Hinari were set up by Brian Palmer, who is still active in the market. After Hinari were sold on to Alba/Harvard, he set up Akura, who continued a few of the Hinari lines (such as the little 10" sets). Pretty sure both Hinari and Akura had assembly lines in Scotland (possibly the same premises? I believe they assembled TVs, and VCRs from Shintom kits there). The VCRs were a little-known gem, as Shintom were a Japanese company who made some very reliable gear, including mechanisms for Sony. Despite this they were the cheapest machines on the market by a good 10-20% around 1994-6. More recently Palmer is now the owner of Cello, the Bishop Auckland-based assembler of LCD TVs (initially from HiSense kits, more recently from Tongfang - you'll note these TVs are essentially identical to the Seiki ones screwed together in South Wales in the old Orion factory). To be fair these Cello sets continue the tradition - I've bought a few of them (I only live a few miles from the Cello factory) and although their performance is mediocre they don't give much trouble IME.

@TheMrMarkW

7 ай бұрын

The Cello group seem to have found a good niche in the market for 12V/24V TV's for Motor Homes / Caravans & Boats - almost everyone I know with a camper has a Cello TV. Also, he bought the Ferguson brand name now, so if you see any modern Ferguson TV's they're actually Cello models.

@jasejj

7 ай бұрын

@@TheMrMarkW Indeed, two of the four sets I've bought direct from them have been the 12" models specifically because I was asked by friends who have caravans etc (they allow pickup direct from their factory site). I guess this is a continuation of the 10" portable line he had in the 1980s, which were also 12v and I suspect filled a similar niche.

@interstat2222

6 ай бұрын

Don't think Cello is using Tongfang anymore. Most recent ones are from (I believe) Shenzhen MTC or HKC (MTC and/or HKC makes non-Vestel 'Logik' and 'JVC' stuff for Currys and parts of Sharp's TVs, although Sharp sometimes uses better quality customisation).

@jasejj

6 ай бұрын

@@interstat2222 Yeah I think you're right. Those JVC sets I thought were made by Konka because they used the same boards as the couple of sets I knew to be made by Konka, however I now know they're MTC as mentioned and they do look to be the same as the Cello ones - although I think it may be the case that the Tongfang sets themselves may well be using these MTC kits as well now. I have also noted the Sharp similarities as well. So it would appear that Sharp, Konka, Cello and Tongfang are buying (at least some) main boards in from MTC. Chinese manufacturing methods are confusing at the best of times - lots of subcontracting all over the place. Hisense seem to be using Haier main-boards from what I've seen as well (or possibly the other way around, or even a third company - initials "TP"?). Oh for the days (1980s) when a Panasonic TV had a Panasonic tube and a Panasonic board, ICs, caps, even plastics. Fundamentally that was why the Japanese stuff was so high quality - complete vertical control of part supply.

@interstat2222

6 ай бұрын

@@jasejj Maybe it's because most Chinese companies are connected/state owned so there is a lot of connection (a bit like Japan back in the day in some ways!). Hisense isn't connected to Haier - they're rivals. Haier is MTC's main partner. When Sharp was sold to UMC, they moved everything to the MTC model (seem to have been reliable if unremarkable) and HKC I believe (unsure about them, also known for its own brand which it sells direct to consumer) and now they have the brand back I see minor changes like better panels being used by Sharp. Hisense builds everything itself, just like TCL (TCL is building for Panasonic's upper models now and the Amazon branded TVs). They are copying the old Japanese playbook to stay competitive doing as much in house as possible - TCL even makes its own panels. Vestel is the same if you think about it! Sony (apart from one TPV-made model that I think was mainly due to the pandemic) is still doing almost everything to its own spec or with its own boards even if Foxconn is its factory. That quality (and relatively low sales) is probably why their TV is so much more expensive than the competition. I only ever knew Panasonics with Philips tubes from the late 90s+. And then there were the Daewoo Panasonic portables 20 years ago!

