Hello Everyone,

I have a some questions for those of you who bought TV converter boxes with a coupon.

You may wonder why I am asking now. Our situation here is a little different than most areas. Every station here is either a translator, or low power. Under the rules, all of them were exempt from the changeover deadline. Eventually they will be required to convert. One station here has a build permit from the FCC for a digital installation. As far as I know, they haven't started yet. We are surrounded by mountains, and as of right now there are no digital signals available over the air. Not one.

I waited as long as I could to request the coupons. I applied in the last few days of the program. Now the coupons are about to expire. We will need converters here, analog is going away, just not yet. When I get these things home, I wont even be able to test them.

I am now wondering what you think of the one you bought.

I have two coupons. One box will be for the living room. Analog pass through needs to work on this one, because at first there will be only one digital signal. The second box will be my workshop's cable system. It is currently fed by an old VCR acting as an NTSC tuner. I use this for working on vintage tv sets, so decent video and sound is important. Analog pass through would be nice, but not absolutely necessary. It does need to work well with older sets, because that is what it will be used for.

I don't think I need 12v capability, but If you have one of those, I would still like to hear about it's performance.

So... Here's the laundry list of questions. :D What model do you have and how do you like it? Does it have analog pass-through? Does your sound work right on an early set? How is the video quality? Is the sound in sync? Did it break after two weeks? What sort of output jacks does it have? Has your opinion changed after living with it a while?

Any advice would be appreciated....

Thanks,

John

I would recommend the boxes made by LG/Zenith if you can find them. I bought a Zenith DTT900 and an Insignia (identical to the DTT900) early on with the coupon program. I later added two Zenith DTT901 units (reduced in price at Sears and Kmart) without using coupons. The DTT901 has added analog pass-through and they seem to have made improvements to the audio line out levels (low on early models).

If you haven't already done so then you might want to look at discussion of these boxes and others at AVS and WTFDA (TV dx fans) forums. I did some on-line research of the early boxes, and the LG/Zenith made boxes seem to have the edge. Availability of CECB units in the retail market has now become a problem for many from what I am reading (particularly for some of the better performing brands). Production has apparently ceased on many.

I haven't had reason to regret my choice. The Zenith DTT901 and DTT900 seem to have better "sensitivity" than earlier HD boxes I have used from Motorola and Accurian/DigitalStream (Radio Shack) in this mountainous region, In mountains "sensitivity" on these is more an issue of how well they handle multi-path signal than ability to detect very weak signals.

000

I like the rca. I hate the wall wart part but the apex that has a built in power supply gets so hot theres no way it will last. The rca runs cool and seems to have a better tuner than the others.

Antenna is everything as usual. A local electronics store still carries winegaurd and I went though the spec sheets and found one with really good relativity equal gain on all channels. It works really well and makes all the difference in the world.

got a TR-40, seems to have random power up issues, needs a pretty strong signal. I would not recommend it if you are in a rurual setting unless you invest in a GOOD antenna, what ever that is. Mine is on rabbit ears, and a powered antenna. Granted they stink so that is prob the main problem. The random power issues seem to be a software issue.

If you need analog pass-through, get the Zenith DTT901 or the Insignia NS-DXA1-APT. If you don't need pass-through, you can also get the Zenith DTT900, Insignia NS-DXA1, or Channel Master CM7000. Don't bother with any others.

The Channel Master should still be available from Fry's Electronics, the others you will need to find from used sources, most likely.

Digital Stream, Insignia, Zenith (Insignia and Zenith are the same box) in that order. All mine are still going. Sound not always synced but no way to adjust. Mine work good on all my older sets, even the Motorola TS-4.
Stay away from Magnavox and Philco. Those two die real fast.

I think ratshack may still carry the digitalstream boxes. The Zenith/Insignia boxes are NLA except from places like ebay and other sources of used electronics. Like others have said; try to avoid the Magnavox, Philco, and Apex boxes. I know people who have had Magnavox boxes for over a year and they are still going; but, I don't like the cheap build quality and the fact that they are not as sensitive as the others. The Apex box gets hot enough to fry an egg on top of it.

