It is crazy to think that there are people who will probably never see static snow on a tv in their life.

“Daytime running lights are for daytime only. Remember to turn on your headlights at night for full power” People today could still benefit from hearing this

I had one of these in my big truck years ago. I bought it for $17.00 at Flying J somewhere in south east Missouri. When the nasty ice storm of Jan 2007 hit us, I pulled a battery out of one of the cars and had it going in the house for several days. Analog was still going strong then. I had news weather and more. No electricity for 10 days. I'm almost sentimental about those little pieces of junk really. It served me well in a moderate crisis event that will not be forgotten.

I had the gray one as a teenager. My parents didn’t allow cable in our rooms so I saved up for this around 2002. It was cool that it was so portable in the pre-smartphone world, and super affordable by then.

Back in the 2000s there were still analog cell phones, so you could eavesdrop on them using channels 70 - 83 with one of these TVs.

During the aftermath of Hurricane Ike - this little TV was the only functioning TV on my block. I rewired leads for a car battery. That, and my campfire coffee percolator, made us popular for the nearly 2 weeks we had without power. I still have it.

I remember watching TV on one of these late into the night in secret way back in middle school. My parents were super strict about me watching any TV (even though they would turn on their variety shows as soon as they got back) so I used mine to catch a lot of late night movie showings on public access. I vividly remember watching all of Spaceballs and finally being able to talk to my friends about it. Thanks for covering this - definitely brought up some nostalgia for me!

These TV sets were very popular in Greek military outposts in the 2000's, before digital TV. I would have the TV set in a corner keeping me company as I was standing guard lol 🤣

I got one of these for free from a south German brewery as a promotional item for the 2006 soccer world cup in Germany. The case was altered to vaguely ressemble a soccer ball.

I bought one sort of similar (different looking case) made by Jensen back in 2004. Still have it. The best part is mine has composite video and audio inputs. So it makes a great little monitor for game consoles and the like. I think I paid $29 for it at the time.

I had one of these in the early 2000s. My grandma bought it for me and I remember watching Nickelodeon shows in black and white. I was honestly really fascinated by it because I never saw a black and white TV before.

I had a TV similar to this in the mid 2000s. My parents didn't want us having TVs in our room, but I was allowed this. It only picked up like 3 channels and my brain sort of filled in the colors.

I had one of these as a kid. I loved it because it received one more channel than the TV in our living room. Every Sunday night I'd watch The Simpsons and Family Guy on it. Then one night I fell asleep with it on and woke up to my smoke alarm going off because it caught fire. I miss that piece of junk.

I don't want a black and white TV, but I would love that Jetta with it's new fancy locking system, very cool.

I still have a couple of these from my dad. He bought them for CCTV camera use but switched to a different system and kept them spare. I've used them for testing electronics but I mostly just admire these random little nuggets.

I still have one of these which I use in a somewhat novel application: I have a small equipment shed behind my garage, which houses some of my amateur radio equipment. I needed a way to monitor some of the operational parameters of one of the radios I had in this shed. So, since I ALSO had a Standard brand cable TV modulator that was agile, I rack mounted this modulator in the shed, and then added a video surveillance camera that has infrared LED illumination that is pointed at the metering of my radio. I then take the video out of the camera and run it to the video IN of the TV modulator. I set the modulator on old TV channel 13, and put a 1/4 wave whip on the modulator's RF output port. This B&W TV sits in my radio room in my house several yards away. And by careful focusing of the camera, in addition to careful tuning of the TV, I can quite easily read the metering of the radio. As for the annoying hum to which you referred, I found that could be largely mitigated by doing two things: 1) turning down the brightness control, and 2)carefully adjusting the RF tuning so as to SLIGHTLY offset the 4.5 MHz sound subcarrier . Like you, I paid a whopping $2 for my TV at a yard sale. But it came WITH the proper AC adapter, so I don't need to use batteries. Also, some of the audio hum noted when powering the TV from the AC adapter can be lessened by keeping the AC adapter as far away as possible from the TV, and running the DC input line through a toroid several times. Nearly all B & W TVs used a lot lower HV from the flyback, as there was no need for the 25 KV commonly found on color sets. Since I can turn the brightness up on mine until it nearly inverts the video, why waste money on the extra size and cost of a 25 KV flyback?

