Digital Converter Boxes (again)

[blue_lateral]

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. I have been in the transmitter buildings for most of them. Few if any have transmitters that are digital capable. One of them has a build permit from the FCC for a digital installation. 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 other 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... 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?

Sorry for the 20 questions. I'm hoping you guys can help me make a good choice. As Jim K. always says, ruminations welcome.....

Thanks for reading,

John

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[Bill Cahill]

Analog passthrough?
I had to buy mine seperately, but, I can tell you they are lousy on antenna reception. You'd better get yourself one good antenna with a rotor. They are very directional, and, due to no amplification, the signal is very weak. Good luck, is all I can say.
Bill Cahill
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My friend Mike

[Randy Bassham]

I bought mine so I could have some TV reception from the local channels (closest one is around 70 miles away) during severe weather when my Directv goes out due to rain fade. My plan didn't work, while I get a good picture on 3 channels in clear weather the thunderstorms play havoc with the digital data stream and it breaks up so bad it's unwatchable before rain fade gets the satellite.
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KAØSCR
You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
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[HadYourPhil]

The Radio Shack Digital Stream boxes have analog pass-through and work well. Same for the 901 (or higher) series Zenith boxes.

Don't waste your money on the Channel Master box with S-video out. I bought one and was not impressed.

Where exactly are you?
_________________
We improve things by making them worse...

[jimmc]

I have two hooked up to several old sets.

My RCA 621-TS and Scott 6T11 are split off of an Insignia (Best Buy brand) converter box connected to an antenna in the attic and it works OK except the output signal is very weak and the audio is not all that good on either set. I believe the fact that these two sets were designed when TV stations did 20% aural carrier and after the 60’s it was lowered to 10%. I was able to switch the audio to mono but before I found the menu item I had a loud hiss in the audio. I also had interference from the local channel 3 until D-day using either 3 or 4 on the TV sets.

I have a Digital Stream box I got at Radio Shack connected to a Philco Predicta in the dinning room. Crappy audio no way to switch to mono. The Philco sounded fine on Off Air and still does when tuning in the analog stragglers. Antenna for this set is several feet of RG-6 coax with the shield stripped off hung over a window frame. This box has a signal level meter button on the remote which I find useful.

Most of the converter boxes I have played with seemed sensitive enough. They all appear to use a standard TV tuner module for the front end so I would expect them to all be similar in RF sensitivity.

[hoffies2]

Boxes just started showing up at tag sales... $3.00. Complicated for the elderly..

[SignatureSeriesOwner]

I bought an Insignia brand(Best Buy) ~June 2008. I haven't had any real complaint, the picture difference is like night and day. Sound is the same, for me, no real difference, but I don't pick up on that much. The only real complaint I have with them, is the signal. Sometimes the signal is blocky, or not there, but moving the antenna fixes that. I don't have a working TV that is truly *that* old. I have a 1966 Magnavox here that I watch Digital TV on occasionally. I have a 1949 RCA 8-T-241, but it's in the middle of recapping.

I've had no problems with it, it's a year and a half old, and works as it did right out of the box. Mine is quite simple to operate. It comes with a Box-to-TV cable (75 Ohm) So all you do is connect the antenna plug (75 Ohm) to one connector on the box, and then plug the supplied cable into the other output, and into the TV. Done.
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William D.
My collection? It has exceeded the 255 character limit.

9/21/08 - 25+ and counting. My Postmaster hates me

[philsoldradios]

I have a Zenith box, the earliest one (a 900?). No complaints. It receives a fine picture, when you get a picture at all. You can change the volume with the remote, view the signal strength, and set the audio to mono for use with a vintage TV.

Unfortunately, the digital reception here, about 13 miles from Seattle, is so poor that I can't stand to use it. I tried various indoor antennas, and even built an antenna that would be better suited for outdoors. It's still basically not watchable unless you are entertained by pixellation, freezes, and NO SIGNAL messages. The strongest digital stations show things I don't want to watch, like Asian language game shows or Spanish language soaps.

So the converter box sits on a shelf. My substitute (actually better in some ways) is to connect an agile modulator to one of our satellite TV receivers. I can choose from a couple of hundred satellite channels, including local stations, and broadcast to vintage TVs using rabbit ears anywhere in the house.

Phil Nelson

[blue_lateral]

[blue_lateral]

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,

Thanks to everyone who responded!

John

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[TJM70]

I'd just wait until you need one...I just did a search on ebay and there are more than 400 listed right now, starting at .99 with free shipping...and up.

You may purchase a new TV between now and when your analog signals are gone, you may pickup a free / low cost box.

I have a Zenith one and it's pretty good...reception seems to be stronger than with the tuner in the TV (dual analog / digital a few years old CRT model.)
_________________
Tom
"The 21st Century is a nice place to visit - but I sure wouldn't want to live there."

[HadYourPhil]

Think "Wenatchee" is Indian for "Lousy Reception"...
_________________
We improve things by making them worse...

[blue_lateral]

Actually it means "Hole in the Mountain". The natives knew a hole in the ground when they saw one!