which portable TVs will not be obsolete in 2009?

Archived from groups: alt.video.digital-tv (More info?)

I am currently in the market for a portable TV. For various reasons I do
need one that has A/V in/out as well as an OTA tuner. But so far I find
none that include ATSC tuning. That means what one buys today will be
obsolete when the analog cutoff comes, supposedly in 2009. So it would
be stupid to buy a non-ATSC model.

Even among models w/o A/V in/out, there's nothing, zip, nada, zilch, with
ATSC capability. So how long is it going to take for the FCC to outlaw
selling these old models (e.g. the "tuner mandate" )?

Anyone know why the manufacturers are dragging their feet on this? Is it
really because they only care to update the high profit big screen models?
Insider knowledge might be helpful.

FYI, by "portable" I mean something light and small enough to carry around
which will probably be between 7" and 14" screen size. It will need to be
able to receive all digital broadcasts, however it might happen to convert
or display them. If the display is only 480i/4:3 and everything else is
converted to that, that's fine.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
| (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Archived from groups: alt.video.digital-tv (More info?)

On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 02:25:56 GMT K. B. <hotmail.com@lis2lis2> wrote:
| On 17 Aug 2005 20:44:38 GMT, phil-news-nospam@ipal.net
| posted:
|
|>I am currently in the market for a portable TV. For various reasons I do
|>need one that has A/V in/out as well as an OTA tuner. But so far I find
|>none that include ATSC tuning. That means what one buys today will be
|>obsolete when the analog cutoff comes, supposedly in 2009. So it would
|>be stupid to buy a non-ATSC model.
|
| Wal-Mart has a 13" NTSC only color TV with A/V in for $60,
| that'd be less $20/year if it can't be used for OTA TV past
| the end of 2008.

I looked at that one a couple weeks ago as a matter of fact. While
your analysis would be correct, I'd also like to be able to see how
well these things are doing with ATSC, too. So I'm going to continue
the quest for ATSC capability.


|>Even among models w/o A/V in/out, there's nothing, zip, nada, zilch, with
|>ATSC capability. So how long is it going to take for the FCC to outlaw
|>selling these old models (e.g. the "tuner mandate" )?
|
| For some strange reason, the ATSC tuner mandate applies only
| to TV screens 13" and above.

Strange indeed. I guess Congress needs to be called up again.


|>Anyone know why the manufacturers are dragging their feet on this?
|
| Probably the cost of an ATSC tuner, there's been no volume
| production of ATSC tuners so far.

I suppose they are hoping that the big screen market sells enough to get
the broadcasters to put enough HD content out which forces digital to be
used more. But I do believe the mandate should be put into effect for
_all_ TVs capable of doing any RF tuning, and that it should be in effect
for 5 years before the cutoff (and yes I realize that under the current
2009 cutoff date, this can't be met).

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
| (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------