Candy TV - Portable Digital TV & Radio - a bad idea, done badly

A quick look at an unusual looking portable rechargeable digital TV, DAB radio and media player. A mostly pointless device in the age of smartphones and tablets with wireless data, but on top of that, this one is almost unusable too.
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[@seanobrien7169]

The people on the side of the box were the marketing team celebrating that they sold one.

[@absalomdraconis]

Don't be absurd. Three, they were celebrating that they sold three.

[@the6ig6adwolf]

So they presumably had thousands of devices manufactured but waited for orders to come in before getting started on the packaging?

[@Xilekai]

@@the6ig6adwolf Boo.

[@LWolf12]

Kind of bad, when the advertising on the box, doesn't even have the product in the picture.

[@rabit818]

Techmoan gets a medal for patience for taking that unit to the ends of the earth . So the Wedge will be “running up that hill”.

[@anonplayer8529]

@@rabit818 I would say that Moore would suit better than Bush for background, over the hills and FAR away, atleast for this "fine specimen".😋

[@wisteela]

With no problems?

[@disgruntledfaerie]

The kindest thing you can say about this is that they gave the television antenna a flared base.

[@vdochev]

The kindest thing I would say is: they tried.

[@AdamJRichardson]

I did wonder if it was color matched (badly) to the case, or if it was just a coincidence. I think I'm going to go with "coincidence"

[@falksweden]

Well, it's a quite nice case for a raspberry pi build...

[@309electronics5]

Yeah it kind of reminds me of an amazon echo show

[@Azeria]

Except the screen’s still crap :/

[@MrBearfaced]

And only £120!

[@JanJanJanJanJanJanJanJanJan2]

I wonder if it's running android or Linux so one could hack it and make it useful

[@markfergerson2145]

@@JanJanJanJanJanJanJanJanJan2I was thinking the same thing. I’ve got an older version of those “digital picture frames” that not only runs native Linux but has a keyboard port on the motherboard. The port is not connected to the external world but it can be. It’s really a fully functional single board computer that uses maybe a tenth of its capabilities to display still images. The downside is that it has very little onboard RAM. It requires a dedicated internet connection to the maker’s website to which you’ve uploaded your family pictures or whatever so it can access them, for a monthly fee. The company folded long ago, of course. The upside is that there are websites dedicated to making a useful computer out of it. I bet if Our Host opened that thing he would find something very similar except with RF circuitry added, and likely a Bluetooth circuit that’s either unpopulated or disabled in the software.

[@vdochev]

10:00 The subtitles are in Bulgarian. I don't know about HBO, but typically the Bulgarian subtitles are somewhere near the 4th stream, so maybe it picks up the 1st available subtitle stream or picks them up in alphabet order.

[@fulhamfcfan]

Brilliant video. Saw this product on sale on Amazon. Thanks for the review and lowdown.

[@davidshepherd265]

I lol’d at the “HAPPY CANDY TIME” text on the side of the box. Regardless I knew this wasn’t going to work well - we also use DVB-T in Australia, I grew up in regional/rural Australia, and lived in the country throughout the transition from analog to digital TV, and quickly learnt that internal antennas, and basically anything short of a proper roof antenna just don’t work with DVB-T unless you’re right near the tower.

[@GinoFoto]

For the curiosity, as a fun travel to the year 2007, or technology from that year at least, I tried to pick up DVB-T signal recently on my LG OLED TV, surprisingly, it tuned to quite a few stations with mostly stable and clean reception.

[@caeserromero3013]

It has 'Dolby effect' ie Thomas Dolby, they 'Blind you with science' 🤣🤣

[@maccate6868]

That looked like the view from Lever Park. You shouldn’t have a problem getting a signal from there with Winter Hill at the top.

[@delboy7039]

I'm loving the LED, I can not wait until my main TV gets one of those....!

