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(More customer reviews)This is an impressive "pocket" DTV receiver. The picture quality is excellent. Lock-up time is on the order of 1-2 seconds, which is typical for an 8-VSB receiver (8-VSB = 8-level vestigial sideband signal, the over-the-air broadcast standard in the U.S.). The audio from the built-in speaker has enough volume to be used even in moderately noisy situations. Earbud head phones are also provided, for private viewing/listening.
The unit has the standard automatic setup (channel scan) capability, and a channel mapping table is automatically created (and resettable). I particularly like the signal strength/signal quality bar graph display mode that can be selected (the signal quality bar graph is an indication of how hard the equalizer in the 8-VSB chip set is working to cancel out over-the-air propagation distortions).
The antenna is an extendable monopole that is 2 inches collapsed and 7 inches extended. Orientation is by a friction-set swivel mount. There is no provision for substituting an external antenna, although there is a 3.5 mm jack for connecting a provided video and audio output cable with conventional red and yellow RCA connectors. The output is standard definition (SD) composite analog video at 1 volt peak-to-peak, plus analog audio; I am not quite sure why this capability is provided in a "shirt pocket" DTV receiver, but it's there.
Display options are 4:3 LB (letter box), 4:3 PS (postage stamp), and 1080i 16:9 HD (in LB mode the 16:9 aspect ratio DTV signal is formatted to a SD 4:3 aspect ratio, with top and bottom panels added; in PS mode the 16:9 aspect ratio DTV signal is formatted to a 4:3 aspect ratio, and presented as a pillar box on the 16:9 display).
The manual indicates an acceptable signal of range of -5 dBm to -83 dBm; that's an impressive 78 dB range. So far I have only had the opportunity to use this unit in a relatively weak DTV signal area, about 20 miles from a local DTV station, but I will also be testing the unit in San Francisco, at a location about 5 miles from the Sutro Tower (with 11 full-service DTV stations), and about 10 miles from San Bruno Mountain, a site with two full-service DTV stations a digital LPTV station. I'll update this review then.
According to the user manual, the unit is powered by a 2600 mAH Lithium-polymer battery, which does not appear to be user serviceable. Charging is by a provided 5 volt, 1.4 amp wal-wort power supply. The claimed run time of 2 hours on a full battery charge seems a tad optimistic; I got a "low battery" warning after about 1 hour, but I was operating using the built-in speaker with the volume fairly loud, so a 2-hour run time might indeed be possible using the earbud headphones.
All-in-all, this is a nice little DTV receiver, weighing less than 0.5 pounds and measuring 5.5 inches long (including the rod antenna), 3 inches wide, and 0.75 inches deep; all for less than $100. Amazing.
UPDATE: I have now had the opportunity to use this DTV receiver in San Bruno, CA, about 10 miles South of the Sutro Tower in San Francisco (11 full-service DTV stations) and about 3 miles from San Bruno Mountain (2 full-service DTV stations plus one digital LPTV station). After doing a re-scan of the available channels, I got six stations with 19 program feeds-- all on a short, monopole receiving antenna. Impressive. Not all of the Sutro stations came in, but at the location I was using there is no line-of-sight to the Sutro Tower. Also, the San Bruno Mountain DTV signals were very strong, so this was a challenging receive location due to the large difference in signal levels. I continue to give high marks to the iView 352PTV DTV receiver.
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