In principle the C211 was a great idea, and we chose where I worked hundreds of these for rental purposes.
The idea being easy serviceability even for novice technicians with the ability to either change the whole chassis or just a board on site.
However they proved very unrealiable, not appreciated by our customers.
The later models and improvements did actually address most problems.
When the C212 came out I would have been happy to own one, but then suddenly they stopped making them.
I supposes Philips, Kriesler and the Japanese showed the desired product.
As mentioned the restoration of one of these is very adventurous.
JJ

Why was it that the worst mongrel field tech's nightmare chassis' were always inside the most beautiful cabinets???

Good grief! How offensive to field techs.

Let me re-write that remark.

Why was it that the worst mongrel chassis' for field techs' were mostly inside the most beautiful cabinets???

Why was it that the worst mongrel chassis' for field techs' were mostly inside the most beautiful cabinets???

Probably for further proof of the adage that beauty is only skin deep.

Yes indeed GTC,

But I will insist Kriesler CTV's be exempt from current comments.

They looked good, easy to service, spare parts aplenty, and most of all, their stately appearance.

My parents bought Krielser radios and TVs up til the end of the valve era. I took the large B&W set with me when I moved out of home. Had it for years. I recall watching the space shuttle landing on it in 1981, so it ran for 20+ years.

Reason: Kriesler were able to base their CTV on a design (Philips K9) that had already been around for a few years. They only had to get the mechanicals and production right.

EMI on the other hand did not have a CTV design in the corporate stables that was worthy of basing their TV on. Decca? No thanks!
The C211 was a courageous attempt that nearly paid off.

Pye were in the same boat but went down the Japanese (Toshiba) path for the CRT and deflection, with a bit of Euro (East-west modulator) and a large percentage of indigenous design. No SMPS, linear power supply like most contemporary Japanese designs. Much more reliable and simpler than the Kriesler or the EMI designs.

The best thing that happened to PYE was the Japanese.

Whenever my job cards for the day's field trip involved a PYE how I would wished it was a T30. If it was a T29 I knew I would be home late.
Burnt PCB's, galore, plenty of cutting away charred material while anxious customers watched every move. Plenty of agro------

"Why are you digging away such a big hole?"

"Because carbon is a conductor, have to remove it!"

"Why don't you just get us a whole new board?" etc. etc.

It’s even worse when the customer rings the shop and demands they send someone out that does not need to read the “book”.
.
JJ

Ha, yes indeed. It sounds like you did it the hard way too Johnny, baptism by fire.

As a youngster just out of my apprenticeship 70's "Radio Mechanic", I saw and heard it all. My biggest grief was the customer showing
with gushing pride her wonderful stately furniture piece and stating "there's not much wrong with it----my husband says it's probably
a valve gone---."

Her lovely joyful furniture piece was a 4KA of course. I could not repair it and wanted to take it back to the shop. There was hell to pay.

How dare they send a "boy"to repair their sacred "top of the range CTV."

And of course, when the bucket of sh*t was repaired and returned, it was never the same beautiful picture since we took it away.

Looking back, I now feel sorry for people who paid so much money in those days for such terrible devices. I am sure good sales marketing
was behind it. (Handsome stately furniture cabinets sealed the deal completely)

Yes the issue that Pye had with early production chassis (e.g. T29) was caused entirely by connector tooling. Utilux sold Pye on their version of a Molex connector system. Insufficient tension on the wiping contacts led to high resistance connections and so to burnt boards. After they modified the tooling to put an extra bend in the wiping contact the problem went away.

What was often done by savvy techs on T29s was to cut the connectors off and solder the wires direct to the board.

The T30C and T34 were particularly reliable TVs. We supplied large numbers of them on a govt contract and rarely had a problem.

I am sure good sales marketing was behind it

That and hire purchase.

Hire Purchase. I forgot all about it. When I was a kid just about everything in our house was bought by hire purchase.
I was damn glad when it got knocked on the head. My joy was short lived however. Buy now pay later, credit cards et al soon filled
the void.

When I was a kid just about everything in our house was bought by hire purchase.

aka the Never Never plan.

On a similar theme, as a kid I recall my grandmother pointing to the old V1 rocket disguised as the gas water heater in her shower bath and telling me that she paid it off at 4 pence per gas bill.

HP is still around for a few things. Cars is one. The second last car I bought went on HP but the current one went on Amex, strangely enough. Computers and whitegoods are more likely to go on Flexirent or a similar rent-try-buy arrangement. Telling a punter there's "no interest" is an easy way to attract them away from traditional forms of credit.