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1994 Sony Color Watchman - Luggable Lo-Def TV
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ส.ค. 2024
- Can a bright, vivid image and excellent sound quality make up for a severe lack of resolution? The non-Trinitron, non-Sony picture tube of this Sony Color Watchman portable TV puts that question to the test.
Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
1:28 Features & controls
3:29 Radio tuner
5:30 TV tuner
7:31 Video input
9:39 Resolution
11:10 PAL test
11:28 Conclusion
#RetroTech #CRTgaming #VintageTV
I think the reason us “weirdos” (I considered this a compliment) love old small tvs is that they were such an aspirational item for us when we were kids in the 80s and 90s. The idea of watching TV anywhere was so exciting to me but my blue collar parents had no interest in spending their hard earned money for a way for their kids to watch even more tv on the go.
I remember on the TV show House where he’d always be bringing his tiny portable tv to different rooms so he could get away from his boss/colleagues, looked so cool!
Yup, yup. I remember when I was a kid, I was interested in one my dad's magazines. Why? There was an advert for a car that had TVs in the headrests. I was like "wow."
The small TV I had is a KV-4100, and looking at a tech catalogue from 1983, it cost $200 MORE than a 23 inch trinitron, and $100 less than a 27 inch trinitron. They were such cool little devices
@@mystriddlery But that was an LCD TV.
True! I felt more thrill about my little pocket tv back when I was 10, than now about being able to watch anything on my phone. Now that the tech is widely available, it's not such a big deal anymore.
Thx for the "weirdos," we appreciate it 👍🏻🙂
The guy counted the pixels, give this man a proper like and subscribe 😂
I thought the "omG ThERe NoT PiXELZ!!!111" brigade would have shown up by now.
@@PJBonoVoxIn a CRT there are pixels, but an analogue video signal is not made of pixels ;-) , also analogue and digital pixels aren't the same.
@@shiva_MMIV Blah blah blah. We all know that, but we also know what he meant.
incredible effort!
as a certified weirdo who’s watched your channel for over 6 years now, I’m glad to have learned so much about the wide variety of tech you document/showcase.
As someone approaching 29, there are things you cover that were firmly before my time, but some I was just barely in the correct era and socioeconomic conditions to still be experiencing when I was young, like audio cassettes and shoulder-carried camcorders to name a couple.
I’ve always been fascinated by how things work and their finer details, so your channel has thoroughly educated and satisfied that curiosity for a long time. Big Thanks!
glad to be counted among the weirdos haha
Meow, 😂 just kidding, i like the old tech videos
The Northern Australia tourism ad really caught my attention.
Linda Kozlowski from Croc Dundee caught quite a few folks attention in the 80's ;)
i was wondering how i knew her and the first thought with that blurry resolution was... "when did courtney love go sober?" but the words make more sense with linda haha
Call me weirdo but as a child in the 90s, I find these small TVs a huge novelty. I only see these items on magazines and from the TV at home where some shows feature the latest tech of the time and I was in awe how a small box can function just like the big TV we had in our rooma at home. So, watching your videos (also other vintage tech) has scratched an itch from my childhood memories and wishlists.
Back in the day, anyone getting one of these, especially a kid, would have thought it was amazing. I would have been obsessed by it at fifteen. We have somewhat lost our ability to be amazed, which is a bit sad.
I'm still looking for my Holy Grail, the Philips 10CX1130, also known as Philitina Stereo 1130. A boombox with a 10" color TV, stereo speakers, and radio/cassette. I have drooled over that thing a bit more than I should readily admit :)
I haven't lost the ability to be amazed, new technology just isn't amazing, except Microsofts new data storage that's pretty amazing
It's because you aren't a child anymore
In 1979 we got a colour computer at work (I'm still not sure what model) to evaluate against the Commodore Pet. Someone was sent to Dixon's to get a Portable Colour TV to use with it. Over the next week we had loads of visitors. About 2/3rd were "Wow a colour computer. What will they think of next". The other 1/3rd were "Wow. A portable colour TV. What will they think of next." Within five years both had become the norm, although my first Colour Portable cost me close to a months wages.
i'm still very much amazed by what AI is doing. why would I be amazed with 60 year old tech.
