Portable LCD TVs with ATSC tuners

The Accurian 7" portable TV works well with only a few quirks. The pole type antenna won't receive very well, so you need to hook it up another antenna. This is easy with the supplied adapter, and the Radio Shack 15-1868 indoor antenna works well on VHF and UHF. It is supplied with an F-connector on the antenna and a cable for hookup.


The Accurian has an internal lithium polymer battery that will run it for about two hours. It is also supplied with a 12 volt car cord, which works fine. It has an AC adapter to both power the unit and charge the internal battery. The unit is supplied with a remote control and an A/V cable for the A/V input.


There are a few minor software quirks, but basically the unit works very well, and will receive all Houston ATSC stations with the indoor antenna.


I have owned it for over six months, and find it very handy. I bought it shortly after hurricane Ike.


I am a Contributing Editor at Widescreen Review magazine who usually reviews high end home theater projectors.


Other units will hopefully be available in the future, but at the present, this is the best unit I know of that is readily available.



Quote:
Originally Posted by billcushman /forum/post/16385186


The Accurian 7" portable TV works well with only a few quirks. The pole type antenna won't receive very well, so you need to hook it up another antenna.

Click to expand...

Yeah that seems to be the problem with all of them. Kind of jeopardizes their name "portable".

Quote:
I am a Contributing Editor at Widescreen Review magazine who usually reviews high end home theater projectors.

Click to expand...

Do you guys ever review these types of DTV's?


Thanks for the info.

OK, a 7" "Digital Prism" LCD ATSC portable is on sale at CVS for $99 (!!) if you have a CVS card, which I do. Here's a picture from their ad:




Anyone ever hear of this brand? From the picture, it looks nearly identical in appearance to the Haier model you can find on Amazon and other places.


$99 is too low to pass up, because I really, really need a portable ATSC set I can use in the car (it includes a car charger) when I visit nearby markets...

I agree $99 is too good to pass up..I'm in for 1..at least!

I found some great cheap once at amazon,



Quote:
Originally Posted by Inundated /forum/post/16519367


OK, a 7" "Digital Prism" LCD ATSC portable is on sale at CVS for $99 (!!) if you have a CVS card, which I do.

Click to expand...

Office Depot has it on sale this week at $89.99.


My trouble is that I bought one last night at CVS for $99.99 (Inundated rounded the price down) and opened it to look at it, but not yet to try it, only to learn about Office Depot's sale today.  I can't bring the one from Office Depot back to CVS for a refund, because the packaging is different and they'll know it's not the one I bought there.  Office Depot will not take back an opened package, only exchange it (they will give a refund if it's unopened).  CVS might take back an opened box, though; I'm going to need to try it out first and see if I even like it at all.


One plus for some of us: it has a QAM tuner.


As one of the earlier posters said, the single-pole, no-loop antenna included with it doesn't look very useful, so you would need another antenna with it, but any portable digital-tuner TV will need an antenna, whether it comes in the package or not.

I went ahead and went to CVS and bought one...I'm watching it right now.


Nice little set.


It does indeed have a QAM tuner, which I'm using at the moment. The only pain in the whole thing is removing the scrambled channels from the list. Via TWC/Cleveland, I've got HD and SD versions of all the available locals, and whichever subs TWC actually carries from them (i.e. the former WeatherPlus on WKYC-DT 3.2, the WVIZ-DT 25.x subs like The Ohio Channel, Create, etc.)...and even an occasional channel like Sleuth and Style (?).


I don't know if those "hidden" channels I checked will still be hidden if I go back to OTA reception. I'd have to have to recheck that long list of some 200 channels each time I want to hook to cable!


Better PQ than the old Insignia 5" I bought from Best Buy - the screen on that one was destroyed by water damage, so I can't use it anyway.


I haven't hooked up an OTA antenna here, but I played with it when I was at the CVS... but I was in a bad reception location re: the local antenna farm, about 15 miles further way southwest of where I live. I wasn't expecting much. I did get the DT OTAs in that general area (WDLI-DT 17.1-17.5, WEAO-DT 49.1-49.2), which are about 5 miles up the road.


Oh, I was in a car behind a grassy hill and a tree.


I don't expect these small TVs to perform as well as a Zenith DTT901 CECB. But if I wanna take the Zenith along, this set has *standard*, built-in RCA yellow/red/white video/audio jacks on it. That's right, no dongle!


Still playing with the picture settings for best picture. It has brightness/contrast/tint, etc., and four separate "picture" modes, including "Personal", "Standard", "Dynamic" and "Soft". Obviously, this screen isn't HD (downconvert to 480i, I believe), but it's certainly more than watchable.


Overall, it appears somewhat worth the $99 I paid. (I'd have gone to Office Depot, but the gas back and forth from Pittsburgh would have eaten up the $10 savings )


And yes, as always on these things, the built-in pole antenna basically stinks, though even it was picking up the 17 and 49 signals in that car behind the tree.


Nitpick? There's no signal meter, anywhere, that I can see. It does put up a "Good" for signal on the Info screen of each channel, but I have no idea what that means, or if there's a "Fair" or "Poor".


It appears to be the same model pictured by me earlier in the thread, and appears identical to the pictures I've seen of the Haier. I don't know if that means it's the same unit.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Clint S. /forum/post/16521476


Those TV's with rechargeable batteries are bad according to all reviews I've seen. They don't last more than 110 minutes, they can't use regular batteries, and the car adapter can't charge the rechargeable battery pack. Not very good for emergency purposes.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I knew that going in. This thing will be tethered either to an AC adapter or the car adapter about 95% of the time. It's for hobbyist purposes for me, not really for emergency purposes. I've got a car power-AC converter in the car, so I can even charge it there.


Yes, it is a proprietary LiIon battery as near as I can tell.


For those hoping to use digital TV on an emergency basis, I don't know if there's even one that doesn't have a battery like this. Would a powering a portable color LCD widescreen of this size even be practical with standard batteries, and how long would those batteries last?


The good news? The door covering the battery does open, and the odd looking pack at least looks like it could be easily replaced...assuming they come up with replacement batteries one day. I'll take a picture or two at some point here.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Inundated /forum/post/16521533


Yes, it is a proprietary LiIon battery as near as I can tell.

Click to expand...

Ok thanks.

Quote:
For those hoping to use digital TV on an emergency basis, I don't know if there's even one that doesn't have a battery like this. Would a powering a portable color LCD widescreen of this size even be practical with standard batteries, and how long would those batteries last?

Click to expand...

Yeah, in fact most of them use regular batteries. At least most that I've seen use them. It's really not a matter practicality, but usability. Obviously they are almost useless when the battery pack dies and you have no electricity. Then you can only watch it in a car.


I have a 16:9 7" LCD now, but only NTSC tuner. It runs off regular batteries.

Quote:
The good news? The door covering the battery does open, and the odd looking pack at least looks like it could be easily replaced...assuming they come up with replacement batteries one day. I'll take a picture or two at some point here.

Click to expand...

Do you know what the voltage is, and does it look sort of like a "pack" of AA batteries stuck together? In other words, does it look like from the way the contact points are, that regular batteries could be put in the compartment, or is it a tiny compartment in which only the proprietary battery pack will fit?


I guess as long as these type TV's have an external DC jack, some kind of external battery pack using regular batteries could be used. But that kind of hurts portability.