{"id":10278,"date":"2008-11-12T22:20:04","date_gmt":"2008-11-13T03:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/?p=10278"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:16","slug":"portable-tvs-and-the-switch-to-digital-broadcasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/11\/12\/portable-tvs-and-the-switch-to-digital-broadcasts\/","title":{"rendered":"portable tvs and the switch to digital broadcasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

.. \"\" ..\u00a0 Haier HLT71 7″ Portable Lcd Tv<\/strong> ($120 to $150) — this little digital tv is the Hottest Item around these days.\u00a0 Indeed, it’s Out of Stock<\/a> everywhere — from FadFusion<\/a>, to Buy.com<\/a>. Amazon.com<\/a> says this product is its #1 seller this week in the category Electronics – Portable TVs, but states that it “usually ships in 3 to 4 weeks,” which means they really don’t have any right now either.\u00a0 What’s going on?<\/p>\n

T<\/strong><\/em>he f\/k\/a<\/em> Gang is known more for Consumer Advocacy than Consumer Buying Tips, but I just had to remark about the current portable DTV market.\u00a0 It looks like electronics manufacturers and sellers failed to anticipate the huge demand for portable digital televisions that would be created by the switch to digital broadcasting<\/a>, which will happen on February 17, 2009.\u00a0 If your portable tv doesn’t have a digital tuner and isn’t hooked up to cable or satellite, it will soon be a great paperweight, unless you get a converter box and a bi-pole antenna. They’re probably on the Holiday Wish List of a lot of daddies and kids — especially since higher-priced items may be out of reach of a lot of Santas in our current economy.<\/p>\n

As the folks at Trailer Life Magazine<\/a><\/em> exclaimed:<\/p>\n

“[M]ost battery-powered portable televisions typically have a built-in telescopic antenna, which means they won\u2019t work anymore unless you hook it up to an external antenna and a digital-to-analog converter to the external antenna adapter, meaning they won\u2019t be quite as portable anymore<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

— a typical 5″ B&W analog tv —<\/em><\/p>\n

Indeed, I’ve been thinking it would be nice to have a 6- or 7″-inch dtv, to replace the 5″ B&W model I’ve got sitting on my kitchen counter, near where I prepare meals and wash dishes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> My cheapo portable cost about $20 (maybe $10 after a RiteAid rebate) and has one of those telescopic antennas.\u00a0 I’ve been thinking (and telling folks) that this type of tv can’t be hooked up to an analog-to-digital converter box, because they need to be connected to an external antenna.\u00a0 However, yesterday I noticed my little Coby 5-incher has a jack on the rear that says “Ext. Ant.”\u00a0\u00a0 Then, I dug up a manual from one of its predecessors, a very similar GPX model, and it said:<\/p>\n

“An external antenna may be connected to the unit using the Antenna Pad. Attach 300-ohm twinlead wire from your antenna to the screw-terminals on the Antenna Pad. Plug the Antenna Pad into the External TV Antenna Jack on the rear of the unit.”<\/p>\n

[A so-called Antenna Pad]\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Digging around in the basket where I store various “kept-just-in-case” connectors and cables that currently have no use, I found the Antenna Pad mentioned in the GPX manual.\u00a0 Since I’m still procrastinating on a rather painful posting about value billing, that got me heading right over to WalMart this morning, where I picked up a Philips indoor antenna<\/a> for $9.96.<\/p>\n

\"\" I chose the Philips SDV2210\/17 over the $8.96 antenna from RCA, because it came with something called a 75\/300 ohm Transformer, which would let me connect the antenna’s coaxial cable to the Antenna Pad for insertion into the tv’s Ext. Ant. Jack. (Should you need one, the connector is available separately for about 4 bucks, e.g.<\/em>, here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Yep, things were getting pretty exciting.\u00a0 Next, I finally took the analog-to-digital converter box I bought three months ago for maybe $10 (after applying my $40 Government Coupon<\/a>) out of its packaging.\u00a0 After hooking the antenna to the box and the box to the tv’s External Antenna Jack — and after several bouts of cursing and failed attempts at tuning in the channels — I did it: I’m getting a pretty nice digital b&w picture on about 18 over-the-air digital channels, from my cheap old 5″ kitchen-counter tv.\u00a0 And, the conversion cost me about $20 total.<\/p>\n

K<\/em>nowing I saved money and will be ready for the switchover on February 17 gives me a nice warm feeling on the chilly, damp evening, and the extra channels and clearer picture are a nice bonus.<\/p>\n

.. \"\"<\/a> .. my successful analog to digital conversion, nestled atop my microwave . . <\/em><\/p>\n

So, who the heck needs the Haier HLT71<\/a> 7″ Portable Lcd Tv?\u00a0 Of course, being a gracious gift-recipient, I will grin and bear it if Mama G or some other loved ones happens to slip a Haier HLT71 under my Christmas tree.<\/p>\n

A<\/strong><\/em>fter this little tangent around my kitchen, we could use some haiku and senryu from our haijin chronicler of all things domestic, Tom Clausen<\/a>.\u00a0 These are from the Route 9 Haiku Group’s latest issue of Upstate Dim Sum<\/em>:<\/p>\n

well worn
\nthe lowest branch
\nat school<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

misplaced again \"\"
\nthe address
\nfor my gypsy niece<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

Gettysburg —
\na different motel
\nthis time<\/p>\n

\n

my daughter growing . . .
\ncloser and closer
\nto the mirror<\/p>\n

\n

\n

offset from its stain
\na rusted washer
\non the boat’s desk<\/p>\n

\n

\n

retirement home —
\nseagulls lined up
\non the jetty<\/p>\n

\n

to upgrade
\nhis iPhone
\nthe young beggar<\/p>\n

\n

\n

baby rabbit \"\"
\nnot scared
\nenough . . .<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

for the day
\nthe cat favors
\na paper bag<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

thunder and lightning . . .
\nmy wife gets up
\nto lock the door<\/p>\n

\n

.. by Tom Clausen<\/a> – Upstate Dim Sum<\/em><\/a><\/em> (2008\/II)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

.. ..\u00a0 Haier HLT71 7″ Portable Lcd Tv ($120 to $150) — this little digital tv is the Hottest Item around these days.\u00a0 Indeed, it’s Out of Stock everywhere — from FadFusion, to Buy.com. Amazon.com says this product is its #1 seller this week in the category Electronics – Portable TVs, but states that it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[555,3097],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-procrastination-punditry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2FM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12122,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10278\/revisions\/12122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}