Also, loved your scrubbing through the radio dials. Years from now, it’ll be a kind of auditory time capsule of this moment, even if that wasn’t the point
Who knew Volkswagen was giving out Windows keys in the 90s?
I didn't
Every time when I hear an AM broadcast from the USA, I'm really astonished by the audio quality / bandwidth. It sound so good compared to the stations here in Europe with a 4.5kHz bandwidth restriction!
One thing is by the book, another thing is in practice. RNE on medium wave also sounds pretty good, at least better than on shortwave.
Love that works for all Windows joke at the end.
I pulled a Sony Color Watchman out of a junk shop years back. It did serious duty displaying my NES for a few years. I maintain that smaller, lower res screens like this maker NES games look a little better, so it's a good way for people who didn;t grow up with CRTs to get that experience in a palatable manner. Also, I had no clue what the red and green sweeping bar was for, so thanks for that info.
0:05 Five seconds in and already spot on! You REALLY DO know your audience!
I like small tubes, especially Trinitrons. My favorite is the Sony KV-6AD3 which is a 6/5" tube with high deflection making the tube pretty short compared to their other small Trinitrons. It too has a handle, a kick stand and it rebroadcasts the TV audio over FM (Japanese) to be used in cars.
Trinitrons were excellent in all sizes. I quit watching TV some twenty years ago, after my 29' Sony said goodbye. Could not adjust to flat screens of the 2000s.
I have a Trinitron with the same tube, an EV-DT1, although it need new caps, so as it stands the only small working Trinitrons I have are a pair of PVM-9042QMs that happen to use the exact same tube used in the KV-8AD10/11 and the KV-9MD1.
i need this for no particular reason
I have 3, one for gaming, one for my kitchen to watch TH-cam while cooking/washing dishes, etc., and one pristine still in the box with the manual.
That was a very pleasing video. Thank you.
I love those old TV's that had nice speakers built in. I once owned a 36" RCA TV built into an Oak Cabinet with wheels to make it easy to slide where you needed it. You couldn't remove the TV from the cabinet it was built into it. That Oak Cabinet has a big Woofers one on each side of it and it sounded fantastic. I honestly liked it more than my Trintrons and used it as the centerpiece of my Game Room. I put a 50" 4K TV directly on top of that cabinet and had shelves on both sides from wall to wall with 28 different games consoles all hooked up at once using power switches to power on the console I wanted to play. Sadly when my wife passed away I had to move and literally gave that amazing RCA with woofers away via Craigslist to whoever could carry away a 350lb monster. I see ebay listings similar to it sell for $400+ maybe I should have tried selling it?
Opportunity + Capability + Intent. I am so very for your loss, Brother. Your priorities were definitely in order, and you were in no position to make such complex decisions. I wish you all the best.
I live in Czech Republic - i collect small tvs - usually they're russian-made. People toss them in the recycle yard, where i pick them up. So far, none is working, but with the growing collection - inevitably i reach a point where i may sacrifice one or two so the others may live!
They are CCCP made?
In Argentina because of the 4000 % inflation we terminated streaming and Direct TV so I use a 1980' TV. We have analog. Cheers from an old engineer in Patagonia
I thought that Argentina had finished the ISDB-T rollout, and there should only be stations in the North East that are still analogue on extension.
@@circattle no, we have old and new kind of tv transmissions is a huge place and impoverished.
I have a sudden overwhelming urge to go to Northern Australia
Wow, I'm impressed by the screen accuracy considering it's low resolution. Sony always nailed the geometry and this model doesn't suffer too much overscan either. Thanks and happy holidays!! 👍😎🇦🇺🎄
This has the same tube as the Radio Shack Portavision I used to have that went bad. I miss that TV, but holy god that tube could be hard to look at sometimes.
