Doctor Who On A Restored Vintage TV 

I’ve set a reminder for when your videos release every Friday and I just realised that that’s today! Keep it up!

That guy going the extra mile and actually fitting an HDMI jack into the back of the casing is absolutely golden! What a brilliant bloke.

For authentic experience you cannot use remote except for picture geometry. You must walk across the room to adjust the volume 😉

The Josh Snares RU-vid Channel = doctor who content you never expected but enjoy so goddamn much

Josh Snares, Bill Hartnell Stan

Doctor Who, just as it was meant to be seen on first Australian broadcasts - starting in 1965, the same age as your new-old set! Brilliant!

You're living everyone Doctor Who fan's dream!

Oh this took me back to my childhood! In the UK we rented our TVs, and I must have been unbearable as a child when Doctor Who came on. I’d sit in front of the TV with my Grundig reel to reel tape recorder, and everyone had to sit in complete silence! I’m so pleased you’ve got yours working. Great video, too. Thank you. XX

As a film person I appreciate the joy of experiencing films and TV the way they were originally shown. There is something very special about running real film on a projector and the same feeling for watching old TV on an old TV.

The old TV repair guys used to say that if they went into a really dirty house the TV was spotless inside. There was no dusting going on to loosen dirt that could be attracted into the case. So your TV had come from a clean house.

That's amazing. I never thought id ever see an over 60 years television set work in such pristine condition that's incredible.

I took a couple years of electronics back in the late 1990's and from what I remember, the deflection yolk is what takes the beam of electrons and spreads it out across the inside of the screen. It looks like they did an amazing job and $500 isn't too bad. I remember having an expensive VCR repaired 20 something years ago and it cost $250.

Wow - I must be such a nerd - I loved this vid. I bought back such memories of old black and white TVs, being tiny and peering into the back of a TV and watching the valves lit up - the smell of ozone a sharp metallic tang - no other smell like it. My very earliest memory is of a black and white TV watched from behind the sofa. The end of an episode of Doctor Who, the Invasion episode 3 where the cyberman bursts from its cocoon watched by Jamie and the Doctor. A very vivid memory - it was the spooky sound effects haunted me ever since. I remember years later coming home from school for lunch and walking into the front room. Unknown to me a colour TV had just been delivered, on the screen they were playing an intermission - a piece of film they played between programs like a test card, it was just music and cornfields and pastural scenes. I just stood there mesmerized like a deer caught in headlights, I had never seen a colour tv before and this thing in my own living room was magical - can you imagine? I was bought out of my reverie when my mum walked into the room and spoke to me, which shocked my back to reality. Love your channel Josh, you never fail to entertain me. I could watch you open tins of mystery paint.

Great story. It's good that the technician was able to help you that quickly.

Honestly Josh, this channel is top tier. What a fantastic, unique approach to a video. I grew up watching Doctor Who in black and white- my introduction show was Day of the Daleks as broadcast ,and my folks didn't cave in and buy a colour set until 1977. My Dad was/is a fan, and always watched the show- I can remember his excitement over The Three Doctors and him bringing home the Radio Times with THAT picture on the front. Great stuff!

Gosh, this looks like such a fun way to experience the show. I hate my 50 inch screen tv now :(

I wasn't old enough to appreciate Who in the 1960s but I do remember those tube tvs. We had a succession of them from a rental shop and they were always breaking down! Hope it last you a while.

As a fan of old televisions, I can confirm this instigates dopamine release within me

Very jealous... when my own last CRT died (my beloved panasonic lasted 18 years) it felt like the death of a pet almost. This has made me think about getting another one. There's nothing better than watching classic TV on something that the shows were designed to be seen on. Same feeling when playing older retro games/emulators. Looking forward to see more of your new(old) TV!

Great project, I’m also looking forward to the possibility of colourised early Doctor Who.

I've never seen this channel before, but I just have to say that this was absolutely fantastic. How cool is that, watching vintage Doctor Who on a period correct TV!

