DTV hardware recommendations. I just got my DTV converter coupon.

[alfredo]

I did a bit of research and found equipment that worked right out of the box. The TV I am using is in the basement, but I still am using an indoor antenna. I bought my equipment from Circuit City and Best Buy.

First I went to Circuit City to buy the converter box. I bought the Zenith DTT900. I think it was $59.95 before the $40 coupon. It rates highly in the reviews I read. For the antenna I went to Best Buy. I bought the RCA - Indoor TV Antenna with 12-Position Fine-Tuning. It cost me $18.95. Both worked well out of the box. Set up was very easy.

So with the coupon and about $45. you can go DTV. At times the picture is clearer than what we get on cable.

Reviews

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ces-preview-2008/lgs-zenith-dtt900-converter-competes-with-rca-for-grandmas-40-coupon-322560.php


http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/asus-cheap-linux-laptop.html

[krispos42]

1. How long did it take for your coupon to come?

I've been waiting three or four weeks for mine!

[LTR]

2. Check here

https://www.dtv2009.gov/CheckStatus.aspx

Oh, and you won't be disappointed. Big difference in reception and picture/sound quality.

[krispos42]

5. Cool!

Thanks!

Looks like mine will be getting mailed out in about two weeks.

[alfredo]

7. You will get two cards just in case you have two TV's that need converters.

[alfredo]

6. It was a month or so. Don't remember exactly.

[LTR]

3. I just got my coupon a few days ago

So I decided to go shopping.

My first choice was the Zenith DTT900, since I heard so many good things about it. I went to Radio Shack. Every store in town was sold out of them, but they had quite a few of some other model for the same price (Digital Stream DTX9900). I had never heard of it, and was wary since I didn't do any research on this obscure model. The sales clerk said the Zenith was a big seller, and would be back in stock within a week or so.

I went to Best Buy for my backup option - the Insignia (which I knew they had in stock). They had quite a few, so I grabbed it. The clerk was also saying that they were selling quite a few of these. Needless to say, I'm impressed with the Insignia box. I had doubts that it would pull in a great number of channels, since analog reception was basically crap with my chintzy antenna. I hooked it up, did the setup wizard, and scanned for channels. It pulled in 22 different ones (including the many various side-channels - the local PBS operation has 9 between their two stations). I even pulled in the local Ion channel, which I had never gotten. One of my local stations even has a side channel that airs really old TV shows (Hawaii 5-0, Alfred Hitchcock, Mary Tyler Moore, etc.). The only station I didn't get initially was the local CW outlet, which I was surprised at. I looked it up online and tuned in their DTV allocation. It pulled it in immediately and switched to its mapped allocation (DTV channels are different than their analog counterparts, but map to their known analog locations).

One thing I noticed about the Insignia box is that it allows individual channel settings, for 4:3 and 16:9 layout, and for normal, letterbox or stretched picture (for 4:3 layouts). Picture and sound are great! I'm impressed.

Also has a channel guide (though it only lists current show and the one following). And it works well with a very mediocre amplified rabbit ear antenna. For the inner geek, there's a button that when pressed displays signal strength, which comes in handy when positioning the antenna. All in all, pretty nice.

Only weakness is that in order to get analog channels (my local PBS stations air different content on their analog vs. digital channels), I have to do a little dancing with the TV remote to switch to a different input. I need to do some serious rewiring.

One weird side effect was that occasionally, the remote would turn on my stereo unit.

[trogdor]

4. Get anything from out of town?

I also have the Insignia. It's a decent box with more features than I expected. Utica channels come in clear as satellite, but I no longer get the channels I used to get from Syracuse (40 miles away) with my big honking roof antenna. I used to get them with some snow before.

[LTR]

10. Depends where you are

Keep in mind, digital channels broadcast with less power than analog ones, but the efficiency of the digital signal versus the analog one allows it to travel farther.

Based in my location in a big city, the farthest station I get is about 30 miles away (the Ion network, which doesn't seem to have anything I'm really interested in anyway, since I don't get into "Mama's Family," "Family Feud" and the insane amount of infomercials they run). With analog signals, you may get distant stations with some static, snow or interference. With digital, you'll get the full signal, some tiling and blocking, or a blank picture. No static.

I noticed the same issue with some of the LPTV stations in town. I'll kinda miss the local Telemundo affiliate, which airs soccer games, raunchy soap operas and game shows, WWE Raw and Hong Kong martial arts flicks dubbed in Spanish. The last one has to be seen to be believed. And I barely speak Spanish.

[alfredo]

11. I've noticed on occasion some tiling and reduced picture size, but I

am pleased with overall quality, and the four PBS channels. One of those channels is an hour drive away.

[LTR]

12. Re: the picture size

Does your remote have a zoom button or a button that adjusts for picture layout? Some DTV stations are broadcasting in 16:9 (sometimes referred to as widescreen or letterbox), standard TV is 4:3. If you have a button, try cycling through the picture layouts.

A lot of the bigger primetime shows are in widescreen. You'll want to go to letterrbox for that (unless you prefer pan-and-scan). Daytime shows, old reruns and maybe some news and childrens programming are likely in 4:3. Hit the zoom button or equivalent to enlarge the picture.

[alfredo]

14. Thanks. I guess I should have read the manual.

[LTR]

15. Manual? What's that?

I just keep pushing buttons until I figure it out.

[alfredo]

17. Manual is the M in RTFM. That's the way I learned computers.

I did learn how to program in Basic back in the eighties, but I got over it.

[KatyaR]

13. Does your Insignia have the change to the new DST dates for the clock?

Mine does not.

It's okay--I'm not truly happy with the reception, even with a HDTV antenna, but it'll do. I watch TV so litle anymore, it's not a big deal. It cuts out quite a bit; it takes a lot to get it tweaked to not do that consistently across the channels. Most days I can't get the ABC affiliate at all, and I live in the middle of the city, but the other channels come in pretty well most of the time (not always). I got a few new channel options as well, which is nice. My worst fear is that it will go out completely when we have stormy weather, which is pretty frequent in this part of the country.

I'm just not sold on the whole conversion thing. I think it's a racket perpetrated by the government--imagine that.

[LTR]

16. I recall it asking about DST

That was on the initial setup wizard.

An amplified antenna may help. It doesn't even have to be a so-called "HDTV Antenna." That's a scam - TV signals are TV signals. You can pick up HD (which is different than DTV) with a $2 bowtie antenna (most digital signals are broadcast via the UHF spectrum, but not all). The optimal type of antenna would be a rooftop one. If not, a good indoor setup may work. Here is a very good site that could possibly help you out:

http://www.antennaweb.org

The digital conversion is going on all over the world, so it's not some scam perpetrated by our government. Many countries in Europe have already completed the switch or are in the process. Digital is a much more effective way of transmitting TV signals, and much less power is needed to do it. Plus, an unused portion of the TV spectrum will be taken away and made available for other uses (emergency responders and the recent FCC spectrum auction). The former channel allocations of 70-83 were reallocated a few years ago, and now make up our present day wireless phone spectrum.

So far, I think the changeover process is going well, better than I ever expected. People are talking about it, and converter boxes are selling extremely well.

[KatyaR]

18. It will be interesting to see what happens next year

when analog goes dead.

[hippywife]

8. I didn't check out your links

but did you make sure to get one that allows analog signal to pass through, as well? That seems to be the big issue with them. Not all local community stations will be required to go digital and won't because they can't afford it.

[alfredo]

9. All our local channels have digital feeds except Fox and I don't watch

that channel. If by chance I want to watch, I can just click one button and I am back to analog.