I always wanted one of these, but they go for way too much on eBay.
I've always been a proud weirdo of your channel Kevin !🤗
zooming out youtube and holding a tape measure to my screen to get a 1:1 size going for the crt is the peak of immersion
Merry Christmas Mr VWestlife, another great video for us 'weirdos'. keep 'em coming. From Jersey, Channel Islands, Great Britain.
I found a 1989 Magnavox 5" color TV with AM/FM radio. The set also has composite in along with audio in. The set also has a removable battery pack that can hold 10 D batteries. It's the Magnavox perfect view color TV.
😮10 D Batteries😢 Have You Priced D Batteries Lately😠🃏🦃🎱
WOW 10 D batts. That would have been an expensive ordeal. Probably cost about $10.000, ($25 in todays dollar) to fill up . I remember those days. I was never wealthy enough to run my radios/boombox's on the batteries. I did have a bunch of those radio shack Ni-Cad rechargeable batts lol.
The CJ3922 right? They made them for Montgomery Ward, i have one but it's white.
I always thought the "Mega Watchman"s were a baffling concept. The wholenpoint of a watchman was they were borderline pocket sized. I mean at this point, congratulations you just invented... A television
To me it looks like something that was meant for a car or a camper; to take camping and tailgating.
Various companies made many small TVs before this, often combined with a radio and cassette recorder. However, nearly all had space for batteries (not that they would last long). Watching some archive footage about the 1981 Royal Wedding I was surprised how many people in the crowds had them. There again back then it would have been the only way of seeing what was going on in St Paul's cathedral while waiting outside it.
@@Yeen125The 13.5 volt input makes me assume this as well. Since that’s about what you get out of a running car.
If you've ever tried to watch an NTSC broadcast in a moving car, you'll know you need a special antenna for it to work. I have no idea why. You can be stopped and everything is great, the second you start moving it fades out.
We're not weirdos - we just love futuristic advanced technology... even from old times. -Especially from good old times!..
One of very few channels that I upvote the video as I start watching, just to ensure I don't forget when I finish watching. Excellent job, again, as usual. The radio quality on that thing was INCREDIBLE. I don't think I've hear AM ever sound that good, and the FM was perfection. I miss having good tuners like that.
I think it's quite cute, I would have loved to have one. The sound is pretty good. That tube has an odd quirk of an extra central pixel at the top, bottom and sides, I wonder why it was made like that.
That helps them center the shadow mask during manufacturing.
That makes sense, I would never have guessed that, and I used to repair TV's & monitors @@vwestlife
I had the Mega Watchman, similar to size and function as this guy, but dark gray color, and B&W tube. It could run on batteries. I then ran my SNES off a 12V camcorder battery, and became one of the few kids with portable SF2 on camping trips in the early 90's.
Another tech TH-camr, I forgot who, went over the portable C64 which used a similar color tube. The execs wanted to wow everyone with its color capability, but totally forgot that the tube's low resolution made it horrible for reading text. He said he was because they took the dot pitch and shadow mask of a larger tube, cut it down, and simply shoved it into the smaller tube.
The other TH-camr you're thinking of is The 8-Bit Guy, his video on the Commodore SX-64
In the early 1980s those were the only tubes being made. In contrast in the noughties I bought a 17" CRT IBM monitor which picture wise was the equal of modern LCDs and which needed the use of a magnifying glass to see the coloured dots.
I almost spit out my coffee over your "this works for all windows" shtick at the end. Thank you.
Hi there, fellow weirdo here, a CRT aficionado, got over 20, but my favorite is my 1982 5 inch portable Sony Trinitron KV-5200! I've played everything from vhs movies, original Nintendo, all the way up to an Xbox One on it (with various adapters)
8:04 Ha! Crocodile Dundee was on TV last weekend and I watched a bit with my two year old. All week he's been fixated on 'Crocodile Man', so this gave me a chuckle. Thanks for the vids!
