More DTV Receiver Comparisons

[indysteve]

My response to an e-mail post at the WTFDA e-mail site........


> Is there any
> consensus on what the
> best box is? Suggestions? I do have an Accurian
> that works OK. It's used
> for normal TV watching by the family, and does a
> decent job. >

Craig, I've only tested two of the new boxes, but
here's some new info (from my own personal experience)
relating to your questions.

Earlier this morning I confirmed with a local TV
engineer that semi-local WTTV-DT-48 (4.1) is currently
operating with their old, low-power transmitter (4kW @
960') due to an exciter issue in their new high-power
transmitter (870kW @ 1043'). I live 37 miles north of
this tower. My azimuth reading for this station is
182 degrees. I just conducted a quick reception test
of this 4kW signal between the RCA ATSC11, RS
Accurian, Magnavox TB100MW9 and Insignia NS-DXA1. I
connected the units in various setups....straight
antenna signal without any splitters; two units at a
time using a 2-way splitter; and various combinations
of the four units with various connections from the
2-way splitter.

During this time I rotated my outdoor UHF antenna
array (2-Triax Unix 100 antennas horizontally stacked
@ 30' AGL and CM 7775 preamp) and stopped at 147
degrees, 79 degrees and 70 degrees. The clear winner
with holding the signal the best at these positions
was the Insignia, with the Magnavox just a step behind
it. With two monitors side-by-side, the Insignia was
always displaying a slightly more stable picture or
slightly less break-ups. These two are very similar
with reception abilities, and a mile ahead of the
older RCA and Accurian. The RCA was actually better
than the Accurian in this simple test. The RCA didn't
always display video at these misaimed directions, but
it did occasionally display some video while the
Accurian was MIA with these misaimed directions. The
Accurian didn't decode the station until the antenna
was almost back to 182 degrees.

The Magnavox is manufactured by Funai, the same as the
Philco, and the Insignia is manufactured by LG, the
same as the Zenith.

My 2 cents. Anyone else have some experience to share
regarding these or other brands/models?

Steve

[NuovoTech]

Steve - Had a question about the Magnavox TB100MW9...does the RF signal pass through it when the converter is turned off? IE like it does with a VHS-VCR daisy-chained to a TV. Thanx!

[indysteve]

Steve - Had a question about the Magnavox TB100MW9...does the RF signal pass through it when the converter is turned off? IE like it does with a VHS-VCR daisy-chained to a TV. Thanx!

No it doesn't.

[NuovoTech]

No it doesn't.Does it badly degrade the RF, or totally block any signal? Since the TB100MG9 is due in April with analog pass-thru feature, I hope that allows RF pass-thru in off state(because of my needs).

Seems like a no-brainer & the Funai rep said the MG9 would. But since the Philco TB100HH9, which does have analog pass-thru yet still blocks the RF when off, is also made by Funai I'm wondering if the rep is wrong? Guess I'll have to wait...thanx for that info!

[Russ-PA]

It's beginning to look like the few which have any analog passthru are going to require being turned on, which means that if you want analog skip when you have a local DTV it'll be a no go.

[NuovoTech]

which means that if you want analog skip when you have a local DTV it'll be a no go.I'm not really sure what you mean by this??? :confused:

[robandjeanne]

I bought this from Best Buy, and after I bought it was lamenting the lack of antenna feed through. However, I found out the Philco has to be on to feed through and attenuates the signal more than desirable so I can probably live without feedthrough. I tried my Insignia several places and it was easy to set up and very sensitive. Plus its universal feature works to turn on/off and control the volume of all the TVs I've tried it with. As some have mentioned it looks well build with a lot of metal on the case, and has power and up/down tuning buttons. It also tunes very fast so all in all I'm glad I got the Insignia.

The Insignia location in my basement gets its signal after several additional splitters (compaired with the main HDTV upstairs). By the way, I'm using a CM 4 bay and a CM Yagi (90 deg different aiming) in my attic with two CM 7777 preamps. The Insignia picked up as well as the main HDTV right out of the box, with only one channel (ch 50) breaking up. However, knowing how great some have said Insignia's are, I decided to try substituting a good splitter for one of the original basement splitters. That splitter must have been partially bad because signal strength increased appreciably and now all 25 digital channels come in with no breakup (DC metro area). Even after going through two additional splitters the Insignia now picks up better than the upstairs HDTV. I'm happy with it.

[Russ-PA]

I'm not really sure what you mean by this??? :confused:


Most of us here are DX'ers - people whose hobby is listening or watching for distant FM or TV stations. After February 2009, all regular US TV stations will be digital, however stations in Canada will not change until later, many Latin American countries may never do so. Therefore when there are atmospheric conditions permit long distance reception ( skip ) those will be analog.

Having a DTV converter in line and operating would not permit passing analog signals through without this feature. Having it operate when the converter box is off is preferable in that reception of the distant station would be of better quality. The alternative would be to disconnect the converter and run the antenna directly to the analog TV to receive the analog signals as we do today.

[NuovoTech]

Most of us here are DX'ers - people whose hobby is listening or watching for distant FM or TV stations...My brother was a ham, so I knew what DX & skip was...I never had a clue that FM/TV signals would do atmospheric skip? I guess I always thought just AM/SW would skip, thanx for explaining that! :cool:

[Mike-CT]

Russ wrote...

The alternative would be to disconnect the converter and run the antenna directly to the analog TV to receive the analog signals as we do today.

What I am doing right now is taking the coax from my VHF antenna and using a 2-way splitter fed to a B/W Zenith for analog skip, and also split to the Insignia box to check for digital Es on ch2 on an RCA color TV.

A DTV Ch2 from Florida was seen up here in New England via Es in February, so I have a feeling I might be lucky this summer and see my first digital E skip.