[@lenonel3286]

>goes outside for 2 minutes >Starts raining I love the UK lmao

[@Thats_him_with_the_daft_hat]

It reminds me of something Del Boy Trotter would be trying to off load from the back of his van😅

[@exotericidymnic3530]

I forgot until you mentioned it that TVs used to be for picking up TV broadcasts.

[@edwardburek1717]

It looks like the modern-day equivalent of the venerated Pye Tube Cube - only wedgier. And worse. Perhaps Benny-boy might put some use to it.

[@81Iron]

The saying “Jack of all trades is a master of none.” Isn’t the full quote. It’s “Jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

[@nuclearmonster]

This reminds me of that old chumby thing, but the sony version.

[@NotATube]

Funny, I thought of Chumby as well. The almost-forgotten offspring of an iPad and a cushion...

[@JustaMuteCat]

That’s even more insulting way of wedging than actual wedging. It’s kinda unexpected to not be able to play wav files, but I wonder if it can manage ape and mid.

[@Scottzilla1970]

I assume this is the sort of device that would be from Temu or Wish.

[@BronsonTheCat]

I have a 12inch portable TV and I only use it for what you were viewing at the end and that is live sport whilst I’m at work or elsewhere.

[@bigsarge2085]

Always the best-weirdest stuff!

[@Everything817]

The LED labeled LED is the best part. 😂

[@neondemon5137]

Looks like the upgraded version of the terminals on star trek tos

[@ffmfg]

speaking of portable TVs... wasn't there a boom of phones with (digital?) tv tuners in South Korea like 15 years ago? 20? did it die out quickly?

[@tolentarpay5464]

Try this: Holding your finger down against the screen while on the Options &/or Home screen...also see if you can hack your way past the std displays by holding down one of the number buttons on the R/C... that used to work a treat on my old Nokia!

[@W4iteFlame]

What an odd device

[@jutta3790]

The plastic film pull music is an automatic Like every time.

[@andrewlittleboy8532]

I think it looks really nice and indoors the screen quality actually looked very good. It could have been really good device if made properly.

[@katrinabryce]

To be honest, if you want to watch TV on a portable device indoors, then streaming over wifi onto an iPad or similar is really the only option.

[@boffyb]

I’ve eaten a few of these, and they fail just as badly at being candy as they do at being TVs.

[@lukesnewman]

At least the tv aerial appears to have a flared base

[@daviddunmore8415]

I was going to say "Almost a good idea" - but it's not even that.

[@barnaszoke4846]

Awesome video, as always. Just a quick thought: have you tried a software update? Maybe it will improve the file playback compatibility...

[@jul1440]

My uncle who is disabled might make use of something like this if it actually worked right. Notes: The "left, right" test actually played correctly on my laptop, left from left and right from right; and the "you should be hearing me through the (N) channel now" tests were mono for me...

[@adeadhum]

@BringusStudios could probably get a competent OS loaded onto this to make it into something useful, or more likely ridiculous. Would be interested to know how well it runs Half-Life

[@LJW1912]

I clicked thinking this was going to be Candy, the Italian brand

[@mrjsv4935]

Interesting idea, in theory. Poorly done though, mixed up right and left audio channels even, oh my word!

[@reap_25]

Reminds me of a particularly picky uhd player I have. It will not play any disc other than UHD, Bluray, Dvd or audio cd formatted discs. It wont even play an mp3 cd or jpeg cd. USB movies do not work as well. Even though it says it supports those formats. Very odd player. Its a Philips by the way.

[@joseph_b319]

If that was a vacuum i would say "man does that thing suck"

[@djspyd2000]

If this worked it would be great for night watchman or a Laundromat attendant

[@JMartinni]

Maybe you had to press the checkmark symbol to confirm the settings changes?

