I got to thinking, and I pulled apart one of my cheap RCA ATSC boxes from WalMart. To my pleasant surprise, the power supply is a SEPARATE BOARD!!!!!!! The main board takes a single 12v line from the power supply, which is a very simple 12v regulated switchmode supply. The main board is about 4" square. I immediately started thinking; there are several collectible mini-TV, including some of the Sony Trinitrons from the 70s and 80s, which might have space inside for that board! If so, I could just pick off 12v from the TV's supply, and mount the IR receiver secretly someplace on the TV. Then whether on battery or AC, the mini-TV would be usable :banana: .

When I have time, which is Heaven knows when, I'll make a project of it and report. If anyone else has these thoughts, please share.....

Charles

Sounds like you might be on to something Charles. Keep us posted on your progress. The Sansonic converters sold at Target are powered by a 12V wall wort and are quite small. They're not much bigger than an index card and only an inch thick. So these units may be another option for experimentation also.
-Tony

Great idea.

We had severe weather pass thru Friday afternoon and I can say I really missed having my portable TV in the "safe room"

Kevin

That is a good idea! I'll have to investigate that myself. Please keep us posted on any other thoughts. :thmbsp: I already thought to put one in a console but the fact the thing runs on 12v makes for great possibilities like you said.:yes:

000

When I was in the UK last year, I saw a digital TV receiver box that was so small it plugged directly into the A/V input. The box was literally part of the A/V plug. The IR receiver was on a wire that could be placed near the front of the TV.

And it took you a year to tell us this why?.........:D

Those ones have a really really bad front end on them when I had a play with one - a full size was getting lock and listing the channels with just a piece of junk coax connected, whereas the one in the plug was barely able to lock and list channels with a settop loop antenna connected. The later ones may be better since from the digital tuners I have tested (back before I knew that we would be HD only in NZ) the first gen ones were all a lot worse then the later ones.

It is a great form factor, except for the direction it sticks out of the scart plug, since thats on the back of most tv's it meant another 140mm or so that the tv has to be from the wall. IMO it needed a flexible hinge on it so that it could be folded parallel with the back of the TV.

And it took you a year to tell us this why?
One big reason that Andy's UK find is not significant here in the USA is that the converter would have been a DVB tuner, not ATSC.

I pulled apart one of my cheap RCA ATSC boxes from WalMart... The main board is about 4" square...
This sounds like a great idea. I have too many big projects going right now too, or I would look into this as well, soon.

A four-inch-square board would fit into all kinds of TV sets. One thing that could be an issue when mounted close to other TV circuits, though, is interference between the board and the rest of the TV. Metal shielding could fix this, but I know some of the tuners emit heat, so ventilation might be needed too.

Sounds like you might be on to something Charles. Keep us posted on your progress. The Sansonic converters sold at Target are powered by a 12V wall wort and are quite small. They're not much bigger than an index card and only an inch thick. So these units may be another option for experimentation also.
-Tony

Thanks for the tip on the smaller box! I'll go to Target when I get a chance, and see if they carry that one here. I know there's been a run on them since Friday, and WalMart stores (at least their So. California locations in Simi Valley, Northridge, West Hills, and Santa Clarita) are bare-shelved. Fry's has a few in beat-up, scotch-taped boxes, which is a real gamble based on experience with Fry's "open-box" merchandise.

Another, slightly less "collector-authentic-looking", would be to get a small black "project box" from an electronics store, and remount the converter board in there if there isn't room inside the small TV. It would be attached to the bottom or back of the set. I would probably only do that to a non-collectible portable TV, such as for a safe room or for camping trips, etc. NOT to make screw holes in a mint-condition Sony KV-5000, for instance!

Charles

One big reason that Andy's UK find is not significant here in the USA is that the converter would have been a DVB tuner, not ATSC.

Good reason:yes:

These are good ideas. I have wondered why these boxes are so (relatively) big, considering they make computers that you can hold in your hand and devices that can store how-ever-many songs the size of a half-dollar. It would be nice to be able to hide these nasty boxes out of sight or, as was stated above, inside the TV.

I got to thinking, and I pulled apart one of my cheap RCA ATSC boxes from WalMart. To my pleasant surprise, the power supply is a SEPARATE BOARD!!!!!!! The main board takes a single 12v line from the power supply, which is a very simple 12v regulated switchmode supply. The main board is about 4" square. I immediately started thinking; there are several collectible mini-TV, including some of the Sony Trinitrons from the 70s and 80s, which might have space inside for that board! If so, I could just pick off 12v from the TV's supply, and mount the IR receiver secretly someplace on the TV. Then whether on battery or AC, the mini-TV would be usable :banana: .

When I have time, which is Heaven knows when, I'll make a project of it and report. If anyone else has these thoughts, please share.....

Charles
It will be great if this RCA ATSC box can fit inside my RCA CTC-121 TV.