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MiniTV in Your Palm: Tiny TV and Tiny TV Mini Review
Have you ever heard about Tiny TV? The TinyTV 2 and Tiny TV Mini have been out for a while from a company. They make a Arduino compatible platform aboard that is in a really small form factor and a series of Shields and add-ons that are stackable, so you can have everything in it, from an OLED display, speakers, storage, sensors, radios, even to power. How does these tiny TV review? Do they really work? Let’s check it.
The Tiny TV is in a modular and compact form factor, and it is for a variety of projects. There are also kits that are ready to go out of the box with some fun functionality. This tiny TV has a tiny OLED screen about one inch in diameter or diagonal screen, with a resolution of 96 pixels by 64 pixels. It is really novel little product, which has just such so much charming functionality.
It works with a wireless remote, and it has buttons on the sides that you can press to change channels, Here is a really cool piece of software that allows you to simulate the channel surfing, so you can load up these videos that you process on your desktop import and mp4 file resize. It compress and load it onto a Micro SD card that is plug in from the bottom, and then you can actually switch channels while in the background.
The processor runs a clock, so when you change from one video file to the next video file, it actually jumps to the timestamp where you were previously. It's not starting videos from scratch, but it simulates the idea that all these videos stored on the MicroSD card are playing at the same time.
What's the TinyTV 2 feature?
- Very Tiny - fits in the palm of your hand
- Has a beautifully bright IPS TFT display
- Two rotary knobs to control channel and volume selections
- Sturdy plastic case with a built in rechargeable battery (available in color or clear)
- Infrared remote control receiver
- Front facing speaker
- Built-in 8GB microSD card to store over 10 hours of video
- Preloaded with videos, just turn on and start watching
- Easily load your own videos to your TinyTV 2 over USB-C
A bunch of other improvements as well on the chassis on the cabinet. They're now rotary dials that you can turn for adjusting your channels, as well as your volume in the back. Here it has the speaker grilles of the embedded speaker as well.
Now, the USBC for charging as well as for storage no longer are you swapping in a Micro SD card. There are built-in 8 gigabytes of storage and with their updated software the video files that you're converting are standard AVI files. It can really drag and drop from your desktop right onto the tiny TV too.
They have software that lets you resize and compress them, and then compress to about 1.5 megabits video, so you can store quite a bit of video in this new resolution on the TinyTV 2.
TinyTV 2 Tech Specs
- Dimensions: 47.6mm x 36.6mm x 25.9mm (1.9" x 1.4" x 1.0")
- Display: IPS TFT 65K Color, 26mm (1.0"), 216x135 pixels
- Battery: Li-Polymer 3.7V, 150mAh, about 2 hours of video playback
- Storage: Built in 8GB, about 10 hours of video playback
- Audio: 16x9mm (0.6" x 0.4") front facing speaker
- Inputs: Power Button, 2 rotary knobs for channel and volume control
- Remote: Can be controlled by an Infrared (IR) remote control
- Processor: Raspberry Pi RP2040 Processor
- Connectivity: USB-C for uploading and battery charging
What's the TinyTV Mini feature?
- Insanely Tiny - slightly larger than a US Quarter
- Has a beautifully bright OLED display
- Power, Channel and Volume buttons on the top of the case
- Sturdy plastic case with a built in rechargeable battery (available in color or clear)
- Infrared remote control receiver
- Internal Speaker
- Built-in 8GB microSD card to store over 40 hours of video
- Preloaded with videos, just turn on and start watching
- Easily load your own videos to your TinyTV Mini over USB-C
Both TinyTV and TinyTV Mini are come from the same company, who have the technology so the screen is smaller at just over half an inch in diagonal, and the resolution is 64 pixels by 64 pixels, which means that you can see the pixels, but it's amazing that this display is even smaller than the size of a micro SD card. A lot of the same features as the other Tiny TVs works with the TinyTV Mini too.
Wireless remote has buttons on the top for changing, channels, and volume controls. The speaker is in the back. Like the TinyTV2, there are eight gigs of storage charging over USBC, as well as drag and drop those AVI files that you convert on your desktop. Software directly on the tiny TV mini maybe not a practical device. Certainly, there is a novel and charming device.
TinyTV Mini Tech Specs
- Dimensions: 26.3mm x 23.8mm x 21.9mm (1.0" x 0.94" x 0.86")
- Display: 65K Color OLED, 15.2mm (0.6"), 64x64 pixels
- Battery: Li-Polymer 3.7V, 50mAh, about 1 hour of video playback
- Storage: Built in 8GB, about 40 hours of video playback
- Audio: Internal speaker
- Inputs: Power Button, Volume button, Channel button on the top of the unit
- Remote: Can be controlled by an Infrared (IR) remote control
- Processor: Raspberry Pi RP2040 Processor
- Connectivity: USB-C for uploading and battery charging
Verdict: Is Tiny TV worth buying?
What gets me excited is the opportunity for Tiny circuits in the future. These Tiny cabinet chassis TV displays on their tiny screen with an all-in-one board package, including the processor, the USBC port. Not just only that, what more important is that you could design and 3D print your own housing for your own model, making projects your own Miniatures. And the Tiny TV mini is a square aspect ratio, which offers more opportunity to put it in some novel use cases.
What we looking at is actually a upcoming model kit. We know TV is big screen for thousands of dollars. The Tiny TV could be really cool if the scale works out with a tiny screen. Whatever version of the tiny screen comes out in the future, both the tiny TV 2 and the Tiny TV Mini are creative products.