I knew I had seen her somewhere before. It took a while before I realized it was Linda Kozlowski from Crocodile Dundee!
@@ArtesianFalmaLinda's phoning this one in by the look of it!
Thats a cool portable tv. Love how it also has AV in
I remember seeing these in kitchens, some garages, and ice fishing houses. Pretty versatile with the radio, television, and decent speaker. Maybe they weren't Sony brand, but very similar in function, size, and design.
0:24 Oh man! Memories! I had that Sony Watchman on the very left when I was 15 years old back in '87. A Christmas gift from my grandmother that croaked in 2003. It cost $99.99 It was very cool. Damn, I'm old! About that color watchman, I had seen it advertised back too. And if I recall it cost about 500.00 bucks. (double the 500 bucks to account for inflation today) I honestly had no idea that Sony got too rich/lazy to subcontract major components like picture tubes from Samsung that early. And Sony, with their proprietary stuff, that power connector. We also had a 13" portable RCA TV back in '84 that had those moving color bars too. HA! I thought that only RCA made weird stuff like that.
I discovered their existence and I hope to own one of these small CRTs in the future along with my childhood CRT (which I've worked so hard to keep, because my mom is dead set on throwing it away, I mean cmon.).
Show her eBay prices (except then she might want to sell it). In the U.K. 13" CRT TVs (usually labelled as Retro-Gaming) are worth more than 19" LCD TVs.
as a certified weirdo whose first video was the fake 1000gb flash drive, im glad to have come across your channel. very diverse portfolio when it comes to the type of stuff you review / show off and so on.
would be cool to see more thrift shop videos where you take your camera inside the shop and record everything you come aceoss. haven't seen much of that lately - i always enjoyed thrift shop videos in general. keep up the good stuff you're doing!
Man I remember I had a Sony watch man that I found in my dad old stuff. And he said I could have it and I loved watching TV on it. I took it everywhere.
Anyone else think there’s something kinda magical about this stuff “just working” and not needing Internet, WiFi, APIs, or logins? Lol
Great video as always! Brought back memories seeing that 411 video magazine tape!
I’ve always dreamed of swimming in the ocean with giant cod only inches away. And taking in the night life in a place with hardly any people in it.
Somehow I now have pictures in my head of cod fish dancing in clubs and sipping on cocktails in fancy bars.
Hi! Greetings from Sao Paulo, Brazil! I love America's digital subchannels (have TBs of recordings made through laptop and Cell phone devices during my trips in the USA), but I miss the pleasure of using my SONY Watchman and picking up analog signals.
That TV is a gem of a radio! And man, do I wanna swim with the giant cod like crazy! One of your best finds.
On my 1980s 5-inch color CRT TV from "Geloso" (Italian brand) the pixels look just like this. Maybe they use the same or very similar tube.
This is definitely something you'd keep on a work desk to keep up on the news while you work. We just have cellphones that can do all this now, but we also have far stricter workspaces too, so it doesn't really happen in general.
lol, it feels like I can watch whatever you upload with great interest because of your knowledge in old tech and electronics
Hey V Westlife I want to say I really enjoy your videos. Keep up the great work and I want to wish you a very merry Christmas.
Thanks for another great video. I would have loved this as a kid. Just loved it. BTW, I am quite jealous of the radio station selection you seem so have out there even on AM. I'm on the US west coast and it's dreadful over the air stuff now.
omg me and my brother used to watch those 411 skateboarding tapes! haven't seen one of those in a very long time
That AM tuner sounded awesome!
An ideal student tv/radio. I had a National Panasonic Commando, 77 vintage, black and white and no radio but it looked like a piece of army kit. I still have it and the receipt so it might be an idea to see if it still works. Students are expected to get a tv licence in UK though you would be very unlucky to be caught with a 5" b/w portable.
I think we were all fascinated by these as children. I remember imagining that my parents would buy me one and I would have my own personal TV. Sadly, most of us only got to enjoy that through fantasy.