That was cool to see. In the retro gaming community, we are always look for the best ways to upscale older hardware to play nicely with modern TVs, but here was a great case to downscale to an old TV. I can only imagine how much better those older 405 line resolution episodes look on TV they were intended for versus a flat panel.

The huge irony of all this is that we've spent so much time and technology trying to escape the vintage look and here we are essentially recapturing it. But maybe half the effect of watching back then was not really getting what was going on. Now we can see every flaw it becomes easy to laugh at. And it is a tribute to every performer or director involved that they constantly had to work with sets or props or situations that just don't stand up under 4K scrutiny.

Can I just say how much I've enjoyed this current run of videos you've put out this year? Glad to see you're back.

Marvellous stuff. I’ve always told my family from when they first saw sixties Dr Who, to forgive what they can clearly see as painted backdrops, or the outfits look quite poorly made or something. I always explained that they’re watching cleaned up film, much clearer than it arguably should be, and they’re watching the show on a modern high definition tv, (much larger screen too!) which is showing all the little things that viewers originally wouldn’t have even noticed! Just two examples which spring to mind are The Keys Of Marinus and The Web Planet. We know that the latter the producers used smeared lens or something, to deliberately make the scenes on Vortis look otherworldly, and of course to disguise the obvious ‘in the studio’ look of the sets. I almost encouraged the family to squint, or somehow view it foggily, to get the real experience of sixties dr who, and why it was so good, and why cleaned up footage and hi def tv is not always a good thing! Enjoying sixties dr who for what it was, helped everyone enjoy the stories more, and I still feel the imagination and scripts back then were far more breath taking than 21st century stories. Just my opinion of course. I am grateful however that the team are indeed cleaning up the old films for blu ray, I simply accept (season 2 for example) that blu ray is going to show up some inadequacies, and to look behind that and enjoy the crystal clear picture nonetheless. Anyway, a great experience Josh to see the old tv there, back in its wonderful condition, I’m sure you’re going to have a lot of fun with it, and share some of it with us. Thanks for the latest update to us all. Keep well.

Looking forward to your follow up video where you purchase a transmitter and wobbly TV aerial for a full re-creation of the 60s viewing experience.

Makes me feel old that I can remember when this set would’ve been new …

Wild seeing an actual HMV product, I'm used to them being mainly a shop front these days.

I'm so envious! What an amazing project, and a great outcome - thanks to the engineer who seems to have gone the extra mile. I'd say it was money well spent.

TLDR: Another top tier video, reminded me of my Grandad's work as an electrician fixing old TVs from this era. My Grandfather used to be an electrician who mainly worked on TV sets during the era your set is from b/c a lot of early US TVs were breaking down by the late 1960s. Both he and my father would always try to describe to me how all these steampunk looking lights, bulbs & vacuum tubes were what made a TV work back then. Seeing those old parts really brought a smile to my face as I love to build things & tinker w/ old hardware when I can.

Great stuff Josh! A superb way to watch the black and white episodes. 👍

Magnificent! Thank You for sharing your personal experience with your CRT TV project, Josh. An excellent idea of watching the Classic B&W episodes of Doctor Who 😊 Take Care, and enjoy your new (old) TV 👍

I love 60s Who! The directors knew how to create a creepy atmosphere back then! Especially with the composers and their incidental music! Unlike nowadays, they knew how to use the power of silence when it is necessary to help emphasize key dialogue.

OMG 750$ for a beautiful restoration and an awesome conversion for HDMI on an 1960's TV this is on my bucket list to get. What a bargain

Seeing a Black and white TV brings me back to my youth back in the 80s. My family didn't get a colour set until the late 80s.

That TV is gorgeous.

