rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) (07/31/87)
Hi. A couple of months ago, our television's power died, so, for laughs, I hooked up my old green-screen monitor to the VCR. I was amazed at the better quality of the image. LAter I hooked it up to my color monitor, and was *doubly* amazed. Since I'll be going to school in a month (again), and I don't feel like lugging a television, I was wondering if I could get a tuner that would behaving like 1/2 the VCR. I've tried some TV dealers, and no one's every heard of just the tuner-half of the VRC. (Why not the whole VCR, you ask? Becuase I don't want to spend that much money, that's why.) I had thought Radio Shack would be the perfect place to find one, but alas, they never heard of it, either. Thanks, Roger Espinosa ihnp4!ihlpg!rre -- Roger R. Espinosa Live from the Rabbit Ranch ihnp4!ihlpg!rre
gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) (08/02/87)
In article <3561@ihlpg.ATT.COM> rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes: >... I was wondering if I could get a tuner ... Any decent video equipment store will carry component TV tuners. There is nothing magic about the ones in VCRs.
drg@philabs.Philips.Com (Don Gentner) (08/03/87)
In article <3561@ihlpg.ATT.COM>, rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes:
I was wondering if I could get a tuner that would behaving like 1/2 the VCR.
You can get tuners, but they're not much cheaper than VCRs these days.
One possibility is a Sony TU-1110 tuner. It sells for about $150.
Try a professional video dealer or a home video store.
Don Gentner
Philips Laboratories
Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510
(914) 945-6088
email: gentner@philabs.philips.COM
philabs!gentner@seismo.CSS.GOV
{seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!philabs!gentnerschein@cbmvax.UUCP (Dan Schein MAGAZINES) (08/06/87)
(EDITED for space saving :-) In article <1426@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> abr@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Adam B Rosen) writes: >In article <3561@ihlpg.ATT.COM> rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes: >>I was wondering if I could get a tuner that would >>behaving like 1/2 the VCR. I've tried some TV dealers, and no one's >>every heard of just the tuner-half of the VRC. >> > > >TV tuners are not unheard of, nor in short supply, but usually aren't carried >(so far as I can tell) in most retail stores. ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ > >Adam I know that "SERVICE MERCH." (a catalog store (retail chain)) does sell & stock a TV tuner from Magnavox. Price is under 100 (think I remember 75 or 80). So if you dont have access to this chain - you can search stores who carry magnavox stuff. Dan -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Commodore Business Machines | | 1200 Wilson Drive uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|caip}!cbmvax!schein | | West Chester, PA 19380 arpa: cbmvax!schein@seismo.css.GOV | | (215) 431-9384 or schein@cbmvax.UUCP@{seismo|harvard} | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Quote: Those who worked the hardest Gary Ward - Oklahoma State | | are the last to surrender baseball coach | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
halp@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Bruce P. Halpern) (08/08/87)
In article <1502@briar.Philips.Com> drg@philabs.Philips.Com (Don Gentner) writes: >In article <3561@ihlpg.ATT.COM>, rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes: >I was wondering if I could get a tuner that would behaving like 1/2 the VCR. > >You can get tuners, but they're not much cheaper than VCRs these days. >One possibility is a Sony TU-1110 tuner. It sells for about $150. >Try a professional video dealer or a home video store. Computer Direct advertises, the March, 1987 Call A.P.P.L.E., a TV Tuner for $49.95 (plus $3.00 shipping). The tuner is said to list for $130. Its propertiesare said to include dual UHF/VHF switches, mute, auto fine tuning, and computer/TV selector switch. Inputs for 300 and 75 ohm, as well as UHF, are said to be includes. Propospective customers are advised in the ad to call:312-382-5050 (0800-2000 CST, weekdays; 0900-1200, saturday). ***DISCLAMER: Just a reader/reporter. -- | Bruce P. Halpern Psychology & Neurobiology & Behavior Cornell Ithaca | | ARPA: halp@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu | | BITNET: HALP@CRNLTHRY D57J@CORNELLA D57J@CRNLVAX5 | | PHONE: 607-255-6433 Uris Hall, Cornell U., Ithaca, NY 14853-7601 |
dever@bsu-cs.UUCP (Greg Dever) (08/10/87)
