I wanted to buy a portable Digital TV tuner for a recent coach journey. I had booked a West End Weekend Theatre trip, which, through rank bad planning, happenned to clash with Aston Villa finally getting to a Cup final for the 1st time in 10 years! I therefore badly needed access to a TV, to catch the action as we travelled back.
Finally plumped for this little bad boy as (1) It looked pretty stylish (2) It was by a respected brand (3) It was also a portable DVD player and (4) It advertised a 5 hour built-in rechargable battery life.
Have got to say that I am extremely pleased with this. Everyone I have shown it to has cast an envious look towards it. The picture quality is excellent - I think this is the same portable DVD player as the
Sony DVPFX730L 7-inch Portable DVD Player - Blue which is 5 star rated in its reviews, but this model has the added bonus of a freeview digital tuner included.
I first tuned the tv in at home, downstairs, using the small indoor aerial supplied, and was not expecting much, but it picked up about 20 odd channels very easily - I went upstairs and tried again and this time it picked up the full range of over 40 freeview channels, all with an excellent picture, plus radio channels.
On the move, travelling down the motorway in the coach it was not quite as impressive, it picked up some channels with difficulty for the first and last 30 minutes of my journey, but nothing for the intervening hour or so - this time the picture (on BBC1) (when I could get one) was also prone to constant break up and pixelating - I understand that this problem would be the same for all digital tv receivers, however, as the picture will be dependant upon the strength and quality of the freeview signal received, which can be picked up in any one place. This will probably improve once the Digital switchover rolls out UK wide, and the signal gets stronger.
I was not too concerned in any event (as the Villa lost anyway!), but I am still extremely impressed with this bit of gadgetry and would recommend this to anyone. The Battery life I felt was probably closer to 4 hrs than 5 hours, but this was still extremely good, and probably the best on the market to date. You can also insert a USB device or memory stick into the player for viewing photos, playing MP3's etc, but I have not tested this aspect of the player yet.