On Oct 31, 3:57*pm, David Nebenzahl wrote:
Just used my gubmint'-issued $40 credit and bought the box (at a local
Circuit City). Got the only one they had, the Zenith DTT901. Now I'm
wondering whether I should have shopped around first.

My main complaint is that the picture quality ain't great. I saw another
converter box at a friend's house that looked really good on their tube;
this one isn't all that sharp or punchy, kind of grainy. Definitely not
as good as the analog picture I get from those stations with the
strongest signals. (On the plus side, not only do I get lots more
channels than I got before, but the picture quality is at least
consistent among all of them, even if it's not the greatest.) I'm
assuming this has something to do with the DAC chipset or the RF
modulator in the box.

Box was super-simple to set up. I'm not thrilled with the user
interface: there's a "favorites" function that's kind of annoying to
use. You can put the most-watched stations in a "favorites" list, then
hit the FAV button to access them. Problem is, the on-screen menu has a
very short timeout, so if you linger too long on one station, it goes
away and you can't pick from the list without hitting FAV again (plus it
bumps the selection up each time you hit FAV; definitely not the way I
would have designed that function).

The remote doesn't turn my TV on and off, but that's probably just
because the TV is so old. (There's a list of 45 manufacturers whose sets
can supposedly be used with the remote.)

Not big deals, since I don't really care that much about TV anyhow. I'd
be curious to hear similar reports on other converter boxes.

Oh, and the box was $60, so I paid $20.

--
* Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the
powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

- Paulo Freire


Hmm....

I have the exact same boxes, purchased maybe a month or so ago. I
just got 'em because I'm a cheap ******* and didn't see replacing all
my ancient TVs with new ones, as pleasant as that would be. I would
say that the picture is superior to either OTA analog (which is crappy
in my area) or digital cable (I hooked one up downstairs on the old
big screen to try to watch a football game OTA so I could get the
whole picture rather than just 4:3) Also, the Zenith box will pull in
stations that my (admittedly cheap) Viewsonic HDTV/monitor combo
cannot. I also prefer the Zenith's on screen guide to the
Viewsonic's, although for a cheap Craigslist buy it serves its purpose
as a lightweight portable TV and a backup monitor. (my old monitor is
a monstrous Samsung CRT that has probably a superior picture, but it
certainly won't fit on a small desk and you can't carry it around
tucked under one arm.)

I am digging the OTA digital HDTV though. I am considering installing
a roof mount antenna so that I can get all the stations that I should
be receiving.

nate