My Father bought a 5" B&W portable. However, that was the only set I was allowed to connect my ZX81 computer to as they thought it was too risky to connect it to the main colour set in the lounge.
Better sound than modern LCD TV'S
I don't think I've ever seen a Sony colour CRT TV that *wasn't* a Trinitron or Indextron. What an oddball.
Those 5" "flat front" CRTs with the low dot pitch were super common. I have one with the exact same CRT on a late 80s Citizen branded TV.
Sincerely, one of the weirdos :)
I saw one of these when I was 7 and entered into a bookstore. In a dark corner, a huge man was watching tv on this tiny thing and I was mindblown. I asked if that is a real TV with channels and glass tube because I couldn t believe it was so tiny. Until then, a typical kitchen tv looked small to me. (Until I held a CRT viewfinder in my hands hooked to a DVD player via a janky connection.
I have a Panasonic CRT colour TV with a 2.2" tube. About the same dot pitch as this one though.
Yes, I remember the trinitrons in the
1970's and 1980's which were very good.
I remember a Sony BW Crt portable a
friend had in the 1970's which had a
large battery pack for power, a mono-
pole antenna. for VHF and a loop antenna for UHF.
I had a Casio LCD color portable in the
1980's, a Book Vision Flat screen LCD
portable
Also I had small B&W handheld's which reflected the picture on a mirror.
Then I had the Sony Watchman's too.
Another larger battery powered TV I had in the mid 1980's was an Emerson
model with a 5 inch screen. 😊
The portability moniker probably refers to accepting DC power from an RCA power bank, automobiles, RV's, etc...
One of your weirdoes here, we come here because you always dish out memories and trigger our "oohs and aahs". I always wanted the Black and White CRT based pocket Sony Watchman, ofc. I got them when I was an adult, no way I could afford the 400$ toy for rich people back in the 80s, but OH BOY did I want one. Sadly analog broadcast vanished 10+ years ago here, and it's just a hand held square-snow-globe now. But I do love the resolution. Those low-res LCD pocket tv's never caught my interest because they were blurry and unreadable.
I need one for my kitchen! I have a smaller black alarm clock radio watchman from 92', this one would fit our late 90s kitchen white appliances! and be great for my in house analog tv channels!
Great video and I like you that kept it all Sony (camcorder, etc.) with each demo 👍. I actually have 3 of these: a black for retro gaming and two white (one in my kitchen for watching TH-cam while washing dishes, cooking, etc. and one is pristine still in the box with the manual)
7:28 r.i.p. Mario (198x-2023)
What a coincidence, I just pulled out mine recently to use as a monitor for digitizing tapes. It's also the first thing I remember getting from a thrift store (or rather, asking my mom to get for me)
You sound the Mandalorian. And this is how I imagine you. Sitting there fully armored, wearing your helmet and talking about ancient tech. xD
THAT'S WHERE "THE BOSS" IS!!! I tell my Amazon Echos to play my favorite music station, 107.1 The Vault, and often it thinks I say "The Boss", and I've always wondered from where it originates! ;)
It's WWZY from Long Branch, NJ.
@@vwestlife Looks like a pretty cool station! 107.1 The Vault is "album oriented radio" or a "deep tracks" style station.
Can you believe I forgot the Win98 jingle? Thanks for that :)
Absolutely right Kevin that we love old stuff! Thanks again for another video, - fellow weirdo
I gotta say in the 80s and 90s, Sony made the best quality stuff and were at the head of technological innovation. They were always the most expensive but there was a reason for that.
I just bought one of these in black! It tends to buzz when it's left on for a bit, and it has some noise. Maybe needs new caps?
This weirdo's been watchin' since 2008/9. And I love that you got DX, from New Hampshire, on that thing.
As a ‘weirdo’, I have a Sony Watchman hooked up to a DVD player in the kitchen - not for watching DVDs, just to display track info on the CDs I listen to while I’m cooking or whatever. It’s one of the very small portable models. I couldn’t tell you the model number - I’m not that weird!
