So in the summer I was at a car boot sale and just saw this thing sitting there. It looks so awesome and old, and just cool! I didn’t even care if it worked or not. For 10 euros I wasn’t going to complain either way! So in the video we see a smoke test of the unit, just to see if it fires up and what works and what doesn’t.
[niceyoutubelite id =”6AtRGvIIoRY”]
It fires up, the screen appears to work but obviously there are no analogue broadcasts anymore in order to get a signal. The tape deck played but it mangled a tape, so needs some work. And the FM/AM Radio worked lovely. Albeit one of the speakers is a bit crackly with the volume button. I’m thinking some dry solder joints there just to correct.
Back to the screen. I wanted to see if its possible to get something on there. So I hooked it up to the trusty old ZX Spectrum which outputs an analogue RF signal in a way this TV should understand. The external antenna input is a 3.5mm audio type jack. And the output of the spectrum is a phono. So I had to jerry rig a cable together.
But sadly. I had no such luck. I was seeing wavy interference lines off the Spectrum but no picture.
Next time I am going to dismantle the unit in a hope of finding out some more information about it. Year of manufacture would be nice. I have looked up Supersonic on the internet and found virtually nothing. I am thinking this is possibly some grey import from Asia. Also it will be good to have a closer look at the aerial inputs to make sure they’re all connected and looking OK, as well as fix the casette deck and crackly speaker. I think this could be restored to full glory!
If I can get a signal to the TV, then its possible to use a series of adapters on it to plug in a more modern signal, such as a HDMI source.