|
Overview
The Wearable Color TV VTV-101 we received from
NHJ USA has sample stickers on it, indicating that it is not
necessarily the final shipping product. The box contains the main
small TV unit, antenna earphone, wrist band, external battery-pack,
AC power adaptor and neck strap.
The TV unit itself measures 48x48x18mm and weighs 50g (my
measurements), making it the
smallest TV I have ever seen. The TV display itself measures
1.5" diagonal. Above the TV display is a digital Time
indicator. NHJ did a great job to make the wearable TV versatile to
use. I can either snap the TV unit on the wrist strap to wear it as
a Wrist Watch, attach the neck strap to wear it or clip it onto the
external battery unit to get extended power. The external
battery-pack functions also as the charging station for the VTV-101.
Because the TV unit is very light, wearing it at the wrist is quite
comfortable. With 18mm height the Watch is definitely bulky, but
acceptable. The wrist band is a free adjustable Velcro band.
 |
 |
| The
TV unit was charged so I put it on right away and hit the TV
button. |
Look,
I have thin arms, that is why it looks so big. |
Watching TV on your Wrist
The Wrist TV came pre-charged so I
just plugged in the antenna earphone and pushed the TV button. The
screen comes to life and first shows noise. Pushing the Set button
displays the current channel in the time display. With the arrow
buttons I now can change the channels. The first good reception I
got on channel 26. I was amazed how "watch-able" TV is on
this post stamp size display. It really works well. The display is
sharp. Text displayed is readable. The colors are vivid. The only
challenge I have is getting good reception. I am in the San
Francisco Bay Area. I usually do not get good terrestrial TV
reception on my regular TV in my house. So it is no surprise the the
reception on the Wrist TV watch is not great for me here.
After playing with it for a while, I got a usable picture on the following channels: 4 KRON4, 7
ABC, 11 KNTV,14 KDTV, 26 KTSF, 36 KICU, 44 KBHK, 48 KSTS, 60 KCSM,
65
KKPX and 66 KFSF.
The sample unit is a bit sensitive to how I hold
the unit and the antenna earphone. I talked to NHJ USA about it and
the final unit will have several adjustments.
I now tried the wearable television in San Francisco and I got great
very crisp reception on several channels. So it really depends where
you are regarding the quality of television signal reception.
The sound is always better quality than the picture I found out.
This reminds me that actually, it would be nice to have also an
FM-Tuner inside. I guess it did not fit anymore.
Shop
for portable TVs on Shopping.com!
Buy
the bestselling Portable TV on Amazon.com!
The VTV-101 uses the Sony Digital Tuner Module BTD-ZJ611,
this unit supports the reception of channel 13-62
in UHF and Channel 1-12 in
VHF. The watch lets me select a channel between 2 and 69. This model
only supports NTSC.
I checked with NHJ and a PAL version of this small portable TV is
planned for end of the year. Apparently the reason
being that since
Japan
,
USA
,
Korea
,
Taiwan
, has such big demand for the
NTSC version, Sony does not have enough production capacity to be
able to produce the European PAL I/B/G/D/K version of the Tuner
chip-set.
 |
 |
| Front
showing Time Display and TV screen. |
Back
side showing sample sticker. |
More Best-selling Portable
TVs
 |
 |
| Left
side showing the TV button, the antenna headset plug and the
power adaptor plug from the external battery
unit. |
The
right side features the SET button and the arrow buttons. |
Functions
The NHJ VTV-101 is very easy to use. It
only has four buttons:
TV - By holding this button for 2 seconds the TV switches on
or off
SET - switches between time display and date display in TV
off mode. In TV on mode the button switches between volume control and TV channel
control. When TV is off, holding the SET button enters the Time
setting mode.
Arrow Buttons - change either volume or Channel. In time
setting mode used to set the time and date.
The Battery in the TV-unit holds for about 90min say the
specifications. The health of the rechargeable battery is shown in
the time display when the TV is on. The external battery pack holds
for 3 hours. It contains 4 AA cells.
Yes, it also is a Watch
The Wrist TV shows the time in a
little display above the TV screen. It is a very simple watch
function. AM/PM time display and full date are supported. I could
not figure out how to change the time display to 24h format. Might
not be supported.
 |
| TV
unit by itself with TV on. Without the Wrist Strap it is a
very small portable TV. I am not watching Will &
Grace in case you might think that. |
Conclusion
For me this is the coolest Gadget of
2004 so far. It is basically the smallest portable TV on the market.
The versatility of the design of the NHJ wearable TV is
a big plus, because users are not stuck to just wear it on the
wrist. There could be tons of uses for this small TV unit, not just
for TV watching on the go. The VTV-101 sells on Dynamism for
$239.00, which I think reasonable for this tiny TV. Pricing at  Hammacher
Schlemmer is not published yet. I will update this review, with
more first hand experiences with the wrist TV.
If you have questions or suggestions for this review please email
me.
How to Buy
Dynamism
takes orders now, Price $239.00
Hammacher
Schlemmer has the Wrist TV for $199.95 (incl. Hammacher
Schlemmer's signature lifetime Guarantee)
If you know of other stores that sell the NHJ VTV-101 wearable TV,
please email me.
More Best-selling Portable
TVs
 |
| From
top left: neck strap, external battery pack, wrist band,
AC adaptor, Antenna earphone, TV unit. |
VTV-101 Specifications
|
|
|
| Main Body |
Available channel |
VHF: 1~12ch / UHF 13~62ch |
| Channel tuner |
PLL synthesizer tuner (auto/manual format) |
| Sound format |
Monaural |
| Antenna |
Earphone antenna |
| Input |
Charge connecting terminal |
| Output |
Earphone terminal |
| Liquid Crystal Display |
Monitor |
TFT color monitor |
| Image size |
1.5” (W) 29.5mm × (H) 22.2mm |
| Driver |
Active Matrix |
| Pixels |
61600 pixels (280 × 220 pixels) |
| Watch |
Display |
Battery remain/ year.
month. date/
Channel Sound switch |
Power Source
(Built-in battery) |
Battery type |
Rechargeable lithium-polymer battery / 500mAh |
| DC input |
DC5V |
| DC output |
DC 4.2V / 550mA MAX |
| Electricity |
Approx. 2W |
| Battery life |
Up to 1 1/2 hour |
| Charge time |
Approx. 1 1/2 hour |
Power Source
(Optional Battery) |
Battery type |
4 × AAA Alkaline batteries |
| Battery life * |
Approx. 1 hour (Built-in battery is not
remained)
Approx. 3 hour (Built-in battery is fully charged) |
| Main Unit |
Dimension |
(W)45.7mm × (H)49.4mm × (D)18.2mm
(Plug part is not included) |
| Weight |
55g (without accessories) |
| Environment Specification |
Temperature |
5~35 Celsius |
| Humidity |
20~80% |
About NHJ Limited
NHJ USA was
established in the US market early in 2004 due to a desire to expand
globally after having huge success in Japan and Hong Kong since the
company was established in 1999. NHJ also has a strong financial
backing from the privately owned Harilela group of hotels which has
helped enable NHJ to have the ability to move forward in the market
place at an incredible rate. Currently there are over fifteen major
retailers who are customers with NHJ including The Sharper Image and
Target .
|
