Is this mini portable tv any use ?

[Zincubus]

Just dug this out ..

Portable mini TV .. used to be able to get the main four or five channels .


Presumably its totally useless now there’s no analogue signal ??

Shall I just throw it away or can it be used in some weird and wonderful way ??


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[Richard1978]

Re: Is this mini portable tv any use ?

I would put it on eBay, with a bit of specialist equipment they can still pick up a picture.

I've collected a few old TVs & have 3 pocket sets like this that still all work.

[George 1978]

Re: Is this mini portable tv any use ?

At first when I saw the title, I thought that it was about those early 1980s cube TV radio cassette recorder things that Pye and other companies made, and Argos catalogues at the time featured - I believe that the cassette compartment really could be used in lieu of a VCR almost and could record the sound from the TV. That was one thing that I was really sorry about when it came to the analogue signals being switched off - it happened in my neck of the woods eight years ago. Went on holiday to an area where the signals went before the East Midlands did, and when I came back, they were gone - BBC 2 went first two weeks before.

I had one of my own given to me as a Christmas present as late as 2003, and I used to watch TV while on the National Express coach in the same way as I would listen to the radio via a personal stereo. Someone even managed to bring one to school with him - at breaktime the owner showed some of his mates what daytime TV was like which they wouldn't have seen it otherwise while they were at school.

With regards to the pocket TV set, I have wondered whether it had any sockets and all that in which one could connect to a VCR and all that, but obviously it was too small for such a thing - I suppose that when they made these models on a regular basis (mostly when digital TV was very much into the future) it never occurred to them that the technology would be obsolete one day. And of course, it was an actual TV set, so one would have needed a TV Licence even if they was the only set that a person owned at their address.

I know that stereo music centres from the 1980s had sockets at the back to plug TV serials in to help improve the reception of the radio, which I wish that radio cassette recorders had as I used to have poor reception where I used to live - in other words, such a small contraption such as a pocket TV probably wouldn't have such sockets to enable such things from happening. The other thing is that if you did sell it on eBay, who would buy it? - someone interested in microchips and the like who would take it to bits for scrap value? Seems a pity for that to actually happen.

[George 1978]

Re: Is this mini portable tv any use ?

Also, I have to admit that I wouldn't buy something that wouldn't be use to me anymore such as an analogue only TV, but if you are selling it on eBay to "get rid of it", I wish you luck in doing so as you will have your work cut out finding a buyer.

[Zincubus]

Re: Is this mini portable tv any use ?

Thanks guys ..

It’s annoying has it used to have a real clear picture ..


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[George 1978]

Re: Is this mini portable tv any use ?

I am just so glad that even though some technology such as VCRs have gone out of fashion, at least I know that I can still use then with TV sets even in the digital only era.

[Richard1978]

Re: Is this mini portable tv any use ?

Some pictures of 2 of my sets from my collection: