Exterior tuner?

[Tracey]

I have a Philips 19pr11c122 TV that we bought about 4 years ago. This
TV will no longer respond to remote control. The TV itself is nothing
fancy, and at its age it would probably cost more to fix it than to
replace it. However, other than the remote control issue, it works
fine. It's a nice TV. (And yes, I've tried several remotes with it.)

My question is this: is there any such thing as an exterior TV tuner I
could connect to this TV, perhaps via coax, and control remotely?
Basically, I'm looking at a way to channel surf. For now, I'll
probably connect an old VCR to it and use the VCR for channel switching
(the TV is in the guest bedroom), thereby using the VCR's tuner, but I
thought a standalone tuner might be a more elegant solution.

Any such thing?


Thanks,

Tracey

 

[Kalman Rubinson]

I have a Philips 19pr11c122 TV that we bought about 4 years ago. This
TV will no longer respond to remote control. The TV itself is nothing
fancy, and at its age it would probably cost more to fix it than to
replace it. However, other than the remote control issue, it works
fine. It's a nice TV. (And yes, I've tried several remotes with it.)

My question is this: is there any such thing as an exterior TV tuner I
could connect to this TV, perhaps via coax, and control remotely?
Basically, I'm looking at a way to channel surf. For now, I'll
probably connect an old VCR to it and use the VCR for channel switching
(the TV is in the guest bedroom), thereby using the VCR's tuner, but I
thought a standalone tuner might be a more elegant solution.

No more elegant and not much different.

Any such thing?

Sure but probably more expensive than a VCR today.

Kal

 

[JANA]

You are best off to use a VCR as a tuner. There are some stand alone tuners,
but they are very expensive, in comparison to the price of a new TV set.

--

JANA
_____


I have a Philips 19pr11c122 TV that we bought about 4 years ago. This
TV will no longer respond to remote control. The TV itself is nothing
fancy, and at its age it would probably cost more to fix it than to
replace it. However, other than the remote control issue, it works
fine. It's a nice TV. (And yes, I've tried several remotes with it.)

My question is this: is there any such thing as an exterior TV tuner I
could connect to this TV, perhaps via coax, and control remotely?
Basically, I'm looking at a way to channel surf. For now, I'll
probably connect an old VCR to it and use the VCR for channel switching
(the TV is in the guest bedroom), thereby using the VCR's tuner, but I
thought a standalone tuner might be a more elegant solution.

Any such thing?


Thanks,

Tracey

 

[Tom MacIntyre]

I have a Philips 19pr11c122 TV that we bought about 4 years ago. This
TV will no longer respond to remote control. The TV itself is nothing
fancy, and at its age it would probably cost more to fix it than to
replace it. However, other than the remote control issue, it works
fine. It's a nice TV. (And yes, I've tried several remotes with it.)

My question is this: is there any such thing as an exterior TV tuner I
could connect to this TV, perhaps via coax, and control remotely?
Basically, I'm looking at a way to channel surf. For now, I'll
probably connect an old VCR to it and use the VCR for channel switching
(the TV is in the guest bedroom), thereby using the VCR's tuner, but I
thought a standalone tuner might be a more elegant solution.

Get a DVD/VCR combo for it.

Tom

 

[NRen2k5]

I have a Philips 19pr11c122 TV that we bought about 4 years ago. This
TV will no longer respond to remote control. The TV itself is nothing
fancy, and at its age it would probably cost more to fix it than to
replace it. However, other than the remote control issue, it works
fine. It's a nice TV. (And yes, I've tried several remotes with it.)

My question is this: is there any such thing as an exterior TV tuner I
could connect to this TV, perhaps via coax, and control remotely?
Basically, I'm looking at a way to channel surf. For now, I'll
probably connect an old VCR to it and use the VCR for channel switching
(the TV is in the guest bedroom), thereby using the VCR's tuner, but I
thought a standalone tuner might be a more elegant solution.

