24 Oct
2003
24 Oct
'03
5 a.m.
I have four Timex Sinclair micros sitting in my
basement and I've been
thinking about turning one (or more) into the world's slowest
"franken-laptop" using one of those portable LCD TVs that seem to be
on sale at every second-hand store & pawn shop for $10-$20.
Has anyone had any experiences in the quality of the TV tuner in
these portables? Will I have to keep re-tuning it every 10 minutes
or should I look for one with some method of locking into a channel?
(or are they too fussy to bother with?)
How about screen resolution? Will I be able to make out the 32 characters
per line on such a tiny screen?
I have an old Casio one, and it sucks... at least as a TV. But then, for
what I expected from it, its actually really good... if that makes sense.
I had low expectations when I bought it years ago, what I wanted it for
was to kill time while sitting in a car in a parking lot for 12 hours a
day. For that, it worked great. But, it was about the level I expected...
crappy resolution, tiny screen, and almost no reception. Its a 2.5"
screen model, and if that is the size you are looking at, then I don't
think there is any way you can use it for a computer. You can't make out
any real details on the TV, so I would expect that you won't be able to
read jack squat as a computer screen. Also, every time I turn the Casio
on, it starts the tuning of the channels back at the begining, and there
is no way to fine tune a channel. You press the channel up or down
buttons and it scrolls until it finds something other than static then
stops. You get whatever it deems a channel, and nothing more.
BUT, I have also used a portable LCD screen that was meant for a
Playstation and the likes. This doesn't have a TV tuner, and is a 5"
screen with MUCH better resolution. It uses standard NTSC composite input
for video (RCA connector), and RCA connectors for Audio. I have it hooked
up as the monitoring screen for a closed circuit video recording system.
I personally have been rather impressed with it considering I bought it
new for $60. VCR on screen displays are fully readable on it, so I would
think your 32 characters per line would be fine (I've never counted, but
my guess is the VCR OSD text is at least 32 cpl). The only downside I can
see is this screen doesn't accept battery power. It does have a power
pass thru that lets you piggy back it to the game system it was designed
for (which I think was actually a Dreamcast, but I don't recall). And it
came with a 12 volt car adaptor for powering the screen and game system.
I know when I bought it, there were other models, and IIRC there were
some that took batteries. I bought mine specifically because it fit the
exact needs I had for it, and battery power wasn't one of the items on my
list.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>