Better stock up on DTV converter boxes. THEY ARE JUNK!
 

Well,

I'm the first to have the first DTV converter box failure, or atleast the first to report a failure on AK. I have the zenith converter box which is sold at circuit city, which is the same as the insignia box sold at best buy. While watching TV this evening with the box, the screen all of a sudden went into intermittent blue horizontal bars and then the unit shut off. I attempted to turn it back on and nothing. The red LED which is on when the unit is switched off even went out so its dead as a door nail now. No reset button on the unit. Wont respond to anything, remote or at the unit. Perhaps something in the power supply failed. Ive yet to investigate. Too late to get into that now. All I can say is that this is pretty poor. Ive only had the box about 1.5 months and it broke already. Im curious if more will fail as time passes in the near future.
This digital transition is a joke. More BS to deal with. Cheap crap converter box is an insult to the Zenith name. I think the quality fell out before the name went on with this thing. Whats next.

And I'll bet the warranty was only 30 days? About the only thing I'd know to do would be to check the caps in the power supply. I've fixed a few modern "throw away" TV's, DVD player's, etc. that had bad caps in the power supply. These caps that I'm finding to be bad are usually the cheapest "off the wall" thing they can find to cram in there. I don't know how the P/S circuit is in your unit; but, many of the switching power supplies in modern cheap junk don't have any sort of over-voltage protection. It's not uncommon for the B+ to run 10 times higher than normal and fry the rest of the unit.

From what I've seen of the inside of those DTV boxes, the power supply appears to be the only area that could be serviced easily. The rest of it looks to be all surface mounted parts that I would not attempt to unsolder!

I've got two Digitalstream boxes from ratshack but they are for future use since I have cable. I do intend to buy more boxes later. After reading this, I'd probably do just as well to buy the Funai made Maggotboxes from Wal Mart.

Could it be your box was meant for sale at Walmart?

And thus, like its 90's TV's, Zenith DTV boxes also don't last very long...

Seriously though, 1.5 months is not very long. There should be some kind of warrenty, and if there's not, the box is shit and another brand would be a better buy.

I just had another thought. The Maggotboxes have a master power switch on the side of the unit. Leaving the master power switch off on those boxes, when not in use, may lenghten it's life.

My cousin has had his Maggotbox Wal-Mart special DTV box for a little over a month and it's not given him any problems.

I actually have kind of a failure to report as well.

I bought my WinTV HVR 1600 TV card mainly to check out all these DTV channels and see what DTV was like. DTV is okay, but the HVR 1600 is turning out to be a piece of shit. It works fine in analog... all well and good, but I didn't buy it for analog. I have several analog TV's so I'm covered as far as analog goes.

Depending on what drivers I use, DTV channels either stutter, or I can't record DTV video. The card is a finicky bastard when scanning for DTV channels... to the point where I have to manually input them. After a LONG talk with hauppauge's tech support, they finally said my card is most likely defective and that I should return it. I'll exchange it for a new one tomorrow, or I'll damn well try to.

I have yet to see any of either the RCA or Magnavox converter boxes returned at my Wal-Mart.

Bill R

Perhaps it would be an idea to replace the caps with something decent as a preemptive measure before they fail if you intend to keep these boxes long term.

Power supply faults in set top boxes are common. I've fixed 20+ of them and scrapped countless more (dead set top boxes are the cheapest source of certain power supply ICs).

If you really wanna keep them running, make an outboard regulated power supply instead of the cheap switching power supplies. 8 out of ten times the PS is what makes the machine crap in this case.

Jordan, very true those supplies are crappy and noisy too.

I haven't had the zeniths break down yet, but I haven't used em much either. One is still in its original box.

I hope they don't all die a premature death...thats a hell of a lot of trash. Not to mention all of the analog sets that'll be tossed after the conversion.

I just bought an Insignia, haven't even opened it yet but this isn't encouraging...:no:

:sigh:I have 2 Insignias, I hope they don't crap out too!

i got two zeniths, one still in box. i haven't had a chance to use either as i don't yet get any channels in my corner of the world... but now i gotta worry about this?! S%$T!!!!:mad:

3 Insignias here, and they all seem to be working fine. Lots of use too.

We will see how long they last.
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Matt Davala

If you have cable, of course, you don't need the over-air STB (set top box) at all. I'd suggest that those of you who are having trouble with your converters forget about them and get basic cable, which of course will be required to carry local channels as DTV after February 19 next year. Basic cable service in most areas shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg; in fact, Time Warner's basic package (digital basic tier) is $5 a month, excluding the one-time installation charge and $3.79 monthly for the digital basic converter, plus 0.20 for the digital remote. In total your monthly charge will be $8.99. If you have a TV with an ATSC or QAM tuner, all you need is the cable service, which will save you $3.99.

Lady Ayeka: I don't know where in Oregon you are located or what types of reception challenges your area presents, but you should be able to get cable or satellite service even if you have poor or no over-air reception. The problem with satellite, however, is that, while all satellite providers provide digital channels, many do not offer HD television as part of their basic service packages; that is, HD service is available through most if not all satellite providers, but the service is optional and will show as an additional charge on your bill. I don't know what cable providers (if any) are in your area, but if one of them is Time Warner you are in luck as they provide free HD service.