 8-310W. a 5-inch CRT all-transistor (except for a couple of HV rectifier tubes). consumer product widely sold to the general public (vs. Sinclair which likely was popular only among the geek population.) Phil's Old Radios has a good web page teardown, photos and restoration. Proud to be a Patreon supporter of Fran's Channel.
I never thought I’d see the insides of one of these. Thanks for doing this teardown!
I have designed and built few simple tube amplifier projects, and have always had the most problems trying to cram everything into an enclosure in a way that it'll be serviceable later. Enormous respect for the engineers that designed this thing. It looks a little janky, but it had to have taken a lot of effort to get all that stuff crammed into that little box and actually have it work. A pain to disassemble for sure, but everything is still accessible. Shame it was in such bad condition though.
I'm so curious what their process must have been like. I assume they confirmed the electronic parts all worked and then made some sort of physical markup. Assuming that during that time they were ordering bespoke enclosures and so on
New subscriber just checking in to say what a find this channel is! Thank you for the content Fran.
I love these old tech tear downs. It’s impressive to see how small they got a crt down to back then. Reminds me of the tricorder blueprints from the Star Trek tech manual printed around the same time.
I was about to say Tricorder!
If memory serves this is the same CRT tube as one set of published ST TOS blueprints used. Everyone had stories of how hard they were to find until Edmund Scientifics stocked them.
You just unlocked a memory of the time when I thought I was ordering a real working tricorder from an ad in the back of a comic. I thought it was an amazing deal for only $2. Imagine my disappointment when I got a set of blueprints instead.
The CRT was a technological development that sprang from the Dumont "magic eye" tuning indicator, which RCA bought the patent and development rights to for something like a million dollars, around 1930 or so. Stupid move on Dumont's part! Within a few years, miniature oscilloscopes appeared on the market, such as the Waterman Pocket-Scope which had a CRT about 2 inches in diameter. Somebody else manufactured one with a 1 inch CRT!
Very Sinclair 😄. Thanks for a lot for posting Fran..👍
Aaaah sir Clive's obsession with miniaturization ... got almost all his computers, but not going after his TVs and calculators ... though his C5 might tempt me 😁
Only thing you could do with it -if you get it to run again- is to use it as a "monitor" for a ZX80 or ZX81 (best viewed on a B&W CRT screen)
@@colinsouthern I managed to get a boxed one from the UK when people weren't that into "retro" ... came from Maidenhead too, where i used to live for 3 yrs as an expat 20 years ago :D
Fantastic, the video I wanted to see but didn't exist! I have the same television, I tried to open it but immediately gave up so as not to disintegrate it. Now I know how to do it, finally I can try to revive it. Thank you Fran!
Now, THAT, was a lot of fun, Fran! Taking stuff apart is cool. Too bad I'm not so good at putting those things back together! Keep on Franin'!
these things are so adorable!
Amazing engineering & design - - with all the discrete & mechanical components it's practically a miracle product given it's size and that's especially considering it's a TV in the days of CRT technology.
Usually when I hear "Sinclair" with "television" it's bad news, but this is awesome! I love the little baby satchel.
Certainly a serviceman’s nightmare! Love that beautiful CRT, nice to be able to see all the detail of it’s internal elements, pity that unit is in such a poor condition.
A thing of beauty! I wish Fran could work some magic and get it going again!
Sinclair stuff was always a little bit shonky, but they were always ahead of the technology curve.
You have to admire Clive though. If he could have given us smart phones, he would have.
Sinclair was into mobile phones before they became mainstream. Shaye Communications Ltd was the company.
I owned the one after this model which was about half the width but the same length in 1978. Worked great! and used regular AA batteries. I was working in London and got home by train at about 7:30pm. Before getting that job in London I used to sit in an armchair at home watching the nightly news so I bought a Sinclair mini TV and sat watching the news on the train on my way home. Just swapped an armchair for a train ride and extra overtime pay!
Thanks to Clive Sinclair, a very clever man (except for the C5!)
the C5 is an example of being too early. Electrical bicycles and such are very popular now (in the Netherlands) but that is because we have the biking infrastructure, I can imagine that in the UK it was not safe on those streets, that is why it needed a flag stick to be seen. Still its not a stupid idea, just oo early, and yes, it again had a ferranti ULA inside!
Again, I love when you tear stuff down. I could almost smell the old electronics.
lovely video,on such an old relic of technology. 👍
I was hollering at ya to remove vhf antenna!
Gases from battery degradation seems to have done its work well.
Thank goodness it was kept in a semi-air tight bag or else all those gases may not have done their work creating corrosion.
Love ya and your vids!
Hi Fran,
As soon as I saw this TV I grabbed my Elvis Costello album "This Years Model" because I was sure at first glance that I had grown up never owning one, but saw it often. It's in the album's sleeve cover and shows a rubber glove hand holding this TV with what appears to be Costello and the Attractions playing Radio Radio on stage. To funny. I haven't looked at that sleeve cover in 15 years until now.
I used to work at the Sinclair factory in St.Ives as a Technician repairing these Microvision TV's - I spent almost a year working on the main circuit boards that failed production test - that was al long time ago back in the late 70s :)
Heh! Warm Leatherette with a T.V.O.D. inside! I guess we've joined the Car Crash Set! Nice one Fran. I had that idea in my young head, then a few months later, that model was on the BBC's "Tomorrows World" science programme on TV. (Has anyone else had that sort of thing occur?) Much new epoxies in that era. Nice subject, much goo! Cheers!
I bought one of these in the UK, I think in 1979. I still have it in a box somewhere in my loft. I haven't
used it since 1981. Might be fun to dig it out!
Clever UHF antenna. Good packaging all around. Nice to see the accessories too.
You missed the most significant thing about the set. It has an electrostatic CRT! There is no flyback. Their was two sets of voltage multipliers one for the for horizontal deflection and beam acceleration and the other for vertical deflection. Way cool tare down. I've never seen an electrostatic CRT that small.
Warm leatherette .....
I’m glad you didn’t edit out the painful process of getting the insides out from the cover. I’ve had equipment like this that took me an hour or more to figure out
I'm loving all these electronics lately!
Neat. I had a Casio tv-21 from childhood. I want more.
Best teardown i've seen in a while
The flat screen mini Sinclair TV was novel, it used a standard electron gun but the beam was bent by 90 degrees to hit the phosphor. It’s battery was a flat pack thing, almost like a modern chewing gum lithium battery.
As do/did all the intercomscreens those days......90 deg.......
The "TV80" which came out nearly 2 decades later than this "MTV1"
Fran, I was expecting the ill-fated TV80 but I knew this was from the Sinclair Radionics era as soon as I saw it. I used to have a 48K ZX Spectrum back in the 1980s. I have a Spectrum +2A and I get my fix on emulators these days. RIP Sir Clive Sinclair. He was a genius.
My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000 with 2K of memory
It may be bashed because the tube in these suffered from very fragile glass construction inside break off moving around and shorting. Had to keep knocking it to make it work. I've a family relative used to work for him. Very very nice guy
I'm so curious as to how TV looks on such a small screen! This was a fun video
I have a JVC portable color monitor that’s about 6 inches across diagonally on the screen. It runs on mains or 12v or internal rechargeable battery (it’s in it but dead). I have it on my bench connected to a VCR directly as a monitor. It’s great to pop in a vhs tape and watch an old movie while working on something else. It’s small size and direct video connection gives you the best image your going to get from any VCR.
When I was in the National Guard back in the early '90s, a friend of mine had one of these. Everybody wanted to share a pup tent with him. Watching TV out in the woods was THAT MUCH of a novelty at the time.
I suspect the antenna 'mod' board is some matching and possibly snubbing should any HV get onto one side of the connection?
When i was a kid my mom would dumpster dive and bring me things like this to disassemble and trash again when i was done tearing it up. I loved it, learned a lot
Gloves seem like such a good idea!
I had the very first zx spectrum from Asda with the silky smooth rubber keys. Much simpler days when things were made by hand.
Sir Clive = genius.
I'm glad I saw how that antenna came out 👍
Hi Fran, was this Sinclair TV a Timex product like the Sinclair computer?
I for one would love to see it restored and connected to a digital converter for over the air TV once more.
Put in a request. Maybe she'll give it to you.
Good Stuff Boss THANKS Fran
I have one just like it apart from the fact it is brown. Sadly no longer works in Uk as no AM transmiddions any longer. I used it for a while as a mini monitor.
