Opening the PS/2 TV
AC to DC Adapter
   Source for Adapter
PS/2 TV, PCTV and WS/TV Comparisons
Install PS/2 TV

   The board is marked as "Easy Motion". Rexon/Techmar had a software package for a unit similar to the PS/2 TV that was called PCTV (Aron sez) "I *think* that PCTV refers to a follow-on product that Techmar (Rexon?) made which was like the PS/2 TV but with some more capabilities."

Anyone have PCTV? 

Opening the PS/2 TV
From Al Savage
  I just happen to have a PS/2 TV PS here. PS is Model JG-24601-N, Part No. 93F1427.  I also just found my Central  dial calipers. (Ed. Cheap trash. Got my Starrett digital Model 721 here) 

Terminal is center positive, as you mentioned. 
OD = .217" = pretty darned close to 5.5mm (.226") 
ID = .080" = pretty darned close to 2.1mm (.085") 

   I pulled the board out to better measure the center pin.  One-way screws affix the chassis cover to the base (yech), but a trip to the hardware store for four 8-32x3/8" SS machine screws fixed that.  I only mention it because if one of you does the same (replace the four "feet" screws) be aware that the screw hole next to the video out socket must have a short screw installed, as the PCB is above it.  I put two 6-32 flat washers under the head of that screw -- I guess I could have fired up the Dremel and shortened the screw a bit; as it was, I had to "thread" the 8-32 screw into the 6-32 FW. It would be an awfully easy way to break the PCB. 

Ed. I was able to start the one way screw with a little moxie and a standard screwdriver, then I switched to my Gerber Multi-Tool and used the pliers to turn the screw out. Note that the foot is made of a resilient plastic. I was able to push the plier's jaws into the foot far enough to get a grip on the screw. 

Scottie, I need Power NOW!
> I got the PS specs from Louis' page (24volts .6 amps) and a link to a vendor.  This vendor has the following 2 close matches: 24volts .5 amps or 24volts .8 amps 
  Which one would you try?  It's probably busted anyway, but I'd hate to kill a PS/2 TV through my own macho ignorance. 

Jim Shorney sez: 
  Go with 24volts .8 amps.  What the spec is telling you is that the PS/2 TV draws a maximum of .6 amps fully loaded.  The .5 amp adapter would be slightly underpowered and may suffer some voltage drop or begin to overheat at full load.  The .8 amp adapter will supply as much (but not more) current as the PS/2 TV wants, with a little bit of safety margin. 

AC / DC Adapter Part Numbers
  No thanks to anyone on this- I dug thru my Jameco catalog myself- "F@" in the description means center positive. 
  You need #168495, 24v DC @ .8A $11.95 (only 70 left) 
  Or #167118, 24v DC @ .75A  $9.95 (600 left) 

Finally! Aron Eisenpress suggests using a #167118, 24v @ 750mA $7.95 plus shipping

NOTE! Center Positive! Center Positive! Center Positive! 

J7 RCA Jacks
   BASEBAND VIDEO-IN AND AUDIO-IN:  A pair A pair of RCA phono jacks are provided for connection of baseband video and audio sources. 

F Connector
   BROADCAST VIDEO-IN CONNECTOR:  An F type coaxial connector is provided for connection of either Cable Television (CATV) or an external antenna (for 75-ohm coaxial cable). 

THE IBM ULTIMEDIA PS/2 TV, REXON/TECMAR PC/TV, AND TECMAR/KODEE WS/TV

   These three tuners are apparently variations on a metal-case unit first marketed by IBM.  IBM applied for Class B certification on 17 February 1992, and the FCC issued ID Number ANO2460 on 20 April 1992.  Tecmar applied for certification of the PC/TV on 18 April 1995 and received FCC ID Number CGC8C2QUEEN on 26 May 1995, but perhaps only because of the parallel port present on the PC/TV but not the PS/2 TV.  The WS/TV was only marketed as a Class A device, but its Installation and User Guide has Kodee Technologies copyrights of 1994 and 1995 and a Sun Microsystems copyright of 1996.

   Each tuner has a wide, deep, low-profile metal case with no external control buttons, knobs, or switches (there is no power switch).  In fact, the front panel only has a standard 0.25 inch headphone jack and either the IBM or Tecmar logo besides the case vents.  All other ports are on the rear, as follows from left to right:

    The PS/2 TV and PC/TV are controlled either directly from the keyboard or by (optional) software operating on an attached PC running DOS, Windows 3.x, or OS/2.  The WS/TV can only be controlled through software (either command-line or Open Look GUI version) running on an attached Sun SPARCStation with a GX, TurboGX, or TurboGXplus frame buffer and SunOS 4.1.3 or later with OpenWindows 3.0 or later.

