Hi folks,

I have some questions for any fellow Australian vintage television enthusiasts here.

- When were in-line gun CRTs introduced, and when were delta gun CRTs phased out in Australia?
- When did solid state televisions hit our market?
- How long did valve televisions hang on in our market?
- Were there ever any valve colour televisions here?

Thanks,

Chris

Hi Chris.

The first solid-state TV's to hit our markets were Japanese imports in the early 1960's. Locally made TV's using transistors started appearing in the mid 1960's, though these were usually hybrid.

Valves in TV's all but disappeared by the early 1970's.

The Decca colour TV, imported from England and adapted to our system, were hybrids. In fact, Deccas had valves, transistors & IC's. Decca TV's were brought out here by a large TV rental company.

Sorry, I can't answer your first question.

Cheers.

Monochrome, thanks! I wonder how common those Decca hybrids are? I've always wanted a colour valve television! My best bet would probably be to purchase an GE Porta-Colour from America and hope like heck I can find an appropriate mains converter and NTSC/PAL converter!

Is it true that GE Porta-Colours are incredibly common in the USA?

Cheers,

Chris

All CRT tellys are hybrids in a technical sense.

On a serious note though, I am sure I heard somewhere that one or two of the first coloured HMVs were also hybrids.

Chris.

Many years ago a mate & I used gut classic old TV's to put colour chassis & tubes inside the cabinets. The Decca colour TV was our TV of choice as they were plentiful & cheap + having valves gave it a bit of authenticity. I haven't seen a Decca TV in years, but I'm sure they are still out there.

Cheers.

Thanks Brad and Monochrome! I guess I'll have to keep an extra sharp eye-out for early HMV colours and these Deccas! Am I right in thinking the Deccas are large woodgrain console type sets?

Chris

Inline colour CRT's arrived with colour TV in 1975. Some manufacturers were ahead of the game and their first models used the then very new inline CRT's. By around 1976-77 everyone had switched to using inline CRT's.

Any delta gun based colour TV is now a rarity as they only survived on the market 2-3 years.

Large screen monochrome TV's died out virtually overnight once colour TV was introduced. Around 1974-1975 most of the B&W models were either hybrid or solid state. By 1976 only portable B&W TV's continued to be sold.

Only hybrid valve colour TV's made it to Australia but a handful of early all valve models were around in the 1960's as development or demonstration units.
Of the hybrids, the best known were the Decca models. HMV also used the same chassis in some of their early models. The Decca's were timber cased lowboy or table models, they were cheap models aimed at the lower end of the market. They are now extremely hard to find in any form.

A few other hybrids also made it into the country, mostly European models by Philips, Nordmende etc. They are now incredibly rare - I know they USED to exist but I have not yet found any evidence of any survivors.

The American valve colour sets are not as common as you might think. While there are enough around to keep collectors mostly happy, trying to find a specific make/model can be quite difficult.