Any such thing?


Thanks,

Tracey

You can probably still find a "cable box" or "cable converter" at yard
sales or flea markets these days. These things are exactly what you're
asking for: an external tuner. They're typically not great though, only
getting about 50 or 60 channels. The nice thing about them is that not
only do you plug the coax cable through them to the TV, but also the
power cord for the TV. So you *might* (depending on the TV) be able to
turn the TV on and off with the cable box.

But obviously that's something you'll have to hunt for, and it isn't
guaranteed to work wonderfully.

And as already mentioned, newer product of this sort might be more
expensive than a VCR.

Really, I think using a VCR as you are is the most practical solution.

- NRen2k5

 

[Michael Ware]

As you said, VCR is the most economical way to go. With DVD so popular you
could get one at a garage sale for next to nothing.

 

[John Hudak]

In the TV service industry there are such things as 'tuner subbers,'
effectively a stand alone tuner. I have not looked at them in probably
15 years or so, but I would bet they are much more than an old VCR. In
the early days of vcrs, both panasonic and sony made a VCR that was in
two pieces - one box was the tuner, the other box was the mechanics. I
don't remember if the tuner was IR controlled or pushbuttons. Point is,
a bit more elegant in the sense that the tuner is compartmentalized, but
given age of such devices, probably not very reliable.
John

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

In the TV service industry there are such things as 'tuner subbers,'
effectively a stand alone tuner. I have not looked at them in probably
15 years or so, but I would bet they are much more than an old VCR. In
the early days of vcrs, both panasonic and sony made a VCR that was in
two pieces - one box was the tuner, the other box was the mechanics. I
don't remember if the tuner was IR controlled or pushbuttons. Point is,
a bit more elegant in the sense that the tuner is compartmentalized, but
given age of such devices, probably not very reliable.
John

A tuner subber put out an IF signal that was fed directly to the IF
module input. They had detent type tuners for VHF and UHF. The ones I
used had manual gain control. Not something I would use on a hot
chassis.

 

[James Sweet]

We had one of those, I think it was a Panasonic. The reason for the
separation was that the VCR portion had a battery pack in it and a video
camera plugged into it. There was a padded carrying bag to hold the VCR
which you carried around on your shoulder while using the camera, which
was about the size of a fullsize VHS camcorder. I recall a friend of the
family had a similar unit which didn't even have autofocus. Times have
changed.

 

[David Harmon]

On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 09:45:44 GMT in sci.electronics.repair, "Michael A.

A tuner subber put out an IF signal that was fed directly to the IF
module input. They had detent type tuners for VHF and UHF. The ones I
used had manual gain control. Not something I would use on a hot
chassis.

That was like before isolation transformers were invented, right?

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 09:45:44 GMT in sci.electronics.repair, "Michael A.


That was like before isolation transformers were invented, right?

Of course not, but a couple of the early units were AC powered and
you had to be aware of the risks involved. Even the battery powered
versions had exposed connectors to watch out for. Its not something you
want sitting there where other people could get hurt.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

We had one of those, I think it was a Panasonic. The reason for the
separation was that the VCR portion had a battery pack in it and a video
camera plugged into it. There was a padded carrying bag to hold the VCR
which you carried around on your shoulder while using the camera, which
was about the size of a fullsize VHS camcorder. I recall a friend of the
family had a similar unit which didn't even have autofocus. Times have
changed.

That is a different animal altogether. I have converted a number of
those to stand alone TV demodulators for some of the TV stations I've
worked at. I removed the umbilical cable that connected to the recorder
and replaced it with a BNC connector for the video and a RCA jack for
the audio outputs. There were plenty of composite video studio monitors
around, but the Tektronics demodulator was rack mounted at the
transmitter site. You could drop one of the converted units behind a
rack and use the A/B switch on the monitor to look at the off air
signal, or use it in a remote van to see when you went live.