   All three versions have a 181-channel NTSC TV tuner section and an internal speaker mounted behind the front case vents.  All can show (optional) composite video and mono audio input or provide composite video and mono audio output from the TV tuner section.  Each version also provides picture-in-picture (PIP) TV support, but only at 640x480 resolution in the PS/2 TV and PC/TV versions.  Each version that the Webmaster has seen came with the same IBM-branded AC adapter.

   The PC/TV and WS/TV units both have a parallel port, which apparently was to be used for video capture.  However, the WS/TV Installation and User Guide says this is not supported by the WS/TV.  The Webmaster does not have a manual for the PC/TV, and does not know if the PC/TV software supported the parallel port for any use.

Thanks to Will Ballance for providing the scans! 

I am wondering if there were different versions of the PS/2 TV, as the original instructions do not match the physical layout of the unit I have, marked revision "G". 

Power off, and disconnect power cord. 
Plug PS/2 plug from keyboard into Keyboard In 
Plug PS/2 connector (Keyboard Out) into System Unit Keyboard port. 

Connect Display In (shown as Display Cable) cable to the XGA/XGA-2/VGA video adapter. 
Connect VGA Monitor cable to the Display Out (P4) connector. 
Plug CATV cable connector onto the F connector. 

HIGHLIGHTS 
o   Enables television or VCR /video disc player to be viewed
o   Displays in full screen mode or PIP mode on a standard PS/2 display 
o   Simple KB sequences control color, tint, picture location, volume. 
o   Video-out capability allows recording of received video to a VCR 
o   Speaker and headphone jack included (expansion slot not required) 
o   Video window overlay of existing applications without software  modification 

BUSINESS SOLUTIONS 
The PS/2 TV provides an opportunity for exciting new business solutions by allowing users to combine the functions of a television or other video source and a PS/2.  The PS/2 TV enables solutions for work environments where outside information from all-news networks, security cameras or educational broadcasts is advantageous. 
       The PS/2 TV contains a 181-channel cable-ready TV tuner that accepts NTSC broadcast video signals from a cable TV source or antenna.  PS/2 TV can also accept standard baseband video input from a VCR, video disc player or video camera. 
       The PS/2 TV also has video out-capability, which allows the user to record the incoming video signal to a VCR. 

Picture-In-Picture (PIP)
       Full motion video can be presented on a standard PS/2 color display as either a full screen display or a fixed-size Picture-in-Picture (PIP).  The PIP image size is fixed at 154 lines high; the horizontal size is adjusted to maintain proper aspect ratios, depending on display mode.  This results in a fixed window of approximately one-ninth of the screen.  The PIP location can be relocated to any position on the screen. 

       The PS/2 TV is packaged in an external enclosure that can be positioned under the display in most user environments.  This enclosure contains a speaker (Ed. very cheesy mount- it's cardboard!!), headphone jack and power-on LED indicator.  No system unit expansion slot is required. 
       The PS/2 TV operates by intercepting keyboard and display commands.  These PS/2 components are cabled to the PS/2 TV unit first, then cabled to the proper destination.  The keyboard is cabled to the PS/2 TV as an input and then cabled to the system unit as an output from the PS/2 TV.  The display cable from the system unit is cabled to the PS/2 TV as an input and then cabled to the PS/2 display as an output.  Video and audio inputs are cabled directly to the PS/2 TV unit. 
       Cables to connect the PS/2 TV to the PS/2 system unit and display are provided with the PS/2 TV unit.  Connectors are provided on the rear panel of the PS/2 TV unit for connection of the video/audio inputs and outputs.  Cables for these connections must be provided by the customer. 

