Give me thoughts on this converter box... (Access DTA-1010)

[Carmine]

My dad chose this one to burn his coupons on, after some research. I haven't heard it mentioned on this site, but wanted to get your thoughts and give my review. It's from a local chain (ABC Warehouse) not a big-box.

Performance: I guess it gets whatever should be "available" in my area. Basically all the digital channels from the Detroit area. I live about 10 miles from most of the towers, but I get Toledo, OH pretty decent with my smallish rooftop antenna, not at all on digital.

Features: Several different screen modes; zoom, wide, cinema (?) and "normal". Most of this seems useless to me, but at least I can get rid of letterboxing on whatever channel decides to do that in the future. It has an on-screen signal meter, for whatever that's worth. (Lets me know when to expect the signal to disappear I guess?) Controlling volume on non-remote sets is nice. It has RCA and 75ohm outputs... I like that. Do all converter boxes have this feature? I think some do not.

Interference with set: Plenty if box is placed on top of the set as designed! Goes away if I move it. Nice job there!

Design: Looks "ok" I guess. Constant red LED when off is annoying. (Green when on) Remote design is typical Chinese-third world in that the keypad does not put the "0" key below the "8", so if you've gotten used to selecting channel 20 without looking at the remote, you'll now get channel 28. Brilliant.

Price: $50, so $10 I guess.

Heat: This piece of crap gets hot when left on, but I guess they all do. What garbage... I can see no reason for this kind of heat from a simple converterbox. My 30-year old Chromacolor II runs cooler.

What do you say, is this the one I should burn my coupons on?





Or is there something better out there?