subject: Haier HLT71 7-Inch Handheld LCD TV - Review [print this page] Haier HLT71 7-Inch Handheld LCD TV - Review
Hopefully this review will provide a different perspective from others...
First of all, for those who had negative reviews based on a weak signal and problems with the settings and controls; if you took as much time to tinker a bit or read the manual as you did with writing the review you probably would have figured it out.
Having said that, here's my unique take. This TV is perfect for use with a treadmill. If you price treadmills or elliptical machines with built in LCD TVs you are looking at $1200-$1500 at the low end of the spectrum. But if you look for a quality treadmill with all the same bells and whistles minus the TV that price is cut in half. Think about that. You are essentially paying $400-$800 for a built-in 5 inch LCD TV with crappy speakers.
Instead, I bought this Haier to use for the same purpose. We have a nice treadmill situated in our little workout room and we simply mounted the Haier TV to a camera tripod. I picked one up from Wal-Mart for $19. The tripod is tall enough to sit right in front of the treadmill at eye level - just like a gym quality unit. Turn it on and start walking. The TV remote is handy for changing channels or adjusting the volume as you exercise.
I happen to have mine near the wall with the cable outlet and so I just hooked it up to a standard coaxial cable, changed the menu to CATV input and had it scan for channels. It picked up 99 channels in my area - including local networks, ESPN, HGTV, etc. On a recent rare occasion we had a cable outage, I moved the TV closer to the window, attached the antenna it came with, changed the menu to Antenna, scanned, and voila! 10 local channels including high definition local broadcasts.
If you like the idea of using this little wonder for exercising, don't hesitate. Buy it.
For those who complained of a weak signal right out of the box, consider your location. Unless you live in Florida, I'll bet you live in an area with foothills or changing elevations. When using an antenna or rabbit ears, television signals are delivered line-of-sight, not bounced around by a satellite. So if there is a hill, building, forest or other obstructions between you and the nearest broadcast station, well, I think you get the point. So before bashing this excellent little TV, do some research.
For those who complained about losing memory and the battery...did the instruction booklet tell you to remove the green plastic around the batteries? No. That is antistatic, anticorrosive paper needed to marry the two halves of the lithium packs. Also, check the little white plug again. If it's not properly seated, then the battery is not fully charging when it's plugged into DC and you will have to reprogram channels every time you turn it on. Again, just use a little common sense before giving this TV a 1-star review.
Last but not least, this TV has most of the same menu and setup features as a large modern LCD or Plasma TV. But at the end of the day it is still a standard definition set. Even if you receive an HD channel you will still only be able to view it at standard definition. And for that this TV does a wonderful job. Color saturation is great and blacks are blacks. If you wanted HD quality did you really think you would get it for $100?
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