[@nocuh]

A trivial pursuit

[@Corsair807]

I'm curious if that TV antenna screw in bit is a standard RF coaxial jack. Should have tested if you could screw in an old VCR or game console. I'm curious if that would work

[@Schobbish]

The USB port is upside down 😠 That and the reversed speakers makes me wonder if both are parts of one module and it was put in upside down

[@nomad1764]

@techmoan Off topic but have you seen the movie the Bikeriders yet? The fella on there is using a Uher tape recorder I believe. I was wondering if you could do a review on the recorder he is using in the film.

[@bertroost1675]

Oy! You got a license for that?!

[@coronelfalk]

"xFa" as in "porfa" (coloquial form of "please" in Spanish)

[@PopCultureFan_]

The wedge of failure😂

[@anders7317]

What a bad product. For its defence, at least it is understandable that the sleep button only puts the display to sleep. While radio still operates. I suppose the panel is sucking the batteries dry very quick if on the whole time listening :) And about the angle of the antenna, I can’t see the big challenge of just moving the whole device 5 cm on the surface it is being placed. BUT. That is the only defence I am giving it though. I’d hold on to my Sony as well, Matthew :)

[@Reebert02]

Wow, I don’t think I’ve seen you so brutal! LOL!

[@MartinFarrell1972]

I can't see this selling well unless they do an updated version.

[@Thingsthatgopew22]

TAKE IT APART!

[@ethanpschwartz]

"So why would you want this? Well, you probably don't."

[@JaximusDecimus1]

My favorite kind of Techmoan video.

[@workonesabs]

..and best not to. Useless device,

[@plume...]

Haha! I heard him say that in the video I just watched!

[@dj1NM3]

I guess if had you an analogue pocket TV and missed free-to-air on the go, you might have *thought* that you wanted this?

[@AB0BA_69]

I first thought this was a product from the early 2000s which would make a lot of sense because tablets had not taken off yet. But no, this is apparently a current year product.... It can't even be that much cheaper than a used ipad at this point. What a waste of plastic 😂

[@jonathanamer7032]

"Oh, look...the LED is living up to the hype..." 😂😂

[@sw-gs]

LED - Light Electronic Device

[@RockRedGenesis]

The LED was probably the only thing that worked as advertised!

[@NiddNetworks]

We could, theoretically, have assumed it was a miniaturised nuclear fission device generating the light output - thank God it labelled it as an LED. (and based on the functionality of the rest of the set, I think it's a damn good job it's NOT a mini nuclear reactor!!)

[@braien334]

I was wondering it it was a incandescent bulb, but thankfully they noted that it was a LED.

[@MetalheadAndNerd]

On AliExpress they sell a desktop USB charger with "product schematic" and "USB charger with digital display" printed on the front.

[@froedlmetallmann4643]

LED probably stands for "Low Effort Device".

[@volvo09]

Nice

[@modularcarpet]

Love it!

[@MM.]

"A mostly pointless device in the age of smartphones and tablets with wireless data" Ah, but those don't double as a door stop wedge.

[@GizzyDillespee]

Used that way, it could be like a billboard for the cats...

[@stargasior]

I think this device would fail as a door wedge as well.

[@xKynOx]

Maybe you dont want to be spied on all the time having your location tracked by your isp or government.

[@StreetPreacherr]

What would it take to include a Digital Television receivers in a tablet? The ONE thing tablets aren't great for is trying to watch LIVE TV, like sports, as he mentioned.

[@SharpMaxwell]

@@stargasior im imagining it being crushed by a giant steel door now

[@cthellis]

Ah, but you see the speakers are STAGE left and STAGE right. So you see, more dramatic quality than normal.

[@vdochev]

They are so close together that even if they were correctly wired, you would not have much stereo separation anyway. At the most, some stereo effects just might sound a bit weird.

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

The Snagglepuss TV

[@marchills4131]

@@ChrisHopkinsBass you and @cthellis crack me up!