Thanks for the video and memory! I seem to recall first repairing Hinari colour portables in around 1984/85. They had white plastic cabinets with rounded corners and chrome plastic (fake chromium) buttons. I seem to recall the chassis were a previous generation Hitachi built under licence. This must have been long before the baby 10's and squared off black cabinets. Although I also recall repairing the first Samsung and Goldstar 17 and 20 inch Monochrome sets in around 1982/83. They looked like American TV's with a VHF & UHF tuning dials / controls.

@michaeldranfield7140

5 ай бұрын

The sunrise was the most popular set in the 80s with its LOPT failure , I do remember the first Samsung and Goldstar set that came to the UK , they were a bit crappy first but soon got there act together and produced some good stuff.

Thank you for sharing this video with us. I wish I could walk in to an electronics shop today and buy some of the items from that catalogue! Today the town where I live doesn't even have a shop that sells purely electronic goods....

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

If only we could turn the clock back to the days of government surplus shops and as you say proper electronic shops .

The Hinari head office was located about a mile from my house in Cumbernauld near Glasgow. I passed the building nearly every day on my way to work. The building is still there but Hinari are long gone. I'm sure I owned a Hinari VCR in the past and I may still have the original box for it in the attic.

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

Yes , there were quite a few Hinari branded videos , even better if you have one in the orig box .

I remember the Hinari CT4 , with the replacement LOPT with the bit of print pre attached to it, to make it fit . I have a friend who is still in the trade who I'm sure worked at one point for Hinari. Possibly through Charles Hyde . Great video. Also the Baby 10 with the big regulator change , then the moddded regulator..Great days ..

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

Thats the one , a little square PCB so you could fit a different part number LOPT , all easy money makers back in the day .

Hello Mike, I really loved the Hinari VXL2 video recorder. I'm sure it was sourced from Orion. It also appeared as the Amstrad 7000 & the Saisho VR705.(£329)...they were top loaders. They did a front loader which could have been the VXL3, but certainly appeared as the Saisho VR805 which was just as good (£319). I recall quite a few Sharp parts within. I also loved the earlier Sharp VCR's. I always feel VCR's went downhill post 1987....along with the picture quality. Overseas viewers note that I'm in the UK & talking 625 line PAL. When HQ was introduced I think cheaper parts & more processing dragged down the picture quality......a bit like adding Dolby as a cassette cdeck feature & then putting in cheaper noisier transistors; I well remember a disappointing Hitachi cassette deck where they'd done that. Out of all my electronics training, I did more college based training on VCR's than anything else. Well that turned out to be a waste of time! Richard, G0OJF, UK

@richarddavey9547

7 ай бұрын

I had ( still got in loft) a Ferguson videostar 3v43 stereo and the picture on that was loads better quality than any of the more modern machines I had from Panasonic/ Sony , remember showing an engineer using the beginning of James Bonds Golden eye the superior picture on the Ferguson, the Panasonic wasn't even close NV6060 Nicam .

@jasejj

7 ай бұрын

I didn't see any of the Hinari VCRs however it's possible that at least some of them were assembled by Hinari using Shintom kits, as this is what Akura (a later iteration of Hinari) were doing. But Orion (or even Funai, who also used Shintom prior to 1993) possible as well.

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

Hi Richard, I know the videos you mean , I still have all the service manuals and some spare parts , the reel idler was indeed a sharp part and if my memory serves me correct the part number was NIDL0005GEZZ , I know exactly what you mean about quality , I had a panasonic NV370 and sold it to buy a long play samsung and the picture quality was terrible compared to the Panasonic , I too was a big fan of Sharp and went on to be a sharp dealer , the VCA was about the last quality sharp machines made and after that quality dropped dramatically but then so did the price , interesting you should mention sharp as I have here a very rare early sharp video which I am planning a video on in the future , a Sharp VC6300 with wired remote, I did enjoy my time doing video and made good money at the time .