7:00 I haven't seen that kind of signal is what feels like forever now. Yes, my internal childhood ended when analog broadcasts ended in 2009.
Anyone else notice that the VCR at 7:46 has a "glow in the dark remote" sticker?
Yes, the buttons do glow in the dark.
@@vwestlife If you want to make something glow in the dark, I've found that "duck tape" brand glow in the dark tape glows very well.
I miss when there was so much variety in terms of gadgets and tech. Catalogs for electronics shops were thick as phone books...now neither exist anymore.
"huh, doesn't look like a luggable to me..."
"and here's the power supply"
"Understandable, totally respect that"
Bloody thing's hugeeeee!!!!
What a lovely, elegant little bit of kit though!
Those onscreen tuning bars are really interesting. I've never seen something like that before. Is this the only tv that used them or did Sony (or other companies) make others?
Many portable TVs used that tuning system.
My family’s Casio LCD portable TV used the same thing. I don’t recall having any use for the red tuner line, because the UK had only 5 terrestrial channels (and often only 2 would work at any one time with the portable TV’s position!) It was quite annoying how you couldn’t just sit on one channel while trying different aerial positions, unless it had already tuned in before on that power cycle.
We can clearly see here the disadvantage of a small CRT color screen (5 inches) compared to a black and white screen of the same size, the lack of resolution is such that it quickly becomes disturbing for the eyes, however if the screen is used for a games console then it remains tolerable, a bit like a game boy color.
11:45 - A former friend once had an '02 Jetta. The best way to get all the windows to roll down from outside the car was to wind all the windows up, lock the doors, and go to sleep overnight before a blizzard. When you wake up in the morning, all windows will be rolled down, sunroof will be fully open, and your interior will require shoveling. 😛
It reminds me of the tube that's in the Commodore 64 portable, the SX-64.
I have the black version of this. Sadly, the screen no longer works, but at least I still have a nice memory of sitting at my dining room table munching on Fritos while watching Nightly Business Report on it in 2005 (I was 4 or so and PBS Kids had ended for the day, but I didn't change the channel).
I'm not sure if I'm weird (my gf thinks i am for watching your channel) but it has some ASMR effect on me. Old tech etc was never my thing. You kinda made it 👌
Ho! Ho! Ho! Hey VWestlife. A very special Merry Christmas to you and your family. I hope it becomes very special for you all.😀
Now I really want to go to Northern Australia!
as usual, great video
I love that portable used to mean "you can move it without giving yourself a significant back injury"
In that same year I picked up a 1970's black & white 19 inch TV from the street and had it hooked up to cable tv in my room just so I could have a TV there. Oh this Sony set would have been a great solution for me then and over the years for some late night shows in bed.
Wow! That is a really cool scan feature, I'm totally geeking out over this. :)
Doesn't seem like a bad little TV for the time. I wouldn't have complained if I had that in my tiny apartment in the 90s. For a while all I had was the 12 inch black and white J.C. Penny's tv that my parents bought in 77 and I got to put in my bedroom when I was 12. I didn't watch much TV anyway since I was either working all the time or hanging out with friends. But I still remember how well built that thing was and how good it looked...for a b and w.
Those Trinitron portables ❤ still drooling to this day.
Bedford, NH? Wow, that's where my family reunion was near back around 22 yeaers ago!
I still have my SONY WATCHMAN TV fdl-22 . Have not turned it on in over 15 years. I made sure I removed the batteries when I placed it in storage.
Great video...👍
Mate, do you have a link to that full Northern Australia tourism video? As an Aussie, I'd love to watch it all...
Very cool.
hopefuly the tv looks better in person its been a long time since I have seen a CRT screen
that outro was an experience
Now if only analog TV was still on the air. I'd use these on the daily.
Man i would love to have that TV.
Nice little TV.
Don't you just love it when they put a handle on something then say it's portable ? LOL.