Portable TV is nothing new.  For years people have had little TV’s they’d take to the family BBQ in the Park, or even the ultra-portable handheld which you could take to a Sporting Event.

This week, Laser announced the introduction of the First Portable Digital TV into Australia.  Using this little gadget, you can watch all the Digital TV channels on offer, SBS ONE and TWO of course, along with all the other Freeview channels, including those new content offerings ONE (Sport), GO! (Entertainment) and ABC2, with ABC3 (Kids) coming by the end of the year.

Right out of the box this is an impressive little unit, a little chunky to hold, however it’s certainly light and easy to use.

The on-screen navigation is reasonably easy to follow, and with the help of the Setup Wizard you’ll be watching in no time.

The screen is a very capable 3.5inch, and the unit also contains an FM radio which has a very easy to use interface and multiple pre-sets.

Word of warning when it comes to Digital TV though – Reception is key.  Are you in an area with strong Digital TV reception? If not, this might frustrate more than it pleases.  Digital TV, in fact Digital anything has one extreme underlying issue that goes mostly unspoken.  It has no ‘almost there’.  Remember the ghosting, or snowy effect of Analogue TV (along with AM and FM Radio).  It would be barely there; perhaps you could even hear it but barely see it.  With Digital, if it’s not on – it’s not on.  Simple as that.  You are either crystal clear, or confronted with a ‘NO SIGNAL’ warning.

The Laser Portable DTV comes with a built in antenna, which is tiny even when extended to its fullest.  Additionally an external antenna comes as a standard accessory, allowing you to capitalise on the improved signal – however even that won’t help if you are in a poor area for Digital TV.

I have tested this unit thoroughly in the North of Sydney (Hornsby) and north shore (Artarmon).  Both have their issues.  Hornsby because of its distance from what’s known as the Artarmon Triangle (the three big TV towers).  Artarmon for the opposite reason – the multitude of signals makes good reception difficult.

However in between you can get some excellent results.

Loaded with 4 AA batteries, I took the unit on a little trip on the train – Great reception all the way to Chatswood (and not unexpectedly poor reception in the underground tunnels from there to Epping).  You will also find that you will often get some not all channels. SBS is in fact likely to be the best of the bunch – in part for technical reasons I won’t bore you with, however it relates to the frequency and manner of transmission.  I found the ABC and Digital Test (Parliament, Teachers TV, NITV, ACCTV, EXPO etc) signals to be next best, followed by TEN (and ONE), Nine (and Go!) then Seven (which was very rare).

Another key note is that in my rush to try this unit out, I loaded it with the most basic and cheap Alkaline Batteries, instead of the better Lithium type.  Without doubt I was able to watch 2-3 hours on those batteries.  Lithium I expect to take me to 4-5 hours.

Compared side by side with my old Casio Handheld (Analogue) TV, this unit excelled when reception was available – the picture quality was amazing as is to be expected with Digital. 

To be clear, the reception issues are not the fault of the device.  I doubt any similar device, even if it proves to be more expensive – will be able to overcome the inherent issues with Digital reception.

But let’s look at what is exciting about this device and it’s siblings in the Laser range.

The top of the Line DVBT-MP32 which retails at a fantastic $229.95 has a host of additional features.  Most notably, an SD slot allowing you to place up to 32GB of storage into the device to record or playback various videos.  With support for AVI, DivX, Mp4 and many more, you can likely use this as a portable player for all your favourite videos.  And while that is possible in many or most handheld multimedia devices, what sets this one apart is the ability to record Live TV and play it back.

Imagine this – Take an external antenna connection, plug this unit in at home, to your home antenna in the wall, and set it to record some of your favourite TV.  What you’ve got is one of the cheapest Personal Video Recorders (PVR) on the Market.

Now take yourself to your daily commute.  You bring the device, or perhaps move the video file/content to another device (Laptop, iPod etc), and use either method to actually watch back the TV show you recorded.  Not an easy achievement with even the best and top priced PVR’s.

Portable is great, as long as the content is portable.

Digital TV is let down by its inability to come and go gracefully when we are talking about reception.  However when you make  a device that takes our favourite broadcast content and allows you to re-play it or move it around by recording it to a standard storage medium like SD you are in line to be class leading.

Laser is the first to market with this technology in Australia, and without doubt others will follow.  I will more thoroughly test the top of the range model with the PVR option in the future and faithfully report back on its abilities.

Until then, if it interests you and you feel you are in or would use it in an area of good Digital reception – give the Laser range of Digital TV’s a try.  Priced from $149.95 up to $229.95, this is an excellent gadget for any lover of TV and portability – Available during October at the Good Guys and other electrical outlets.