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Electronics : August DA110BD(B) 11" Freeview/Analogue LCD TV & DVD Player with Built-in Battery/Card Reader/USB Port - Top 3 Small Screen TV by Channel 4, Star Winning Portable TV/DVD Player of What Hi-Fi Magazine & Featured by ERT Weekly Magazine.
Rating: 
- Very decent product at this price - with some limitations
How useful you find this will depend very much on your expectations and application. At this price-point the feature-set is impressive - but also it's weakness.
Including a Freeview decoder in a portable device is always going to be problematic. For myself, I never really expected to receive digital channels using the portable aerial. Although transmission signals in my area are good, I live on the 1st floor of a block of flats and there's a lot of concrete and brick between me and Crystal Palace.
Using a feed from the rooftop aerial, reception is OK. Again, this is challenged as the aerial feed is shared. Reception on the busier Freeview multiplexes with less bandwidth (e.g. all the Five channels) is variable. This also reveals the shortcomings of the digital decoder in this unit. Using the same feed, the Freeview decoder built into my Sony DVD recorder has no difficulty receiving and displaying all channels. The August unit however struggles and the error correction is not as robust.
There is a very useful signal strength and quality indicator that can be accessed by pressing the "Display" button on the remote. This can help with identifying an optimising any problems with aerial leads and connections that are limiting performance. Adding a signal amplifier to the circuit improved things marginally - but not hugely.
It's a similar story for the digital radio channels. They can suffer from drop-out.
Bottom line though is that if you're not living in the shadow of your regional transmitter, don't expect to receive Freeview using the portable aerial. And as with all other Freeview units I've used, you need a decent clean feed from a rooftop aerial to receive all channels reliably.
These not unexpected issues aside, other aspects of the unit offer excellent value for money.
The screen quality, brightness and clarity are surprisingly good with all the necessary menu choices to optimise the picture. Ultimately, colour accuracy and resolution are restricted - but at £200 it can never hope to compare to what was a £900 CRT TV I have as a reference.
The electonic programme guide (EPG) is OK - but not great. Frustratingly, as soon as you scroll through the guide to see what's on the other channels, the in-picture display changes channel to whatever you've highlighted - which take a second or two. So you can't quickly scan through the EPG to see what's on.
Sound from the onboard speakers is acceptable and not overly tinny despite the restrictions on size. It's certainly capable of delivering loud enough volume for all domestic applications.
The DVD player is capable but despite the list of compatibility in the specifications the one type it refuses to play are DVDs authored on my DVD recorder. I've played these in other machines no problem so this is a disappointment.
I bought the version with the rechargable battery but haven't tried this yet.
Overall, a great set of features combined in a practical (if not very sexy) unit for not a lot of cash.
Rating:
- Freeview DVD portable DA110BD from Digital Daffodil
The product arrived well before due date, and is just as specified. Just as others commented the clarity of the display is superb. We did the setup as recommended using our digital rooftop aerial and got most of the freeview channels. We then transferred it downstairs to the kitchen where we have only an analogue aerial, and to our amazement most of the freeview channels work down there as well as the analogue channels. It plays DVD's, audio CD's. Haven't tried the MP3/4 player yet but have no doubt that it will work. This is a great little product, super technology, and we are really pleased with it.
Rating: - It does more than expected!
We bought this model for our kitchen as the size is about right for the space and did not really know what I would get apart from expecting it is a TV for Freeview and analogue plus DVD player. The unit surprised me and my wife once arrived firstly with the crystal clear picture. We managed to obtain most of the channels by using roof top aerial. The DVD player looks high quality as it allows disc slot in and out itself. The memory card reader enables us to view digital photos without computer or digital photo frame. We have tested the USB socket to play video clips and MP3 songs from flash memory stick and it works. This is useful if we go holiday. All after all, we are very happy about this TV. Thanks for the technology.
Rating:
- Beware this product doesn't work
I bought this product due to its 'portability'. Whilst the tv worked when plugged into my house rooftop aerial I couldn't get a picture with either the analogue or digital portable aerials included. I called today to return the product but was told I wouldn't get a full refund (including the postage) as there is a warning on the site that it may not work in all areas. That's why I'm back on the site and can't see it. So if it is there it isn't clear enough and I am now giving that warning to potential customers.