I suggest you take a look at this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1183648

I have had the best luck with the Digital Stream ones from Radio Shack. These are still listed on their website. They are about $10 more expensive than some of the othere, but it has been my experience that their reception is better than the others I have tried. They also run cooler and seem not to cause very much buzz on tube type TV sound systems.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3150939

I like the Channel Master CM7000, as it has an Svideo output jack, so I could feed just luma to my early pre-color era B&W TV sets. See http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?p=1990128#post1990128 With no chroma dot crawl. And it makes a great picture on my S video equipped Sony TV set.

I know people who have had Magnavox boxes for over a year and they are still going; but, I don't like the cheap build quality and the fact that they are not as sensitive as the others.
This. My Magnavox is 18 months old and has been rock solid reliable, but about as sensitive as a box of rocks, even with an amplified and rotatable outdoor antenna. I'm not sure if it's the box or the terrain or the trees, but jeez! When I do get a picture, it's beautiful, and the sound is always in sync. I use its line outputs to feed my Panasonic mono VCR; I use the VCR's RF modulator to feed the TV via RF.

I have an Insignia, 2 Digitalstreams and a Magnavox. And that is the order of preference I have. They really cut corners on the Maggie.

Another vote for the Channel Master CM 7000... and it is NOT made in China, mine is made in Bulgaria! (and the box is metal...Gasp!!) It seems to be slightly more sensitive for Dx than others that I have tried. The Zenith, IMHO is a close second, but has no S-Video output.

jr

I've got both an Insignia and Channel Master box. Both have roughly the same sensitivity, with the Channel Master being a little more finicky as far as required signal strength. The Insignia is nicer for older sets as the visual theme seems to be plainer and larger, while the Channel Master has a lot more information displayed on-screen. They seem to drive older sets nicely, and as Bob said, the CM has a S-video output, which can be used to drive older black and white sets. The Insignia remote is also a little simpler to use, with about half the buttons of the CM.

Setupwise, the Insignia allows for easier addition of channels after initial setup, as well as direct RF channel entry - good for DXing.

I've had both since around March '08, and they seem to be going strong. Both boxes are plugged into switched wall outlets with their respective sets, and powered off completely when not in use. I don't know if that helps, but I would think so.

They both outperform the Magnavox I used to have hands-down. I wound up giving the Magnavox to my father, who's in a slightly higher signal area and it seems to work fine there. Its interface is a lot less intuitive, and I couldn't ever get it to work satisfactorily here with my small indoor antenna.

-Jim

I have one Insignia and another Zenith, plus a Artec I bought that will operate on 12V. Not sure about other boxes, but what I do like about the Insignia-Zenith compared to the Artec is the aspect ratio memory for each individual channel. Some of the information sub-channels do better squeezed so all the info is displayed on the screen. Whatever the reason, it is nice to have the aspect stay set in memory with each channel, and not have to change this setting with channel changes.

I have a Channel Master as well as an Insignia/LG/Zenith box. The CM box doesn't seem to have the sensitivity as the other box. I'm only about 20 miles from the transmitter farm for the DFW area, but I still have challenges with the CM using an amplified rabbit ears setup with adjustable amplification level. The Insignia has a simple VHF unamplified rabbit ears on it, but it still outperforms the CM. It picks up more channels and has less dropout than the CM. We have all our channels in the UHF spectrum except two -- WFAA (RF 8/Disp 8) and KFWD (RF 9/Disp 52). I'd love to see them migrate to entirely UHF but Belo Media won't move these two. Interestingly when WFAA was on RF 9 prior to analog switchoff, back in 1998 they disrupted all the remote monitoring at Baylor hospital, earning them unwanted publicity and some sort of ban on monitoring equipment being on the channel or the harmonics of RF 9 for that event.

The Channel Master box reception quality is close to that of the Zenith and Insignia boxes, but not identical, as you have noted, and it has a S-video output. Those reasons are why I only recommend those three brands of tuners to anyone. ANY box can work well in one specific case or another; the ones I mentioned are the only ones that have repeatedly worked well in numerous comparisons reported online, as well as my own personal tests.

Just got back from a service call... An Access converter box. Latched on the menu in spanish, no reset, no control funtion. Plug it in and it goes on, goes to spanish menu. Stays there.
Going back with a new Digital Stream
More channels
better pictures
better sound

Want to buy some swamp land while you are here?

My Zenith 901 is more sensative than the built in ATSC tuner in a 23" Viewsonic I have. But, the viewsonic was really intended to be a computer monitor, so they probably did not put much into it.

