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Digital Tuner Box Question

K

KML0224

Guest
I hooked up one of those digital converter boxes to a TV in our break room at work, which is in Newington, CT, south of Hartford. Here's what I'm getting on a no-frills 20" Panasonic stereo TV:

3's D33? Nothing whatsoever. D33 is OK on the sales floor.
8's D10? Excellent signal! The DTVs on the sales floor don't get a hint of it.
18's D46? Nothing on digital 46.
20's D12? Nothing on digital 12 (but pretty close).
24's D42? (Not on the air yet.)
26's D34? Nothing whatsoever.
30's D35? A few digital dropouts.
59's D39? Nothing on digital 59 but it's really close.
61's D31? Excellent signal!

It didn't seem to tune the analog stations in (gotta find the manual). I was receiving both "8-1" (10-1) and the weather radar on "8-2" (10-2) to perfection. The NOAA Weather Radio voicetrack played for the sound. As with "30-1" (35-1), NBC Weather Plus on "30-2" (35-2) had intermittent cutouts. I think "59-1" (39-1) has the same thing on their second channel as "8-1" (10-1) does. I've gotta try to tune the analog channels with it before my shift tomorrow. If it matters, our break room TV is on the southern wall of the store by an emergency exit door and I'm only using a Philips amplified antenna. Lastly, I didn't try any of the digital stations from Springfield yet.

P.S. This is the type of box which downconverts the digital signals so they can be seen on a regular analog TV. I do NOT mean a digital cable converter from COX or Comcast.

<P ID="signature">______________
The 2006 New York Yankees...on to title #27!</P>
 
> I hooked up one of those digital converter boxes to a TV in
> our break room at work, which is in Newington, CT, south of
> Hartford. Here's what I'm getting on a no-frills 20"
> Panasonic stereo TV:
>
> 3's D33? Nothing whatsoever. D33 is OK on the sales floor.
> 8's D10? Excellent signal! The DTVs on the sales floor don't
> get a hint of it.
> 18's D46? Nothing on digital 46.
> 20's D12? Nothing on digital 12 (but pretty close).
> 24's D42? (Not on the air yet.)
> 26's D34? Nothing whatsoever.
> 30's D35? A few digital dropouts.
> 59's D39? Nothing on digital 59 but it's really close.
> 61's D31? Excellent signal!
>
> It didn't seem to tune the analog stations in (gotta find
> the manual). I was receiving both "8-1" (10-1) and the
> weather radar on "8-2" (10-2) to perfection. The NOAA
> Weather Radio voicetrack played for the sound. As with
> "30-1" (35-1), NBC Weather Plus on "30-2" (35-2) had
> intermittent cutouts. I think "59-1" (39-1) has the same
> thing on their second channel as "8-1" (10-1) does. I've
> gotta try to tune the analog channels with it before my
> shift tomorrow. If it matters, our break room TV is on the
> southern wall of the store by an emergency exit door and I'm
> only using a Philips amplified antenna. Lastly, I didn't try
> any of the digital stations from Springfield yet.
>
> P.S. This is the type of box which downconverts the digital
> signals so they can be seen on a regular analog TV. I do NOT
> mean a digital cable converter from COX or Comcast.
>


Any idea on what the heck 3-3 is about? I get the normal 3-1 WFSB, and the WSHM relay on 3-2, but 3-3 started up recently and is nothing but a dead channel.
 
Did you get a good deal on your digital box? Does it pick up the multicast channels? I'm interested in seeing what I can get with one of these here in south Hartford.
 
> Did you get a good deal on your digital box? Does it pick
> up the multicast channels? I'm interested in seeing what I
> can get with one of these here in south Hartford.
>

I didn't buy it. I'm using one of these antennas from my department. I think the brand name is US Digital or something. Sadly, it only seems to tune digital channels. Even when I switched amplified antennas, it was the same thing. I'm getting channel 8 and 61 for digital beautifully. I'm getting mixed results for channel 30 and 59's digital. Still nothing from channel 3 digital (strange, since I get WFSB-DT just fine on the sales floor) or channel 20 digital.

As for multicast channels, yes, I get the weather radar on both WTNH-DT 10-2 ("8-2") and WCTX-DT 39-2 ("59-2"). I'm also getting NBC Weather Plus on channel 35-2 ("30-2").<P ID="signature">______________
The 2006 New York Yankees...on to title #27!</P>
 
Cheap HDTV set top box (was Re: Digital Tuner...)

So where are all of the "cheap" HDTV set top boxes we keep hearing about?

Didn't someone from the Congressional Budget Office estimate they'd be about $60 someday? Perhaps as we get closer to the analog cutoff date in three years?

Walmart had one (the US Digital) and so did Rad Shack (Accurian) both discontinued within the last year.

Best Buy, Circuit City, and others have them for about $200 and higher - not exactly cheap.


Regards,
Joe





> > I hooked up one of those digital converter boxes to a TV
> in
> > our break room at work, which is in Newington, CT, south
> of
> > Hartford. Here's what I'm getting on a no-frills 20"
> > Panasonic stereo TV:
> >
> > 3's D33? Nothing whatsoever. D33 is OK on the sales floor.
 
Re: Cheap HDTV set top box (was Re: Digital Tuner...)

> So where are all of the "cheap" HDTV set top boxes we keep
> hearing about?
>
> Didn't someone from the Congressional Budget Office estimate
> they'd be about $60 someday? Perhaps as we get closer to
> the analog cutoff date in three years?
>
> Walmart had one (the US Digital) and so did Rad Shack
> (Accurian) both discontinued within the last year.
>
> Best Buy, Circuit City, and others have them for about $200
> and higher - not exactly cheap.
>
>
> Regards,
> Joe



Isn't Radio Shack itsself being discontinued?

Actually, that Radio Shack unit happens to be the box I got. It was discontinued? Was there a defect or something? I do notice some slight quirks from time to time, I know a month ago when I'd tune to WVIT, the box would get stuck on the channel and not let me tune anywhere else, but it stopped doing that, and now it won't remap WTXX to ch 20, it sees it only as 12.
 
Digital TV converters and TVs with built-in Tuners

It may be like the US Digital one I hooked up as in it only has a digital tuner in it. My box won't show any "regular" analog channels either. On a related matter (sorta), we sell a couple of Sanyo TVs with a built-in digital tuner, but are NOT HDTV compatible. They'll down-convert the signal from stations like 33-1 ("3-1") and give limited programming info (since that's sent by the station already). They'll also tune the existing analog channels as well (3, 8, 18, etc.). <P ID="signature">______________
The 2006 New York Yankees...on to title #27!</P>
 
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