Great vid and challenge! An old CRT TV can make such a difference to the look and atmosphere of old shows. I always maintain that old Who in b&w is far more creepy and atmospheric, including the clips I’ve seen of the original b&w Pertwee episodes before the coloured versions replaced them

So happy for the work you are doing on classic Who: that was an era when budgets, politics and the public didn't always make it easy to produce. As they say: adversity sometimes brings out the best of people. Golden times. That old telly looks like a terrific addition too!

Another amazing video, I love the look of the vintage '60's TV (my parents have a set from '62 that still works IIRC, its moved from rural Pennsylvania then to NJ, Arkansas and has gathered dust in NH for the last 35 years, maybe I should check out having it repaired/cleaned when I can work again). Especially love your enthusiasm for the set and the 60's era of Who, a very underrated era. Looking forward to that extra bit of authenticity for future videos on the 1st & 2nd Doctor eras :)

Fantastic! Think this is the first time I've seen an Ausie set restored/retrofitted. I've seen a few sets here in the states, including our first Color set, the RCA CT-100 (1955) that have been restored, but this is more impressive! 1955...so the set was made 10ish years after TV Started in Australia? To think people might have actually watched LOST episodes on the set!

I'm so happy for you, Josh! It was a great find and I would have thought getting it fixed up would have cost a $1000 or more. You were probably saved by the fact it had been serviced and looked after in the first place. I've got an old TV I found down at the tip that I hope to get working at some point, so this was very handy :)

Excellent. I admire your dedication. Having grown up in the 70’s to early 90’s I’ve always desired bigger better quality pictures, but it sadly does mean defects are clearer. In some ways seeing it as it would originally have been is nice. I still would prefer a large screen though.

Absolutely amazing! I can't even put into words how much I love this! Here's a tip for everyone who wants to experience classic who in a similar way but doesn't have an old TV: There's a free software called Retroarch which is usually used to play old videogames but it can also play videos. The neat thing is, there are shaders that convert the image so it looks like an old CRT screen. It can also distort the edges like those old televisions did and you can even overlay an image of an old TV, kind of like you did at 1:32 It's a lot of fiddling around but there are great tutorials here on youtube and it definetely is the next best thing to having an authentic 60s TV set :)

So glad someone out there also enjoys watching the show as originally broadcast - the only thing missing now are the announcements before and after the episodes. I got myself a late 70s colour CRT set last year for that purpose as I started Classic Who with the 5th Doctor's run some five years ago. It was a bit of a crackpot idea as I do not have any idea about technical stuff and tend to chicken out easily from high voltage devices. But it came in wonderful condition, apparently was taken good care of, and after some dusting off looks perfectly even inside, at least from my understanding. I have read that electrolyte capacitors used those younger TV sets tend to degrade over time (roughly 20 years at average use) and should be replaced when necessary, no I am curious how that will work out on my 44 year old device. But it's been half a year now and things still look steady. Have all the fun you can get with your beautiful set!

So cool! My earliest memories of watching Dr WHo are on my parents' black and white portable Hitachi television (we didn't get a colour Tv until 1982!!)

Love this project! I hope you get a years and years of joy out of it!

I'd love to see a video where you rate all of the dr who title sequences, and maybe make one of your own based on what you like from each. I think there needs to be more fan-made title sequences.

The TV would be great to view all 60s 70s black and white programs 😁

Funny thing is the restoration team put so much effort into the blurays and DVDs and here is josh doing the exact opposite :)

Im an antiques technology nerd so this video was right up my alley! All said at the end what you paid wasn’t really that bad! It’s crazy what technology we can use now to adapt to the older tech like hdmi on an antenna only tv!

The things i'd do to watch all of 60s/early 70s Doctor Who on that. Mainly bc i've been on/off with Classic Who, i've never sat down and taken in the origins of the show properly so this would be a DREAM

That was a fascinating video, and Who looked brilliant on it. Vinyl came back, so...

The screen looks so good, at first i thought you were going to say you just did a green screen

I love your videos. I’m a HUGE Hungarian Doctor Who fan and your videos are inspiring to make my Doctor Who edits.

