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#16
10-27-2011, 04:20 PM
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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. 
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#17
10-28-2011, 12:48 AM
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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.
__________________
Chris Quote from another forum: "(Antique TV collecting) always seemed to me to be a fringe hobby that only weirdos did."
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#18
11-10-2011, 01:33 PM
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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" Edit/Delete Message
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#19
11-10-2011, 11:20 PM
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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...
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#20
11-11-2011, 12:38 AM
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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.
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