These things were the equivalent of "bringing your tablet to watch Netflix on the trip" back in the day

I owned one, bought as a TV for emergencies. When *three* hurricanes hit my area in the space of a few weeks in the 2000s, I was grateful to have it. It was infinitely better being able to watch the news and weather as opposed to just listening to the radio. Unfortunately it became useless with the end of analog TV broadcasts. The last time a storm hit I lost power for a week and was forced to rely on very spotty internet. Sometimes simpler is better.

We had a bad snow storm years ago. Our power was out for several days. I had one of these little TVs that also ran on battery power. I also had a hand crank radio. And I had a Coleman camp stove to cook on. I remember telling my wife that we were the only family in the neighborhood that could watch TV, listen to the radio, and cook meals.

The one I had back in the 80s was built like a tank - small, B&W, with a built in radio with tuner specifically for broadcast TV. Had it on my desk next to my Atari which was running on a full color JVC box monitor similar to the Commodore 64 monitor. Could watch TV while playing around with my BBS.

I secretly bought one of these at Walmart, for about $50 (using Christmas money), when I was about 12-13 because I had terrible childhood insomnia. I hid it under my bed and brought it out when I couldn't sleep (almost every night) to watch the Simpsons, King of the Hill and late-night talk shows. Years later, my mom told me she knew about it, and even though we weren't supposed to have TVs in our room, she knew how much not being able to sleep fucked with me, so she let it slide. Watching this thing, while under a duvet, was an incredible relief to the stress.

I've been using it A LOT as a kid when my no name 14" CRT broke down. The worst part was the tuning wheel would slowly move so you needed to readjust it every 10-15 min. Other than that it worked pretty well, better than not having a TV at all in pre-internet (at least uncommon) early 2000s....

We bought some to use as a monitor for our security cameras. Still have one for over a decade connected to a camera. They work great if you wanted to keep an eye on an area. I also used them as a cheap portable monitor when I would film, to get see if I was recording to my DVR and the position of the image if I need to adjust the camera.

This video was particularly insightful for me, as I currently drive a ‘98 Volkswagen Jetta.

I was given one of those in 2000. Right away I knew what to use it for: listening to cellular phone conversations on the high UHF channels. Made possible by the continuous analog tuning dial and ability to tune into frequencies long ago allocated to 1G cellular. Great entertainment!

This is giving me some childhood flashbacks that I nearly forgot about. When I was a kid, my family owned a house boat and the hull of the ship was this flat square area that was only 2 and a half feet tall with that 90s brown carpet, I had put a small cot down there and hooked up a tiny TV just like these ones and had my Ps2 playing Ratchet and Clank on this tiny black and white screen. It was something magical, 11 pm on a cold summer night, wrapped up in my blankets playing my game, the sweet rocking of the water going back and forth. Just me, living in the moment and enjoying myself, with nothing on my mind.

I bought a portable CD player/radio/BW TV combo thing in the early to mid-2000s. Looked modern (for the time) and had a similar looking tubes. Probably the same thing. Also had RF and AV input so I could hook up VHS players, DVD players, game consoles etc. Silly little thing, but kind of cool piece of tech history. Kind of wish I’d held on to it. Limited usability though😅

It's crazy that the production of the last black and white tube TV and the first smartphone were only about one year apart.

As a teenager in the 90's I would have loved one of these. Before I was old enough to get a job any option to get my own TV would have caught my eye. The small size would have fit nicely in my childhood bedroom. Sure, by every respect other than price it's junk, but to a kid with a weekly allowance of $3.50 I would have seen the device as punching above its weight.

For some reason I have an intense urge to play NES on one if those.

Watching this makes me feel so nostalgic, I think we have something like this back in 2006 and we used to watch our favorite show outside and just chill under the night sky. Simple yet memorable.

One of the best things about this channel is not only learning about old and unique tech, but also about the features of the 1997 Jetta. Keep up the good work.

Analog TV will always hold a special place in my heart. It will forever sadden me that I'll never have the joy of fine tuning a VHF/UHF TV ever again.

In 1995, my family had a long car trip from Oklahoma to Virginia to move, and we had a tiny miniature black and white TV similar to this model, hooked up to a VCR to provide entertainment in the back seat. We got VHS tapes at a gas station, and when we arrived at our new house and hooked up our full-size TV, I was surprised the tapes were actually in color!

