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bookofjoe

So many for sale on eBay:

https://www.google.com/search?q=ebay+Sony+FX-300+Jackal&oq=e...

I thought they'd be scarcer.

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Back in the 1970's the quality of Japanese goods had just increased tremendously with a huge nationwide quality drive.

These things were built to last.

With analog TV gone almost everywhere (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television_transition#...), you sadly won't be able to use its coolest feature anymore...

Is there any way to convert digital TV signals to analog?

A RasPi with composite output, coupled with an RF modulator should do it. Just don't tell the FCC.

Just for lulz I asked Perplexity Pro R1 AI the same question. It took about 10 seconds to return the following answer:

https://imgur.com/a/ANs82pc

Is there supposed to be something useful in that response? Cause I don't see it.

Well, not being a techie, for me there is: I can do what the AI said and make the conversion but there's no way I could ever follow the — to me inscrutable —recommendations here.

Assuming you're talking about airwave stuff, you would want a HDTV to SDTV converter system and then to pump the output of that into something like the Blonder-Tongue AM60-550 and then amplify the output of that into an antenna.

If you keep the output pretty low and use unsaturated channels in your location you'll probably be fine, but you mess up a little bit and in theory the FTC could knock on your door.

That being said, people use setups like this for art installations with old school tvs all over the place, so it's likely not a big deal as long as you're not setting up a pirate tv station or something

Yeah, as long as the RF modulator and the antenna cable are properly shielded, you should be fine. I mean, back in the 80s almost everyone had a home computer or game console which used RF modulators (all FTC approved of course) to connect to the TV, and the world didn't end either...

I've hacked several old CRT TVs to inject an composite input signal after the RF receiver section. Example, not my page: https://awsh.org/portable-tv-composite-mod/

Here's mine. It runs Linux and streams King Gizzard videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USF4lyVtrLg

VHS decks and tapes are still pretty common, at least in my town.

At the Finger Lakes Reuse Center you can usually get a VHS deck for about $12, tapes for $2. Unlike cassette decks, VHS decks you find in 2025 are close to perfectly reliable [1] too and support VHS HiFi, which makes spectacularly good sound if you have a home theater with Dolby Pro Logic II.

[1] unlike cassette decks

Here is what my screen shows on the Guardian website, 40 minutes after accessing eBay/posting the comment above:

https://imgur.com/a/b9Tzuwd

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