Rate your DTV converter

[Jimw]

When I got my coupons, it was near impossible to even find a DTV converter in the stores. I finally had to drive a long distance to buy and Apex converter which was the only one available, and I only had 2 days left before my coupons expired. I was not impressed by this converter, at least as far as reception in my rural area. Of course I live in a fringe area, and I can not get much for stations. The nearest station is 50 miles, and it gets further for others. I use a fairly decent rooftop antenna, which is about 24feet from the ground, and I have a rotor.

What I was getting was one channel (from 50 miles) that worked on and off, and would fade in and out, and some days did not come in at all. The only channel that worked all the time was one of the PBS channels (and their secondary channels). Note: On analog, I get 5 channels well, and 3 more that are fair to poor.

A elderly relative lives in a large city, and I took my Apex converter over there and hooked it up. She was satisfied with it, and she needs something real simple, being elderly. So, I told her to keep that one, and give me her coupon. Now I want to buy one that will work in my fringe rural area, and there are piles of them in the stores. I'm trying to determine which one to get. My biggest concern is getting one that will get the best reception in a fringe area.

Please post which converter yoiu have and rate it. Are yoiu satisfied, or dissatisfied? What are it's pros and cons? And in particular, how well does it perform in a fringe area?

Thanks

Jim

[David Nebenzahl]

On 1/7/2009 1:16 PM Jimw spake thus:

Zenith DTT901. Satisfied; I give it a 7 out of 10.

Functionally it's all I need; remote, menus, user interface in general is pretty well designed.

Operationally, I'm not sure about picture quality. Could be my old freebie Panasonic TV, as others have said it actually has superior picture quality. It does seem a little better than the analog picture, so it's probably good.

Sorry, not in a fringe area so can't help you there.

[Dean Hoffman]

You might take a look here:

There are also forums there for TVs and such.

Dean

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[Ralph Mowery]

That is the one I picked up to play with. I am a ways off from the stations and I hooked it up to a ham antenna that is made for 145 Mhz. that is only up about 20 feet. Picked up 22 stations in the auto tune mode. A much higher antenna at 60 feet gave me 29 stations. The antennas are not even made for regular TV reception. I won't talk about the quality as I only had it hooked up to an old 16 inch TV. Think it was about $ 60 at Circuit City before the $ 40 discount card.

[ransley]

Nobody here can rate them for you, nobody has all the units, Google the ratings, Consumers Reports is posted through google somebody set up a free link, they tested maybe 20. A few other companies that sell many different units did their own ratings. What I know is the good ones are mail order only, they are at no stores. I dont have the name handy but one model stands out by several ratings, google for the ratings. I am buying 2 online so I will google ratings again.

[ransley]

If you find consumers reports rating you will see only maybe 30% have a quality picture, some are poor, and none of the top ones are at local stores, reception also varies.

[Ann]

Yet another 901. The consensus on various forums was that 900 (without the analog pass trough) was the best of the boxes available at stores within ~25 miles. Since I wanted the pass trough, I waited until the 901 was released to order coupons (mid-summer). Of course the 901s immediately went out of stock. But did eventually get one, then another.

The 901 gets the one local station (25 miles) that's currently on-air with digital fine. And, one that's about 75 miles away occasionally. No joy with the other three stations 75 miles away. I do expect to get the other local station when it goes digital 2/17 (or whenever they get their act together).

Imo, fringe reception probably has more to do with location and antenna than with the converter box. Incidentally, according to antennaweb.org, there is no TV reception at my location.

[Ann]

CU's converter box ratings are "free". Click on "Recommendations & Notes" for write-ups on the individual boxes. CU rates on picture and sound quality and features.

[---MIKE---]

A lot of people are having reception problems with digital. The digital signal is much more "fragile" than the analog signal. All of the promotions that claim digital provides a better picture are BS. IF you can get a picture it might be better but getting it is the problem. Complain about this to your congressman.

---MIKE---

[ransley]

New Hampshire

The reviews I read by a store address the issue that some work better in reception, and give ratings.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

I just looked through our local channels using an outdoor antenna connected to the built-in tuner(s) in our Sam sung LCD HDTV. In some cases the analog signal was horrible -- ghosting -- while the digital version was crystal clear.

