I don't think software-defined radio is an option for the consumer market here. You'd have to have one signal chain for AM/FM (albeit with some differences) and one for the TV sound tuning and decoder. The AM/FM circuitry is quite different from the TV circuitry. Third, the AM/FM/TV sound radio would be an expensive beast. Second, given the complexity and topology of the digital TV tuner and TV decoder, the audio-only option is probably as complex as the complete video/audio one, so the savings would be minimal. First, there's probably little demand for it. Furthermore, there are various web streaming possibilities - some legal and some perhaps not so legal.īut the lack of a TV sound-only radio band made me wonder: Why not? I have several possible explanations. Unfortunately, the batteries are good for only a few hours of operation, because these things draw a lot of current. I guess you could buy a small, battery-powered digital TV for around $75 and just cover the screen. Losing this kind of radio isn't a big deal. Plus, in the end, you'd still need an AC line for the converter, so you haven't solved the portable/emergency power aspect of the problem. The whole thing seems like a lot of work, and it's certainly not something the average person would be willing to do.
Also, I don't know if the audio output from the box can drive a speaker, since it is intended as a line-out connection to an amplifier. Ironically, you would first have to connect the converter box to a TV to configure it to your local channels and set some other parameters.
One commenter said that, if you really need or want a TV-only radio, you should just get a digital TV converter box (about $50) and hook up its audio output jacks to a speaker. Certainly, none of the top-tier radio vendors had one. There were a few posts about radios that supposedly carried AM/FM/digital TV sound, but there were no specs and no pricing, so maybe they didn't exist. I did some searching on the web and came up empty. I thought that was a good question from a technical standpoint. Recently, though, I happened to come across an online discussion where someone wondered if digital TV-band sound radios were even available. It was one of those purchases that seemed like a good idea at the time. Frankly, it was no big deal, because I wasn't using it much anyway. The switchover to digital TV a few years back made my radio's TV sound band useless. Many TV shows - whether alleged comedies, drama, news, or talking heads - are primarily audio events. The other reason was that it was a handy way to keep an ear on shows when watching a TV set was impractical or would look bad to others or when I didn't want to be distracted by the picture. The ostensible reason I had it was that it would be good in case of some emergency, so I could follow the news and updates even if AC power (and my TV) were out. I have always had a few battery-powered AM/FM radios around, but I also had a special radio that had a third band for TV sound (VHF only, channels 2-13). The reason I want this on Planet Analog is twofold: one is that Bill Schweber's blogs are most informative, educational, entertaining and great tech pieces, and two is that Bill Schweber refers to this particular article in a new Analog Angle blog here on Planet Analog. Editor's note by Steve Taranovich : We are bringing you a lost article from The Connecting Edge site written by Bill Schweber, that used to be run by Martin Rowe.
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