In the early 1990s I sent a blank VHS tape with a reply paid envelope to a guy in America, who in return sent the tape back to me with a copy of Tenth Planet 1, 2 and 3! This was close to a decade before the story was officially released by the BBC, and I was incredibly excited to be able to see the Cybermen's first appearance (aside from seeing a few clips of them from "Cybermen - The Early Years"). When I popped the tape into my VCR however - despite it saying it was PAL & NTSC compatible - it wouldn't play! :( :( Devastated... My mum asked around (I was all of 13yo at the time) and one of her friends offered me to go round to their place as they had an NTSC VCR connected to an old tellie. It really was an old box, not quite as old as your find (it was colour for a start), but probably early 70s. And that's how I got to enjoy The Tenth Planet for the first time - and managed to use their machine to make a PAL copy, too. :)

Definitely make sure to get that insured after everything you went through to get it up & running.

4:40 "The entire room just smelled like burnt dust." 😀 I've always wondered what people back when Who first started actually saw. I thought their tellies were smaller than that tbh

Love watching the original Dr Who. With that said, I am not sure I would go back to an antique TV, maybe because I actually watched TV on one's like this growing up! However I have to say if someone offered me the chance to sit down and watch Dr Who on the old TV? I am sure I would buy the popcorn. Kool idea and enjoy it.

As a fan of both doctor who and old tech this made me so unbelievably excited to see this video in my notifications! I’ve always wanted to get an old tv, but I’ve been put off because people have told me it’s too hard or not worth it. This proves it’s possible! I’m very tempted to go searching on ebay/marketplace now... It’s a beautiful set you’ve found too, such a 60s design! Like all tvs back then it would have cost a small fortune in its day, so it was built to last and a lot of care was put into it by the people who made it. You own a piece of history too!

This is incredible, Josh. I really want one!

Wow that was good value for money! Such a bespoke service. I would’ve expected 1 or 2 external converter boxes, the old-TV equivalent of USB dongles.

Well done. Still got my 90's Colour TV set which I use to play C64 games

I remember that old 60s Doctor Who intro! I'm old enough to have watched old black & white TV. This really brought back pleasant memories.

That is a beautiful restoration - I was hoping you were going to show a little bit of the new tech inside. Oh well, never mind.

Man, I've always wanted to be able to watch Classic Who with a gorgeous old set like yours. I'm so jealous! XD. Honestly tho, this was a great video, and I look forward to seeing this TV in the future. Keep up the incredible work man, you really are a huge asset to this community :)

I was still watching early Pertwee in black and white as a kid in the early 70s.

Been meaning to find one for Retro Gaming... Also reminds me I have a few old Radios with or without other features (Records of various speeds, Cassette, 8-Track, etc.) That I'd appreciate "restoring"... Like you, I assume it'd probably result in just gutting out and replacing with modern bits but If I could find a proper service provider... That'd be very cool... One Tabletop Radio with its Vacuum Tubes seems to have a nice amount of space inside to squeeze some modern tech alongside...

Oh man, that is beautiful.

Very cool. Now you can watch all of Invasion of the Dinosaurs in black and white, not just the first episode.

Wow this has to be the perfect way to watch those 1960s Doctor Who episodes. Beautiful piece of domestic technology.

The deflection yoke is a funnel shaped electromagnet, it actually contains two of them, which controls the position of the electron beam inside the big glass screen, called a CRT, or Cathode Ray Tube. The electron beam causes the phosphor coating on the inside of the screen to glow white. You have horizontal deflection and vertical deflection and the beam can be modulated to create different tones from black, through grey to white. The horizontal circuit scans the beam left and right across the picture, the vertical up and down. The frequency of the scanning is clocked to the 50Hz cycle of it's AC power source and then the 'top of the next picture' timing and the brightness signal (the actual picture) is what is broadcast across the airwaves, along with an audio signal added to a side channel of the current channel you are tuned to. For a much more in depth layman's guide, see the channel TechnologyConnections.