[@DragonSneeze]

I see what you did there

[@perrybarton]

@@ChrisHopkinsBass😆

[@Metal_Maxine]

I have the feeling that this is the kind of product aimed at that older audience who can be persuaded to buy an overpriced junk tablet by mail order with a caption like "finally a tablet for seniors!" and a promise of a jargon-free easy guide and sentences like "it can be your own digital cookbook! find new and exciting recipes! our guide tells you how!"

[@Adrastia]

I see ads for those kinds of things on TV. It was called Grandpad. Quite a name.

[@Balikon]

I saw this device on a website adressing elderly people with a whopping 250€ price tag.

[@Metal_Maxine]

@@Balikon That's just painful. I knew an 80+ guy who'd got sold a new iPhone on contract and had no idea that his internet usage was (probably) finite

[@trashyraccoon2615]

So sad, because I can’t imagine an elderly person knowing what to do with it at all

[@KearSki]

...Finally, watchable Cheese.

[@deterlanglytone]

My dreams were so close.

[@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

E - dam lad :D

[@10brokenradios]

​@@deterlanglytonesometimes i dream about cheese....

[@MBeeching]

Chee-vee? (They missed an opportunity there).

[@RockRedGenesis]

Damn these reply's are so cheesy!

[@FreeFireFull]

I expected this to be just a cheap Android tablet glued into a wedge-shaped shell, and yet somehow it's so much worse.

[@dieseldragon6756]

Yeah. At least you can _do something_ with Android... 🙃

[@elLooto]

Well, there is a warning on the back of the box. _Made in China_

[@Balikon]

@@dieseldragon6756 Even on the cheapest and crappiest tablet you can do more. No BT, no Wireless LAN.

[@fixins]

As someone who has knocked together a thing from a bunch of China's parts bin, that's exactly what this TV is: we have all these things available to us, let's make a new thing! That's not a great way to get a commercial product.

[@zdravkogenov9539]

As a viewer from Bulgaria, imagine my surprise when the subs showed up during the video test and they were in Bulgarian :D

[@asbjrnthomsen9986]

Yea, same 😂

[@minmogrovingstrongandhealthy]

so the rip was made by one too

[@deanchur]

Reminds me of those digital photo frames that were shovelled into stores for a few years back in the 00's.

[@eekee6034]

IMO, those were substantially more useful.

[@mgthestrange9098]

At least those worked.

[@adamb89]

I built one using an Instructible online that uses an e-ink display powered by a coin cell. The resulting photos are kiiiinda grainy since the display only has 7 colors, kinda like converting a JPG into a GIF. But since the display only draws power when updating the image, which happens once a day, and it's got ~500 photos to cycle through before it ever repeats, it's stupidly energy efficient. I put it together February of 2023 and it's still going strong on its initial charge. If you happen to be staring at it around midnight however, the display does take several seconds to update, which can look kinda trippy if you're already kinda high and the image suddenly starts morphing in front of you when you're not expecting it.

[@wisteela]

I like those though.

[@TestGearJunkie.]

@@mgthestrange9098 Hmmm. I've just gone through 3 digital photo frames in less than a month. They don't seem to like me for some reason. The latest one was a brand new Sony device and it lasted a week before refusing to power up.

[@moviebod]

That reflection is a problem. It was a really sunny day when Charles and Dianna got married and I wanted to watch and sun bathe at the same time, so I watched a black and white portable TV with my head and the TV in a cardboard box in the garden.

[@typingcat]

What's the point if having a king when you can call him by his first name and he doesn't make any policies.

[@ChronicNewb]

@@typingcat We always call kings and queens by their first name, what are you on about?

[@plasticfacedvillian4779]

​@@typingcat England is basically a second rate U.S now. Without a monarchy, they don't really have a gimmick to set themselves a part

[@MuchWhittering]

England hasn't had a monarchy since 1707, when it stopped being a country. ​@@plasticfacedvillian4779

[@mialemon6186]

This memory is one of my favorite things I’ve seen in the comments section here! 😂 Oddly relatable and so very much tethered to the time/place where it happened.

