CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?

The reception you get on the DMT336R is vastly better than what you’re probably used to seeing on a portable TV. There’s no picture noise (snow), no crackling audio, and none of the other reception artifacts that made the old analog portable TVs so fickle.

That’s not to say the reception is always perfect, though. As on all the digital TVs I’ve owned, the DTV picture does glitch on occasion, briefly freezing up or breaking into a pixilated mess.

The MDTV reception was more dependable. At my home in the San Fernando Valley, I got all six Los Angeles MDTV channels perfectly. Cycling in San Bernardino, 60 miles east of the TV antennas atop Mt. Wilson, the MDTV reception wasn’t as strong. I still got all six channels, although on one the picture often broke up into blocks and on another it stuttered at times.

In these cases, the TV was stationary. But I did get a chance to try out MDTV reception in motion as I drove through Las Vegas. I tuned into KLAS-MH (channel 8), connected the TV’s audio output to my car stereo, and listened for signal breakup. (I couldn’t legally watch the TV while driving, nor would I have taken that risk even if it were legal.) The signal started to come in about 15 miles east of Vegas on I-15, and the reception stayed rock-solid until I crested a hill about 8 miles south of town. It did glitch once when I went under a bridge, and a couple of times when large trucks passed me, but overall the mobile reception was excellent as long as I kept the antenna pointed up.

Although I was able to pick up MDTV only in the major markets of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the DMT336R’s DTV reception made it useful in smaller towns without MDTV. In towns like Montrose, Colorado, I was able to pick up several DTV channels. Watching a crystal-clear TV picture in my tent during the Great Western Bicycle Rally in Paso Robles, California, was a great way to unwind after a fast, hilly ride through the California’s Central Coast wine country.