In article <3561@ihlpg.ATT.COM>, rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes: > Since I'll be going to school in a month (again), and I don't feel like > lugging a television, I was wondering if I could get a tuner that would > behaving like 1/2 the VCR. I've tried some TV dealers, and no one's > every heard of just the tuner-half of the VRC. > Magnavox has just the beast that you are looking for. It is exactly like a VCR tuner. It has 12 buttons, each of which can be tuned to either a vhf or a uhf station. I think the unit runs for around $50 - $60's at Service Merchandise, however, I got mine straight from Magnavox. Unfortunately the only other place that I have seen a stand alone tuner was in an ad from CARDCO which also promised a remote control version. I think CARDCO's tuners were a little more expensive and might have given you more than 12 stations, but I was able to see the Magnavox tuner in action and was pleased. I hope that this helped you. Happy Motering ? S
flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU (08/10/87)
In article <3561@ihlpg.ATT.COM> rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes: >... I was wondering if I could get a tuner that would >behaving like 1/2 the VCR. ... You can find these marketed to the cable tv crowd as cable converters for people whose TV sets are not cable ready. There are two sorts: block converters, which simply take channels on inaccessible cable channels and move them to UHF, which you DON't want, and actual tuner boxes which you use to select the channel and it sends that channel to your TV on channel 3. Most have remote controls and fine tune. Very few have volume controls, which I should think is something you'd want. I got one from DAK's bargain room for about $50 (which you can't do with mail order), and you will find some listed in DAK's catalog, for about $70-160. From Sears you can get one with volume control that will also decode the closed captions for about $180, and I have seen others advertise cable tuners which include volume controls but don't remember where. You also have to make sure your monitor can be hooked up to the output of one of these.
DISPATCH@NCSUVM.BITNET (08/10/87)
If you hunt around in pawn shops you will probably be able to find
an old Sanyo or like Beta VCR. I have seen these as cheap as
$99.00. If all you want is a tuner, this would probably fit the
bill nicely. If the VCR portion works as well, then all the better.
Hal
drg@philabs.Philips.Com (Don Gentner) (08/11/87)
In article <7660@shemp.UCLA.EDU>, flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU writes: > There are two sorts: > block converters, which simply take channels on inaccessible cable > channels and move them to UHF, which you DON't want, and actual tuner > boxes which you use to select the channel and it sends that channel to > your TV on channel 3. You probably don't want the second kind either, because that just converts everything to channel 3, and most monitors do not have an input for any RF modulated signal including channel 3. Assuming your monitor has only video and audio inputs, you want a tuner that demodulates the TV signal to produce audio and composite video outputs. -- Don Gentner Electronic mail: Philips Laboratories gentner@philabs.philips.COM Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510 philabs!gentner@seismo.CSS.GOV (914) 945-6088 {seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!philabs!gentner
mph@rover.UUCP (Mark Huth) (08/11/87)
>In article <3561@ihlpg.ATT.COM>, rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes: > Since I'll be going to school in a month (again), and I don't feel like > lugging a television, I was wondering if I could get a tuner that would > behaving like 1/2 the VCR. I've tried some TV dealers, and no one's > every heard of just the tuner-half of the VRC. > There has been a lot of netnoise concerning "tuners" that can be connected to the Amiga monitors. Most of the recommendations that I have seen relate to RF to RF types of boxes. These will not work with the Amiga RGB/Composite Monitor (1080?), as there is no way that these cheap little cable boxes produce a composite video (or, drool, RGB) output. The output from the VCR is a composite video output, no RF involved. There are RF to composite boxes available, but one needs to be careful about getting the right thing. These tend to be known as component TV, and are generally not as inexpensive as the cable converters. Mark Huth - I speak for myself seismo!noao!mcdsun!nud!rover!mph
agollum@engr.uky.edu (David Herron aka Admiral Gollum) (08/16/87)
