Just received my Tivax RiRex7 7 Inch Digital TV from Amazon yesterday, and I am delighted with this purchase!
I was looking for just the right portable digital TV to have on hand during our hurricane season in Florida.
This was the only portable TV that I found that in addition to the rechargable Li-on batteries, also uses regular alkaline batteries. When the electricity goes out, having an alternative to rechargable batteries is a must! With the supplied antenna, and using battery power, I was able to pick up 17 digital channels! The color and picture quality are better than I anticipated. For the many features that this Tivax portable TV offers, it is a great value for the money, and well worth waiting for. The only thing missing is the "docking station" that houses the alternative alkaline batteries. Hopefully, Amazon will be offering this soon! Tivax HiRez7 Portable 7-Inch Digital Widescreen TV
PROS: 1) One more, low-tier, portable TV on the market that one can chose from. 2) Setup allows for image Rotation. This means that the TV can be viewed (I tried it) even if it is turned up-side-down but I am not sure as to when this functionality can be used! 3) The color system includes PAL (analog reception in Europe), helpful to take along if you travel to that continent.
CONS: This product was rushed to market. 1) It has two buttons: Setup (Bright, Contrast, Color, Rotation, Color System, Aspect) and Menu (Auto Search, CH Setup, CC Setup, EAS, Parental Control, System Setup, Program List, EPG, Audio and Mute) that should have been combined into a SINGLE Navigation button. As it is now, the hardware, firmware and programming are confusing. The CH+, CH-, VOL+ and VOL- buttons besides changing channels and sound volume, are also used for navigation in submenus of the Setup and Menu buttons. They are also noisy, hard to push and must be press 3-4 times in order to advance to the next menu or function. They are ergonomically in the wrong places that logically make no sense.
2) Because of the bad navigation design and low quality components, the unit has a dedicated "Exit" button to get out of the submenus so that the buttons CH+, CH-, VOL+ and VOL- can be used for channel selection and volume change otherwise they will not function. As a result, some users have problems with the operation and have express their frustration, see other reviews, saying that the owner's manual is worthless. The design of this product is poor and should not have been rushed to market.
3) This TV includes two batteries of different sizes and both are required in order to operate when not connected to AC (house) or DC (car) current. The brochures are misleading and one was left to believe that the TV came with two batteries of which one was spare. Since the batteries are different sizes, there is not way of inserting them into the TV the wrong way (they are fool proof). Apparently, from what I have seen in some reviews here, this has created confusion and frustration to some non-technical buyers.
4) Antenna connection is somehow non-standard. You will need some kind of adopter to connect a better antenna for better reception... Reception is similar to most other TVs and worked fine in Houston. Do not complain if the reception is not as good as your old TV, the digital monster is more demanding, you will need a better antenna.
OTHER: There is a single LED at the front: Red - batteries are charging, Green- batteries are charged. The LED is off when operating on batteries. If the batteries need replacement you will need to purchase two instead of one and will be more expensive and harder to find. Operation under fully charged batteries was 110 minutes.
MISC. I ordered this TV long time ago and like some others, I was notified by Amazon of the shipping delays and had the option to cancel. I did not cancel and the order was to be cancelled automatically on Thursday, August 13, 2009. Guess what! Amazon shipped it at 11:59 PM, a few seconds to a minute before expiration! What a game, Amazon did not want to miss a sale! Any way, because of the so many issues with this TV, I returned it immediately. (Note: You can purchase a TV with better ratings and if the AC (house) or DC (car) current is not available, in emergencies you can still operate it by connecting to an external power pack. Several power packs are sold here at Amazon, some have enough capacity to even operate medical equipment such as CPAP).
Added 6 Sept. 2009: See Comments for power pack options. Includes instructions how to build your own power pack with alkaline (6V lantern) batteries for just a few dollars. It will operate this and other similar 12V DC rated TVs in emergencies.
This purchase was a total waste of good money. As one reviewer noted, it has the worst instruction manual I have ever seen. It does not even mention the operation of, or how to insert the re-chargable batteries. They don't tell you when you buy it that you can't use regular alkaline batteries unless you have the docking station. The docking station doesn't even go on sale until November. I too live in Florida, and was counting on this TV to use with regular batteries when the power goes out. So much for this hurricane season. I also had to place it in about 5 different spots before it picked up any channels. I was extremely disappointed with this TV and would not recomend it. - Tivax - Portable Tv - Docking Station - Portable Digital Tv'
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