[@thunder____]

It doesn't play WAV audio files? That's absolutely absurd, WAV is the simplest and most straightforward digital audio format in existence!

[@Azeria]

I miss analogue TV broadcasts

[@richardbrobeck2384]

Same here my Sony Watchman Tv was a real treat I miss those days !

[@Warp3326]

Same. You could still watch tv even with low signal unlike Digital TV

[@waverider227]

@@richardbrobeck2384 yeah i had one it was great at tv reception unlike most tvs back then When tv went digital it has become impossible to get any signal at all where i live.

[@meJaso]

I can’t stand the commercials.

[@Azeria]

@@meJaso well we used to be able to watch the BBC over the air, which is of course, ad free

[@robotortoise]

The only thing I'm curious about is if perhaps the included antenna was just awful? What would have happened if you used a decent, standard TV antenna with it (or even a coat hanger/wire?)

[@antikommunistischaktion]

Those little desktop antennas will almost never pick up anything unless you're in the perfect location for TV reception, and if you have to plug it into your home's antenna it sort of defeats the purpose.

[@tgheretford]

It was used in the vertical polarisation. High power TV transmissions in the UK are horizontally polarised. The bottom of that antenna is magnetic and designed to be stuck on a fridge or car shell to make it work horizontally. Not that I think it would matter in this case, I suspect the tuner is not very sensitive and the wires are not shielded between the LCD and tuner.

[@robotortoise]

@@antikommunistischaktion I think it would be quite silly to carry a large antenna with you, but I also think carrying a large wedge that picks up TV signals is quite silly too. I don't think either cancels the other out or makes it too awkward, but that's just me!

[@antikommunistischaktion]

@@robotortoise Well if it had any real media format support it would be a good offline media player.

[@sagichnicht6748]

"... so why would you want this? You probably don't" 😄 True though.

[@corvettez06usa]

I wish there were more DTV options out there because relying on mobile data or wifi can be annoying sometimes. There's also significant delay when trying to follow live sports.

[@robertrenato]

Oh, we had a bit of an excursion to the countryside, it was nice!

[@viktorakhmedov3442]

WOULD OF BEEN BETTER IF HE BROUGHT THE MUPPETS WITH HIM

[@gjsmo]

"Can you believe nobody bought this???"

[@md_vandenberg]

This thing deserves the 1-grit.

[@robertnaus88]

I think you significantly overestimate humans. People buy anything.

[@dustojnikhummer]

It's almost like the biggest companies make the worst crap.

[@RDSk0]

@@md_vandenberg It even looks like one! It's like they were made for each other

[@tenorman]

Well, someone bought one.

[@fgaviator]

10:13 "These are not hardcoded subs" I like how Matt, while editing, is already forseeing and proactively shutting down stupid discussions in the YT comment section... 😂

[@markinscotland]

Indeed, even though it's plain to see that it's the device generating the subtitles, no doubt some folk will creep out the woodwork who think otherwise!

[@simonrussell4986]

My (probably wrong) guess is that these videos get an early airing to Patreons, so there's a chance to add captions based on feedback. That said, I've seen some ugly hardcoded subs, but never *that* ugly :) Edit: by "captions" I mean the on-screen text that Matt adds for extra information, not hardcoded subtitles (rewrote my comment when adding it originally and lost clarity)

[@turokforever007]

He was talking about the subtitles, it means cannot be switched off.

[@evibes512]

I thought maybe it plays subtitles automatically when the audio is muted, but if not, it's a huge failure.

[@brandonsteele2826]

I wonder if the subtitles are an "off by one" error and he needs to set it to one of the options next to "off" to turn them off.

[@andrewhaines3259]

I bought a cheap portable DVD and digital TV some 14 years ago. I wasn't expecting much, but it's been a great device for £79. I used it in the car so the children could watch films on it, I've used it to watch TV on without disturbing the wife and it pauses live TV so that you can go and top up your popcorn! It also has radio and games on it. Wouldn't part with it. I think it needs a replacement battery now, which I think I can still purchase. I think I may take it on a camping trip this year!