In article <464@rover.UUCP> mph@rover.UUCP (Mark Huth) writes: >>In article <3561@ihlpg.ATT.COM>, rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes: >> [He's looking for a tuner for his monitor] >> >There has been a lot of netnoise concerning "tuners" that can be connected to >the Amiga monitors. Most of the recommendations that I have seen relate to >RF to RF types of boxes. These will not work with the Amiga RGB/Composite >Monitor (1080?), as there is no way that these cheap little cable boxes produce >a composite video (or, drool, RGB) output. The output from the VCR is a >composite video output, no RF involved. There are RF to composite boxes >available, but one needs to be careful about getting the right thing. These >tend to be known as component TV, and are generally not as inexpensive as the >cable converters. > >Mark Huth - I speak for myself Don't listen to this man. These doohickeys being discussed *do* put out composite video (I believe I've seen ads for RGB versions as well)--what good would a tv tuner be if it emitted an RF signal? You'd need a tv to watch it! I saw the one Service Merchandise carries (and which someone else already mentioned)--they had it hooked to a Commodore 1902 monitor--don't remember if it was composite or RGB. Mr. Huth may simply be mistaken in his terminology, but *every* VCR I hav seen emits both RF and composite video--RF through the VHF antenna-out jacks (the way you'd attach it to a TV set), and composite through the RCA jacks (the way you'd atttach it to a monitor or another TV). You don't have to buy an explicitly-marketed "component TV" tuner, though they'll work too. Kenneth Herron
mph@rover.UUCP (Mark Huth) (08/19/87)
In article <1527@ukecc.engr.uky.edu> agollum@ukecc.UUCP (David Herron aka Admiral Gollum) writes: >In article <464@rover.UUCP> mph@rover.UUCP (Mark Huth) writes: >>>In article <3561@ihlpg.ATT.COM>, rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes: >>> [He's looking for a tuner for his monitor] >>> >>There has been a lot of netnoise concerning "tuners" that can be connected to >>the Amiga monitors. Most of the recommendations that I have seen relate to >>RF to RF types of boxes. These will not work with the Amiga RGB/Composite >>Monitor (1080?), as there is no way that these cheap little cable boxes produce >>a composite video (or, drool, RGB) output. The output from the VCR is a >>composite video output, no RF involved. There are RF to composite boxes >>available, but one needs to be careful about getting the right thing. These >>tend to be known as component TV, and are generally not as inexpensive as the >>cable converters. >> >>Mark Huth - I speak for myself > >Don't listen to this man. > >These doohickeys being discussed *do* put out composite video (I believe ^^ some do, some don't - just be careful is all I'm saying. >I've seen ads for RGB versions as well)--what good would a tv tuner >be if it emitted an RF signal? You'd need a tv to watch it! That is precisely the point - many, but not all cable type boxes simply do a block conversion. Those types will not work. > >I saw the one Service Merchandise carries (and which someone else already >mentioned)--they had it hooked to a Commodore 1902 monitor--don't remember >if it was composite or RGB. > > ... >Kenneth Herron Perhaps we could listen more closely to each other and avoid flames over terminaology that is far from universal. For instance, I have a Sony tuner at home that converts RF to the IF frequency. It is very good as a tuner - if what you want is to replace the RF front end of a TV. A tuner is tunable (assuming we speak English). The RF portion is usually a hetrodyne converter of some sort which converts the RF channel to a fixed IF frequency. The IF stages are very frequency selective and produce a modulated signal at a fixed frequency. This signal is then processed by video demodulators, color-burst separators, audio channel demodulators, sync separators, etc. Composite video signals contain baseband luminance (light intensity) chrominance (sp?) (color information) and video sync (timing) information. Of all the stages mentioned above, only the RF hetrodyne front end is actually tunable by the consumer (as opposed to using tuned circuits which are factory aligned). Various products called tuners in the market place may include little or all of the signal processing to produce a demodulated video and audio signal. Disclaimer - while I have tried to be accurate, space prevents a complete treatment of TV signals. Do not attempt to use the above information to construct a television set in you home. Don't try this at home kids - go do some research first. Mark Huth - I speak for myself seismo!noao!mcdsun!nud!rover!mph
brent@pgt1.UUCP (Brent Chivers) (08/20/87)
There's a phone|mail-order company in California called DAK that has
occasionally had tuners in their catalog suitable for use with a
monitor. The latest catalog I recieved from them has such a unit for
about $200. It's rather deluxe, including MTS stereo reception and a
wireless remote control. Send e-mail for more info about tuner or DAK.