@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21

7 ай бұрын

@@michaeldranfield7140 I've two early huge Sharp machines & think they are the VC7000 buy may be wrong. Really big & heavy. They did an optional plug in wireless remote receiver. I never had that, but did have a customer with one at the time. No, I never saw a VC6300. I'm sure the head drum in my VC7000 series ones is gold plated! Richard

i repaired hundreds of these in my shop in leeds..Looking at that diagram brought back loads of memories..

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

and I wouldn't mind betting most of those needed a new LOPT !

@philliphaley1241

7 ай бұрын

Yep the Lopts were usually faulty...but with the Thorn The main culprets were the Tripler,EW,Frame and tube@@michaeldranfield7140

I can well remember the boom in the demand for 14" CTV's and all the various brands that appered to fill the gap that the major brands struggled to supply. Many of them were just rebadged orion sets, but they kept us in work for a few years, at least there were no failing LED backlights to curse at!

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

too right , in the earley days colour portable sets were is such big demand I sold refurbished ones for £89 , a lot of money back then .

I had a 14 inch Hinari which was fairly basic - electronic tuning, no remote or earphone socket. My grandmother had the larger 19 or 20 inch version which was also basic but came with a self-assembly table, and that replaced a venerable old Sony Trinitron from the early 70s. That was in the late 1980s. In the late 90s I ended up inheriting my gran's TV which developed the same problem I had got rid of mine for, namely that it would shut down and restart randomly. I always assumed Hinaris were made in Korea, can't remember where these two were bought from but my grandmother did have a retired Co-op employee's discount card. Were these sold in the Co-Op when it still had department stores?

@richarddavey9547

7 ай бұрын

Yes remember seeing Hinari item's in our large Co op store, like Hinari now long gone.

It's a name where I know far more about the insides of them than the outsides!

Tried to forget it.

Yes I remember Hinari, although I'd always thought they were a house brand of Dixons, Currys or Rumbelows. I didn't know they sold to independent retailers. A friend bought some Hinari small audio kit - a compact midi system. The radio was PLL, with LCD display. I tested out the short wave reception and it was quite good! Good to see a well laid out and labelled circuit diagram. Are there helpful details silkscreen printed on the Hinari PCBs?

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

They may have been sold alongside sashio and matsui in currys dixons but Hinari was an independent brand , from memory I think the top pcb was silkscreened printed, one of the worst sets I ever came across for having no pcb markings was the Fidelity ZX3000 chassis .

Hinari used to see lots in the 90s the VCRs were very popular maybe made by Orian i still have one of the LOPT kits. good old days when you could still make money

Yes I remember Hinari. I worked for Visionhire for years in Helensburgh Scotland branch. Very reliable sets. I actually rented at discount a 20” set. Never had to take the back off once.

@triodehexode

7 ай бұрын

I didn't know there was a shortage of portables around that time. That's probably why we built (assembled ) Akura branded 14 inch and 10 inch portables in the old Westclox factory in the early 90s for a year or so. Think it got round some EU laws as well.

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

massive shortage back in the mid 80 s , earley 90 s , I was selling refurbished ones at £89 and couldn't get enough.@@triodehexode

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

Hinari is a brand name that has not yet been resurrected like some other names , apart from the LOPT these were good sets .

I still have a brand new metal regulator for one of their portable TVs. We used to come across them on repair contracts from Boots , Freemans and , Gratan mail order warranty repairs.

@glpilpi6209

7 ай бұрын

If memory serves the Sunrise had a low voltage transformer that had a thermal fuse in it that made it fail.

I remember Hinari, but forget that, I also have that briefcase! And similar photos from the 1980's with TV's and VCR's for sale. Nice to go back and dream

I'd tried to forget Hinari and thought I'd succeeded until this video... *shudder*

Our first microwave was a Hinari. We got a special deal on it because we rented TV equipment from MultiBroadcast.

