5 ms·

This reminded me of something I’d long forgotten about — sometime in the early 90s I somehow got my hands on a small portable (handheld?) TV and it was amazing.

by nlh 7y ago

This reminded me of something I’d long forgotten about — sometime in the early 90s I somehow got my hands on a small portable (handheld?) TV and it was amazing. I seem to remember it had a 2 or 3 inch full-color screen, a big CB-style telescoping antenna, and was basically miserable to use (lol) — but it was a portable TV! I remember being on some long bus trip with some kids from school and we were all hovering around the tiny screen as the various VHF signals came in and out as we drove on the interstate. 5 seconds of solid signal was miraculous and we all watched in awe. I guess if I'd been a bit more prescient in my teenage years I'd have started working on YouTube right away! ;)

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
legohead 7y ago
portable TVs were like magic. well, so was the GameBoy for that matter. that feeling of technological magic was unique. I wonder what the equivalent would be for today's kids?
- noahadavis 7y ago
  Probably virtual reality. I tried it for the first time at an art museum a week ago and while I was only floating around an artist's 3D painting-like impression of her home, it still felt pretty magical.
ChrisClark 7y ago
I had a small LCD color one and we plugged the NES into it and played it on the tiny screen. While still sitting in front of our nice 20 inch TV. It was an even lower resolution than Super Mario Bros 3 as you could tell it couldn't show every pixel, so it was probably something like 120p. It seemed like half the resolution of SMB3 which is 256x224. But it felt like the future. :)
- ytjohn 7y ago
  It is the future. Us old-timers (you know, in our late 30s/early 40s) keep thinking that a big screen tv is great, while the cool young kids each just want their own small screen. Most are happy with a 4-5" screen, others like a 7" - 10" screen, and the rich kids have the 12.9" ipad pro, though even that is "a bit too big".
dTal 7y ago
Somewhere - maybe Banggood? a few years back I saw a most remarkable product - a keychain VHF TV receiver, and not expensive either. It was a real "how far we've come" moment for me. I didn't buy it because I had no use for it, and now I can't find any references to it anywhere. I suppose its essential uselessness caught up with it, no matter how cool. I wish I'd bought one :(
jpl56 7y ago
Same for me, I used it in the train and it worked pretty fine. It still works today, of course there are no more UHF/VHF channels but I should find a use for the video input.
mzs 7y ago
It could have been the Realistic Pocketvision 22, which I have. Neat aside, it uses the right side of the screen to show which channel is tuned, and you need to scan to find one. https://ebid.s3.amazonaws.com/upload_big/5/9/4/1273863510-9095-0.jpg https://ebid.s3.amazonaws.com/upload_big/5/9/4/1273863510-90...
illegalsmile 7y ago
I had a game gear back in the day with the TV tuner and brought it to camp one summer. Portable TV indeed! We did the same and found that even though it mostly received one solid channel it was too cool not to watch.
pwg 7y ago
Was it, by chance, the Sony Watchman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Watchman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Watchman
- pixelbath 7y ago
  I picked up one of these at a thrift store recently. While I've still held on to it, I keep struggling to think of a useful project I could use it for that wouldn't be better served by a newer backlit color LCD panel.
- jrockway 7y ago
  Obligatory eevblog teardown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ENph8sV-0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ENph8sV-0 The engineering is amazing.
  - cr0sh 7y ago
    I still think the epitome of 80's "engineering" belonged to Tomy. Their engineers and product designers were mechanical engineering wizards. I personally think they showed absolute mastery of the subject with the release of the Tomy Armatron. It may not seem possible, but that 5 axis robot arm was completely mechanical. The entire drive system was powered by a single 3 volt DC motor that ran on two D-cells. It had two joysticks for control; each had, IIRC, 4-way directional control, along with stick rotation mechanically coupled to a complex transmission system that controlled each axis (I believe the rotation of the stick controlled on one side the jaws of the gripper, while the other controlled rotation of the wrist). It really is the most complex manual transmission control scheme you can imagine. It was built upon years of similarly complex systems for various tabletop "games" (Atomic Pinball, for instance), as well as weird mechanical and electronic systems for their various entertainment robots they created (culminating in the Omnibot robot line). Check it all out if you ever have the chance. Most of these robots have become collectors items (and should be treated as such for the most part), but the Armatron was mass produced and licensed all over the place, with Radio Shack being the main outlet in the day; you can find used RS-licensed Armatrons all over Ebay cheaply. In fact, there's so many RS Armatrons available, you hardly ever see an actual Tomy branded one (if you ever find one, especially NIB, and it's cheap - grab it and hold onto it). There are more than a few articles on the internet detailing how to modify the Armatron to connect it to a computer (back in the day, the common machine to do this with was an Apple or Commodore). Many of these articles have tear-down images showing the inner workings of the Armatron.
djsumdog 7y ago
If you're into this, check out the TechMoan channel on YouTube. He's got a ton of old tech like this, including portable TVs, old portable cassette decks (both consumer and professional), older audio and video formats which never made it to the format wars (some that were very popular in the UK where he lives, but never made it to the US markets), etc.