--
Brent Chivers
{bellcore|clyde|ulysses|cmcl2|philabs|seismo|allegra}!princeton!pgt1!brent
Princeton Gamma-Tech, Inc 1200 State Rd, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA
Phone 609-924-7310keithe@tekgvs.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson) (08/20/87)
Tuner: an audio device for converting RF to audio. You connect the output to your stereo's preamp. Demodulator: a device for converting RF to baseband video and baseband audio. Connect the video output to a (composite) video monitor, and the audio to either a speaker or an amplifier/speaker system. (If it spits out RGB then it's also a decoder. But is it RY-BY or I-Q?) Caution: (tongue-in-cheek) advertisement ahead. Hit "n" now to bypass it. (I hope this control-L stuff works... :-) ) I'll leave off my signature file to compensate for the space the "ad" takes. - keith. Advertisement: Tektronix sells a demodulator - the IF-to-baseband mainframe is in the catalog for US$14,900 (system M). Oh, you want "channels" (RF-to-IF-to-baseband)? They're another US$3,750 EACH. (Or get the tunable versions: one each for VHF and UHF at US$7,660 per.) All _real_ Amigans will want, and buy, one TODAY!
agollum@engr.uky.edu (David Herron aka Admiral Gollum) (08/22/87)
Okay, you didn't specify that you were talking about specific types of tuners. Since the Service Merchandice catalog came yesterday, let me draw from it and hopefully provide the final word: On page 368, with all the TV's, they list the "Gemini (tm) Remote Cable Converter/Tuner." This is basically a block converter like the one most cable systems use. It provides RF output on channel 3 or 4, so it requires a TV set (or other tuner like a VCR). They are asking $78.84 for it. On page 349, with the computers, they list the "Magnavox 'Component Tuner' Model AV7300." This device has a built-in antenna (and antenna leads, I suppose), 12 station presets, and attaches to "any composite video/audio monitor." The cost is $49.95. If you went into some high-end electronics store and asked for a component tuner, they would show you something with brushed chrome, smoked glass, black case, high price, etc., but it would do the same thing this can: Tune TV channels and provide composite video as an output. The lesson here: When you buy a tuner make sure you know what you're getting--you'll note both of these products call themselves 'tuners.' Also, don't shoot your mouth off when you flame (sorry). Kenneth Herron (Hmm, Commodore PC-10's for $700! :-)
ain@s.cc.purdue.edu (Patrick White) (08/25/87)
Keywords: . [my $.02 worth...] When I looked into the same idea about 6 months ago, I found that the cost of a tuner that would work with the 1080 monitor was nearing the low-end cost of a VCR which would also work as a tuner. I paid the extra money for the VCR. BTW, I think "Crazy Eddie" (in NY) had tuners, but I can't remember the cost. -- Pat White UUCP: s.cc.purdue.edu!ain BITNET: PATWHITE@PURCCVM U.S. Mail: 320 Brown St. apt. 406, West Lafayette, IN 47906