- 7-inch LCD display
- Built-in ATSC digital/NTSC analog tuner
- Detachable antenna, flip-out stand, AC power adapter, rechargeable battery, and full-function remote control
- Parental control, speakers ideal for public viewing, and standard headphone jack for viewing in privacy
- Weight Without Stand: 0.88 lbs
In my metro area, I am able to pick up 12 channels with the included antenna.
The picture is bright, reasonably clear and the color very natural.
The screen has a dull, non-reflective surface so you're not looking at the reflection of your own face as is the case with the pricey VIZIO which has a very shiny screen. The RCA display is 234H x 480W PIXELS.
The clarity is quite acceptable noticeably better than the COBYs but not as sharp as the hi-resolution VIZIO which has inferior color and NO tint control.
The sound is clear but tinny and it's consistent in level from channel to channel. The audio is NOT as good as the COBYs but far superior to the very weak VIZIO. There is a headphone output allowing for use of a headset or powered external speakers.
The image scaling is excellent. If you set the aspect ratio to AUTO, the picture is properly proportioned from widescreen stations to those broadcasting in the old standard 4:3 format. Circles are always round and people are NOT stretched wide to look short and fat. VIZIO could not get that right.
Here's a plus unlike the VIZIO, when you power down, the RCA retains the channels you found as you would expect a TV to do.
The RCA has a full range of picture and audio controls as well as closed caption capability.
I have yet to connect it to cable or test battery play time.
I am just so happy to have a decent portable TV again. At this nice low price point, this TV is worth buying.
Though I wish it had a higher resolution screen, this will do nicely until something better comes along.
I've been researching these little beasts for 3 years now and in my opinion, this is the best portable TV on the market for now.
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1 MONTH UPDATE:
We had a very bad storm come through on 6-29-2012 and were without electric power for almost 3 days. This little TV was a blessing. The battery only lasts about 90 minutes but I previously bought a 12 volt car adapter that allowed continued viewing. I also re-routed our cable signal to the 7 inch TV and scanned for cable channels. It found all 65 analog stations but none of the digital QAM signals. Most importantly, it found the cable radar station.
A day later, I rescanned for the unscrambled digital stations and it found all 16 of them.
Buy RCA 7" Portable TV, RTV86073 Now
The RCA 7 inch HDTV is a good portable HDTV, but it's not perfect. Surprisingly the TV does not have a built in telescoping whip antenna but a short 6 inch antenna which attaches to the TV by it's 30 inch cable. Although a whip antenna wouldn't be great it would be vastly superior to the included antenna. Curiously this set up exists in other portable TV's too. All these 6 inch vertical TV antennas are a joke unless you and the antenna can actually see the television station's transmitting tower, that's all you should expect from these antennas. Face it, would you connect a 6 inch antenna to your home TV and expect reception? This micro antenna also has a very thin coaxial cable. Without getting into the science of it, thin coax loses whatever signal it's carrying very, very quickly even over short lengths like 30 inches. Bottom line the supplied antenna and it's cable is junk. The tuner in this RCA TV is just as good as most home TV tuner's, it just needs an adequate antenna to work well.The remote works fine but uses what I call bubble buttons. They all feel the same because they all have the same round bubble shape. This is different from most home TV remotes where one can feel the different round, square, or triangular shape of various buttons without needing to look and study which feature is which.
Finally the Li-ion battery is built into the TV. I see no means to replace it if/when it eventually fails.
Otherwise, the RCA works quite well and I like it. This RCA TV also has the standard coax connector antenna fitting that is used with real coax. Some portable TV's use a proprietary micro connector that is impossible to connect to real coax. This unit is nice to have on camping trips and the like but again be prepared to get a true functional small portable antenna preferably using real coax, for any of these portable TV's, these antennas do exist. Something like the Mohu Leaf or Terk antenna should work (I haven't tried them though). Don't buy the old school rabbit ears. They were designed for old analog TV's which operated mostly on VHF frequencies. Today's HDTV's mostly use UHF bands, the obsolete rabbit ears were never designed to work on the UHF band. I could explain the science but your eyes would glaze over after an hour.
Read Best Reviews of RCA 7" Portable TV, RTV86073 Here
I was replacing an Auvio 3.5" screen w/this unit because I didn't like having to replace batteries as often, and it didn't seem to have a car adapter available, and the home adapter was half the cost of the unit price.The RCA unit has a rechargeable battery and comes w/both a car and home recharger and larger screen for about the same price I'd paid originally. A secondary benefit was the external coaxial(RF) connector for a better antenna connection, also.