[@BokBarber]

i had to stop at the 3 minute mark. Your snark level is at 1000 today and the wife would be pissed if I watched such a hilariously on point Techmoan video without her.

[@hingeslevers]

"I will take it outside and..." I thought he would continue with "put it out of it's misery"

[@AfferbeckBeats]

Give it the 1 Grit

[@fallingwater]

@@AfferbeckBeats give it both barrels

[@TwixiMixiPixi]

@@AfferbeckBeats That was all I could think about

[@Darxide23]

Just as you'd expect from a no-name Chinese fly-by-night companies. Junk.

[@RealThorwegian]

It's amazingly hard to develop and sell even a basic electronics product here in the West. Meanwhile, in China, they churn out a product like this every week. They have all these high tech manufacturing capabilities and they waste it on toys.

[@funkmon]

I like that it listed every audio format and only mp3 worked

[@arostwocents]

Its just listing the files on the card

[@minmogrovingstrongandhealthy]

@@arostwocents yeah those were test files that he put on, not something that is on the device by default XD

[@joeblankenship377]

Sad. A piece of junk that tricks less tech savvy consumers into buying it.

[@anonplayer8529]

I was expecting the sentence " I am gonna take it out to mddle of nowhere..." continue with "...and dump it there." Sort of, we took old Spotty to a farm in the north, he can run freely and bark on squirrels there. 😅

[@twocvbloke]

Promises everything, delivers nothing, sure there isn't a little blue tree logo on it somewhere? :P

[@RobCamp-rmc_0]

Took me a sec as I don’t live in the UK but I see you

[@bobblum5973]

"I've been looking for a paperweight with an anti-anti-glare screen!" Seriously, though, I could see this device being perfect for someone who likes to hack hardware, write cutom firmware, and just, well... make it actually work.

[@eekee6034]

That was the first thing I thought when I saw it, but then I remembered 3D printers and all the parts you can get now. It reminded me of that one guy who made himself a little weather and news console with a screen and 5 buttons and he made it look like something out of Star Trek. He however didn't need to hack anything; he bought all the parts and 3D printed the case. There's very little point hacking junk any more. Some people will do it anyway, of course, but it's just easier not to, unless you want something really compact like a phone or a tablet, which this isn't.

[@sonic2000gr]

"Don't turn it on... Take it apart!"

[@RealThorwegian]

Since it's digital, it's probably quite boring inside.

[@wargamingrefugee9065]

Thanks Dave! ;-)

[@proCaylak]

I'm really curious, why does EEVBlog say that? Like, what's the harm in checking the device as-is assuming it's new in box?

[@Cyromantik]

​@@RealThorwegian I would expect a no-name tablet computer and a power brick with 3rd party signal inputs hotglued in.

[@sonic2000gr]

@@proCaylak No harm I guess it's just a trademark phrase of the channel (among many others!)

[@tylern6420]

couldnt you just mess around with a Raspberry and make such a type of thing yourself?

[@graythelion]

Nobody has ever looked happy watching Digital TV - a clear early warning!

[@Warp3326]

I love my shows turning into a pixelated unwatchable mess :D Digital TV rocks!

[@consequenciasinimaginaveis6901]

I stopped watching TV when anolg was phased out

[@Warp3326]

@@consequenciasinimaginaveis6901 ur watching tv rn.

[@brick6347]

I quite like the look to be honest, it looks like a prop from a 1970s Sci-Fi programme!

[@mavfan1]

Are you often dishonest?

[@BBCop]

Maybe the 60s. Because in the 70s, sharp and straight corners were fashionable, as in Sinclair pocket TV

[@trevorbrown6654]

It does look a bit like the small monitors on the table tops in Star Trek now you mention it.

[@Cyromantik]

Like one of the computer people from Buck Rogers? I think you have a point!

