Game Gear t.v. tuner worthless?

[8bitCaged]

With all t.v . becoming digital in February of 2009 (in the USA) will the Game Gear t.v. tuner work? and if it dose not work will it be worth anything or should sell mine before it gets to be worthless. because who is going to buy a t.v. tuner that dose not work?

PS this is my 100th post.

[Tupin]

Yes, it will be useless because it uses a strictly analog signal and I doubt they would make a converter.

[Sniderman]

Huh, guess I never really thought about it. So ANY portable TV that uses an antenna-based receiver is gonna be useless once the conversion occurs? That's a shame. I have a portable black and white battery-powered TV/radio that I have in my camping gear that will be a big-ass radio only in a few months. :(

[Tupin]

Huh, guess I never really thought about it. So ANY portable TV that uses an antenna-based receiver is gonna be useless once the conversion occurs? That's a shame. I have a portable black and white battery-powered TV/radio that I have in my camping gear that will be a big-ass radio only in a few months. :(
Yeah, there are a few portable TVs that will go through the change just fine, but the ones that use antenna like the one for the Game Gear or TurboExpress will be useless.

[tom]

Just connect your Jaguar to it and go, woooha, AvP running on my Game Gear

[Flashback2012]

This would apply for the Turbo Express' TV Tuner as well. :grumble:
Speaking of digital broadcasts, I need to get off my duff and pick up one of those converter boxes (not that I watch that much TV to begin with ;) )

[SegaAges]

From what I was told, if you have Cox, they are doing all of the conversion stuff on their end, so you don't need to buy a box. I could be wrong, but that is what I picked up from the commercials.

[Daft Punk]

It's only for high power tv stations . Low power stations are not required to convert to digital.So some might still work but it would be extremely hit or miss.

[FantasiaWHT]

Daft Punk stole my comment. I'm not sure where the cutoff is, but I imagine that some local non-affiliated TV stations might squeeze by the cutoff requirements. Yay for public access!

[Daft Punk]

Daft Punk stole my comment.
haha yup I can see the future ;)

[Eric Dude]

If it makes you feel any better, I'd say it's been worthless for long time now.

[PapaStu]

It's ok. Really. So many of those shipped non-working it wasn't funny. My tuner, out of the box wouldn't pick up any channel below 8 (and at the time all of our affiliate channels were below 8), I know others that wouldn't pick up the UHF band either. They just didn't work all that well, I think we'll be ok in the long run.

[demen999]

I was thinking of picking one of these up the other day at the DP store, more for collecting tho. I already thought it was abit worthless as a tech device anyways.

[skaar]

Get yourself the master system converter - far more useful!

[demen999]

^^ Whats that for?

[zektor]

Well, I am sure some local (underground maybe) TV stations will still be broadcasting in analog well after Feb 2009. It will be interesting to see what happens. Might want to hang on to an analog source afterall!

[FxMercenary]

everything will work fine, antenna stations are going off-air, thats all. As long as your tv has a screw-on coax cable jack, your stuff will work forever. If in the future they start making TVs without the screw-on jack, you are out of luck. Just keep a tv around with one.

Now would be a good time to go buy a nice tube tv with a curved surface screen, they are all over craigslist.

Retail electronics stores are duping people into thinking they need a new tv. Tvs from the 70s 80s and 90s will continue to work just fine.

[Jorpho]

As long as your tv has a screw-on coax cable jack, your stuff will work forever.Um, generally you have to pay for cable service - so your stuff will work forever as long as you don't mind shelling out $30-$40 every month. Otherwise you either do without TV or make do with what you can download.


^^ Whats that for?Playing Master System cartridges on the Game Gear. Ironic, huh?

[Pantechnicon]

It will work for over-the-air if you don't mind being tethered down to a DTV converter box, or if you live on an Indian reservation and your favorite programming is related to religion, Spanish language or home shopping. Those types of stations will run on analog forever.

[kedawa]

The Game Gear TV tuner will still be somewhat usefull because of its AV in feature.

[demen999]

Um, generally you have to pay for cable service - so your stuff will work forever as long as you don't mind shelling out $30-$40 every month. Otherwise you either do without TV or make do with what you can download.

Playing Master System cartridges on the Game Gear. Ironic, huh?

Ha ha definitely...but now I want one.
THANKS!

[kedawa]

I used to have one called the Master Gear Convertor. It worked beautifully, and even used the region code of the GG to select the region of the game. In my domestic GG, all games were in english, but on my friends import GG, many SMS games had japanese text and Sega Mark III splash screens.

