No-one, least of all its manufacturers, would expect this cheap n cheerful second telly to offer HD quality or anything like it. But practicality is a potent persuader, as the iPod has proved, and if you're after a truly portable flat screen TV and DVD player that be easily shifted from room to room or taken on holiday (and watched in the car on the way), August's compact little effort has quite a lot to offer.
 | |
 | |
Price: £220
More info: August
Size: 290×212×62mm
Weight: 1.62kg (net)
Screen: LCD 11in widescreen (4:3 picture)
Picture resolution: 800x480 pixels and > 500 lines
Brightness: 250cd/m2; Contrast: 150:1
DVD player: Slot disc loader, multi-region
Speakers: Stereo
Card reader: SD/MMC/MS memory cards
USB port: x1
Formats: DVD, CD-R(W), (S)VCD, MPEG-1/2/4 video, DVCD, HDCD, JPEG & Kodak Picture-CD
EPG (electronic programme guide): Yes
Extras: Remote control, stand and wall mount bracket
Plus points:
Highly versatile portable entertainment system with widescreen TV, Freeview, radio, DVD player and memory card reader, in-car adaptor and optional battery pack
Minus points:
Slow and not very user-friendly menus, unreliable buttons
|  |
|
It's a diminutive 11in LCD screen with built-in Freeview TV, DVD player, radio and memory card reader - which ticks most of the home entertainment boxes you're ever likely to need.
The screen has 800x480 pixel resolution so it can offer a 4:3 widescreen picture. The term 'widescreen' is of course relative here considering the dimensions of the device, and at 29mm across, slightly less than the length of an average desk ruler, it's certainly compact. It's lightweight too at just 1.62kg so anyone, from primary school kid to elderly outpatient should be able to move it around without difficulty.
There are two aerials, one an extendable radio-style type and a wire-based one aimed at the car, but unless you're within spitting distance of a transmitter you'll be better off connecting it to a roof aerial rather than relying on either of these.
The DVD player is slot-loading type neatly set into the side and can handle DVDs from America and elsewhere, though it's not designed for viewing DVD-R or DVD-RWs. Sound is handling by twin speakers on the front, though there's also a 3.5mm jack plug for headphones.
There's no HDMI input of course, and no Scart either, though there are 3.5mm AV in and out slots for connecting a gaming device or PVR, and for using it as a disc player with a larger telly. There is a USB port too, as well as a memory card slot for SD, MMC or Memory Stick cards. These make using the screen as a viewer for photos or videos from cameras or phones easy.
It comes with a choice of stands allowing you to raise it up on a flat surface or fix it to the wall, as well as a flip-up stand for travelling. There's an adaptor for plugging it into a car's cigarette lighter and for an extra £25 there's also a portable battery pack.
Performance
The August ticks a lot of boxes as far as capabilities go, but you'll need to be patient to get the most out of them. The controls feel particularly cheap and occasionally need a bit of coaxing to get them to work. Changing between modes (and indeed channels) tended to be sluggish too, both with the controls on the screen and the button-packed remote, which proved to be a bit temperamental in practise, and not as responsive as we would have liked.
The screen itself however is pretty good. There's plenty of scope in the onscreen menu for colour, brightness and contrast variations and with a bit of playing we were able to get some reasonably natural-looking skin tones. Black levels are better than might have been expected but the picture quality depreciates quickly if you're not sitting directly in front of the screen - but then again with a screen this size, you're unlikely to be watching it from across the room.
One of the advantages of the widescreen dimensions is that the tiny 11in screen doesn't feel particularly cramped. Sit yourself down four or five feet away and it's perfectly possible to enjoy TV this way. Much closer however, and you'll start to notice all manner of distracting visual noise.
A couple of problems arose during prolonged use. The slot-loading system proved to be a bit temperamental on occasion, and from time to time it threatened to hold discs hostage until the machine had been switched off an on again. Don't expect any fast whipping through menus either as the onscreen menu tends to grind through the options rather slowly.
The manual seems to have lost something in translation - like any sense or coherence, and it took a bit of fiddling to get the August's Freeview TV up and running. Once we'd figured it out (there's a dual button for both digital TV and DVD), searching for TV channels was simple enough. At least it was on the third attempt, since our first two searches (using a rooftop aerial) produced only a few channels. The EPG isn't especially pretty but it gets the job done, and offers programme descriptions as well as times for both TV and radio channels.
 |
|
|
|
It's definitely not one for AV purists, but as a low-cost, small-footprint, extremely versatile device for kitchen or kids' bedroom, the August makes a pretty decent stab at offering something for everyone.
|
 |