[@BritOzMan]

I've always found the idea of a portable digital TV device intriguing (no reliance on wi-fi etc.), but signal reception is always the biggest issue unfortunately.

[@Darxide23]

An unfortunate side effect of moving to digital broadcasts. Analog always has the ability to power through a lot of interference and still be watchable. Digital needs a clean signal at all times. Not that I'd go back to analog. Just makes taking a portable TV camping for live broadcasts impossible these days.

[@samrobacker346]

It would be interesting to have something like the ones my mom would smuggle into work, like you said to not reliance on wi-fi. I picture a world where people have some sort of tv / radio combo in emergency kits.

[@tomgidden]

I've always wanted the opposite... a box in the attic that rebroadcasts all the digital TV multiplexes as raw streams over Wifi that any device in the house can subscribe to, and then TVs or STBs that are smart enough to "tune" to those, once given the Wifi credentials. I've tried various DTV-network tuner devices in the past but they've never quite delivered.

[@garyiredale3929]

⁠@@tomgiddenI do the same, I have a quad HD TV tuner card in my Linux server and I use TV headend to serve that out to client devices.

[@kFY514]

It kind of works in Japan. Their digital TV system is optimized for that, every station broadcasts an additional sub-signal called 1seg that is meant for reception by mobile devices. Digital TV tuners were also ubiquitous on Japanese phones before the iPhone era and even today some Android phones have them, and that really works. Unfortunately, the tech is ancient by today's standards so all you get is 240p at 15fps 😅 The variant used in Latin America reportedly allows for 30fps but still at 240p.

[@bub_sy]

Oh man id have loved to see inside, any chance of a teardown?

[@Safetytrousers]

Probably just a loose rubber belt.

[@bobcoats2708]

@@SafetytrousersOr one that’s returned to the goo it was made from.

[@uncled39]

No techmoan this Saturday. Are you alright Mat?

[@karstenw7048]

The LED beeing labeled as such is needed for the "stupidest possible User". A friend of Mine lately Got a new Phone and to enter the sim compartment she poked a hole into speaker since both unlabeled holes where next to each Other.

[@CT-vm4gf]

😂 honestly.

[@dustojnikhummer]

To be fair, multiple times I put the SIM eject tool into my microphone. At least Samsung thought of it and put the mic further back so you can't damage it.

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

To be fair I’ve done that too and I’m a IT tech who also used to work for T-Mobile/EE

[@jonasnylund6018]

That's just bad design right there...

[@cantstopthemusic456]

"she" nuff said mate

[@quanchyplimp]

Pocket TV's back in the day were just as useless, as was DAB for me where ever I've lived. Most of the reception problems were geographical. I took my Casio pocket TV with me when I worked in Crystal Palace, London, excellent reception, as soon as I got back home to south east Kent, Margate area, boom!, no channels AT ALL. This device reminds me of the Lenovo clock.

[@thesteelrodent1796]

despite what the propaganda says, you often need a proper DAB/DVB antenna to receive any kind of quality broadcast, especially if you live in the city where everyone have their own WIFI network and there are cellphone transceivers everywhere

[@tgheretford]

Analogue like digital had their high power transmissions work in horizontal polarisation. With everyone sticking their antennas up vertically, it was always going to be a problem to receive a signal unless it was a strong signal area. The thing is, having the telescopic antenna in the correct orientation was never going to be practical.

[@TonyP9279]

@@tgheretford Really? Everything in the U.S. is circular polarized.

[@tgheretford]

@@TonyP9279 For FM we moved from horizontal to "mixed" polarisation - horizontal and vertical as opposed to circular. Originally FM was designed for home listening with horizontal polarised antennas but when car radios got FM, it was decided to also use vertical polarisation as a vertical antenna is far more practical for mobile use but not remove horizontal polarisation to avoid displeasing home listeners (predominately Radio 3 listeners who get very vocal if there are changes they dislike). For DAB we use vertical only for the aforementioned reason, we prioritise small portable radio and car radio listening. For television we primarily use horizontal polarisation for main transmitter sites and primarily vertical polarisation for relay stations. There are the odd exceptions but that is the general rule.

