Hyundai Portable Digital TV tested

Keeping children entertained in the car used to involve playing games of I Spy or Travel Cluedo. But now, youngsters expect more hi-tech solutions.

While portable DVD players have been around for some time, this new Portable Digital TV from Hyundai has a built-in Freeview tuner, so they can watch their favourite shows live during the journey. At least, that’s the idea – but we found the system doesn’t deliver.

The main drawback was that it couldn’t hold a strong enough signal in the car, even when it was stationary. As the signal dropped off, the picture would either pixelate or freeze completely for a few seconds.

Still, when it did work, the screen resolution impressed, so when we hooked it up to a DVD player, watching movies was a joy. Audio quality was excellent, too, especially with earphones, although the speaker could have been louder for use in a moving car.

Reception let the radio down as well – we couldn’t tune into any stations during our test. And while the quality of plastics used was good, the aerial was flimsy and the touch-sensitive buttons proved slow to react.