Mine was sold as COBY. But yeah it's the same as the Spectra you are showing here. Right now its literally gathering dust. I have a digital converter it can work on - but watching wide-screen movies or tv shows makes the image smaller. There's no manufacturing date on it that I can find. The last I turned it on out of curiosity (after digital made it obsolete) I barely picked up a Spanish TV broadcast! Not well enough a reception you could make out anything - but you could clearly hear Spanish being spoken and Hispanic music. Maybe when I'm feeling nostalgic enough, I might pull it out, blow off the dust and watch some Gilligan's Island on it or something. LoL.

I had one of these on my desk in college. It was handy for some noise as a I studied. My model had an analog channel selector, and if you put it halfway between channels 13 and 14, it would sometimes pick up analog cellular calls (this was early 90s), at least the half being sent out from the car. My buddy and I had some fun with that.

I'm slightly embarrassed that 11 year old me wanted, and got, one of these for Christmas in 2005. But I'll hand it to it that it still worked fine when I donated it to the thrift store a decade later. Mine had the A/V jacks, which was nice.

I still have one of those and it still turns on. That little TV got my family through Hurricane Ike back in 2008. As usual before a hurricane all the batteries in all sizes were sold out , so I went to Sam's Club and found a small 12 volt car battery, which lasted the entire 2 weeks we were without power. When we all went digital here in the states, I purchased a new color rechargeable battery operated TV and that battery swelled up and made it inoperable in less than a year. Those little sets were cheap as hell, but they worked amazingly well.

My grandpa had one of these tiny black and white tvs and we used to play GameCube on it this was around 2004-06 I specifically remember playing Sonic Adventure DX

Since sometime in the late 80s, we had a Panasonic fold over TV/radio. The TV was not exposed unless you inverted the top half of the device, and there was like a 4 inch black and white screen that you could barely see, but we thought it was so cool at the time.

One of the TVs he showed us was manufactured in 2005. Thé iPhone came out in June 2007. This means that TV could still been in a store shelf when the iPhone was out. That’s stunning

This looks ideal if you want something resembling a period-correct experience when using a Timex Sinclair 1000.

I love how great black n white tubes look. So much detail and bright when you don't need a shadow mask.

As a guy who has just turned 18 it’s crazy to see a Black and White TV that was made *after* you were born!

A lot of arcade machine collectors are always on the lookout for "new" screens to replace their burnt out ones. But I remember seeing these in purple in the late 90s over here in the UK, thought they were terrible even back then :D

There's a failing of virtually all monochrome TVs too: They have mean level AGC instead of gated which (nearly all) colour sets have. So dark scenes are always a murky grey colour, they never do real black even though the tube is perfectly capable of doing so.

Oh wow... That takes me back. I had something very, very similar back in the day. I enjoyed having something so handy around for long trips and the like.

I remember having one of these as a kid in the late 2000s. I loved playing with the knobs and the antenna and would just tune in and out of channels. I miss those days even though i was pretty young

On sept 11 2001 I was working in a machine shop Here in St Louis MO. We heard a few radio interruptions decrying the goings on of that day. We had no tv's in the shop. I snuck out and went to a Walgreens next door and bought one of these and made it back in under 5 min. I threw the tv in a cabinet near my machine and started watching the news broadcast's. Within a few minutes there was 30 people staring at the little tv. We were all watching it when the send plane hit the 2nd tower..... I kept the tv in the cabinet until 2014 when we rearranged the shop. I tried it out but it was toast. I reluctantly through it away.

I wanted my grandmother's black and white tv radio combo so bad when I was a kid in 95. She wouldnt give it up. I still love my grandmother for protecting me from disappointment.

The converter boxes are still fairly common, so you could buy one of these and connect to your antenna port if you thought it was worth it. I do this all the time with my old restored tube sets.

I used to date a woman years ago (mid 2010s) who had two of these at her house, one as second TV set and the smaller one (similar to those shown here) as CCTV monitor. I don’t know practically anything about image frequencies or electronics but I was aware that digital TV had rendered analog stations pretty obsolete, although here the official announcements weren’t made until 2020. I think the sets she had worked on input data through cable so that might have made them usable beyond their expected life span. As a kid in the 80s I had a b/w spare TV set which worked well on UHF and VHF frequencies and I could even get TV stations from neighbouring provinces. It’s quite impressive how we dealt with such primitive technology by modern standards and yet kept ourselves informed and educated on a daily basis. Greetings from south Buenos Aires province, Argentina.

