The Tube Cube. A Little Slice of PYE

These days integrated technology is commonplace.  You have DVD/VCR combi units, TV/DVD combi units, game consoles and computers that seem to want to do everything, mobile phones that are actually computers equipped with full audio and video capabilities and radio stations transmitting from digital TV's as a series of additional channels instead of from a dedicated radio bolted on to the side of the screen.  Even as I type this, I am using my main digital TV (with digital radio channels) as a monitor for my PC.
Such integration was much less heard of and seen ten or twenty years ago.  And if you go back 30 years you'd be lucky if you had a cassette player nestled up to your record player.  Even luckier if such a unit also had a AM/FM radio tuner.  FM tuners weren't widely used as commercial FM radio didn't take off in Britain till the 70's, steadily gaining more popularity over AM in the 80's.

Role on to 1982 and technology integration picked up just a little more with this interesting gadget.  The PYE Tube Cube

PYE Tube Cube Catalogue Scan from 1983

In 1982 this seemed to be PYE's answer to all things home media, such as it was at the time.  Actually, despite being an all in one unit, comprising some fairly common appliances, it wasn't quite up to the same speed as much of the current technology.  At a time when colour TV was gaining popularity, the Tube Cube only had a black and white screen.  Also, TV sizes were inching upwards each year, with between 16" and 22" TV's proving popular in the early eighties, once again in full colour and often packing Teletext information services.  The Tube Cube's 9", monotone, featureless TV would have put off any serious TV lover from buying it.  They could buy a decent 16" TV for the same price as a Tube Cube, or put the money towards half the cost of something bigger.

But the Tube Cube wasn't aimed at the serious telly addict or Videophile.   It wasn't even aimed at the Audiophile either, even with it's three band radio and audio cassette player/recorder.  

The Tube Cube was portable and seemed to be designed for travelling and caravans.  Although it wasn't very light, it did have a carry handle.  It was also able to run from a 12V battery.  It also had it's own telescopic adjustable aerial and an RF socket so it's user should have been able to pick up a signal no matter where they were.

But I dare say, the majority of Tube Cubes sold never had the chance to go travelling.  I imagine that many of them were used as a convenient space saver, money saver, or more rarely, as a second TV for the bedroom or Kitchen.  In the U.K., the idea of a second TV was yet to fully catch on.  But rather than fill the bedroom or kitchen with a secondary, separate HiFi and a radio and a TV, the Tube Cube's integrated features would have been just the thing.

In fact they would have been perfect for the bedroom, as the Tube Cube also had a digital clock and alarm mode, enabling the owner to set the time and function to be woken with in the morning.  It also had a sleep mode so the owner could fall asleep in front of the TV and it would switch itself off in due time.  The short advert below seems to market the TV as a bedroom TV, being placed during a morning program with the slogan, "wake up to what PYE is doing".

The Tube Cube's radio had an FM tuner alongside the AM and MW frequencies.  The TV itself received VHF (Very High Frequency) signals, which also carried the FM radio signal.

The tape deck on the left hand side of the unit was fairly standard, but it was able to record audio from the TV and radio, as well as external sources via it's microphone socket.  A headphone socket was also present, although neither headphones or microphone were supplied with the Tube Cube.

Like most TV's of the time, it had monaural sound which emanated from a single speaker on the right side of the TV.  This was perfectly adequate as stereo on TV hadn't arrived yet, and wouldn't until the mid 80's. 

But for it's time, and despite being slightly behind the newer technology in some areas, the Tube Cube would have been a handy bit of kit for many people, and I'm sure it found it's way into many homes, being used as intended - a fancy alarm clock, if not as a second home media unit for the kitchen, or even as the perfect gadget for anyone with a caravan.

BBC Electric Dreams Advert.

An interesting, informative and nostalgic trip down memory lane. Divided into three decades (70's, 80's, 90's), and shown over three nights during the winter of 2009 (repeated summer 2010), Electric Dreams made great viewing, and was part of the BBC's Electric Revolution season. Although it didn't concentrate on A/V equipment, it did show the technology as it was during the relevant period, such as black and white TV units in the 70's, sophisticated HiFi stereo and early VCR's in the eighties, and advanced gaming consoles that came about in the 90's.
With any luck this fascinating mini series will be repeated again very soon.

Matsui VX 2500 VCR

Like a lot of the home cinema technology to emerge in the late 80's, the Matsui VX 2500 was as plain as they come.  This particular video cassette recorder was very basic in all departments with no outstanding features and absolutely nothing to separate it from the regular VCR crowd.  I'm assuming it had an attractively low price when compared to it's peers such as the JVC's and Fergusson's of the time.
I say assume, as like my first personal TV, this VCR was also a gift to me.

Head on view of the Matsui VX 2500 VCR

It's bland features complimented my small Osaki TV quite nicely.  The VCR is a typical front loading machine with the loading bay on the left hand side.  The right hand side contained a very glossy digital display which showed day and time in 24 hour format.  It also showed if a tape was inserted, what speed it was (sp/lp) and also provided a counter/timer display instead of a clock when the 'Timer' button was pressed on the remote.  The display digits were yellow, with an on/off light in bright red.

Right hand display showing yellow digits and glossy front panel

As you can see the display is not very bright and this is made all the worse by the glossy front panel which is very reflective.  Near useless in anything but dim conditions.

5 of the 6 hard buttons on the machine and reflective front display

Underneath the display are six buttons - Rec/OTR, Play, channel UP, channel DOWN, Stop/Eject, and VCR ON.  The power button turned the VCR on from standby mode - it's permanent state when not in use, which I believe to be typical of all VCR's.  It also turned the machine back into standby mode.

