Pocket Digital TV

[reelman1968]

I have an old LCD Optimus color TV. It does work, but with no analog tv signals anymore It just sits around. Do they Make Pocket LCD tv's With digital Tuners? . I would love to have one if they do.

[compucat]

There are some pocket digital sets made but I am not sure about the quality of them. None of the major brands put out portable digital TVs that I have found. The portables that do exist are by Chinese companies that were previously unknown. I have had experience with two of the 7" digital portables and was ultimately disapointed with the build quality and reliability of them. No one makes a good portable TV anymore and I'm sad to say the digital transition has effectively ended over the air TV as a portable medium. That being said I am slowly coming to accept the fact that video content on portable devices will likely come through smartphones and tablets. There is work underway to bring broadcast TV to phones and tablets through the use of a plug in accessory although that is still sometime away. If you want to see the current crop of portable TV sets, search for brands such as MyGoTV or Eviant.

[AiboPet]

A DTV signal is almost impossible to keep if the set is moving around. I gave up on DTV in the car because even sitting still parked (of course), I could get like ONE station....where I used to be able to choose from about six analogue channels.

I only keep the tuner in the car (as part of the "carputer")...for the possibility of something "happening" and I end up having to TRY and get information while not at home. I have an "Auvio" (or somesuch name) little 7" LCD that has an ATSC tuner, but same problem. If you CAN get a digital station, you certainly can't walk around watching it. The "go or no" quality of the signal means you either get a GREAT pic and sound....or absolutely nothing, so there is no settling for just okay reception.

I don't know a single person that is watching local channels via any antennae in my area. Even the old man downstairs that had the big rabbit ears has had to go to at least "basic" cable....just to watch the local news

That old man downstairs likes my having the "in-house" transmitter in my flat. He can tune to "just over channel 13" and watch whatever I happen to be watching on my cable box...unless I am playing old Lucy reruns from the Archos player...which he also doesn't mind :-)

[Ed in Tx]

I have one, a Haier brand, I bought at Big Lots for $39 (could not resist a "HDTV" for $39!) . It works great as long as it's hooked to the main antenna. That's how I got it to scan and find channels. With the little whip antenna it comes with, nothing.

[compucat]

I did set up an agile modulator with a DTV converter box which allows me to use my old portable TV sets in the house and yard. For portable digital TV I have a USB tuner stick that I plug into my laptop which works very well. That is the only way I can get what I consider to be a high quality portable digital TV.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by AiboPet

A DTV signal is almost impossible to keep if the set is moving around.

What about "Mobile DTV"? http://www.nab.org/mobiletv/
I bought one of these about a year ago and it does work in a moving car, but not many channels are available (and apparently, no sub-channels)... disappointing, at best. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
jr

Comment: wouldn't this thread fit better in the DTV section?

[Rod Beauvex]

I noticed today the Radio Shack in the mall doesn't sell the standalone portables it used to, though It does sell a portable DVD player with built in tuner, and it says right on the box that it will not work on a moving car.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by reelman1968

I have an old LCD Optimus color TV. It does work, but with no analog tv signals anymore It just sits around. Do they Make Pocket LCD tv's With digital Tuners? . I would love to have one if they do.

http://www.amazon.com/RCA-DHT235A-3-...pd_sim_sbs_e_3

[Dave A]

I have a 3.5" thing called Digital Prism. Found it at CVS for $29. I know why. You need to almost be able to touch the tower for ATSC only reception. Little whip, OTA only. No F connector. Pic is ____. Fill in the blank and not kindly.

I also have a RCA RTV86073 7" that is a great performer. Still needs to be near a good signal. ATSC or NTSC. Very sharp pic. Better than most. Has a little detachable magnetic base whip for the F connector. Cable and air scanning. I use it at home scanned for cable for when the power goes out. Cable around here usually keeps working for 8 hours or so until the trunk line batteries give out.

And I have the Radio Shack 7". No wonder they are not selling them. They make Coby look good.

Compucat is right. Delivery is going to eventually be only on rightsholder controled mediums. Phones, tablets, etc. via streaming. The concept of channels is going to go away. Tv broadcasting may not be the same in a few years not to mention our miniature BPC's.

Consider the words from Stewart Brand, author of the Whole Earth Catalog written in 1985 and again in his book about the MIT Media lab in 1987;

"Information wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive. Information wants to be free because it has become so cheap to distribute, copy, and recombine – too cheap to meter. It wants to be expensive because it can be immeasurably valuable to the recipient. (And to the owner. Dave A observation given the current state). That tension will not go away. It leads to endless wrenching debate about price, copyright, 'intellectual property', the moral rightness of casual distribution, because each round of new devices makes the tension worse, not better."

While we wrestle with copying a CD and what we can download and the laws that prevail, Brand did this 26 years ago. Sarnoff is kicking himself for not thinking of this in 1935.

[jr_tech]

Here is a picture of two 3 1/2 inch models. The "RCA" on the left has the "Mobile/Handheld" feature and is tuned to a M/H stream (the only one in the area ). The "myGOtv" on the right is tuned to the HD stream from the same channel. The M/H stream lags behind the HD stream, likely it has more robust error correction. The RCA tunes DTV and M/H streams, while the myGOtv tunes DTV streams and NTSC channels. Both sets work fairly well close to the transmitters (like 15 miles or so) and the M/H set *will* work fairly well in a moving vehicle (on the one M/H channel in the area). Please pardon the reflections on the screens.
jr

[markdi]

Which one of those 2 tiny tv's is the best one?

[Sandy G]

Y'know, it seems to this dumbass old reactionary inbred redneck that Our Masters in Warshington didn't perzacly figger out this whole golly-gee-whiz HDTV thing too well...OK, it DOES give a good picture, as long as EVERYTHING's right. A storm knocks it out. too far away, & THAT knocks it out. It ain't backwards compatible. And when you need it MOST, like during a storm, tornado, hurricane, it won't work. Analog might not have given you a picture where you could count the hairs on a gnat's arse, but it stayed on the air during inclement weather, & even in my remote location, I could pull in a gaggle of stations, at least ONE of which I likely could have gotten info from...

[Electronic M]

They come up with the DTV standard and not long after the DTV doomsday, they start hawking 3D TVs...ATSC can't transmit 3D pictures so it is already it's self obsolete! They could have kept NTSC or made ATSC backwards compatible with NTSC, and today's broadcast standard would have been no less obsolete than it currently is.

Reminds me of a line from Family Guy(this series has made me mad more often than laugh for the last few years). The news anchor says 'Were now broadcasting in HD...Coming up next the thing that will make it obsolete'.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by markdi

Which one of those 2 tiny tv's is the best one?

On normal DTV channels, there is no difference that I have observed. The "standard model" (without the M/H function) was *much* cheaper. I have seen the "standard model" set with several different brand names, including "RCA" as linked by WISCOJIM, several posts up. Cheap, but works fairly well in local areas. Battery life is not terrific, so I use "Eneloop" rechargeable batteries.

jr