Best DTV Converter Box? - Page 2

staticMHZ · 05-19-2009, 05:56 PM

I have the ARTEC T3AP with analog pass-through and yesterday I hooked it up with Composite red/yellow/white A/V cables and there was a very big difference in PQ over using coax. The PQ was much more sharper and cleaner.

If you have a TV with A/V connections I'd use the composite over coax. Even on SD sub-channels it's much more sharper.

Undue · 05-19-2009, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by staticMHZ

I have the ARTEC T3AP with analog pass-through and yesterday I hooked it up with Composite red/yellow/white A/V cables and there was a very big difference in PQ over using coax. The PQ was much more sharper and cleaner.

If you have a TV with A/V connections I'd use the composite over coax.

Thanks for the reply, i'm sorry for being completely oblivious to this but what is PQ?

staticMHZ · 05-19-2009, 06:05 PM

Picture quality. I was really suprised at the difference. The only problem is I need the composite jacks on my tv for my dvd player so I have to use the coax. But it's nice to know incase I ever decide to switch.

Someone on craigslist gave me a nice 19" sharp TV to replace the little tv I had. I like giving old tv's a new life.

DTVuser2009 · 05-19-2009, 08:00 PM

One of these days i'm going to figure out a way to put a converter box inside a TV and make it work as if it were true-blue digital TV. or solder in a digital tuner in place of the analog tuner and see what happens.

Aaron62 · 05-19-2009, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DTVuser2009

One of these days i'm going to figure out a way to put a converter box inside a TV and make it work as if it were true-blue digital TV. or solder in a digital tuner in place of the analog tuner and see what happens.

Or solder an HD tuner in place of a analog tuner. Would be interesting.

Undue · 06-06-2009, 08:52 PM

A little update to the thread, I purchased the DTVPal Plus last week and it's been working great. The program guide has far exceeded my expectations. Broadcast towers are about 22 miles away from my house and I'm only using a bunny ears antenna and haven't had any problems with reception at all. Being able to adjust the aspect ratio is a plus too since my girlfriend hates black bars on some of the shows. Picture quality and sound quality are great over watching old analog broadcasts.

1inxs · 06-07-2009, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Undue

A little update to the thread, I purchased the DTVPal Plus last week and it's been working great. The program guide has far exceeded my expectations. Broadcast towers are about 22 miles away from my house and I'm only using a bunny ears antenna and haven't had any problems with reception at all. Being able to adjust the aspect ratio is a plus too since my girlfriend hates black bars on some of the shows. Picture quality and sound quality are great over watching old analog broadcasts.

Thanks for posting back. That's good news. The DTV transition is next Friday and everything will just get better from then on.

DTVuser2009 · 06-07-2009, 08:03 AM

Soldering in an HD tuner to a CRT TV with insufficient pixel amounts and insufficient resolution capability wouldn't be a good idea. i would expect it to take the picture tube and its electronics too far. HD sets have tubes (or LCDs) with much smaller pixels and more of them and the ability to interlace (what the 'i' stand for in 1080i) vs. a SD set. that's why an SD picture on an HD set looks horrific; same reason low resolution settings on a computer monitor look worse when the monitor was designed to have much higher resolution to produce a good quality picture.

divxhacker · 06-07-2009, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by staticMHZ

Picture quality. I was really suprised at the difference. The only problem is I need the composite jacks on my tv for my dvd player so I have to use the coax.

My PQ reviews of all the boxes I've done were based on the output through the coax. Guess I'll have to re-check with output through the RCA plugs. Some could be better.

The Artec is #2 for the EPG, the PQ on it is passable, only if it's used on a small enough TV screen (no bigger than 20 inches)

The RCA is #1 for remote control and additional features. The program guide is #3, it shows a list, but in Now/Next format - it's probably automatically navigating the channels. The video didn't show the PQ, so I have to go and get one after the DTV transition hooplah settles down.

The DTV Pal Plus is very finicky about having the "sleep mode" turned off. That's one thing I don't like - it makes you almost feel like a criminal for having it running for long periods of time. The internal system runs a little slow if left on, it loses about a minute every day it's on continuously. They probably left out the "clock stability" system on it or didn't include a "background processing" system out of it.

Guess I'll have to do Youtube videos of the converter boxes soon, but my TV corner looks messy. (watches video) Oh, my TV corner looks FAR better than that. ;P

DTVuser2009 · 06-07-2009, 09:25 AM

The DTVPal Plus only gets program information when it's off as well. otherwise you eventually get days of 'No Program Information' and 'DTV Program'; my only con to this box besides that is that if the program guide is missing information for shows say an hour later (the channel gives limited info or only gives you so much at one time) you cannot simply power the box off and back on to re-download the guide and there's no 'force guide' to make it download. you can only allow it to power itself off and when you turn it on after it downloads a new guide. but it has to turn itself off first.

What i wonder about it is if it can update its firmware like Dish Satellite receivers do, to add new features or a better guide or something? it does have a 'sys info' feature listing the software and OS currently used, so i would like to say it does support firmware updates OTA. the manual seems to say so when it recommends it 'powered off after use to perform maintenance'


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