I used to have one of these around 2009. I remember hooking up a gamecube to it and thinking to myself "That's the sharpest Wind Waker I've ever seen" Even though it was monochrome, the game looked absolutely fantastic on it, like it was in HD or something. The clarity was unbelievable.

The last CRT I remember seeing was being used as a security camera monitor, it was a small B&W not much bigger than those TVs. The image quality wasn't much better either, even Sasquatch could make an appearance without fear of being recognised.

Million thanks for the video.. Am still having one of this, is colour, 5 inch screen, CRT, with a red face, alongwith controls, from JVC Japan.. was gifted me by my elder brother, who came for vacation from abroad.. the length of the TV towards back is 12 inches.. and having a high density printed board.. still using it with my Sony PS 1.. also watches sports by connecting DTH.. its so great with vibrant colours and picture quality..

I had one of those and watched a ton of broadcast stuff in my room. Nostalgia.

4:56 you were supposed to use a flat head screw driver to adjust those settings (I worked for RCA/GE Thompson Consumer Electronics in the late 90s-early 2000s - we had a GE version of this - it looked exactly like the Memorex except white & a color variant) - they were designed that way so they didn't accidentally get bumped in the back and you had to purposefully adjust them. I used one for my camper - it worked fine. You can get the HDTV adaptor at Walmart for like $10 to use on these old TVs. I have one for my old 13 inch RCA ColorTrak.

I got one of these at a goodwill for 2$ in 2019. It was missing the battery cover so I nearly didn’t get it. Then I found it at the cash register being used as a coaster by the employee.

Had one of these..found it very useful as a garage tv for years . Pretty good picture with nearby stations

I had one of these as a kid. I could watch tv at night without my parents knowing. That’s a story in itself

I loved these little tv's. As a kid living on a boat in an anchorage back when solar was less efficient and more expensive, these were incredibly battery efficient and connected to older and newer gaming consoles alike. It wasn't fancy but it sure was dependable. Camping too. And the AM/FM radio was very much appreciated too. And the manual tuning is superior to digital where digital omits less than perfect signals completely.

I remember when I bought in in 2007, to use it in a case of war (do not be laugh, I am from Bosnia and Herzegovina) hospitalization (and it was used for this purpose) and for camping and vacations (never used for this purpose, because neighbour Croatia shut down analogue TV, Bosnia in 2021 still uses analogue TV). However, this TV did not last for a long time, but it is not strange for this price.

I love how the image distorts as the audio output increases. Warping with every syllable spoken.

I bought one of these around 2000 to connect my Pong console to it which I then used frequently with friends for some retro gaming fun. A purpose it fulfilled. Need to look it up some day as it should still sit in my storage room.

When I lived in China I recall seeing Taobao sellers selling CRT retro TV's from Korea. This was back in 2010 or so. They looked pretty nice and were digital ready. I think they were color too. I should have bought one.

In the late seventies, we had our last b&w tv. It had a very common feature at the time: both the remote and the antenna were the same object: me, the youngest sibling.

My grandmother had one of those in black. Video brought back some nice memories. I'm the only family member left that's still using CRT.

Last year I briefly owned a VW Golf from 92 and I was very impressed with that window up/down feature when holding the key in the lock in a given position

Man, her shorts were about the most "90's American tourist" thing I've ever seen.

I have a black & white portable TV called the Ambassador, saw it on a shelf in Savers. In the store I barely touched the volume knob, it went off at FULL volume saying "Do you have chronic diarrhea!?" Bought it on the spot. In 2015 when it was brought home playing with all the knobs and dials it actually picked up a TV station with a land rover commercial and then a dancing show! I live in MN.

I had one like that when I was a kid. I remember my parents giving me the choice between that, or a color model and I chose that one because it had a radio. I think it was in the late 80s. I used it for a long time, especially the radio, and I never regretted the decision.

The 'good ole days'. Nuts to that. What a (seemingly) complete analysis of this product. It was very interesting. Thank you. ☮

Cheers from Italy, I have a completely unbranded one very similar to the "spectra" you showed in the video. My grandfather won it playing cards and gave it to me once he quickly bored of it. It does have VL, VH and UHF sintonizations. Since Italy switched to digital only in 2012 I got quite a bit of use out of it.

In the early 2000's we got one of these to use in the car. We plugged it into an inverter and hooked it up to a VHS player or an Nintendo to keep the kids occupied as we drove up to Maine or on camping trips. It was one of the best $25 investments I ever made!