My Zenith 901 is more sensative than the built in ATSC tuner in a 23" Viewsonic I have. But, the viewsonic was really intended to be a computer monitor, so they probably did not put much into it. Speaking of Viewsonic TV receiver-monitors, I bought a 19" Viewsonic about 2 years ago now, and it had a great tuner. I was impressed by how well it would stay locked on to stations. Unfortunately it also had a very poor uneven LCD panel. It finally went back to Viewsonic and they generously replaced it with a 26" model that also had adjustable backlight (another big complaint I had with the 19" - no adjustable backlight intensity, a very important thing for an LCD TV to have) . The newer 26" tuner was less sensitive than the 19". So even within the same brand, tuner quality can vary. Pretty sure they use a readily available tuner module in these sets. I ended up selling the Viewsonic to someone on cable. No more TVs from monitor companies for me. They missed too many other important "TV" features I took for granted that I thought would be standard in a HDTV.

All I have been able to locate here are a generic one I believe to be a Venturer STB7766, a Digital Stream DSP7700P and a few Apex models. I'm leaning toward the Digital Stream, or maybe just forgetting the coupons, and getting Zenth ones online. They are available refurbished, but not with the coupon

Thanks to everyone who responded!

John

.

The Digital Stream DSP7700P is a decent converter box, since you already have the coupon, get it!

If you want a Insignia or Zenith converter box, you can always get a brand new one on ebay, there typical bidding range is between 20 and 30 dollars at the moment...

I've bought 5 digital streams, 2 Craigs, and a Magnavox. the digitalstreams work the best although 2 of them failed. The Craigs are crap I was able to exchange 1 digital stream as it failed within a week, the other failure came a year latter. My first Craig lasted about a month. I just got the Magnavox, I don't know how long this one will last. I am having problems setting up a universal remote with this one any one know the code for the Magnavox with a Philips remote?

My remote is a learning remnote and I was able to "teach" it the comands from the magnavox box it works much better than the remote that came with the box!

Please let me ask a stupid question:

I'm still using the analog input on one TV because it's easiest for one non-gearhead in my household to operate. (I'm a gearhead, I can say gearhead).

I've been running Cox cable (Phoenix AZ area) straight into the TV. Cox is going all-digital so the analog feed is going away. They will lend me a convertor box free for a year but it's $3 a month after that. I hate paying $3 a month forever for something that probably cost them $3.

So if I have convertor box such as the Zenith DTT 901, will it provide an analog feed by decoding digital cable channels? Even if it only does the lowest 150 channels that would suffice. I can find one used for $25 or so, so the payback is less than a year.

Has anyone tried this? If so can you please share your results?

Thanks a lot!

Tightwad in Tempe

TiT - The Zenith box is designed to decode OTA digital stations, therefore can only tune channels 2-69.

...Cox is going all-digital so the analog feed is going away. They will lend me a convertor box free for a year but it's $3 a month after that. I hate paying $3 a month forever for something that probably cost them $3...

Try AT&T's "FREE" modem! SOB's switched out the old copper landline a year ago with fiber U-verse and told me repeatedly the new modem would be FREE. Several CSRs told me and repeated it back when I asked to verify. A year later, I get to pay $7 a mo until I guess I cancel, for their damned $50 modem. And you HAVE to use THEIR modem. Unlike the locel cable co., Time Warner which will allow the customer to provide their own.
Back to your question, not sure if your cable co. puts an ATSC broadcast-type signal on the cable but that's what you'd need. ATSC broadcast is what the Zenith box is made to decode.

Ed, I feel your pain! Wiscojim, thanks for the info! I suspect eventually I will find one so cheap I'll just take a chance on it. If I get the answer I will share it here! 69 channels might be enough to satisfy the key user.

I suspect eventually I will find one so cheap I'll just take a chance on it. If I get the answer I will share it here! 69 channels might be enough to satisfy the key user.

Most cable systems use QAM modulation, while the Broadcast system is ATSC... although the digital encoding is similar, the modulation is not compatable between the two systems. It is also likely that the cable system will scramble the signals to prevent customers with newer QAM compatable TVs from receiving TV without an official cable box. IMHO, you're stuck. :sigh:

jr

You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave...

Thanks!

In my area, we have crapcast and you have to rent one of their boxes, if you want to watch cable TV. About 2 years ago, we cut the cable because we got tired of paying $80/month for basic cable.

So, in other words, your Zenith DTV box will likely not work on the cable system.