[tom]

Game Gear Master Converter:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c173/thomasholzer/SegaGameGear.jpg

I just realised, Sega spelled 'colour' the 'right' (proper) way. Good for Sega, very bad Nintendo (Game Boy color) as usual (and Atari Lynx).

[megasdkirby]

Can you use the Digital Converter box?

BTW, use a smaller pic, tom. :)

[Tupin]

It will work for over-the-air if you don't mind being tethered down to a DTV converter box, or if you live on an Indian reservation and your favorite programming is related to religion, Spanish language or home shopping. Those types of stations will run on analog forever.
Yeah, there are some stations that just won't ever switch over because it would cost to much.

Not that there is anything good on what I usually pick up without Cable, but I would like to own one. It will depend largely upon where you live.

Oh, and is Japan planning to make the switch soon? Because they have a TV Tuner for the DS. As far as using a converter box, I'm pretty sure the connections are proprietary. I'm probably wrong, though.

[rbudrick]

Yeah, there are some stations that just won't ever switch over because it would cost to much.

Not that there is anything good on what I usually pick up without Cable, but I would like to own one. It will depend largely upon where you live.

Oh, and is Japan planning to make the switch soon? Because they have a TV Tuner for the DS. As far as using a converter box, I'm pretty sure the connections are proprietary. I'm probably wrong, though.

If you buy a Digital to analog converter box for your GGTV adapter, you'l be fine, HAH!

Actually, could that work if you removed the antenna and plugged one of those boxes in between?

-Rob

[kedawa]

The convertor box could just output to the AV in.

[cyberfluxor]

From what I was told, if you have Cox, they are doing all of the conversion stuff on their end, so you don't need to buy a box. I could be wrong, but that is what I picked up from the commercials.
COX and many of the other big cable companies have extensions from the FCC and permission to convert the digital stations to analog and broadcast it along the fiber as they do now. This will only be for 3 years though unless they extend it further.

[Pantechnicon]

Pics or it didn't happen, right?

Game Gear connected to DTV receiver via coaxial cable. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2stZ4nyGae4)

Game Gear connected to DTV receiver via A/V input. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAXFfk14c54)

A/V gives a marginally clearer picture than RF/Coax.

First next-gen handheld that integrates a DTV receiver will be a little cash printing machine for whomever puts it out first.

[MarioMania]

Will the price go down after Feb. or will it be the same

[8bitCaged]

Pics or it didn't happen, right?

Game Gear connected to DTV receiver via coaxial cable. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2stZ4nyGae4)

Game Gear connected to DTV receiver via A/V input. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAXFfk14c54)

A/V gives a marginally clearer picture than RF/Coax.

First next-gen handheld that integrates a DTV receiver will be a little cash printing machine for whomever puts it out first.

that was funny I would love to see a 360 or a ps3 hooked up to a game gear

[exit]

One would assume that analog would still be used if some kind of disaster occurs. It's pretty silly if they completely cut of analog because when a hurricane occurs, the power goes out and more than likely the cable will be out too. So you'd think they would have emergency analog stations for this occasion, but then again....

[demen999]

One would assume that analog would still be used if some kind of disaster occurs. It's pretty silly if they completely cut of analog because when a hurricane occurs, the power goes out and more than likely the cable will be out too. So you'd think they would have emergency analog stations for this occasion, but then again....

Hmm I never thought of that. As much as I love anything digital, analog has its place, especially if it can help out in a emergency situation.

[jb143]

Hmm I never thought of that. As much as I love anything digital, analog has its place, especially if it can help out in a emergency situation.

One of the excuses they gave for moving to digital was so they can free up bandwith for emergency use. Aparently durring Sept. 11 there was a big problem with emergency radio communication since there were so many radios in use.

[FantasiaWHT]

Um, I don't think there's any reason that a portable tv that can pick up a digital signal can't be made. The digital signal is still being sent and received via antenna.

[Greg2600]

The freed bandwidth will be used or leased for emergency and other wireless areas. As for a disaster, digital transmission would be used in the same way as analog. If the past, if the power goes out, what good is analog transmission? Digital? You'd use a battery operated radio if anything. That Cox exemption is irrelevant, because that is not over the air. The only exemptions are for low power analog stations, which don't go very far.

