Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Sinclair Pocket TV

Not much to do with computers or video gaming, but this Sinclair Pocket TV auction should be of interest to all Sinclair/ZX Spectrum collectors. This micro-TV was, after all, quite the technical marvel back in the '80s, still works to this very day and even comes with its protective wallet. Seller ships to Europe, Australia, U.S.A. and Canada.

10 comments:

  1. Pity everything has gone digital now, you can't watch anything on it. Although you could connect a spectrum to the AV aerial I suppose.

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  2. Ah, now what you're looking at here is the TV80, which was actually Sinclair's 2nd commercially available pocket television. The 1st, the Microvision, came out in 1976 and used a 2" CRT display - which was actually the smallest CRT ever developed. Because of the way it was laid out, the CRT ran the length of the device, making it fairly long and awkward to hold. It could pick up PAL, NTSC or even SECAM signals transmitted via VHF or UHF, making it not only the world's 1st pocket TV, but also the 1st multiband TV.

    The 2nd model as seen here, is the TV80. Which just to confuse matters came out in 1984. It also used a CRT, but unlike the previous version the CRT was mounted sideways. This made it much more convenient to hold in on hand. The screen used a fresnel lens to magnify the image.

    As a matter of fact, it was actually the Microvision that forced the closure of Sinclair's original company - Sinclair Radionics. Radionics received government backing from the National Enterprise Board - a UK govt department that invested in British companies to allow them to compete internationally. They sank quite a lot of money into the Microvision. But manufacturing delays meant the Microvision was in short supply, leading to cancelled orders and a massive loss. The NEB gave Sir Clive £10k, waved bye bye and sold off his assets.

    Sinclair took the money, set up a new company - Science of Cambridge - and set about developing new products. The company was renamed Sinclair Research and launched a little known microcomputer known as the ZX Spectrum, which became quite popular and made Sir Clive very wealthy and Sinclair Research extremely successful. Until he blew it all with the QL & the C5, that is ;D

    As for the TV80, New Scientist predicted it would be obsolete before too long with the development of something called an LCD display from some fly-by-night company called Casio.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for the insight Bob. Yes, again! If I had the money I'd hire you to write for this blog you know :)

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    2. You could always pay me in the occasional awesome retro game ;D

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    3. Would it work if the retro game were in digital form?

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    4. Food and board are also provided of course.

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  3. I have seen one of these TV's, my cousin has one. I'm told they are EXTREMELY collectible and rare.

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