TVs with analog PAL tuners

[TheKrell]

You know, I thought of another unused TV that I could try. It's a portable with a 7" screen which IIRC could tune both ATSC and NTSC. I never used it after an extended hurricane-induced power failure which killed all the TV in the house. (It came with a car charger.) I might get lucky and discover it can also render PAL...

So much for my memory. This portable TV was ATSC-only. I can't even get the built-in antenna off in order to connect up a coax.

 

[Foxbat]

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That’s assuming the output from the Knit King is PAL composite video, of course. If it’s RF then you’ll need a tuner that handles UK broadcast frequencies. And that brings into question your description of the “3/4” label on the switch on the Knit King. The frequencies used for UK PAL analog broadcasts don’t really match up with our NTSC channel numbers. Here’s a page I found that lists the UK channels and frequencies:

UHF channel and frequency guide

UHF tuning frequencies

www.digitalspy.com

 

[Juan]

Stupid question

Have you tried youtube for an instructional video?
Its unbelievable what you might find there

 

[TheKrell]

That’s assuming the output from the Knit King is PAL composite video, of course. If it’s RF then you’ll need a tuner that handles UK broadcast frequencies. And that brings into question your description of the “3/4” label on the switch on the Knit King. The frequencies used for UK PAL analog broadcasts don’t really match up with our NTSC channel numbers.

I know for a fact that my Cielo detects either channel 3 or 4 (depending upon that switch position) just fine, and I also know that the screen is blank w/no sound. Does it really make sense to try running the output into a composite input instead of a tuner?

It's plausible to me that my memory is faulty and the Cielo doesn't have an NTSC tuner; that would cause the blank screen as well. But online people are talking about using these PAL tuner sticks so I think it's PAL that is the problem.

 

[TheKrell]

Well, I thought I'd update everybody on the state of my Knit King PPD (programmer) that came from the UK. I bought a USB tuner/adapter that an American lady got working: an ATI TV Wonder HD750 which comes with a host of little adapters and a dinky antenna, as well as Arcsoft TotalMedia 3.5. I struggled for a long time (an hour?) installing the drivers on a W10 laptop. Then I spent hours more installing TotalMedia. (The installer was being prevented from running by W10.) After all that strain and pain, TotalMedia claimed it could not find a compatible adapter!

So I gave up on that W10 laptop and went to my handy/dandy W7 desktop and the software installed right away without errors, ran fine, found and controlled the adapter, and I see it works fine for local ATSC channels. The TV Wonder has an analog tuner as well, and it's an international version with about 20 different video standards that I could choose. The American lady who got this working said hers, like my wife's Knit King has a selector switch for channels 3 or 4, and it uses the PAL standard. I can scan for NTSC signals, or PAL signals, and see either channel 3 or channel 4 being sent out from the Knit King. But in no case, no matter which of about 6 or 8 PAL standards, do I actually see a picture. All I see is noise somewhat like snow.

I conclude that my TV Wonder TV tuner/adapter is working, but the Knit King PPD is semi-defunct. What a waste of time and money.

 

[navychop]

Thanks for the update.

I threw away my TV Wonders many years ago, when I started watching HD on a TV and not a PC. It was a good cheap way to see HD etc in the early days.

 

[TheKrell]

It was a good cheap way to see HD etc in the early days.

Yup; and it's a great way to record, using the OTA guide, and play it anywhere that can play an MPEG-2 program stream. Our Hoppers sometimes lack a correct guide, and you can't pull the recordings out of the Dish ecosystem and watch them on anything else.