This is dedication! Awesome job! Now all you need is to build a time/space visualiser prop around it.

Would be cool to fit a little "magpie electricals" logo on top of the existing logo plaque

Wow amazing Can't believe how good this looks No digital artifacts! Well done 👍

@6:04 I see Mr. Rumbold. I'm an American that loves classic British television like "Are You Being Served?" and especially Doctor Who!

I did this exact thing to enjoy the hartnell years! most people said the same thing "why would you do that" or just sit further away from the tv but thats missing the point. 60s who on that tv is like playing a ps2 on a crt it just makes sense.

Now you need a 70s TV for 70s Who and an 80s TV to watch the 80s stuff.

Now THAT'S dedication 👏 You win sir.

Oh it's beautiful! I've always wanted an old TV like this to watch Who on, and it looks wonderful 😍

Love the TV takes me back!

This is amazing. I'm jealous! I want one.

I would have loved a picture like that on the antenna to watch Doctor Who

This TV looks amazing. I'm glad that you found it and had it restored -- and had a positive experience with the company that restored it!

I love the idea of this, I wish I still had one of my old b/w TVs (I had a couple as a child.. I used to watch the Friday night horror double bill on one of them!)

WOW! A vintage dream. WONDERFUL video, Josh.

The one nice thing about Australian TV is that you guys started with 625 B&W signal, the UK was still using 405 line signals until 1968. The first doctor who serial shot natively in 625 line B&W PAL was ironically enough, the enemy of the world. Set partially in Australia.

It’s one thing to watch 60s Who on a 60s TV, it’s quite another to watch it in 405-lines, which you didn’t have down under! The line structure making up the picture on this set is 625. I restore old TVs. It may still break down within the next few months because it’s been stored unused for many years so you’re kind of “breaking it in” and weeding out any components that will break down soon.

That television is a real work of art and this was fascinating to watch from a tech restoration point of view.

This is amazing! The panel light reflection just makes it. Edit: (a scene in) Susan's last episode! There's the bit with the bomb and omg I haven't watched that in ages! The fact that you get such gorgeous picture quality is astonishing.

Lovely TV, great idea!

Hi Josh I am big fan of your RU-vid channel and videos my favourite video of user is your minsing episode series

Amazing! I want to do exactly the same thing. Worth ever penny I think 😉

Wow Josh, i've been watching lots of your videos and making sure i like them, this young Sir is a real nod to your enthusiasm for Classic Who, i doff my cap , never give up. Regards Roger in the UK.

Follow Josh that is awesome congratulations! I would love to be able to have the same experience myself. I’ve always dreamed of something like this. I’m a big sucker for things being viewed in the way they were intended. Unfortunately I am in a wheelchair and I live in a very small space so I would just be scared of even if I could find and then find the money to restore one of these I wouldn’t have the space for it where I wouldn’t be afraid that I would accidentally bump into it and damage it all over again. I can’t wait to live vicariously through you, though this is just very very cool!

wow Josh, I'm so pleased for you that you got something you really wanted, so you can watch doctor who in all its glory, and its nice to see you got something so nostalgic, restored and working and doctor who ready. also I think the best doctor who storys come from doctors 1 and 2, even my favourite is 4th doctor. but i've been following you for a long time now and I think all your work that you do is sublime and look forward to what your doing next. greetings from newcastle, england

I’m surprised there would be tons of people who’d love to restore it for you!!😊

Nice one! Such a brilliant idea and well worth the outlay for it. Perfect way to watch vintage Who! I'm mightily impressed 😁👍

I have a c. 1969 ITT set, its currently unmodified and the only socket is for a standard Belling-Lee connector so I have to feed everything through a UHF modulator. But you've inspired me and I'll see if I can get other sockets fitted.

Such talent mate. Keep up the great work and a huge thank you for posting such awesome videos.

What a lovely thing! Seems great value for something so special