I obtained an almost new Apex DT250A DTV converter box from my neighbor's estate. Due to health issues, he recently had to move to a rest home. His legal guardian, which I know, gave me this DTV converter.

It's in a metal case and has provisions for S-video and a "smart" antenna. Really, that's about as far as the good points go. I connected it to a 12" 1970 Zenith B&W set and there was a constant loud buzz in the audio on every station and the reception was not good. Also, the only button on the box is the power button. A remote must be used even for channel changing.

So, I re-connected my Digitalstream box, using the same box and the same antenna positioned just as it was for the Apex box test. With the digitalstream, the reception was fine and there was very little buzz in the audio.

I think the Apex box cost about $50; and, you'd be better off to spend the extra $10 to get one of the better boxes.

So far, I have two Digitalstream boxes (the older ones w/o analog pass-through), a Funai built Magnavox (which I don't like), and this Apex. The only two boxes that are in use are the Digitalstream's. I hope to get one of the Zenith boxes soon. From what I'm reading about the Zenith, I'll probably like it.

I have tried the Magnavox (Walmart), The Insignia (which from what I am told also doubles as at least one Zenith box), The Apex, the D2A Channel Master and the Digital Stream. The worst is the APEX. Mine, once decoding, is OK but it needs far more signal than the others. The Magnavox is second worse, but not near as bad as the Apex. The Channel Master is great but cannot be "updated or add channels" without a full rescan. The Insignia/Zenith is great as well as the Digital Stream. I use the Digital Stream at home with the larger antennas (Channel Master 4251 and Wade VIP-307). It is a consistant performer for a minimum of 100 miles. I would stick with the Digital Stream.

OK, these Apex boxes really are junk! In the year and four months that I've had this box, I've only powered it up briefly for a couple times. Today, I decided to sell it for $15, as I have three of the better quality boxes. So, I advertised it on a local call in swap and sell program on the local AM station and a lady called about it. While waiting on her to come get it, I connected it to a 12" B&W TV so she could see it work. Fired it up and I was greeted with "bad filter crawl" (AKA, humbar) moving up the screen. I tried another TV to eliminate the first TV as being defective and I determined that the trouble was with the box.

To save myself the embarrassment, I quickly dug out a new Magnavox box that I bought from a friend for $15. I connected everything up, saw that everything worked, and she bought it.

Now, I've got to open the Apex and try to locate the bad cap. I'm sure it's loaded with "no name" Chinese caps that are failure prone.

So, what I'm saying is: Don't waste your money on one of these Apex boxes. The Funai built Magnavox boxes are obviously not as good as some of the other brands; but, I know several people who have them and they are all still working after one to two years.

OK, I opened it up and didn't see and caps that were blown out, even though I know that does not mean anything. I did jump the two 22uf, 400V caps in the raw B+ supply; but, those were not the problem. I'm going to scope the B+ lines coming out of the switching power supply and if I don't find anything wrong there, I'm probably pitching this box in the trash as it has the most horrible reviews of any box that I've ever looked up. I'm glad this box was a freebie and I feel sorry for anyone who actually spent money on one.

Welcome to China.

And I ALMOST decided to just toss it....and get another one, but that "nudge" kept telling me to "give it a look", and after I saw that post before this one. So...I gave it a look. In MINE, a 470/25 cap on the SMPS was "puffed" so I put another one in, from an old board "hanging around-- and now--MINE is FIXED!! I get a LOT of enjoyment watching THIS and RTV around here!!

I have a model that i got from microcenter that still works. I forget the brand, it was something-stream. i forget now. gotta go look at it again. hey jack, i never knew there was an RTV in our area?? i cant pick it up. at least not where I am at. must have antenna issues or something.

I have a box that "says" it's a Zenith (even though we know it was NOT made in Chicago) that works fine. I only use it occasionally when testing a set in the shop as all my TV's that we watch are on cable.

It's in a metal case and has provisions for S-video and a "smart" antenna. Really, that's about as far as the good points go.

I wish more DTV boxes had S-video, like the Channel Master CM7000. I've modified my CM7000 to produce B&W (without color subcarrier) on its TV modulator output, for use with my Admiral bakelite console TV. So I won't see chroma crawlies. For older color sets you can do some low pass filtering of the luma video before adding the chroma to create a composite video signal that won't have false color crawlies on a vintage tube TV set.

I'd try to fix and modify the APEX box if I had one, as it has S-video. (If your saying "provisions" meaning there's a jack on the back of the box)

Many boxes mix the chroma and luma inside a decoder chip and you can't get at the separate signals. :thumbsdn:

Yes--there IS an S video jack on the back--as well as composite video.

Most of the ckty. is on one board, other than the SMPS.

This box is now in file 13. Upon closer examination, I discovered some leaky caps on the main board (the area that gets so hot). I started to attempt to clean up the mess and recap the board using name brand caps; but, I decided against it. I saved the power cord and a bunch of screws. The rest went to the trash.

