Several Key items are: Height of Antenna. Thomas G Contributor Jun 15, Know it all said:. Ok, So UHF signals do not go through roofs, trees with leaves, through airplanes, flocks of birds or even swarms of bugs. It does not receive well in rain storms or snow. The signal is a very direct line of sight. Analog UHF was like that pebble dropped in a puddle it went everywhere with ease. So the first thing that you now need is a UHF antenna and if you are more than 40 miles from a television transmitter you might also need a pre amplifier.
You have to use a Quad Shield type wire to minimize loss. The higher in frequency you go, the more signal the wire looses. The sad part is that stores sold junk converter boxes and people bought them because they were cheap. These are the same people that only buys nothing but the best when it comes to what they eat or the cars they drive or the clothes they wear or how they live. A junk converter box is not going to have the same reception as a good converter box.
The stores, which wants to make a maximum amount of profit sold these boxes at a premium price - so they could line their pockets with cash. I have found only two boxes that works.
The sound has issues because it is only about half what your normal television sound was, so when you turn off the converter box the sound from the television speaker - static is very loud. Out of all the CM boxes I had, only one had issues where when you turned it on it made a noise on the audio of the television that sounded like a squeal.
The CM has a little less sensitivity than the Zenith, but out performs it with the quality of sound and a 12 hour program guide. Anyone that bought one of the so called cheap boxes from a local department store or Drug Store - got what they paid for.
But not all converter boxes are equal. The most important part to remember is that if you hold your arm in front of your face, you can see your arm, as you move your arm around the side of your head it gets harder to see your arm with your eyes, when you hold your arm behind your head, you cannot see your arm at all.
The same is true with a UHF signal, if you have your antenna pointed in the wrong direction or even off center too far - you are only going to get poor to no signal at all. If your station is 40 or more miles away from your house - you will need a high quality antenna like a Winegard U and possibly even a pre amplifier. If there is a mountain between you and the transmitter, even a good antenna and pre amplifier will not receive the signal.
A amplifier only amplifies the signal that is present, it cannot amplify something that is not there. The only real purpose of the amplifier is to compensate for long runs of wire and loss from splitters and connectors. The best signal you can have is what ever is at the antenna. DTVuser Banned Jun 15, I was told all converter boxes would be about the same.
For more information on antennas, check out our guide: Antennas and Digital Television. Check Your Connections Make sure your antenna is connected properly to the antenna input of your digital-to-analog converter box or digital television. If using a digital-to-analog converter box, also ensure that the antenna output of your converter box is connected to the antenna input of your analog TV.
Ensure all components are plugged in and have their power turned on. If you have a digital-to-analog converter box, tune your analog TV to channel 3. You should see a set-up menu or picture displayed on your TV screen. If you do not see a set-up menu or picture, tune your TV to channel 4. If you still do not see a set-up menu or picture, recheck your connections. Press that button to access the set-up menu. Which should I go with? The Zenith DTT is another good choice.
I believe all digital to analog boxes offer good video. Most of us wouldn't see a measurable difference in picture quality.
The onscreen guide is somewhat limited. I would make sure the converter box you choose has features you would use. Undue said:. I've got 20 days until my coupons expire, is there any other boxes I need to add to my list?
DTVuser Banned May 6, If you have stations which are hard to pick up avoid the Zenith and it's Insignia twin. Last edited: May 6, Thomas G Contributor May 7, Like DTVuser said, the remote sucks, but you can user other universal remotes with it. Member May 9, For me the choice was easy, I live approx.
I'll be making another purchase here at the end of the month, and may buy a different model after I research a bit more just to see how well other converters perform too. I may try a DTAB. Tang, I agree with you. The guide's menu-based system provides continuously updated menus, displaying scheduling information regarding current and upcoming broadcasts.
You can even scroll backwards here. Timing startup and shutdown are basically obligatory features these days too, so we won't be focusing too much on them. Needless to say, you can use these settings to program the TV to turn on and off whenever you want.
There are many features here that we've seen many times before. There are also some features that are pretty unique or, at the very least, rare enough to justify the spotlight.
First and foremost, there's an emergency alert system EAS that provides emergency information from the pre-set TV station s. Apart from that, you can also use this box as a TV tuner, receiving over-the-air TV channels and doing everything that TV tuners enable you to do. You can also use 2. In fact, these are preferable because USB flash drives seldom let you smoothly record the content.
Parental control, closed captions, favorite channel list, automatic tuning, these standard features are naturally present as well. Plus, the device looks really sleek too. User Manual. The box will usually be able to survive drops from feet we wouldn't recommend dropping the box anyway though. The controls are really simple. The buttons are up there on the hood. The LCD screen is backlit, easy to read, and accessible enough. You can use these inputs and outputs to connect various devices to this box, including TVs, loudspeakers, headphones , different antennas, and more.
The box measures 2 x 1. Of course, that's something that most digital converter boxes can do. More often than not, what separates these boxes is what they can do besides receiving ATSC broadcasts.
As far as this particular device is concerned, that list is pretty long. You can even use closed captions to watch these series in the native language. The device will let you build a favorite channels list and quickly access these channels without sifting through the channels you don't care for. At the same time, you can use parental control to prevent children from accessing questionable content. The EPG guide is present too, which is nice since you won't have to browse online to figure out the programming schedule.
The only issue here is that the guide usually takes quite some time to load. Its specs are solid and there are enough features supported here to compete with the best mid-range boxes. At the same time, the model has quite a peculiar feature many may find interesting - a signal level indicator.
This indicator enables you to monitor signal quality coming from the connected antenna, and that, in its turn, allows you to determine precisely its optimal position to achieve the best-quality signal.
Before that though, let's pivot towards the device's appearance. More often than not, these boxes look so bland that you're hesitant to even put the box onto the entertainment center. That's not the case here though. Sure, the device doesn't look especially elegant but the streamlined profile looks nice and even somewhat bold, bold enough to add character to most entertainment centers and even elevate some.
As for the image quality, it is at a high level. This digital converter will let you watch your favorite TV channels in a selection of resolutions: p, i, p, and p. It's very important to keep in mind that the tuner is able to receive both interlaced and progressive scanning methods.
You'll be able to watch vacation photos, listen to music, watch movies, and so on and so forth. As far as we're concerned, the product's flaws are pretty much limited to the fact that the box supports only military time. We couldn't but note one more advantage this digital converter box has over its competitors, namely portable drives support with the saving capacity of up to 3TB, whereas the majority of tuners support drives of up to 2TB only. This feature will let you record your favorite TV shows in great numbers.
The standard parental control feature is present too, which is great considering that, even though the feature is easy to implement, there are too many converter boxes that do not support this function. You'll also be able to add as many channels as you want to the Favorite Channels List and quickly browse these channels alone whenever you want.
You'd ask, how it can be unique and interesting, it's one of the cheapest of the kind? To be honest, we were surprised, too, after we've seen it perform. The key feature of this model is its perfect usability, which in comparison to the competition within the same price bracket is at the highest level. Let's hold our horses though. As much as performance defines these devices, the form factor can make the product as much as this parameter can break them. Here though, there's nothing special about it.
The box looks somewhat bland but not too bland, meaning that the device will not stand out in any fashion, good or bad. Measuring 2. You should be able to find enough space for this device without having to move things around. The box is barely larger than most paperback books, so you can even consider shelves close to the TV too.
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