Great video, i owned a few Hinari item's 14"CT5 , Original Sunrise (had a glass plate over the screen) also VXL6 vhs twin speed video recorder wasn't bad stuff to be fair.

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

Thats the one I remember with the glass plate and the square buttons on the front .

@richarddavey9547

7 ай бұрын

@@michaeldranfield7140 yes that's the one, there was one on eBay few weeks ago still working.

I lived in Dubai in the 70's-90's, and back then the market for electronics bloomed tremendoulsy and as everywhere else we got real quality stuff.🌼 However, I can't remember having seen this 'Hinari' brand, but the Japanese🗾 marketing was specific and they would have exported this brand to certain countries only. ⛩

@jasejj

7 ай бұрын

Hinari was a British company, it just had a Japanese sounding name to capitalise on the reputation the real Japanese stuff had at that time. I doubt they would have been sold outside Europe - UK only I'd have thought. It's interesting isn't it that no-one tries to make their stuff "sound Chinese" 😂

I do worked for TV rental company who used the vxl 4,5,6 and microwave ovens plus a tv/video combo plus portable's and hifi all crap but what would you expect for the price

I remember Hinari TVs and VCRs from the 1990s. I always thought it was a house brand of Dixons, Currys, or Comet,. That was made to sound Japanese, like the Matsui and Saisho house brands of Dixons and Currys. Were their TVs and VCRs made by Funai?

@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21

7 ай бұрын

Dixons Sasho brand & Curry's Matsui brand were multiple-sourced. There were some great VCR's sourced from Orion....and some awful ones from Funai.

@interstat2222

6 ай бұрын

Most DSG (Currys) VCRs were Orion and then they later used Thomson/Daewoo (Daewoo bought old Thomson UK factory). Remember the ProLine brand using that around 2000. CRT TVs almost always Vestel and that Hong Kong brand I forget the name of that also made Alba TVs in the mid 90s. Funai made VCRs for many companies at end of VHS era... Argos, Hitachi and Philips.

Thanks Michael for the blast from the past, weren’t they sold to Alba ? I had a twin cassette player 😊

@michaeldranfield7140

7 ай бұрын

I dont actually know but so far the brand has not been resurrected like some , Luxor, Ferguson ETC.

@wisher21uk

7 ай бұрын

@@michaeldranfield7140 can’t say I have seen the name anywhere have a lovely Christmas all the best

This man speaks with a scouse accent. He was clearly born and bred in the Merseyside area. A

Yes I remember Hinari were they importers from Scotland ? , plenty of secondary brands at that time Nikkai , NEI , Huanyu , Minoka , Harwood , Akura , and even Okishi ( which were OK ish ) to name a few I remember

@jasejj

7 ай бұрын

NEI we're actually a proper manufacturer, based in Bradford. They were still making TVs as late as 1997. Hinari were Scottish yes.

I remember the Hinari microwave ovens from the school cooking room. We had some REALLY ancient stuff in there. I don't know how it kept going with kids constantly using it

@mikereddroppe9250

7 ай бұрын

Still using my 1990 hinari microwave from Christmas day looks clean and no problem I believe it came from argos we cooked a Christmas pud in 2 minutes

@lukedavis436

7 ай бұрын

@@mikereddroppe9250 must have been well looked after, you don't get that everyday

@interstat2222

6 ай бұрын

Think the microwaves were made by Goldstar (aka LG). Always reliable in my experience.

We used to sell Solavox and Huanyu TVs. As far as quality goes the Solavox actually weren't that bad compared to some of the higher price brands

Happy Xmas M D

Power IC and LOPT used to go alot better than Amstrad TV s at least

Yes, they were a Curry's PLC brand

Michael no need to make apologies A few mistakes makes it real🤗

Had one of their microwaves for about 15 years maybe longer.

If the shortage had been in todays world it would of been because somebody said don’t panic we have enough 14” tv’s and the public goes and snaps up every 14” going 😂

Hinari another cheap brand, might still have a few service manuals burridd somewher.