Princeton UHF Transmitter (Image courtesy Akihabara News)By Andrew Liszewski

Tiny FM transmitters used to deliver music from a portable audio device to your car’s stereo system have existed for many years now and a quick walk through the iPod accessory section of any Apple store will show they’re more popular then ever.

However this is the first transmitter I’ve seen capable of broadcasting both audio and video to a television set. From Princeton Japan comes the PCK-UAV video transmitter that has a basic set of RCA hook-ups and will broadcast the video and audio signal on the UHF band. I don’t think the device allows you to set a specific channel so it seems you’ll need to be able to tune the TV set to the one the PCK-UAV uses. And while I can’t imagine you’ll be enjoying amazing picture quality, this could work out as a handy solution in certain situations.

The Princeton PCK-UAV will be available in Japan in the next month or so for about $70. Does anyone know if these devices can be legally used in North America?

VIA [New Launches]

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

4 COMMENTS

  1. These have been around for years actually, no doubt better than when I used one last though. I used to have one for use with a full size 12 foot dish system where I only had one tuner on the main TV. I did have one of the little transmitter/recivers though and I plugged it into a TV in another room. You are right, it only broadcasts what is being shown through the cable box or dvd, or whatever.

  2. I have something like this. Got it at Radio Shack many years ago, except it’s for the VHF frequency. It is switchable to broadcast on either channel 3 or 4, just like the way VCR’s used to be if you sent the signal through the RF COAX cable and not the composite or s-video cable.

  4. This device would not be legal for use in the U.S. I’m not sure about Canada, but I suspect their regulations would prehibit these, as well. These have been available, basically on the black market, since at least the 80s. I bought one at the CES in 1985. They were illegal to use then, as I suspect they still are now.

    The transmitter/receiver boxes were developed when the FCC opened up the 900MHz band for low-powered devices such as cordless phones, etc. There was enough spectrum in that band to transmit a 6MHz TV signal, so manufacturers took advantage of that by making the transmitter/reciever boxes. A regular TV could not recieve a signal on 900MHz, so that’s why the receiver box was paired with the transmitter.

    The FCC did allow low power audi devices in the FM radio band in the 90s, which allowed us to transmit CD players (now MP3 players) to an FM radio, but they have never (to my knowledge) opened up any part of the VHF or UHF TV bands to low power transmitters. The National Association of Broadcasters still opposes the FM band transmitters, and they were the ones to cry fowl recently on a few of Sirius Satellite Radio’s receiver units which have built-in FM transmitters that were transmitting with too much power. The NAB’s concern is that these devices will interfere with someone else’s normal reception of an FM radio station, due to on-frequency, adjacent-frequency, or intermodulation interferance. The NAB would, in my opinion, will continue to fiercely lobby against any device which transmits in the UHF TV band due to interferance concerns.

    So long story short, don’t expect to see this at Best Buy anytime soon.

LEAVE A REPLY