roger blake

Today I finally decided to take the plunge and burn up one of my
$40 coupons on a DTV converter box. From the few reviews I've seen
of the few currently available models it looked like the Zenith DTT900
would be a good choice. At Circuit City this cost $59.95 before applying
the coupon.

I'll preface this by saying that I have been, and still am, completely
against the digital television conversion. It is a change that has
been forced down our throats by government edict and corrupt government
officials rather than consumer choice. However, it is a done deal and
all antenna-users can do is adapt or do without broadcast TV. (I was willing
to do the latter, but the wife had other ideas!)

Having said all this, to give the devil his due I found that the DTT900
actually works quite well.

To test it out, I attached it to the newest, most modern television
receiver in the house: a 19" Toshiba that was purchased about 25 years
ago. (This is a transistorized color set that works quite well.) We
are about 30 miles or so from most of the stations' transmitters and
have a rotating rooftop aerial.

The Zenith DTT900 is compact and fit easily into our somewhat crowded
home entertainment center, which in addition to the aforementioned TV
set is equipped with Beta, VHS, Laser Disc, CED Videodisc, turntable,
AM/FM receiver, cassette tape deck, reel-to-reel tape deck, 8-track
tape deck, and miscellany such as VHS rewinder and audio switcher.
(The digital tuner was sandwiched vertically between the 8-track tape
deck and VHS rewinder, leaving sufficient room for ventilation.
There is no base supplied for this orientation but it seems stable
enough.)

This converter comes with a remote control, audio+video cables,
RF cable, and battery for the remote. The power supply is internal,
so no AC adapter "brick" to plug in, just a normal polarized plug.
Channel 3 is the default for the RF modulator, this can be changed
to 4 via the setup menu.

Before installing the digital tuner we were able to reliably receive
7 or 8 analog stations. Most would come in very nicely, though some were
a bit snowy. A couple of others could sometimes barely be brought in
depending on atmospheric conditions and antenna position.

With the DTT900 there are now 33 available channels. All have an
excellent, interference-free picture, with the DTT900 indicating about 50%
to 75% strength on its signal indicator. We spent most of the evening
watching just a few of the stations, so it is not clear yet how stable
the signal will be on all of them. There were a couple of audio dropouts
of a second or two over the course of the evening, but otherwise the tuner
performed flawlessly.

Some channels were for whatever reason broadcasting their picture with
wide black bars around all four sides of the image, which is an annoyance.
The DTT900's "Zoom" function fixes this and fills the screen.

The remote is needed, of course, for most functions, but the Zenith's
front panel includes an on/off switch and UP/DOWN channel selector
buttons, so it is capable of basic operation if you can't find
the remote. A nice touch is the audio mute plus the ability to control
the output volume, which are conveniences on a set like the Toshiba which
lacks its own remote controls. (There is also a TV on/off button, but
that is designed to work a set's own remote power function if it
exists. In contrast the volume and mute buttons act on the audio feed
coming out of the tuner itself.)

I also connected the composite video and audio line out to one of the
VCRs' inputs. This also worked well, though the volume here is noticably
louder than what is delivered through the RF modulator.

I have not yet had time to try the converter with our older, vacuum-tube
sets so don't know yet how well they'll work with it.

The owner's manual is well-organized and easy to understand. It does
say to change audio output to "Mono" if using the RF modulator, but I
found that this was not necessary. There is no problem using both the
RF output and the composite/line out jacks simultaneously if desired.

Limitations: There is no analog pass-through. While this thing is hooked
up you only have digital reception available. (A non-issue after Februrary
2009.) There is no timer for automatically selecting stations, so to
use a VCR you have to manually pre-select the desired station. For best
results in recording you should probably make sure the converter's volume
is turned all the way up. It is also necessary to turn the tuner's
sleep mode off to make sure the unit is active when your VCR starts taping.
Since the DTT900 only consumes 7 watts of power it's not a big deal to
just leave it on all the time.

