The MSI portable Freeview box is a simple yet elegant design that combines a 4.2" LCD display with a DVB-T receiver and also packs in the ability to replay media from removable storage. Unlike so many portable TV type devices the first feeling when you hold the MSI unit is that it's well built, sure there is plastic in use but it all fits well and feels like it is well screwed together. The MSI D310 to give it its full name measures 129 x 82 x 15.6 mm and weighs a not so hefty 180 grams, styled in black and with a foldable DTT aerial it certainly looks the part and still remains a highly portable device thanks to its inbuilt battery.

With the MSI D310 sat on our desk and the mains power supply attached we were ready to start our tests and decided to use the auto scan feature to search the DTT spectrum for channels from the Crystal Palace transmitter. The menu system is simple enough and we didn't need to use the manual to work out what to do, so we dived in and hit scan and waited for the results. After some 3 minutes the scan completed with no returned channels, strange, so we gave it another try but with the same results.

Desperate measures were called for and despite the late September rain it was off to the great outdoors (well the garden) to see if we could get a signal outside. So we started the scan again this time using battery power and low and behold we had a few channels noticeably the BBC channels from mux 1. Still this was an improvement and we tuned to BBC One to get a picture at last and it was fairly stable with the occasional break up.

As the rain was holing off we decided to try and carry out our review alfresco, the picture when stable was clear enough as you'd expect from a Freeview signal. The screen is brightish and is probably good indoors however outdoors everything was a bit dull and washed out, the little speaker isn't really up to the job and struggled on all but speech, there is of course a headphones jack which works fine. The MSI unit has all the features you'd expect of Freeview like a full EPG and also a video output to enable the decoder to be used with a larger screen.

Of course as soon as we took the MSI back indoors the signal disappeared and we couldn't get any channels so it was a bit tricky to try the TV out feature. Just as well then that the MSI machine can also replay media from storage, no internal storage means you are limited to the capacity of an SD / MMC card (not supplied) and formats are pretty sparse too with MPEG-4 AVI for video and MP3 for audio, Jpeg for stills. Again we managed to test the audio which worked although 180 grams is a hefty weight for an MP3 player and the JPEG viewer was ok, but getting video into MPEG-4 was a struggle.

We anted to try plugging in our RF antenna attached to the roof but the manual (yes we did resort to it) recommends staying away from boosted RF signals as they can overload the sensitive reception equipment in the MSI D310. Sensitive! from our tests its about as sensitive as a JCB with a shovel full of bricks. This has to be a first for us a Freeview unit that doesn't get all the Freeview channels even when outdoors and within sight of the Crystal palace transmitter, which for point of note is one of the most powerful DTT transmitters in the country.

The Lithium-ion rechargeable battery  rated at 2300mAh provides just 3 hours viewing of DVB-T signals and up to 4 hours on pre recorded media (not that you can get 4 hours video on an DS card). All in all very disappointing and not only does the £120 MSI portable Freeview unit not get a best buy rating, it gets a steer clear rating from us. A Freeview unit that doesn't pick up Freeview is about as much use as a mug that doesn't hold tea.

Published - 02/10/2006

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