Portable DIGITAL Television - Page 6

I can't find the RC-DT09A Wingard converter box on solidsignal.com either, and that is who I bought mine from.
I think if you can get it from Amazon.com, go ahead and get one... That would be my advice.

Hmm. Thanks...I may just do that. I was going to wait a little while until I had the extra $$ to get one, but now I think if I wait too long I won't find any at all....

Ah well, it's not that expensive anyway, so I'm going to just invest in one now rather than be sorry later!

DGK

So did they turn off analog over the air TV (NTSC) in Feb 2009 US wide like they said? I heard that they might delay that but I wouldn't know because I use a cable box only.

Yes and no.
The transition date was moved back to 6-12-09, however,

421 stations did indeed cease analog broadcasing on 2-17-09 or before..

158 more will cease analog broadcasting prior to 6-12-09

927 will continue analog broadcasting to the end date of 6-12-09.

It will turn out to be more of a phased in approach rather than one mass turn-off.

Thanks.

Before we had cable down the shore, we used a really little Black and White TV. It was about as long as a computer case, half as tall as a DVD box (probably a 4' picture) and took at least 6 D batteries. I wish we still had it so I could post a picture, but I think we through it out years ago.

does the description sound familair to anyone? I'd like to know more about it's history . It was also all white in color.

Around the same time, I also loved my little color portable TV. An even smaller screen, about 2.5" but it was great to watch Price is Right with during school lunch hours .

^ I have a little 4" or 5" B&W TV, that I guess no longer works because NTSC is dead or soon dead (although I think it has a composite video monitor input so it could work with other stuff)

Action also called Axcion? ACN-3507, 8 D cells I think or AC cord

HELP!

IN NEED OF A SMALL DIGITAL TV!

Ive been looking at the Haier 7", not sure if its what i want. Im also looking at the [url]New Image Digatal7", the resolution is 1440(H)x234(V).. that's really good! It also it comes with a "battery box" that runs off of AA batteries, thats nice you dont have to plug it in.. Does the Haier or any other brands have this option? Please advise!

Actually having studied this for over a decade I can warn you that's the most common resolution for 7 inch LCD TV's and it is not very good. That 1440 figure is an artificially inflated value which they come to by multiplying the actual white pixel count of 480 by three (because they are counting the individual sub-pixels of red, green, and blue). The TV's actual resolution is 234 x 480 which is inferior to even standard definition TV which in wide-screen form is 480 x 854 if using square pixels. This resolution is so poor in fact one has trouble reading the credits at the end of a movie. 8 inch and 10 inch LCD panels are usually much better and at least get you true SD quality or close to it.

I wasn't sure if I should have started a new thread or not, but here is more information on a portable digital television.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12261_7...ag=mncol;posts

Cool. I'd read about these before, I think. Thanks for the link!

DGK

It will still work just fine when hooked to a digital converter box. I have set this kind of system up for emergency use during hurricane season. Works just great! Not the most up to date set up, but for less than $50 for a complete functioning battery powered emergency TV, it will serve the purpose.

The good news is that you don't have to go out and buy a new battery powered portable digital television.

The bad news is that you don't have an excuse to go out and buy a new battery powered portable digital television...

LOL! I ended up giving in and doing the latter, and I do like the one I chose. I wish the reception here was better, though, but there's no moving mountains... (at least not in human terms)...

DGK

Living in Iowa, where severe weather is frequent, I'm trying to figure out the best solution for when the power goes out, after the digital switch, to be able to receive TV.

I'd still say that the 7in Haier portable digital TV is a good deal. Now I see that Radio Shack sells them. I got mine several months ago and it's a nice TV; it's battery operated, has a DC adapter, and comes with a car adapter also so if your power is out, you can still use it or re-charge it that way. You can also hook it up to cable as it's got a coax input, and antenna-in connection --

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=3324197

They also have this model but I don't know anything about them --

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2855063

If you've got an older portable battery-operated TV there's always the Wingard converter box that has battery backup. I'm not sure who carries them anymore, though...Amazon did but now I see they are "unavailable".

Target also has a Venturer converter box that works with the same battery pack that the Wingard (above) uses, but they are VERY hard to find in stores and you can't get them online, so...