Overall there is not much to complain about with this converter. It is
inexpensive, compact, easy to set up, and performs well. There are a
number of convenience features that are nice to have. The only major
lack is not being able to automatically select stations for time-shifting
with a VCR. I'll probably use my other coupon on another Zenith, which
works really nicely for "live" TV viewing. But if the Echostar TR-40
finally makes it to market later this year and gets positive reviews,
I'll probably pick up a couple of those as well since they are supposed
to have the timer feature for VCR recording.

--
Roger Blake
(Subtract 10s for email.)

kimba w lion

It should work perfectly.

Old sets had a problem with VCRs because the output from consumer tape decks
is unstable in terms of sync timing. There should never be such an issue
with an ATSC converter box.

tj

Glad to see you got your coupons. It was two weks yesterday since I saw
that mine had been mailed, and as of yesterday's mail, no coupons yet.

Corrupt? I don't know about that. This time the change is different, to
be sure. The last major change to TV broadcasting was the adoption of
color. That time, the RCA format was the one adopted because it was
compatible with the existing B+W system - even though it didn't produce
the best quality picture.


So you went from 7 or 8 channels to 33. Sounds like an improvement to
me. No, wait, don't tell me - you now get 33 channels and there's still
nothing good on, right?


You mean you have to actually get up out of your chair and walk to the
TV to turn it on? How wonderfully archaic! ;-)

We have a couple of older sets operating without remotes in my house,
too. It's my thought that a converter with at least basic front-panel
controls would be better for one of them than one without them.

Be sure to let us know. There are more of these older power hogs still
left around than people realize. Can you still find replacement tubes
for them? I had to give up on my last one when I couldn't find the parts to fix it.

I tried the Magnavox because I was too impatient to wait for coupons,
and I was going to need more than two converters, anyway. As I found out
through another thread, the setting you describe above on the Magnavox
affects the volume of the RF signal. If you aren't going to run the
sound through some kind of stereo equipment, you might as well set it on "Mono."


Sounds like a plan to me. In fact, it sounds like MY plan. ;-)

TJ

Thanks for the review... I just got my coupons and will
be going to buy the Zenith as well!

bruceh

Thanks for posting your experience Roger.

Do you (or anyone else) know how the "VCR auto-tune timer" will work?

roger blake

Don't really know yet as we have not had time to really check out the
additional channels. Some are religous and/or foreign language which
we won't be interested in. Our local paper doesn't have listings for
the digital "sub channels" so it's hard to say whether they're going
to be worthwhile or not.

Not with the Clapper! :-)


Once set up it appears to me the Zenith box could be used for basic
functionality without the remote.

I have quite a bit of vacuum-tube equipment, so have my own stash of tubes
and other parts, and there are business catering to the old radio/TV
hobbyist that can supply them. However, at this point the electrolytic
condensors are more problematical than the tubes.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. The stereo output would only be of interest
if recording a concert or something like that.


Since I rarely need to tape more than 2 programs at the same time
or even on a single day, I was thinking of setting up a couple of
VCRs with the Echostar converters, if and when they become available,
for that purpose.

--
Roger Blake
(Subtract 10s for email.)

roger blake

From what I've read you would have a timer similar to that on a VCR
which would select the channel according to the schedule that you set.
You would then set your VCR to record at the same times, recording
from either the line outputs or the RF output of the converter.

The only coupon-eligible converter I've read about that has this feature
is the Echostar DT-40, but that is currently vaporware and may not be
available before many of the coupons expire. However, at only $40 a pop,
if they work OK I'd spring for a couple of them at that price.

--
Roger Blake
(Subtract 10s for email.)

roger blake

Glad you found the info useful. Before it expires I'll be using my 2nd
coupon on another Zenith, I have to say it really does work better than
expected.

--
Roger Blake
(Subtract 10s for email.)

bruceh

It sounds like it will be June/July before it comes out.
My coupons expire June 18. Perhaps I'll wait and maybe
it'll be out by then. What the heck... it'll be free.

I think I will use one coupon for the Zenith but hold
out for the echostar with other coupon

my coupons expire middle of June..... hopefully
echostar out by then