Anyone have any suggestions for a portable digital TV? We live in hurricane central (AKA: Florida). Our old portable TV's have gone the way of the dinosaurs.....we are looking for a good digital portable TV. Battery operated (prefer one that can take 'standard' batteries for backup). Decent size screen. RELIABLE a MUST. Won't say price is no object but I'd like to keep it below $200.

Just googled it and found the CVS of all places has one for a little over $100...then there's this:
http://www.sansonic.net/consumer/portable_atsc.asp

Look at the Target website, they have a couple available.
Myself, being here in Melbourne, I have a portable DVD player that we take with us in the car and on vacation. Just pack the individual DVD's in a case & go. I get weather updates on the radio when hurricanes hit.

I'd peruse eBay and Amazon, then check out reviews.

Dave

Recently saw this one on Buy.com for $105 US: http://www.buy.com/prod/haier-hlt71-7-portable-lcd-tv-with-atsc-ntsc-tuner/q/loc/111/208673168.html

It's recieved positive reviews, except for the short battery life.

You might also consider an external HDTV-USB Tuner and antenna if you have a laptop.

I haven't seen any Digital TV enabled radio receivers yet - but I rely on a hand-held crank radio that picks up AM/FM, WorldBand I/II, NOOA and standard TV/UHF.

Think I'd rather carry a radio with local tv reception.

It will be interesting to see what others think about digital reception when used in emergencies.

I recently bought a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 950Q Hybrid TV USB Stick for my laptop -- for less than the cost of a portable digital TV. This model works on both Macs and Windows (check the computer system requirements before purchasing); plus it comes with a little antenna that's not too bad in a pinch. You can pick up a better set of rabbit ears just about anywhere for 7 bucks.

My laptop most certainly requires more battery power than a little portable digital TV but, now that my B&W battery powered analog TV is obsolete, I didn't want to acquire yet another gizmo (requiring special batteries, no doubt).

Scott
New Orleans

Is there a portable radio capable of picking up digital TV signals yet? I agree that TV news stations are often better updated than radio stations in many locations, but a portable radio doesn't help you if it can't decode that digital TV signal.

I've been meaning to get into HD radio for a long time but the expense has kept me away. Not sure if that's going to be the same situation with radio models that can pick up digital TV.

If you search the archives, I've long been a vocal opponent to the DTV cutover - in my area, now that the cutover is partially complete, I've got only 3 stations - CBS out of Philly, and a terrible local station and a PBS affiliate. Reception is spotty with a large outdoor antenna and is simply impossible with a portable antenna.

It's not just fringe areas. The place where I get my hair cut is in Manhattan, and they have an older television with a converter box and rabbit ears. The signal stalls, cuts out, pixellates and generally is unreliable.

After June when the full cutover happens, we'll see just how bad this debacle is.

To the others who suggest the Hauppauge or Pinacle USB stick - that's what I use, as I don't own a television. We use a laptop computer for the 3 times a year we need/want to see live television. The rest of the time it's hulu.com or DVD's from Netflix.

HD Radio is not the same as digital television audio and I've been experimenting with that too, via rental cars when I travel for business. In a word: meh. I didn't find anything that spectacular in HD radio, the usability of the channelization plan leaves a lot to be desired. In many ways it's silly that they attempted to keep the archaic "frequency" nomenclature of old radio instead of using the "Channel" metaphor like XM/Sirius or plain old television.

As far as signal quality and features for HD radio, it wasn't really that big a deal as far as I could tell. Certainly better audio quality for AM stations, but the signal does not have the reach of the old analog systems and like all digital signals, you can't lose some of the signal without losing all of it.

All in all, it's a case where newer is definitely not actually better. Unlike the conversion of cell phone service to digital, which brought a lot of improvements, the conversion of broadcast services to digital has been very poorly executed.

I want to thank the people who mentioned the USB sticks.
I had not thought of that.
It is an avenue I will be exploring with my desk top machines I guess, but do they have a card version that I can simply install in an unused slot instead?

I wouldn't mind the HDTV USB antenna for the laptop....and/or the portable digital tv....yes I am looking at the reviews for them at ebay and amazon....what I am looking for is if anyone has any PERSONAL experience with either the port. tv or the USB tuner......

Yes, there's many, Hauppauge and Pinnacle being the more common models.

They come in USB and PCI cards. About the same price.

You'll need at least a 2.4Ghz machine, with 1 GB of RAM or better.

Mac/PC and with some tinkering, Linux all work.