Good luck with whatever you choose!
DGK

Like many of you I've been looking for an power outage solution and the new LCD ATSC TV's look promising except for the lack of replaceable batteries - ideally D cells for me. Since most of them come with 12 volt auto power cords, this looks like an acceptable solution for me.

http://www.alwaysbrilliant.com/aa/as...Power-Pack.htm

(from their description)
Handy portable power pack .
For use with fans, portable spot lights, GPS, VHF, cell phone, fish finder & more.
Any other 12 volt product drawing up to 5 amps.
Holds 8 "D" cell batteries (not included), with a built-in battery tester and shoulder strap.
Waterproof. Great for boating & camping.

You will pay a lot more for convenience of something requiring AA C or D cells rechargeable or not than just buying a sealed lead acid 12 volt battery from 22$ and having the know how how to charge it from your vehicle.

It can also be used to jump start a vehicle. Try that with 10 D cell batteries in series.

You could buy one female cigarette lighter adapter and hardwire it to the battery and then get a male adapter and wire another male adapter to it so charging it is as simple as plugging in two plugs.

The sealed lead acid battery will not only last much longer per charge, it will also outlive any rechargeable AA C or D batteries which will find their toxic way into a landfill because most people cannot be inconvenienced in this day and age to recycle them properly. At least in most states a lead acid battery is easily recycled anywhere that sells batteries, and might even be worth a few bucks.

I have the LCDdigital ATSC7. With it's included battery pack (10 rechargeable aa batts) I've gotten up to 2.5 hours of run time.

I have a 9 year old abused 12 volt sla battery from a jumper pack rated at 12 amp hours. It measures about 3x4x5 inches. It powered the TV and some small external speakers for 9 hours and was still going when I plugged it back into my vehicle.

http://www.batterywholesale.com/batt...ml?prodID=5050

This is essentially similar to a motorcycle battery and can be bought in most autopart stores.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...9&classNum=316

West marine is about the most expensive place for something of this manner. I posted it so you can see it for reference. Something could be built easily for less than half that price. I will gladly provide info on how to do so.

Thanks for the link. I think I'd prefer something simple like this, rather than messing with a 12 volt battery...with my luck, I'd probably blow myself and/or the battery up.

DGK

Okay, I sometimes forget how little I knew about batteries and dc electrical systems just a few years ago.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38391
Here is a link to a very useful multi use product which will power a portable TV for far longer than anything with even the best quality 'D' cell batteries.
It comes with a cigarette style plug built in.

This jumper pack has a 17 amp hour battery. If your TV as rated at 15 watts, it would power your TV for 17 hours. 8 or 10 D batteries would power the same TV for maybee half of that. How much do 10 D duracells cost?

It is rechargeable by plugging it into your wall outlet, or by hooking it up to your vehicle's battery with or without the vehicle running. Though with is faster and safer if your car's battery is more than 2 years old.

It can jump start your vehicle safely and easily when fully charged.
Some different versions come with an inverter which will power a lot of low power appliances you plug into the wall.

If indeed you are looking for a power source for emergency situation, this product or similar products are far far superior than using multiple disposable d cell batteries.

Now my previous posts on batteries and connectors were basically ways on how you could achieve the same thing as the above product as well as save some money and be more environmentally conscious, if you have some basic wiring skills.

The posted product above is an idiot proof (no offense intended) slightly more expensive way of making sure you have enough electricity to power your tv or your car cell phone charger throughout an emergency without stockpiling toxic expensive disposable batteries.

Thanks, landyacht....that's more my speed.

DGK

Hi! I'm new here and also was looking for a portable digital tv that I could take anywhere, ie run off AA batteries. Check out:
New Image Digital (i can't post the link, don't have 3 posts yet but you can find them on amazon too, or their name.com)
i bought mine off amazon, I found them through radioshacks website, there was a review about someone who bought theirs after a bad experience with radioshacks. There's a couple of reviews, mostly on amazon. it was a great deal for the buck, with the AA battery pack, car charger, home charger, connector cables (in case i can ever figure out how to connect my son's games to it!), a stand, remote, everything. Thanks for all the suggestions on here! I figured i'd ad mine

Here are some URLs


http://www.newimagedigital.com/products.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...2080171&sr=8-1

Good grief, Did you see the prices on their Extended use optional batteries?

Their 12 hour battery, rated at 22 amp hours for 99$ !!
You can find a similar capacity sealed battery for less than half that, and the harbour freight jumper Packs have very similar batteries with a charger and cigarette plug and jumper cables and a light for little over half that. I think they are on special right now.

FWIW, I have an old abused 12 amp hour sealed battery that ran my tv and a pair of walkman amplified speakers for at least 9 hours IIRC. Most vehicle batteries are rated at 80 amp hours, the largest at 115 amp hours.