I just bought one of the Apex boxes at an estate sale last week for $8.50. It seems to work fine now. I hope it keeps working, as a pulled a new antenna connection into the office where before I was stretching a cable from the bedroom DTV box across the hall. My experience with DTV boxes has been only with the Zenith / Insigna models, I wish these were still available. Apex reliability is questionable, I have an Apex DVD player where none of the front panel buttons work, but at least the remote still does.

OK, these Apex boxes really are junk! In the year and four months that I've had this box, I've only powered it up briefly for a couple times. Today, I decided to sell it for $15, as I have three of the better quality boxes. So, I advertised it on a local call in swap and sell program on the local AM station and a lady called about it. While waiting on her to come get it, I connected it to a 12" B&W TV so she could see it work. Fired it up and I was greeted with "bad filter crawl" (AKA, humbar) moving up the screen. I tried another TV to eliminate the first TV as being defective and I determined that the trouble was with the box.

To save myself the embarrassment, I quickly dug out a new Magnavox box that I bought from a friend for $15. I connected everything up, saw that everything worked, and she bought it.

Now, I've got to open the Apex and try to locate the bad cap. I'm sure it's loaded with "no name" Chinese caps that are failure prone.

So, what I'm saying is: Don't waste your money on one of these Apex boxes. The Funai built Magnavox boxes are obviously not as good as some of the other brands; but, I know several people who have them and they are all still working after one to two years.

I read this post too late. I already bought an APEX a couple weeks ago (for $60). If it doesn't work well, I'm going to have to somehow return it to Best Buy opened. I'm sure that'll be difficult (even with the receipt). They'll probably ask me why I don't just buy one of their 50" Plasmas or LCDs.

Kinda funny....no one has mentioned anything about the RCA boxes. I have a pair of them that have worked very well and I purchased them back when the govt was doing the credit cards for them.

Have not had any signal issues or sound issues. I use just a pair of non-amplified RCA rabbit ears that I have had for years. From what I can tell, these aren't Funai but Thompson....at least that is what is on the manufacturing label.

Been pretty happy with em.

Kinda funny....no one has mentioned anything about the RCA boxes. I have a pair of them that have worked very well and I purchased them back when the govt was doing the credit cards for them.

Have not had any signal issues or sound issues. I use just a pair of non-amplified RCA rabbit ears that I have had for years. From what I can tell, these aren't Funai but Thompson....at least that is what is on the manufacturing label.

Been pretty happy with em.

That's good to know as I've been thinking about buying one or two of these. I've read that they are easy to convert to 12V DC operation and that's the main thing I'm interested in.

Someone just gave me another one of these Apex boxes, minus the remote. So, I dug up the remote for the other one that I trashed. Guess what? This one does the exact same thing as the one I trashed. I suspect this one will also hit the garbage can. Maybe I can use the case as some sort of project box.

My two Digitalstream boxes and my Channel Master box continue to work fine, after 2.5+ years of service. I need to obtain a few more decent boxes before they become impossible to find. As far as new boxes, I think Radio Shack was the last store who carried them in my area.

Fry's stores still sell the Channel Master boxes; they are on sale for $60-70 periodically. I did not see them on their Web site, though.

DTV boxes are all over ebay now. For straight use by hobbyists like us, the Zenith (LG) 900/901 is hard to beat. The Winegard RC-DT09 has similar components but can be adapted to battery power easily. The Digitalstream is also very good and easy to use. I DO TESTING OF VINTAGE ANTENNAS, so a one-button signal meter is a must.

If you have an antenna rotor and do not want each rescan to wipe out previously acquired channels, use the Channel Master CM-5000. The CM-5000 has an update rescan function which adds new channels without erasing others.
Dave "antenna rabbit"
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When I got the coupons from the government it was before I found this site, or had quite the interest in electronics quite frankly. Well, now that I've moved out and refuse to pay for cable I'm starting to regret not buying the more expensive (and probably higher quality) boxes.

I had 4 boxes, the Apex (junk indeed), a General Electric (kinda shaped like a wave on the ocean, mediocre performance too), the cheap looking RCA box, and the Magnavox box. So far the Magnavox is the winner, I'm using it daily and was curious as to what makes it undesireable to the majority of the people responding to this thread?

The Apex and the GE have this problem where the screen will just go white and the box will shut down and restart erradically when the signal isn't strong enough. The RCA box and the remote (which got lost as of how small it was) just look so cheap but I guess the performance is acceptable, and it does at least have on box controls. The Magnavox seemed to me had the fastest rate of "un-digitizing" the signal when surfing thru channels, and it doesn't turn off on me when the signal fails...

Those Magnavox boxes are Funai built, along with a similar Philco branded box. They're not quite as good as a digitalstream, zenith, or channel master box; but, they seem to get the job done and I have not heard of one failing. My biggest complaint with the Magnavox is that it has no controls on the box. If the remote fails to work or if you lose it, you will be out of luck. I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another Magnavox box if one comes along; but, I will leave any Apex box where I found it.