Discount Haier HLT71 7-Inch Handheld LCD TV

I bought this unit for my mother for Mother's Day. When it arrived, I was very pleased at the small size as it fit perfectly as a replacement for an old 5" CRT based portable TV and it has QAM reception that works with my cable. However, I immediately discovered several problems that were quite annoying. My mother was first to notice that the audio had a habit of dropping out and the lip sync was a problem. I found that the sensitivity on cable channels above 100 was poor and that QAM reception on cable channel 107 was terrible with the channels constantly dropping out. My 42" Vizio VO42LF LCD TV has no problem at all on the very same cable (unplugged the Vizio from the cable and plugged in the Haier to make sure it wasn't a cable problem). The manual provides very little help and is written in Chinglish. The Haier web site does not list the HLT71 product so online support is impossible. Finally, the remote control buttons did not work as expected or as the manual seemed to indicate; the Electronic Program Guide indicates using the left and right arrow buttons to scroll but they instead change the volume. There is no way to scroll through the EPG so you can all see details for the current programming. You are supposed to be able to enter a channel number and press the "Enter" key to enter it (if I read the manual correctly - see above). However, doing this brings up the "Auto Scan" function of setup. To change channels, you have to enter the channel number and wait for it to timeout and switch.

The form factor is wonderful and if the unit was more sensitive, had better documentation and online support, and the remote worked correctly, it would be a great unit. Hopefully Haier will get its act together and fix the flaws because this device has potential. Maybe an HLT71A or HLT72 is in the offing. I did note that there is a mini-USB port on the bottom of the unit, possibly for firmware upgrades. Unfortunately, with no online support for the HLT71, such a feature is probably useless.Get more detail about Haier HLT71 7-Inch Handheld LCD TV.