- Very decent product at this price - with some limitationsHow useful you find this will depend very much on your expectations and application. At this price-point the feature-set is impressive - but also it's weakness.
Including a Freeview decoder in a portable device is always going to be problematic. For myself, I never really expected to receive digital channels using the portable aerial. Although transmission signals in my area are good, I live on the 1st floor of a block of flats and there's a lot of concrete and brick between me and Crystal Palace.
Using a feed from the rooftop aerial, reception is OK. Again, this is challenged as the aerial feed is shared. Reception on the busier Freeview multiplexes with less bandwidth (e.g. all the Five channels) is variable. This also reveals the shortcomings of the digital decoder in this unit. Using the same feed, the Freeview decoder built into my Sony DVD recorder has no difficulty receiving and displaying all channels. The August unit however struggles and the error correction is not as robust.
There is a very useful signal strength and quality indicator that can be accessed by pressing the "Display" button on the remote. This can help with identifying an optimising any problems with aerial leads and connections that are limiting performance. Adding a signal amplifier to the circuit improved things marginally - but not hugely.
It's a similar story for the digital radio channels. They can suffer from drop-out.
Bottom line though is that if you're not living in the shadow of your regional transmitter, don't expect to receive Freeview using the portable aerial. And as with all other Freeview units I've used, you need a decent clean feed from a rooftop aerial to receive all channels reliably.
These not unexpected issues aside, other aspects of the unit offer excellent value for money.
The screen quality, brightness and clarity are surprisingly good with all the necessary menu choices to optimise the picture. Ultimately, colour accuracy and resolution are restricted - but at £200 it can never hope to compare to what was a £900 CRT TV I have as a reference.
The electonic programme guide (EPG) is OK - but not great. Frustratingly, as soon as you scroll through the guide to see what's on the other channels, the in-picture display changes channel to whatever you've highlighted - which take a second or two. So you can't quickly scan through the EPG to see what's on.
Sound from the onboard speakers is acceptable and not overly tinny despite the restrictions on size. It's certainly capable of delivering loud enough volume for all domestic applications.
The DVD player is capable but despite the list of compatibility in the specifications the one type it refuses to play are DVDs authored on my DVD recorder. I've played these in other machines no problem so this is a disappointment.
I bought the version with the rechargable battery but haven't tried this yet.
Overall, a great set of features combined in a practical (if not very sexy) unit for not a lot of cash.
Rating:
- Freeview DVD portable DA110BD from Digital DaffodilThe product arrived well before due date, and is just as specified. Just as others commented the clarity of the display is superb. We did the setup as recommended using our digital rooftop aerial and got most of the freeview channels. We then transferred it downstairs to the kitchen where we have only an analogue aerial, and to our amazement most of the freeview channels work down there as well as the analogue channels. It plays DVD's, audio CD's. Haven't tried the MP3/4 player yet but have no doubt that it will work. This is a great little product, super technology, and we are really pleased with it.
Rating:
- It does more than expected!We bought this model for our kitchen as the size is about right for the space and did not really know what I would get apart from expecting it is a TV for Freeview and analogue plus DVD player. The unit surprised me and my wife once arrived firstly with the crystal clear picture. We managed to obtain most of the channels by using roof top aerial. The DVD player looks high quality as it allows disc slot in and out itself. The memory card reader enables us to view digital photos without computer or digital photo frame. We have tested the USB socket to play video clips and MP3 songs from flash memory stick and it works. This is useful if we go holiday. All after all, we are very happy about this TV. Thanks for the technology.
Rating:
- Beware this product doesn't workI bought this product due to its 'portability'. Whilst the tv worked when plugged into my house rooftop aerial I couldn't get a picture with either the analogue or digital portable aerials included. I called today to return the product but was told I wouldn't get a full refund (including the postage) as there is a warning on the site that it may not work in all areas. That's why I'm back on the site and can't see it. So if it is there it isn't clear enough and I am now giving that warning to potential customers.