I still have an old Radioshack signal sender, which is from the mid-80's. Technically I can plug AV from a box and have that send a VHF/UHF signal say if I wanted to watch something on my old little portable television out on the pool deck or whatever. Back then, we used it when we had one VCR only. My father would send the VCR feed over to the spare room's TV, so we could watch a tape, and he could watch cable in the living room. I do not believe those devices have been made or sold by Radioshack in many years. They might be illegal now.

[Tupin]

Okay, what exactly do you have to do to hook up a Game Gear Tuner to a converter box?

Do you just the wire directly into it, or something. Also, can it still be changed without using the remote for the TV?

[Pantechnicon]

Okay, what exactly do you have to do to hook up a Game Gear Tuner to a converter box?

Did you watch the videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAXFfk14c54) I posted last night? It's pretty self-explanatory, assuming you have all the correct hookups for the GG TV Tuner. "Correct hookups" means one or both of the following:

1. One of these (http://cgi.ebay.com/3.5MM-MALE-AUDIO-STEREO-JACK-2-FEMALE-RCA-CABLE-ADAPTER_W0QQitemZ220303814679QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ 20081031?IMSfp=TL081031103006r38072) if you want to use the A/V input option.

2. One that has a 3.5mm headphone jack on one side and a female coaxial end like this (http://www.hobbysat.com/images/RG6%20Connectors/3%20GHz%20microwave%20F-81%20Female%20to%20Female%20adapter%20connector%20 Large.jpg) on the other. (Couldn't find a pic but trust me it exists.

Plug whichever cable adapter you're using into the appropriate hole on the GG TV tuner and turn it on. Ba da booyah.


Also, can it still be changed without using the remote for the TV?

Channels can be changed on the DTV tuner with the buttons on the base unit, yes. But if you're talking about being able to use the GG tuner to change channels, the answer is no. Those channels are tuned with a dial which is, by definition, analog tuning. The only components of the Game Gear that you're utilizing in this case are the display and the power. The tuner acts as nothing but a pass-through for an incoming video signal. If you go the coax route, changing the channel on the GG will take you off whatever VHF channel your DTV is set to output to (3 or 4). You'll be looking at snow. Using the A/V connection disables the GG channel tuner completely.

Basically it's a fun trick that's amusing for five minutes, but the relatively poor quality of the GG display makes it completely impractical for serious use like this.

[Jorpho]

I still have an old Radioshack signal sender, which is from the mid-80's. Technically I can plug AV from a box and have that send a VHF/UHF signal say if I wanted to watch something on my old little portable television out on the pool deck or whatever. Back then, we used it when we had one VCR only. My father would send the VCR feed over to the spare room's TV, so we could watch a tape, and he could watch cable in the living room. I do not believe those devices have been made or sold by Radioshack in many years. They might be illegal now.Sounds expensive. I know there used to be similar devices for FM radios, but I haven't seen one in a while. Are they still around? (I was thinking it could be used as part of a cheap wireless microphone.)

[Tupin]

The freed bandwidth will be used or leased for emergency and other wireless areas. As for a disaster, digital transmission would be used in the same way as analog. If the past, if the power goes out, what good is analog transmission? Digital? You'd use a battery operated radio if anything. That Cox exemption is irrelevant, because that is not over the air. The only exemptions are for low power analog stations, which don't go very far.

I still have an old Radioshack signal sender, which is from the mid-80's. Technically I can plug AV from a box and have that send a VHF/UHF signal say if I wanted to watch something on my old little portable television out on the pool deck or whatever. Back then, we used it when we had one VCR only. My father would send the VCR feed over to the spare room's TV, so we could watch a tape, and he could watch cable in the living room. I do not believe those devices have been made or sold by Radioshack in many years. They might be illegal now.
They still sell them at Radio Shack, but they are like $150.

[Daria]

I still have an old Radioshack signal sender, which is from the mid-80's. Technically I can plug AV from a box and have that send a VHF/UHF signal say if I wanted to watch something on my old little portable television out on the pool deck or whatever. Back then, we used it when we had one VCR only. My father would send the VCR feed over to the spare room's TV, so we could watch a tape, and he could watch cable in the living room. I do not believe those devices have been made or sold by Radioshack in many years. They might be illegal now.

We had a similar set-up when I was a kid. One night my dad found my brother awake watching cable, so he recorded a video of himself telling my brother to go to bed. Startled the shit out of him when played it over the signal. :P

[aaron7]

heh yah I had a vid of my brother playing Guitar Hero on my Game Gear :p