Nice to see her again - we had white one, used to use it as a program monitor at the Selectmen Meetings for a Comunity TV station I worked at. The thing was great worked for years

"Peter, show us how to us the special keys to unlock the Jetta's doors!" "Sure, Suzie! Remember, your Jetta comes with specially made keys that will only work with your car. Hold the key between your thumb and forefinger just like this. Now, raise you hand in line with the doorlock. Remember, don't raise your hand too high or you might damage the paintwork. Move your hand slowly forwards until the key engages with the lock. Keep pushing forward until it stops. See, just like this. It's easy!" 😆😎

We really have come quite a long way since I was small, watching a 12" black & white TV in my bedroom, venturing through to the lounge which boasted the HUGE 24" colour TV set. If nothing was on we'd stick a copied cassette into the Betamax! What a time to be alive!!

My family bought this for me as a kid. I loved having this. I got so much use out of it on our family trips with it hooked up to the battery.

Wasn't the worst, my grandma was still using this in 2000s. Good reception made it really visible and clear

These TV's aren't that bad and I actually love their portability. I have one in my house and it holds a special place in my heart cause nostalgia, btw I'm 2000's kid

I remember seeing these for sale at an outlet store between 2010 and 2014, for $10, advertised as an emergency radio with monitor.

0:24 I begged my mother to get this TV when I was a kid!! I still remember it was 99$ (Canadian) at the time! We weren't that rich but sure enough, she managed to get me one for christmas!!! And I still own it today!! I would bring it on Road Trips sitting in the back of our 1987 Hyundai Pony! Trying to find channels to watch as they would fade in and out as we drove along!! It's sad that there are no more analog stations.

My family had one of these for hurricanes in Texas growing up. Worked great in 2008

I had one of these as a kid. Keep in mind that this was the first time truly portable video was available to the masses. The fact that you could watch TV in the car, even if it was a staticy picture and even if you could only pick up two or three stations in any given area, was revolutionary in the 90s. (Yes, there were color sets with larger screens that could be hardwired to a vehicle's electrical system, but you'd typically only see them on coach buses and such as these systems were well beyond the price range of the typical consumer.)

I got one of those for $5 at a grocery store (new) in the late 90s, it fit perfectly between the dash and center console of my car, I also had a TV antenna that suction cupped to the roof.

I like black and white TVs. They remind me of my childhood.

god the sound of that static and the sharp S's on those old TV's really take me back

Didn’t expect these to be so cheap when they were new, but it does make sense when it has been designed to cut costs. It would be a nice set to try and “upgrade” or modify with additional inputs or to receive digital broadcasts since they can be easily obtained, but it might be a bit tricky due to the integrated chips.

My one in Europe (Czech Republic) does have VHF TV :).

Wow, this brings back memories. I don't even remember the last time I saw one of these in the goodwill. I think the last one I used had an NES hooked up to it.

These are kind of cool. I’d totally buy one if it still picked up channels.

Those TVs made me remember my days I spent installing analog Cu band satellite dishes for a living during my teen years. This small TVs were very handy to fine tune the dish in the roof.

I have a blue one of these from my old job. Basically, when you work in shipping and receiving, vendors often send some kind of weird free gift. I have free multi-tools and camp chairs and so forth. My predecessor must have gotten the TV that way, as a promo item, and he left in on the big desk in the warehouse that I inherited. It was still in the box, which featured people camping and at ball games, places you could supposedly watch this TV. Of course, nobody in the pictures on the box is actually *watching* this TV, lol.

My dad owned one of those small b&w TVs, the fact that a TV could run on batteries never failed to blew me away.

I have been looking for an affordable black and white only screen for a while, now I know where to look. THANKS!

I remember having one of these in the early 2000's. My mom gave me one as a little Christmas present and I just remembered being amazed that it was a better powered TV. Now here I am watching movies on a phone lol. But I do remember having this thing during a series of really bad tornadoes in my county once and the comfort of watching the weather man reporting on the storm situation with my family when the power went out

I have no doubt you've been told this already, but it's mostly just the UK that only used UHF. Ireland had VHF analogue until it was shut off last decade, as did France, though only for Canal+. It's true that most of Western Europe only uses UHF now though.

I have eight of these. They are awesome. Perfect orr making retro sci fi projects.

I had a tv similar to that. My parents got me a black and white tv in the late 90s for Christmas. I had a lot of good times with it.