by nlh 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

legohead 7y ago

portable TVs were like magic. well, so was the GameBoy for that matter. that feeling of technological magic was unique. I wonder what the equivalent would be for today's kids?

noahadavis 7y ago
Probably virtual reality. I tried it for the first time at an art museum a week ago and while I was only floating around an artist's 3D painting-like impression of her home, it still felt pretty magical.

ChrisClark 7y ago

I had a small LCD color one and we plugged the NES into it and played it on the tiny screen. While still sitting in front of our nice 20 inch TV. It was an even lower resolution than Super Mario Bros 3 as you could tell it couldn't show every pixel, so it was probably something like 120p. It seemed like half the resolution of SMB3 which is 256x224. But it felt like the future. :)

ytjohn 7y ago
It is the future. Us old-timers (you know, in our late 30s/early 40s) keep thinking that a big screen tv is great, while the cool young kids each just want their own small screen. Most are happy with a 4-5" screen, others like a 7" - 10" screen, and the rich kids have the 12.9" ipad pro, though even that is "a bit too big".

dTal 7y ago

Somewhere - maybe Banggood? a few years back I saw a most remarkable product - a keychain VHF TV receiver, and not expensive either. It was a real "how far we've come" moment for me. I didn't buy it because I had no use for it, and now I can't find any references to it anywhere. I suppose its essential uselessness caught up with it, no matter how cool. I wish I'd bought one :(

jpl56 7y ago

Same for me, I used it in the train and it worked pretty fine. It still works today, of course there are no more UHF/VHF channels but I should find a use for the video input.

mzs 7y ago

It could have been the Realistic Pocketvision 22, which I have. Neat aside, it uses the right side of the screen to show which channel is tuned, and you need to scan to find one. https://ebid.s3.amazonaws.com/upload_big/5/9/4/1273863510-9095-0.jpg https://ebid.s3.amazonaws.com/upload_big/5/9/4/1273863510-90...

illegalsmile 7y ago

I had a game gear back in the day with the TV tuner and brought it to camp one summer. Portable TV indeed! We did the same and found that even though it mostly received one solid channel it was too cool not to watch.

pwg 7y ago

Was it, by chance, the Sony Watchman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Watchman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Watchman

pixelbath 7y ago
I picked up one of these at a thrift store recently. While I've still held on to it, I keep struggling to think of a useful project I could use it for that wouldn't be better served by a newer backlit color LCD panel.
jrockway 7y ago
Obligatory eevblog teardown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ENph8sV-0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ENph8sV-0 The engineering is amazing.
- cr0sh 7y ago
  I still think the epitome of 80's "engineering" belonged to Tomy. Their engineers and product designers were mechanical engineering wizards. I personally think they showed absolute mastery of the subject with the release of the Tomy Armatron. It may not seem possible, but that 5 axis robot arm was completely mechanical. The entire drive system was powered by a single 3 volt DC motor that ran on two D-cells. It had two joysticks for control; each had, IIRC, 4-way directional control, along with stick rotation mechanically coupled to a complex transmission system that controlled each axis (I believe the rotation of the stick controlled on one side the jaws of the gripper, while the other controlled rotation of the wrist). It really is the most complex manual transmission control scheme you can imagine. It was built upon years of similarly complex systems for various tabletop "games" (Atomic Pinball, for instance), as well as weird mechanical and electronic systems for their various entertainment robots they created (culminating in the Omnibot robot line). Check it all out if you ever have the chance. Most of these robots have become collectors items (and should be treated as such for the most part), but the Armatron was mass produced and licensed all over the place, with Radio Shack being the main outlet in the day; you can find used RS-licensed Armatrons all over Ebay cheaply. In fact, there's so many RS Armatrons available, you hardly ever see an actual Tomy branded one (if you ever find one, especially NIB, and it's cheap - grab it and hold onto it). There are more than a few articles on the internet detailing how to modify the Armatron to connect it to a computer (back in the day, the common machine to do this with was an Apple or Commodore). Many of these articles have tear-down images showing the inner workings of the Armatron.

djsumdog 7y ago

If you're into this, check out the TechMoan channel on YouTube. He's got a ton of old tech like this, including portable TVs, old portable cassette decks (both consumer and professional), older audio and video formats which never made it to the format wars (some that were very popular in the UK where he lives, but never made it to the US markets), etc.