View Full Version : garage sale find:Motorola ATSC receiver box


wa2ise
11-02-2013, 07:38 PM
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=180568&stc=1&d=1383438298
This is a Motorola HDT101 ATSC receiver box, dating back from 2004. One step above a coupon eligible converter box (CECB) as it provides spdif, and high def YPrPb, S-video. No modulated channel3 or 4 NTSC though. And you can't tag junk (uninteresting, like Jesuscasters or channels in a language you don't know) to be skipped when channelling up or down. Reasonably sensitive, though it can do strange things on weak signals.

It runs off a +12 and +5V power supply brick.

Here I'm driving a B&W monitor off the luma signal from the S-video output.

Dropped a whole $7.50 on it.

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I found a workaround for the inability to tag channels to be skipped. You first do a reset of the box, then do a manual search of each channel, one by one, that you want. You need to know what RF channel your desired channel is on, enter it, and it finds all the subchannels on it. Go to tvfool.com to find out the RF channels in your town.

ChrisW6ATV
11-05-2013, 12:59 AM
Interesting. I never remember Motorola making any HDTV tuners, and I used to keep up with the tuners on the market quite a bit in the 2000-2006 period.

The ability to "blindly" enter an RF channel and have the tuner configure it is a nice feature, seldom if ever found in built-in digital tuners in TV sets now.

TVTim
12-03-2013, 11:25 AM
That's cool. I can't seem to find any on eBay.

DavGoodlin
12-03-2013, 02:31 PM
Good find with that box. I never see even used coupon converters for sale anywhere!

I was looking pretty closely at tuners back during those early years (2000) because a local PBS station was simulcasting an ASTC signal. I also remember comparing reviews in trade magazines of that Motorola, a Samsung SIR 351 and Zenith HDV-420 among few others. For reasons I do not recall, the Motorola was panned in favor of the others.

There seemed to be a conspiracy among the retailers selling HD monitors at the time to exclude OTA tuners in favor of selling satellite subscriptions.
The only ASTC tuner I saw for sale locally was the Motorola HDT101 at a Circuit City store, now defunct with HH Gregg in that spot today.
Remebering the review, I did not get the Motorola.

I ended up ordering a Samsung SIRT-451 from another now-defunct retailer, Tweeter.
The Samsung has its quirks also but its been performing well for the last 8 years.
I paid $100 for a Zenith HDV-420 on e-pay about 4 years ago, and it also performs well albeit with its own issues.