The TV looks like a nice unit though. I'd like to do a comparison with my LCDDIGITAL on tuner sensitivity.

I didn't even read all of the posts. You got them coming out everywhere!

I don't know if the tuners you buy for your analog TV run on AC adapters or directly from AC line. I woudl guess you can find both. In that case you're set if you can get one that runs from AC adapters just make a battery pack and run both TV and digital tuner to analog converter box from a battery pack. You might need an old but good 60 amp hour 12 volt battery .. With luck the ac input will be 12 volts DC ! Heck that would work in the car. But that's my opinion. and let us know what you find 'cause I'll be checking back.

I have an er.rtf file. That means, Expecting Reply .rtf. When I post or read a
note where I 'Expect a Reply' I put it there in that file and check it occasioally.

So you're in my list. I hope you'll own up to you responsibilities and keep us informed!

Andre

I know there are digital to analog converter boxes that run on 12 volts, and there are probably some others which have power bricks which will convert 120 volt AC to a lower DC voltage but I have not researched this matter.

I was considering it to use my old tv and a converter box, but I wanted a 16:9 format over the 4:3 former standard. I wanted a remote which could control volume and everything else.

It was my opinion and choice to buy a LCD portable that had the ATSC tuner built in, when I found a 12 volt one it was moved to the top of the List.

My new TV uses half the electricity of my Smaller screened CRT TV, and Gets both analog and digital channels. I imagine if I had to power a 12 volt converter box in addition to my old TV, my electrical Usage would be nearly 3 times what I use now to watch TV.

So although there are a multitude of options to power your old analog portable TV and a converter box to receive the future digital only signals, for me the cleanest option was a new ATSC TV.

As I stated on previous posts. If your wanting a portable TV for emergencies it's best to be able to use 12 volts and your vehicles charging system to keep you informed during extended power outages.
Stockpiling D cell or AA batteries is IMO a foolish and convienently wasteful method. Since almost all the portable sized TV's come with car cord adapters, the 12 volt Jumper pack in my post above is the easiest, best longest lasting solution.

They also make the jumper packs commonly called portable power stations that have An inverter included with the Battery.

http://www.blackanddecker.com/Produc...Path=4033.4034

This inverter will power all 120 volt AC converter boxes, and the carcord can power the Tv. The battery can be recharged by the wall power or hooking the jumper cables to a vehicles battery and running the vehicle.

It should also be stated that any style of 12 volt battery/ automobile starting battery/ jumper pack/ portable power station should always be kept fully charged. If you run the battery down and do not recharge it right away, In six months when you do goto recharge it, it will not have much capacity left. The instructions will say to recharge monthly even if unused.

I'm possess absolutely NO electronics smarts whatsoever, so please forgive me if this is a really dumb question!!!

I recently purchased a small tv, that I thought would take batteries, but turns out it doesn't. I'm looking for one that I can use when we lose power.... especially during storms (I live right in the middle of tornado allery!).

So, I have a lithium ion rechargeable battery from a DVD player that we never use anymore. On the little tv, it says, "DC in 12V." On the DVD player, it says, "carplug 12V, DC in 9V." Can I use the battery pack with my tv, or will I end up blowing something up???

OR should I just take this one back and go find an actual battery operated portable tv? And if so, what is the best and most affordable one I can get? I really prefer one that I can use regular batteries with, do they make those anymore???

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...specifications

At that price you get no batt pack, no tuner, and no remote. I guess people who need these special SDI inputs and top quality are willing to spend a little extra!

I think your DVD player takes only nine volts. The car plug (ciggarette style plug)it must have come with has a dc to dc converter taking your car's 12 volt system and reducing it to 9 volts DC for the DVD player.

That also probably means the DVD player's battery is only 9 volts DC . So that will not power your 12 volt DC tv.

Did your TV come with a car cord cigarrette style plug?
If so one of the products I posted links to in my above posts will work beautifully with your TV, assuming it is a digital TV with an ATSC tuner.

Prism 7" portable on sale at Office Depot for $90 starting Sunday... item 244-342.

Can't find much info on it though...

That same model is $99 at CVS.



I'd go to Office Depot, but they have no stores around here, and the shipping will eat into the $10 savings for both OfficeDepot.com and CVS.com (which also chips $10 off when you order online.

Any thoughts on this? It looks like a Haier from the button configuration.