Digital TV Converter Hack (Image courtesy Kipkay via Instructables)
By Andrew Liszewski

Like any technophile, I was quite excited for the DTV transition to finally hit the U.S. I mean free digital and HD signals over the air? What downside could there possibly be? I was on cloud nine, until I realized that my beloved Sony Watchman, the first gadget I ever skimped and saved for, would become useless once the analog broadcasts stopped transmitting.

Sony Watchman (Image property of OhGizmo!)

And unfortunately, all of the DTV converter boxes currently on the market are AC powered, which totally negates the ‘portable’ aspect of a portable TV. But over on Instructables, Kipkay has posted a tutorial on how to hack one of those converter boxes to run on battery power. Besides making your portable TV portable again, the hack is also useful for camping or in the event of emergencies when there’s no power and you have to rely on a portable set. Now if I could just find a way to splice the signal from a DTV converter box into my Watchman, I’d be all set.

And if you’re curious, after the jump I’ve included a few more glamor shots of my Watchman that I had sitting on my drive.

[ Instructables – Digital TV Converter Hack ] VIA [ TechEBlog ]


Sony Watchman (Image property of OhGizmo!)

Sony Watchman (Image property of OhGizmo!)

Sony Watchman (Image property of OhGizmo!)

Sony Watchman (Image property of OhGizmo!)

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9 COMMENTS

  3. Any luck yet finding a way to get you watchman converted by battery operated box. I have two 5″ black & white screen TV to get converter boxes for. But I have not found a 12volt battery operated one.

  4. Only problem I believe is that the Sony Watchman model FD-10A you're showing does not have a composite AV input like Kipkay's Casio model EV-570 hand held TV. (The A/V input on Casio hand held TVs uses a special cable with RCA plugs on one end that goes to the source and a “headphone” plug on the end that goes into the TV)

    If you have a portable TV that only has a built in antenna; I believe you can take a piece of wire with an alligator clips on the ends and clip one side onto your TV's built in antenna. Stick an unbent paper clip into the “TV RF out” jack on the back of the converter box and clip the other end of the wire there. Turn the converter on and tune the Watchman to VHF Channel-3.

    I'm looking at the back of my Winegard RC-DT09A converter box as I type this which was already marketed as a battery powered DTV converter when I bought it back in January; three months before Kipkay modded his RCA DTA800

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