ATSC Portable TV? (Portable Primary Power Pack Update!)

I am updating my emergency equipment at home. I was wondering if anyone knows of a good portable, battery (preferably primaries) powered TV. I guess the standard needs to be ATSC, for the digital signals, as there will be no more analog signal as of February. However I have been reading that the ATSC standard will not work,or will not work well with potrable TV. I'm a bit in the dark about this, assuming I can find a TV that is portable, digital, and runs on primaries will it still work after the transtition day? Please help me clarify this.:sigh:
Any suggestions for good TV picks are also welcome.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

The only solution I know of is bringing a digital converter box and plugging it in your car's cigarette lighter. Oh, and an antenna. This is honestly the best method I can come up with.

It's unfortunate but the advent of digital tv, along with iPods, iPhones and other portable technologies ultimately killed the portable tv. If they make a portable tv that accepts ATSC signals then that'd be awesome, but I've only seen a downward trend in portable tv manufacturing (along with other "older" personal electronics).

I have an old Sega Game Gear with the TV Tuner. It was every boy's dream come true when it came out. Now I can't use it anymore.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

Thanks Dudemar, yeah, it's a real bummer. This is the best I've been able to come up with so far.:sick2:
http://reviews.cnet.com/tv-hdtv-tun...dt09a/4505-6487_7-33280760.html?tag=mncol;txt
With this, some rabbit ears and a cheapo crt analog TV I can run this combo off of around 12-16 C and D primaries. But primaries none the less. So I guess it's a net gain?:thinking::sigh:
I'm thinking about grabbing one of the cheaper LCD ATSC portables that run on 7.4v lipo and perhaps either trying to run it with 6v or 9v (with a resistor) of CR123. I wonder what the current draw is like though.
I should probably check to see if I can even get the digital channels where I am.:candle:

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

My solution was to buy a USB HDTV "Stick" that plugs into a USB slot on a laptop. It even includes an external antenna and with a built-in preamp.

Works. But the laptop has to be fairly "high" end. The decoding is done in software (at least in my model)..

But, completely portable and you have a laptop - to boot!

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

I seen to recall there was a ATSC convertor box that ran off 12vdc and 120v also... should run off 8 to 10 batteries or a 12v pack. I wish I could recall the model but it *may* be coupon eligible?
It may have only had a 12vdc input jack and no battery holders.....

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

Closet_Flashaholic said:

My solution was to buy a USB HDTV "Stick" that plugs into a USB slot on a laptop. It even includes an external antenna and with a built-in preamp.

Works. But the laptop has to be fairly "high" end. The decoding is done in software (at least in my model)..

But, completely portable and you have a laptop - to boot!

Click to expand...

I'm aware there is an option to do that. It doesn't fit my needs though. The main priority is that the device is able to run on non-rechargeable alkaline batteries or possibly lithium primaries. In case the proverbial poo hits the windmill, there may not be power for a while, and running a genny would attract too much attention.

Lynx_Arc said:

I seen to recall there was a ATSC convertor box that ran off 12vdc and 120v also... should run off 8 to 10 batteries or a 12v pack. I wish I could recall the model but it *may* be coupon eligible?
It may have only had a 12vdc input jack and no battery holders.....

Click to expand...

Thanks Lynx, I found something to that effect, so that remains an option. From what I've heard it seems that the funding for the coupons has run out or the availability has become much slimmer.
I picked up a cheapo "supersonic" brand portable with digital tuning. Supposedly it has an optional external battery pack. I haven't been able to find the pack for sale, but It should have specs in the manual. I'm guessing because the TV is so cheap the pack is Ni-mh rather than lithium polymer, So hopefully the required voltage will be easy to replicate.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

yeah the coupon holdup is a pita for sure..... I am waiting for coupons to get a box right now and I have 3 tv sets here that need boxes and all three have recorders too which means when recording if you don't have another box you cannot watch any other channel come feb.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

I had thought about situations where AC would not be available but I did find a converter box that could be used with batteries.

http://www.winegarddirect.com/viewitem.asp?p=WDRC-DT09A

I did a quick review in a separate thread.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/219452

You have to buy the battery holder separately from the manufacturer though. The battery holder is made for 6 "D" sized batteries but I figured most would want something smaller to keep the portability. I tried a 9 volt battery which only lasted 10 minutes but I believe you can also easily fashion an AA battery pack using a few parts from Radio Shack

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

I would consider what power source you are going to run the tv set from battery wise and then maybe just use a regulator circuit to drop that to 9v. If your tv uses 12v then you could power both items from the same battery.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

This is the TV I picked up.
http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Supersonic-SC-193A-Digtal-TV-ATSC-Tuner/3444888/product.html
The pack actually turned out to be li-ion