The back of the machine

The back of the machine was almost as feature less as the front.  It really is a very 'primitive' VCR when compared to some others that were around at the time.  That is probably quite unfair to say, as looking at many VCR's over the years, there really is very little difference in any of them from a certain point in time.  The playing field became very level once the absolute basics were included in a VCR, and any additional features were more marketing rubbish than genuine requirements.

Connections on the VX 2500

 As can be seen from the back of the VCR, some of the well known connections are missing.  The Scart connection being the most obvious.  Although Scart was around and was gaining popularity in the 1980's, it would seem that much of the cheaper equipment available omitted this connection.  Scart was fairly new and was, and still is confusing for some people, what with RGB, composite, and S-Video protocols to follow with either 21 pin or ten pin connectors, and clear differences in picture quality depending on the type of Scart used.  And since it wasn't a compulsory connection, it's no surprise that many items didn't include Scart.

Another missing connection from the VX 2500 would be S-Video, or Separate Video as it is known to many.  A step up from composite, but a step below RGB Scart.  Instead of Scart or S-Video, the VX 2500 carried composite connections, IN and OUT.
Due to a lack of composite input on my TV at the time, I was forced to use the RF connections instead.  To be honest, I doubt I would have seen any improvement in VHS playback quality if I were able to use the composite connection.  And since I knew nothing of video production, scan lines, different connections, CRT types, Laser Disc, etc, I was content enough with picture quality from VHS on a 14" screen.  How could it get better than that?
Moving on to audio connections, and the VX 2500 was only capable of providing mono sound through either it's RF connection or single analogue (white) RCA connection.  Some more sophisticated VCRs at the time were able to produce stereo sound and had stereo RCA  (red and white) outputs.  These machines probably had the Scart connections too.
But did I miss anything?  No.  Fortunately I was far too ignorant at the time to notice just how much I could squeeze from my modest VHS collection in terms of picture and sound quality.

From what I remember, and compared to my current VCR (yes, I still operate one), the VX 2500 was fairly quiet during operation, with few of the creaks, groans and humming I notice emanating from my current video tape player.  And once behind the glass doors of a video cabinet, operational noise was almost non existent.  Perfect for watching movies.
Another plus point for me at the time was that this VCR came with a infra red remote control.  Finally I didn't have to move across the room just to change channel.  I could do it from the comfort of my own bed.  Ah, heaven.

VX 2500 Remote

The remote itself was among the least impressive I have ever seen.  It was fairly large, flat, black plastic rectangle with no styling or ergonomics of any kind.  The top quarter of the remote contained a large LCD screen (similar in size to that found on a digital camera) which did nothing but flash a 'Send' icon at the push of every button.  All that space of the screen with nothing but the top right corner taken up with a flashing icon when used.  To be honest the remote was used to program the VCR for timed recording, and the screen was there to aid this function, but I never used it.

Close up of LCD screen

And with the push of every rubber button on the remote, the VCR would beep in response.  So every channel change had a beep.  Every time I pressed play, I heard a beep. Stop, beep, forward, beep, rewind, beep, on, beep, off, beep, 1 - 0, beep, beep, beep.  There was no way to turn the beep off.  It was a small annoyance for a machine that otherwise did a great job of doing what it was supposed to do - play and record onto VHS tapes.  It was also very long lived and functioned properly for the best part of a decade before becoming unreliable and a menace to cassettes.

I recently bought my VX 2500 out of storage for the purpose of testing it and photographing it for this write up.  I would have liked to have shown it in full operation, but it just chewed up the tape (a dispensable one).  I dare say that with a couple of spare parts, like some clean rollers, it could be put back into full service, but I guess it really isn't worth it.  I'll keep it anyway, as part of my collection, and a small piece of VCR history, although, like I've said, during their day, most VCR's were much of a muchness, and there really is nothing collectable about the Matsui VX 2500 Video Cassette Recorder.

My First TV. A Very Big Deal in a Very Small Box!

Have you ever heard of Osaki?  I hadn't heard of them till the late 80's.  Osaki were the manufacturer of my first personal television set.  It was a Christmas present from my parents, and it spelled the beginning of the end for evenings in front of the TV as a family.
From that moment on, I'd gained a small amount of independence as I was able to watch my choice of programs from the four channels available at the time.

The TV was a P142, a small, nondescript plastic box, typical of a lot of the portable TV's of the period.  It came with it's own loop aerial, for all the good it did, and had no remote control.  Back then, changing channels meant leaning out of bed and pressing a button on the front of the TV.
The TV was full colour and had a 14" CRT screen.  I'm not entirely sure of the details as I have found no information about the TV I once owned, and information on Osaki is quite scarce.  It seems they are/were among the obscure, cheaper Japanese manufacturers whose products were often bought into the country by the big box shifters of the time, whoever they might have been.  Rumbelows?
The TV had a single speaker on the side and had one input on the rear - the RF feed for the aerial.  Hardly cutting edge technology, even in those days. 
Back then, TV was just that.  TV.  Home cinema had barely caught on, except with the most serious enthusiasts who chose Laser Disc over VHS, and that in turn had won the war over Sony's Betamax in the movie rental stakes, even though only half the population owned a VCR.  Such equipment was still very expensive in the 1980's.  Companies like Radio Rentals proved very popular, as renting a TV was cheaper, and often more reliable, than owning a TV that could go wrong at any moment, especially in the early part of the decade.
By the late eighties, TV reliability had started to improve, and the Osaki P142 served me well for many, many years, overseeing it's introduction to my first VCR, Star Wars re-released on VHS (again), and the Sony Playstation, before finally being put into retirement in 2000.