Well, get ready to see the picture on your set go dark -- forever.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that current battery-powered TVs will likely not be able to display new digital signals when the nation switches to Digital TV on February 17, 2009.
Like other analog sets, your portable TV would need a digital converter box to convert the digital signals to analog so you could continue to watch television. However, it appears that no one is making a portable converter box that would operate with current portable TVs.
"We haven't seen a good, quick fix for portable TVs," Megan Pollock, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association, told the Dispatch. "I think between now and the (digital transition) deadline, we'll see more affordable digital sets that will just replace those."
The newspaper notes that digital converters now on the market would eliminate the portability of the portable set because they must be plugged into the wall.
Portable TV owners do have one option, though: They could ditch their current portable set and buy a battery-powered Digital TV, which costs around $200.
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