It's downstairs, but if I remember the voltage required for the external pack is 7.4-10v I'm going to try 6d batteries, if that doesn't work I may try 7 cells or a 6s2p setup. Right now it doesn't pick up any channels though even with an external antenna. So I'm going to wait until the feb17th transition. If it still doesn't pick anything up, I won't waste the effort. I admit, I'm lazy.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

yuandrew said:

I had thought about situations where AC would not be available but I did find a converter box that could be used with batteries.

http://www.winegarddirect.com/viewitem.asp?p=WDRC-DT09A

I did a quick review in a separate thread.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/219452

You have to buy the battery holder separately from the manufacturer though. The battery holder is made for 6 "D" sized batteries but I figured most would want something smaller to keep the portability. I tried a 9 volt battery which only lasted 10 minutes but I believe you can also easily fashion an AA battery pack using a few parts from Radio Shack

Click to expand...

I may have to try the 9v thing. Thanks:twothumbs

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

It surely is a bummer for the portable tvs. I have a little casio pocket tv that I've used for years. Now, I'll have to figure out something else to use. I have seen a couple dual antenna digital tvs being tested, but I've seen nothing for us that already own a pocket tv. Looks like we'll have to shell out some bucks, and probably have to wait a while. I use my tv several times a week, so it is gonna be sorely missed. Hope the digital thing is worth the fuss. We'll know pretty soon.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

what about radios with tv bands..... probably won't get a thing on them in most cities soon. What I am majorly upset at is the DTV coupon bit I sent off for some and they ran out of money for them so I may have to make the decision to put that extra $50 into a tv or towards a box and keep my old set instead of $10 plus a $40 coupon.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

The basic problem is that the current generations of ATSC chipsets require a lot of current, not compatible with decent runtimes on battery power. It's the same reason why there aren't a lot of portable HD-radios out there yet.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

Lynx_Arc said:

what about radios with tv bands..... probably won't get a thing on them in most cities soon. What I am majorly upset at is the DTV coupon bit I sent off for some and they ran out of money for them so I may have to make the decision to put that extra $50 into a tv or towards a box and keep my old set instead of $10 plus a $40 coupon.

Click to expand...

One of the reasons they may have ran out of money, is because there must be some kind of flaw in the their program. I got my first two, then a couple weeks later I received two more. I only sent in for my two. I was under the impression that two per household was the norm.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

Lynx_Arc said:

what about radios with tv bands..... probably won't get a thing on them in most cities soon. What I am majorly upset at is the DTV coupon bit I sent off for some and they ran out of money for them so I may have to make the decision to put that extra $50 into a tv or towards a box and keep my old set instead of $10 plus a $40 coupon.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, uhf/vhf will be toast.

PhotonWrangler said:

The basic problem is that the current generations of ATSC chipsets require a lot of current, not compatible with decent runtimes on battery power. It's the same reason why there aren't a lot of portable HD-radios out there yet.

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Yeah even with low current requirements of an lcd screen it seems most need about six volts at one amp.:green:
Hopefully in the future someone will see the need to produce one that runs on lithium primary.
I also wouldn't mind seeing a lithium primary powered cell phone for emergency use.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

I am hoping LCD portables will switch to LED backlights in the future and use the latest efficient ones instead of CCFLs which are perhaps 40-50lumens/watt.... LEDs could be 150lumens per watt and easily dimmable saving more power so that 1 amp would be lowered to maybe 600ma or less. It is quite possible that the ATSC tuners would one day get so cheap that the dvd portables will have them by default because it would only be $5 more.
By that time though it is possible digital tv would be defeated by IPTV or internet television. they could have special internet server connections for TV use only available and then all portable tv sets would be hooked up to a webbrowser type tv instead of channels. replace the tuner with a computer chip and ram and wifi instead.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

Gah, no kidding. I just cant win.
"Dam U Technology!":sick2:

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

As we resolved in Yuandrew's previously noted thread, you could use the battery-powered converter box hooked up to a pair of portable speakers, presto, TV audio. That particular box appears to save your channel settings, so you could initially hook it up to a TV/monitor to set channels, and then it's ready to go.

Re: ATSC Portable TV?

Lynx_Arc said:

yeah the coupon holdup is a pita for sure..... I am waiting for coupons to get a box right now and I have 3 tv sets here that need boxes and all three have recorders too which means when recording if you don't have another box you cannot watch any other channel come feb.

Click to expand...

We're in the same boat here. I signed up for two coupons for our three TV's (all with VCR's attached) a week or two before the announcement saying that funding had run out. If worse comes to worse, I'll pay full price for a converter box the week before the switch if my coupons don't come in (and if I can still find one for sale).

I've considered getting a smaller LCD/HDTV and using that for awhile, but I work evenings/nights, and record about half of what I watch, and none of the new digital TV's that I've seen have a pass-through to record via a VCR (we don't have cable or Tivo or anything like that).