The only drawbacks were the small antenna that doesn't really provide good reception and the really POOR remote control, which almost doesn't work, very difficult key responses, as well as no better reception than the Auvio unit has.
Overall, a better value, but nothing to brag about. It's worth the price, though.
Want RCA 7" Portable TV, RTV86073 Discount?
At some point almost every kid in America has had a desire for a small portable television set that could be sneaked into bed and used under the covers after one parent or the other has announced that it's "lights out" for the night. This RCA 7" Portable TV is just the type of device that so many of us fell asleep dreaming about, wishing that we had one.On a more serious note, NPR ran a program a couple of years ago, 'Medical Detectives Focus On Myopia,' and in an interview Dr. Don Mutti (College of Optometry, Ohio State University) noted that "near-work" the things you do close up with your eyes, like reading or watching television or playing video games, had been a suspect as one of the causes of myopia for many years. German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote about it about 400 years ago, and Dr. Mutti's advice was simple: "Don't watch too much TV, or don't read, you know, under the covers with a flashlight."
That being said, I found that this small 7-inch television didn't need to be viewed that closely, and that arm's length was an excellent viewing distance where the picture could be viewed clearly and easily once everything was set up as per the instructions. But let's get past the good and bad first...
Pros:
* Very light weight; about 1.1 pounds (0.50kg)
* Sharp and bright 7-inch diagonal LCD screen; 480 x 264 pixels
* Excellent controls, easy to master quickly
* Easy setup; good instruction manual, easy to follow
* Decent full-featured small remote control
* Built-in Li-ion rechargeable battery keeps it portable
* Convenient flip-out stand on back
Cons:
* The included external antenna is abominable and almost worthless
First Impressions Setup:
This television was well packaged, and was better in that respect than many on the market. It came with the TV itself, a remote control with CR2025 battery, a power adapter, a telescoping antenna with a magnetic base, a power adapter and a user guide. Following the directions, connected the antenna and plugged in the 12V power adapter, then turned the TV on. The manual said to perform an auto scan to search for the locally available channels. And that's where the first problem arose, as in the NYC area there are plenty channels, yet the reception ranged from just OK to very poor, which I found to be quite surprising from RCA.
Long story short, the supplied antenna is just about worthless. After charging the TV for a couple of hours, took it outside to a park area, did another auto scan, and found that reception was reasonably improved, but it didn't help indoor reception. Tried it briefly with my older Terk Technology HDTVi VHF/UHF HDTV Indoor Antenna and the reception improved greatly, but this antenna is somewhat directional and I didn't feel like having to readjust and auto scan for better reception every time the TV was moved. Came online here and read a number of reviews, then ordered the RCA ANT1450BM Refurbished Multi-Directional Digital Flat Amplified HDTV Antenna (reviewed here separately) which was on sale at the time. It arrived a few days later, and once it was hooked up, the reception was excellent. Note that this TV has an industry-standard coaxial antenna connector that enables it to be used with cable television if you like.
In Use:
Once the new antenna was installed and the auto scan was performed, found this television to be excellent in all respects. The size is small yet not too tiny, and the reception on all channels is first-rate. The available controls for setting such items as the picture, audio, V-chip and other controls are quite good, and if you (or someone else) screws them up, there's a reset option to restore things to the default settings.
Thought that the tiny remote control was nothing other than cute at first, but once one uses it for a while it has proven to be the preferred method of controlling this TV. The stereo sound wasn't so good until I plugged in a set of ear bud headphones, and the difference was remarkable.
Summary:
As with anything, how a product is rated has a lot to do with its performance vs. the price paid. In my case, I bought this here on a Lightning Deal when the price was below forty buck, which made it an exceptional value, even with the almost useless antenna. From past experience with televisions over the years, I expected that the antenna would have to be replaced, and was glad that RCA had chosen to not use a built-in telescoping antenna that would have to be adjusted every few minutes. All this being said, will have to say that at the regular price this would probably be a very solid +4-star product, but with an upgraded antenna, it's subjectively worthy of a 5-star recommendation... and don't let your kids use it under the covers late at night.
6/2/2012
Using the magnetic six inch antenna that was included with the unit, I was able to receive ninety-eight channels including twelve PBS channels.
This TV presents a nice picture with many picture and audio controls and also, it has built-in speakers (stereo) with the option of using headphones or ear buds.
The battery life is indicated to be limited to one hundred minutes but, that should suffice whenever there is a power outage and you would like to check periodic news updates.
I also found that 12 volt car adapter plugs into this TV and can also serve to recharge the TVs' built-in battery.
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