   These cards work by a method called "switch on black". First, the output of your graphics card is passed thru the video card via the vga options
connnector (standard on all vgas an compatibles). The video card creates
a full picture signal that is the same size and is "in sync" with the
graphics card output. This is where the limitations come in. The video 
card must be able to produce a picture resolution that matches the size
and frequency of your graphics card output (hence the common limitation
about running with high resolution graphics).
   Then, everywhere the graphics picture is BLACK the video is switched on. This could be part or all of the screen. So theorectically, all you would
need do is arrange to paint the whole screen black and enable the video card.
   For instance, you could use a dead black background for the desktop, and 
it would appear that you had TV for wallpaper (this is PROVIDING that the
video card is properly set up before you enter os/2, enabled with a full
screen picture). How you now get the "video in a window" is the trick. The "video in a window" program does two things. First, it draws a window, with frame and controls, WITH A DEAD BLACK INTERIOR. Thus, the video will show in the window. Then, it talks to the video card and tells it how to scale and place the video picture so that it just happens to lie wherever the window drawn
happens to be.

At comdex there were a couple of outfits that claimed to do video in a window. Two of these supported resulutions up to 1280x1024 at fast refresh rates (but then they were not cheap either).

Key Control Sequences
   The PS/2 TV unit may be controlled using simple keyboard sequences to adjust video and audio attributes. Controlling the PS/2 TV in this manner does not require the installation of any software.  The operations are independent of the operating system installed..  These sequences instruct the PS/2 TV unit (which has its own micro-controller) to alter any of the following audio/video characteristics: 
o   Channels available for reception 
o   Channel selection Use Page Up and Page Down, or use the typewriter number keys 
o   Video source (Antenna / Cable)
o   Audio Source 
o   Volume Use the + and - keys 
o   Mute Use the End key to turn sound on and off. 
o   Tint 
o   Brightness 
o   Contrast 
o   Color 
o   Picture-in-Picture location. 
o   View Mode Use Home to switch between Full Screen and PIP mode. 

       Software programs shipped with the PS/2 TV allow the user to set up or adjust these same attributes through menu selections as a concurrent application under OS/2 (R) or Microsoft (2) Windows (3) 3.0 

Al Savage wrote:
   The OS/2 installation is designed for OS/2 v1.3 & v2.0.  Under Warp4 
FP13, the installer program will not copy the necessary files from the 
driver diskette, but it kindly lists the files, one at a time, that it fails to copy, so you can easily do it manually.  There are only about seven files necessary for the OS/2 application.  LIBPATH must be updated, one driver load line must be added to the CONFIG.sys, IOPL has to be set to "yes", and if you want to run the app in a DOS session, a virtual device driver load line must be added.  That's all very well documented in the README, better than usual.

The driver loads without complaint.  Typical of OS/2 applications, even 
apps written for a version of the OS that was three major revisions ago,
it just runs.

   Unfortunately, the OS/2 app (PSTVOS2 .exe), invoked from the desktop OR from a full-screen OS/2 command prompt session, will ONLY run with the *desktop* in 640x480 mode, period, so I can't make use of the OS/2 app's extended features.  It's a PM app, and if invoked from a command prompt, switches to the WPS to pop up a dialog to tell you that it can't run.  Sigh.  I won't change back to 640x480 just to watch TV, it ain't worth it.
   The DOS modules, running under OS/2, cannot communicate with the PS/2 TV.  This might be for any of a variety of reasons (for example, it could be the OmniView that's between the TV and the computer), but I haven't chased it down, and probably won't.
   My desktop runs at 1024x768.  The TV *can* be invoked from the desktop using the keyboard sequence (<Ctrl><Num><Num>) and the OSD shifts the monitor to 31.5 khz (apparently), and the TV can be viewed in full-screen mode (only) by that invocation.  

   If you have the video mode already in 31.5khz/VGA/640x480 when you 
invoke the TV, you can also choose to have TV display in PIP overlay, 
about 1/9th size, which on a 19" monitor is actually pretty useful.  
Unfortunately, again, when watching TV (full screen or PIP), you cannot 
*do* anything else.  The keyboard is dedicated to controlling the TV 
tuner when the TV is displayed.  

The sound from the tiny speaker mounted in cardboard is surprisingly 
good.  Video quality on the tuned-in stations is good.

Steve Whiffen pipes up with:
PS/2 TV works in dos and in Win95.  Has nifty see-thru window utility in 'doze 95 which I suspect is working from its intent for 3.1.  Anyway, I'm happy.  It does pic in pic, too.

   When the PS/2 TV is active, the keyboard is temporarily disconnected from your applications; it is dedicated to the PS/2 TV unit for any settings and adjustments.  To remove the PS/2 TV onscreen displays (and re-establish the keyboard to PS/2 connection and control), press the Esc key.  The onscreen displays will disappear and you will be back in PC mode.