There are digital to analogue converters - I assume one somehow connects the coax output to the aerial fittings.
Cute little picture tube!
I had one,,,watched ,Mork and Mindy on it
I always wanted a pocket Tv.
Can you even get them anymore?
My dad had one of those installed in his 1979 Ford Tbird back in the day.
I still have one of these...Complete with the box it came in.
Yes! You said 'warm leatherette'! You are •so• our kinda kewl!
Curiosa fabricación, y peculiar receptor de tv, gracias por mostrar👍
I am still stunned at *_"Made in England,"_* as late as 1978.
I have a Sony Trinitron from the late 90s early 2000s saying Made in UK on the back.
Still adore that stuff and can't get the ZX Series of Computers out of my head, the C5 also, Clive Sinclair RIP.
I picked up a Magnavox bd 3902 handheld TV/radio at a yardsale for two dollars. I think the seller got the better end of the deal. Of course batteries had been left in it at some point. Some Deoxit got things freed up and I got reception on FM and noise on AM. Little picture tube didn't seem to power up at all. Cute item though....
Man I had a version of one of these mini CRT TVs back in the late 70's. I thought it was the bees knees! It was the iPhone 18 of its time! :)
That green surface corrosion visible on external metal surfaces is typical of PVC damage. The vinyl carrying case outgassed Chloride which reacts with atmospheric moisture to produce hydrochloric acid.
I'm very familiar with PVC plasticizer creep but this is a cyan blue corrosion caused by the NiCad batteries leaking inside. More on the PVC issue here... czcams.com/video/mHIgjTd0yCQ/video.html
I would give it a try. I would just remove the dead NiCads, clean all the pins and power it on using a variable DC PSU to see what happens. I wouldn´t be surprised at all if the TV turns on. The corrosion damage is very limited, so it isn´t unsalvageable.
Exactly. It looks well built.
This sure was interesting and if my memory serves it seems to me that Sony introduced their LCD T.V. ,the Watchman around the same time as this Sinclair was made. I hope those circuit boards might be used for other sets that need them for repair. Cool video!
The Watchman was introduced in 1982 utilizing a flat CRT, it didn’t receive a color LCD until 1990.
First watchman TV's were also CRT tubes...I still have two here....
My great aunts realistic radio cassette recorder antenna came out like that. Was nuts.
I had a similar model that I got at a hamfest flea market in the mid-1980s. It had a plug in the back that allowed a composite signal; I don't recall if it was original or an after-market bodge, but it was used for SSTV; I tried to use it on a Commodore 64, but the text was pretty much unreadable.
loved the old tvs i even had radio shack color pocket tvs
nice, i have one if these but not working, plus 5 of the later 'flat screen' ftv1 models, 2 work others dont,, i live only a few miles from st. ives
Sir Clive continuously repeated around the office, "Beg, Borrow, Steal components, I don't care."
A sentiment so prevalent, it made it into the "Micro Men" movie. ;)
It was interesting to see the tare down.👍👍
Fantastic thanks
Wish I understood electronics. Fascinating stuff.
OR - You could have done a search for the service manual which I found in about 20 seconds hmmm.. but, coulda woulda shoulda huh ? Love the fact that Sir Clive Sinclair has superimposed his image on the test screen in the manual .
My uncle had one of these he bought in the UK in the 80's he got it for a song because it was old stock at a store going out of business. I used to watch tv on it here state side.
the way those boards are jammed together it reminds me of some kind of prop from 70's Doctor Who.
That CRT is sought after for repairs, so please make sure it gets to someone that needs it :)
RSVP that Sinclair MTV1.
I was cringing when you were snapping the plastic because I was holding onto the hope that it's not so bad inside. But after seeing all that corrosion, it's definitely not worth restoring. It would take days of scrubbing, replacing connectors and parts, then more days of troubleshooting to get working. And in the end you'll still just have a Sinclair. Sure it's ridiculously small for a CRT TV, especially in the era before everything was integrated into a few chips, but Sinclair was never known for producing the highest quality devices.
At least we got to see the teardown in the end.
I remember the Sony Watchman models. REALLY wanted one, heck, still would love one of the mini TVs.\
I,actually,HAD one of these !!!
"Hersteller" means manufacturer so this unit might be sold in western germany back in the days.
those three resistors look more like an impedance-matching bridge, than a voltage divider.