DTV Converter Guide

House Approves DTV Delay

admin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:45:09 +0000

Legislation moving the digital television transition from Feb. 17 to June 12 now moves to the White House where President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill. Democrats insist the delay is necessary and will be for one time only since public safety officials and winners of the 700 MHz spectrum auction are waiting to occupy the analog spectrum being deserted by television broadcasters.

Link to article

Digital TV Switchover Delay Gathers Steam in Congress

admin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:06:47 +0000

The Senate has voted to delay for four months the switch to digital TV meant to occur in a mere three weeks, giving President Barack Obama the national breather he sought and setting up a House vote which could occur as early as Tuesday.

Link to article

Senate OKs 4-month delay to digital TV changeover

admin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:05:20 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Monday voted unanimously to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months to June 12 – setting the stage for Congress to pass the proposal as early as Tuesday.

Link to article

Delay in analog TV shutdown presents challenges

admin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:27:27 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the clock ticking toward the Feb. 17 deadline for TV broadcasters to shut off their analog signals and go entirely digital, analysts say more than 6.5 million households are not ready. Now Congress appears poised to postpone the transition to June — but a delay could bring its own problems…

Link to article

Obama team urges delay in digital TV transition

admin — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:50:47 +0000

The long and short of it is that Obama doesn’t think Americans are ready for the Feb. 17 digital TV transition. He wants to postpone the deadline. The NTIA is asking for another $250 million for the coupon program. This is a very good news for people who are on the waiting list.

Here is the news article.

Deals

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:13:10 +0000

Here are some deals I found from the list of vendors on dtv2009.gov. They all accept the $40 coupon.

Vendor	Product	Price (Actual)	Shipping
	Artec Digital HDTV Flat Antenna	$9.99	FREE
	Sunkey SK-801 with Free HDTV Antenna	$50.99	FREE
	Sansonic FT-300A	$48.99	FREE
	Tivax STB-T9	$51.99	FREE
	Tivax STB-T8	$53.99	FREE
	Zenith (LG) DTT901	$65.99	FREE
	Artec T3AP Pro	$54.99	FREE
	Artec T3A Pro	$51.99	FREE
	Sunkey SK-801	$41.99	$4.99
	Artec T3A	$48.99	$4.99
	Channel Master CM7000	$48.65	$10.00
	Sansonic FT-300A	$40.00	$10.00

Amazon

Coupon Request and Donation

admin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:25:11 +0000

Please comment on this page if you have coupon to donate or would like to receive a coupon from donation. I will do my best to match up donations and requests.

DTVPal TR-40

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:00:32 +0000

Rating: ★★★★☆

This is an excellent converter box made by Dish Networks. Picture quality is among the best picture quality group in Consumer Reports. Operation is also very polished. It’s probably because the design is borrowed from Dish Networks’ satellite unit. However, a lot of users complain about software issue on the unit that renders the converter unusable unless you unplug and plug it back to reset the unit. That’s why a drop in rating.

Picture Quality:

Excellent picture quality that’s close to what you get from DVD.

Audio Quality:

Decent sound quality, definitely an improvement from analog signal.

Operation:

The programming guide is the highlight of this unit. It’s very polished and user friendly. This is made by Dish Networks after all. The remote may be a little complicated for user who doesn’t care about advance features.

Product details:

Feature
Analog pass-through	Yes
Smart antenna	Yes
Closed captions	Yes
EPG	Yes
Outputs	RF output Composite video
Resolutions	480i

Price (after $40 coupon):
$0 (DTVPal.com)

Zenith (LG) DTT901

admin — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:42:10 +0000

Rating: ★★★★☆

This is one of the best DTV converter box available on the market. Picture quality is excellent although Consumer Reports ranked it among second tier in picture quality. Operation is simple and straight forward. Price is a little high but overall, this is an excellent product. Highly recommended.

Picture Quality:

Excellent picture quality that’s close to what you get from DVD. The quality is actually on par with Channel Master CM-7000 but for some reason Consumer Reports ranked this converter under second tier in picture quality.

Audio Quality:

Decent sound quality, definitely an improvement from analog signal.

Operation:

Above average programming guide with current program title and run time.

Technical Specification:

Feature
Analog pass-through	Yes
Smart antenna	No
Closed captions	Yes
EPG	Yes
Outputs	RF output Composite video
Resolutions	480i

User Manual & Set-up Instruction

Price (after $40 coupon):

$25.99 (Meritline)

Channel Master CM-7000

admin — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:34:17 +0000

Rating: ★★★★★

This is one of the best DTV converter box available on the market. Consumer Reports ranked this device within the best picture quality group. In reality, its picture quality is actually the best among that group. If there is another group above best picture quality, this device will definitely be on it. The price on this device is a little on the high side though and it’s noticeably bulkier. This is highly recommended.

Picture Quality:

Excellent picture quality that’s close to what you get from DVD. In fact, this device has the best quality among its peers and rated A+ in many other reviews.

Audio Quality:

Decent sound quality, definitely an improvement from analog signal.

Operation:

Menu is clear and easy to use. Programming guide is clean and very responsive. The menu implementation on this device is above average.

Technical Specification:

Feature
Analog pass-through	No
Smart antenna	No
Closed captions	Yes
EPG	Yes
Outputs	RF output Composite video S-Video
Resolutions	480i

User Manual & Set-up Instruction

Price (after $40 coupon):
$8.65 Summit Source