[@TheGreatAtario]

It's a bit worrying to me that they specify exact combinations of container format and codec, not just independent lists of each

[@TheSektorz]

I was always like "bruh, I wish my iPad was a triangle" 9:57 what's up with the Bulgarian subtitles, is Techmoan secretly not British? 🤔

[@gulogulo7636]

Well if Apple told you you should, and priced it 2000 USD more than the regular one, you'd be in the que around the corner!

[@wobaguk]

To be fair, I think Amazon got there first with the Echo Show

[@Jerbod2]

Is that a The Office reference?

[@KXKKX]

@@Jerbod2 Unleash the Power of the Pyramid!

[@NCHLTII]

Looks more like a 1st gen echo compared to an iPad

[@richardsmith4992]

Happy Candy Time - our products only look good when you're wasted on beer!

[@FG-gu9rn]

I dunno why, but the back of this little “telly” reminds me mostly of a rear-projection set… It also intrigues me that it can play only MP3s and MKVs among other known media formats, not even MP4s which are widely used! Even a cheap no-name 32” LED TV from a supermarket can play those files! What a shame! Judging by the UI and the on-screen menus, it looks like it’s based on the MStar 78** series chip which is also used in various Chinese-made Freeview boxes, and it’s also weird that it has an output resolution setting! 😊

[@thesteelrodent1796]

Not sure MP4 is as common in Asia as it is overhere. I have a LG DVD player that will play almost any video format except MP4 - it even plays DivX even though I've not seen that used for anything but pirated movies in the past 15 years or so

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

It's really weird because some DVB transmissions are encoded with MPEG4 so it probably does have the codec in it, they probably just didn't configure it properly to recognise the MP4 container

[@EmpereurHector]

Well those formats are containers. What is inside them can vary a lot, and unless you support all the internal formats a container can have, you’re stuck. Luckily as we get better formats everything becomes simpler, a H.265 MKV and H.265 MP4 are basically the same thing.

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

@@EmpereurHector I disagree with the claim that better formats are making everything better in this case - historically both MP4 and MKV had very few codec options and so specifying the container format was actually an entirely appropriate way to specify codec compatibility (when MP4 was relatively new for instance it would only contain either MPEG1, 2 or 4 video and every device that supported the container had all of those codecs, now it can contain h.264, HEVC, even FLAC as another commenter pointed out, which makes all of those old devices that just claimed "MP4" support incompatible with some MP4 files today when they were fully compatible in the past).

[@webspaghetti]

Watch it upside down and the speakers will be correct ...there you go, worth every penny.

[@17R3W]

Did he mention if you could hook up an external antenna?

[@CoreDreamStudios]

It's a shame too, because it looked decent.

[@benjaminvlz]

MP4 is just a multimedia container format. It supports different video coding formats, such as AV1 (AOMedia Video 1), H.264/AVC (Advanced Video Coding) and H.265/HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding). Not all of these video coding formats are supported by all media players. Maybe the reason the MP4 file you tested wouldn't play on this device is because the file contained a video coding format that's unsupported. Just a thought.

[@antikommunistischaktion]

AVI (Audio Video Interleave) not AV1. If this actually advertised AV1 and played AV1 it'd almost be worth it.

[@maighstir3003]

@@antikommunistischaktion An MP4 container, however, can contain AV1-encoded video (or a host of other video encodings). You might have misread the comment.

[@DimensionParadox]

Why the subtitles of the clip at 10:00 are in Bulgarian? :D

[@garybrown4671]

I think this could actually be handy, if you put together a better antenna kit.

[@phranerphamily]

I live for screen protector removal on Saturday mornings 😂