Keep in mind that some stations are not yet running their digital transmissions at full power. Your digital signals may well improve further after Feb 17.

Perce

[ransley]

I remenber Tivax has better reception than others and a top picture, you need to find independant review of many side by side, and look for all the features you want, I am probably getting Tivax.

[BR]

Us broadcast engineers bought a bunch of DTV converters that were available around here and tested them in bad locations. The Zenith DTT900 was the best of the lot as was the Insignia that Best Buy sells. This is not surprising, because they have the same circuit board, in fact, the FCC number on the bottom of the two units is the same. The RCA and Magnavox units sold at Wal-Mart were inferior in every respect. The only redeeming value of the Magnavox unit is that it has analog pass through.

Another good unit is the Channel Master DT7000. It has the added advantage of S-video output, it has a really great picture on a set with S-video input. The fringe area performance seems comparable to the Zenith DTT900.

[Jimw]

I'm surprised it worked at all on a ham antenna. I know the wavelength affects the reception, and a half wave antenna is half the length, etc. What is the actual frequency band for DTV, and how does that compare to the 145Mhz ?

By the way, are there any decent antenna amplifiers for DTV, or does a person just use the standard UHF VHF amps they always sold? I know I can not raise my antenna any more or the mast will bend in high winds, and towers are way beyond my budget.

Thanks

Jim

[Red Green]

[e-mail] (---MIKE---) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I have a cheapo $300 RCA DTV I got a year ago. I have it on amplified ears. On analog it gets snowy crap...on a good day. Hit digital flip-over button and I get like 28-30 stations crystal clear.

So, your general statement is BS. "It all depends" would be more accurate. Accroding to antennaweb.org, I'm 43 miles from the majority of transmitters for Raleigh, NC (north of here). I can also get a couple of stations from the Myrtle Beach SC area which is about 60 miles (Florence, SC transmitter) in the opposite direction south from here.

You're in White Mountains of New Hampshire. I lived in VT area a little over a year ago. Yea, I did the cog railway up Mt Washington. They aren't transmitting much from BTV let alone the Mt Washington area of NH.

If you look on antennaweb.org for zip 03589 (Mt Washington I believe) there's only like two stinkin' digital stations available now. What do you expect? Ruralness has some drawbacks.

About what? Where you choose to live?

DTV 03589

Antenna Type Call Sign Channel Network City, State Compass Heading Miles From

*uhf WLED-DT 48.1 PBS DURHAM, NH 299° 22.3 *uhf WVTB-DT 20.1 PBS BURLINGTON, VT 321° 35.6

[Robert Neville]

Most of the stations are currently broadcasting their digital signals on temporary UHF frequencies. UHF has poorer performance than VHF. After the switchover, many stations will use their VHF analog frequencies for their digital channels, potentially improving their signal coverage.

Bottom line is that you can't judge your converter box performance by what you see today.

[Robert Neville]

Today most DTV signals are UHF, between 470MHz and 800MHz. After the switchover, many will move to the VHF band.

[Robert Neville]

There is no difference between the analog and digital signal for antenna or amplification. Anyone selling "digital" is selling snakeoil.

The only difference would be for those who are using a VHF only antenna today and have digital transmitters that are going to stay in the UHF band.

[AZ Nomad]

Isn't VHF getting reassigned? Actually, there's three bands, 2-6,

7-13, and the "cable" channels between 6 and 7. I don't know if it is one or all are getting reassigned.

Here in phoenix, the tv stations with VHF assignments are also broadcasting hidef and a one or two lowdef DTV channels alongside their analog broadcast on the same VHF channels. For example, channel

12 (NBC) has one hidef and two lowdef ATSC channels on 12.

[J. Clarke]

Digital is either on or off--you have a perfect picture or none. That's its strength and weakness. It doesn't degrade gracefully.

Stations are in general not going to be licensed to run their digital signal at the same level as their analog signal. A lot of people are just plain going to lose reception.