With a view to whiling away the long summer months stormbound in Yarmouth or even Poole I was thinking about buying an Avtex W153D combined TV/DVD player. Have any of the panel come across them and are they a GOOD BUY?
I have the model you mentioned and I have to say that the quality of the sound and picture is as good as I get at home - Excellent!
I have to say that I'm in a digital area so that probably makes a big difference but considering I spend most of my time on a swinging mooring on the River Dart and not on a "static" mooring the TV performs brilliantly.
I can't recall where I bought it from but the guy I spoke to gave me some excellent technical advice. If I come across the website I'll PM you.
Hope this helps.
Have both the 19" & 15" versions on board (smaller one in the forward cabin & the bigger in the saloon. They are not cheap, but are blessed with a super sensitive tuner, low power consumption, DC & AC power options and above average picture & build quality.
If you don't mind paying the premium price, you will not be disappointed.
If you can it might be worth buying from the boat and caravan show, some good discounts to be had last year if I remember, plus you get to see the quality for yourself.
I seem to remember from the sales literature that in an independant test performed by 'Which' where the 15" avtex came second, the first place was won by a brand we had never herd of but was 3 times the price.
Another plus point is they are built almost exclusively for the mobile leisure market, many high end motorhomes have them installed, the reason, because they have ruggedised chasis to deal with constant vibration.
We have a 10" widescreen 7 in 1, it accepts dvd's, cd's, memory cards etc, we dont often use it but when we do at always produces a crystal clear picture and the sound quality is unbelievable for the size.
If I were to need one again I woud definiteley buy another Avtex (they can also be found branded as 'oppo').
i've got one of those also (153d), it is more than just a tv set and dvd player, its a pc monitor, fm transmitter, cd player, photo card reader and many more bits added to it, check out the manual for all it can do...
it might sound expensive but with all the added bits, i'm sure its worth it...
Yes I forgot about the ability to transmit FM from the set, tune the stereo to recieve the broadcast from the TV and you can listen in suround sound via your onboard entertainment system, damn fine quality without that facility besides though.
Not sure if the Oppo has the transmitter, they are sold as Avtex & Oppo and are identical in every way, but without looking at the individual specs I couldn't say for sure.
Excellent sets however, but if it's the ability to transmit sound via FM I would go for one with it included in the specs.
I've just had one of these delivered - the W193DR with record facility. It seems a good product with one important exception...
The screen is a 16 x 10 aspect ratio. The picture is stretched to fit and accordingly every picture is vertically stretched by about 10% making it annoying to watch. I've tried everything and I've even phoned Avtex's technical helpline. I'm told that no-one else has complained about it.
If I measure the screen it is 19.3" diagonally, 16" horizontally and...you guessed it... 10" vertically. This can't be right.
I suspect that it has something to do with being a computer derived monitor. Hasn't anyone else noticed this problem?
We have the 19 inch model also, didn't know they did it with a record facility though. Must say, I haven't noticed anything aggravating about the picture. I presume you have it set up properly seeing as you have spoken to Avtex. Isn't the ratio more or less the same as most widescreen T.V.'s?