Winegard's battery-powered RCDT09A DTV converter box gets reviewed
by Darren Murph 
posted Oct 3rd 2008 at 4:39PM
battery posts
AT&T U-verse batteries going supernova
by Steven Kim posted Jan 16th 2008 at 8:51AM
AT&T is looking to replace 17,000 backup batteries in U-verse equipment cabinets all over the country over concerns that they can explode. Those are confirmed concerns, too, as there have been four confirmed incidents since October 2006. Explosions have occurred in Houston, Cleveland and Wisconsin; the Wisconsin incident reportedly was strong enough to blow the 50-pound cabinet door off its bolts. The bad news for AT&T is that the battery manufacturer, Avestor, filed for bankruptcy in October 2006 and is no longer in business. What's worse is that a consulting firm hired to examine the first incidents deemed the battery design ok, and chalked up the explosions to "manufacturing defects." So now AT&T has taken it upon itself to spend some big bucks to locate and replace the already-in-service (and obviously widely dispersed) lithium metal polymer batteries.[Via TVOver, image courtesy of LightReading]
EDIT: Spelling error fixed (thanks, Bryce!) and photo credit changed (thanks, Phil!).
PowerVault: Dedicated home theater battery backup
by Matt Burns posted Aug 27th 2007 at 7:29PM
How much would you spend not to miss a second of the Super Bowl or the Final's Game 7? $500 or maybe even up to $5000, but we're having a hard time justifying spending $25k to $30k to have a dedicated home theater battery backup. Then again, generators are loud and dirty, plus they take time to get up and running so a huge battery would be the best solution. That's where the PowerVault comes in. The 95-amp monster provides a dedicated power source for your entire home theater and when we say entire, think amps, projector, lighting and whatever else a theater nut has. The unit can work in conjunction with a generator or solar panel so when those kick in, the PowerVault shuts down. While we could drop $25k on a lot of other home theater gear, this battery backup might be just what you need to guarantee power for the big game. That is of course that your cable line wasn't affected when the power went out or the satellite dish still works during the storm; well, guess you could always pop in a movie and weather the storm that way.
