TV collectors...better make some space!

[Cybrvanr]

Make sure to make some room this year! With this being the last year of analogue TV broadcasts, many people will be getting rid of their old reliables that they've been watching for many years. Most of them probably working just fine. I imagine areas without CATV coverage, like out in the countryside, will perhaps have the best finds, especially in areas that have a local TV shop still around that keeps those old tube sets alive and well for their customers.

I am thinking myself of putting an ad in the classifieds that sounds like this "Bought a new digital TV? Need to get rid of that analoge set? I buy TV's 25 years and older" So that I can increase my vintage TV collection! Any of TV guys have plans to grab 'em up?

 

[rp2813]

I thought that owners of TV's without digital tuners would be able to buy a digital tuner box to convert their TV's and avoid the need to buy a new set. The part I don't get is the whole rooftop antenna piece. Will someone without cable still be able to receive a signal via their antenna as long as they have a digital tuner box connected to their set? I'm amazed that with only a year left before analog broadcasting stops, there has been such minimal explanation of options to the viewing public.

 

[coldspot]

Right now anyone can sing up for this. But once these run out the next ones well be for people with only a aerial. Your old aerial will work so need to buy a new one of them unless it does not pick up uhf.

If you ask me the fcc should make it a little easer to under stand dtv. The box with the couponshould coast no more then $20.00 and as little as $10.00 to buy. You can sing up for two of them. You can also buy them with out the couponthey will sell for about $50.00 up
.
To sing up go to.

https://www.dtv2009.gov/

Or

Call
1.888.388.2009

 

[sudsmaster]

Just a note - the coupons will expire 30 days after they are mailed to you. The govt expects to start mailing them in February, when the boxes start showing up on store shelves.

As with most electronic items, I suspect the price of the converter boxes will drop over time, maybe even making a coupon superfluous. I also wonder if the better boxes will include features the low end won't - such as last channel, closed captioning, etc. And of course if your NTSC tv has a remote, you'll probably still need that to adjust volume, on/off, and other non-tuner related functions.

 

[cadman]

Say hello to another remote, another box on top of the set, and another phantom load!

One of the bigger gripes among collectors even if you hide the box is that those wonderful turret tuners will be permanently glued on channel 3. Some have talked about building local transmitters for their collections but you'd still need a converter per "channel" if you want to watch more than one set/or make practical use of the set's tuners.

There are some crafty folks out there, I can't wait to see what the vintage TV community comes up with ; )

 

[tolivac]

When the analog to digital changeover takes place there will be LOTS of analog station gear for equipment collectors-cameras to transmitters!Transmitters are difficult to run unless you have a license,load, and 3 ph power.And you need lots of space-the old transmitters were kinda pretty operating though.Glass front cabinets with the glowing tubes behind them.Thats a good point of many analog sets available-some folks will just get new digital sets and junk the old analog ones even if they still work.

 

[Unimatic1140]

There are some crafty folks out there, I can't wait to see what the vintage TV community comes up with ; )

Cory I was thinking the excat same thing. I mainly use my vintage TV sets that I have restored to watch vintage TV shows via a hidden DVD player, so the change wont effect that. But it will be sad not to have any signal to receive on any of the channels when I'm in the basement doing a restore on any of these TV's. Maybe we need to do YouTube vidoes with our restored sets clicking through all the channels just for old times! Hmmmmmmm