DTVuser2009

TonyT

But just how accurate are those signal meters, and are the measuring to the same exact standards?

DTVuser2009

seeing as the DTVPal+'s owner's guide does in fact state that the signal falls out below 54% i would like to think it's got pretty good leeway. don't forget this data was during a t-storm!

The Zenith will lose some channels at 60%, some at 25% or if it fluctuates badly up/down forget even pulling the channel in.

The DTVPal+ has the nicest program guide and gives the feel of Satellite TV without the monthly bill. perfect picture, great features, event timers, well the only thing different than Dish Network is the DVR and Satellite bill (there is a DTVPal Plus DVR btw too, so that former is no longer the case).

The signal meter on the DTVPal+ is the best one so far, it also shows up when you're using the browse banner or while changing channels. no interrupting your view of the TV or needing a separate menu access to show it. and it doesn't plague you with annoying beeps. each channel shows a certain percentage, although i think the cut-out point is the same, as listed in the manual. i haven't had it lose out yet, i have two boxes, and the DTVPal works well when the other one cannot. so long as the signal is above 54% you should be good to go.

cowboyup4christ

Solid signal has them for 15.00 cheaper than dish sells them for. just bought two more this week. have had the same experience with the dtvpal+ tuner is much stronger than other boxes I have installed and all where in deep fringe areas.

phritzg

I have been using a DTVPal Plus for about 4 weeks now. (I bought it full price to replace my third failed Microgem 2000 - see that thread for info.) I have about 30 channels programmed in and I only turn the power on when I want to watch one of them. (The rest of the time we are watching programming on our big dish C-band 4dtv satellite system.) The DTVPal takes only about 30-45 seconds to download the guide information when it is first turned on, not 5 or 10 minutes; I suppose it depends on how many channels you receive? One odd thing we've noticed is the unit occasionally turns itself on for a couple minutes at a time at seemingly random times during the day and night, then turns itself off. Does anyone know what that might be about?

cowboyup4christ

it occasionally looks for updates to its firm ware and to the program guide, also logs any new services so when it cranks up it adds them top the channel list.

divxhacker

I just got this off eBay in new condition.

The power inlet looks very different - it's a micro square socket I think this was intentionally done to prevent the user getting confused as to which power supply goes to what. The power plug also says "Audio equipment," which is a little unusual for an audio/video apparatus. Power supply for an SPDIF-based Dolby speaker system, maybe?

The box uses no screws. I opened it up by using a pry bar set I had bought to fix a friend's Zune.

Opening it up shows lots of chips. Taking the lid off the tuner shield shows a chip, a loop coil. two crystals, a resistor IC and various small parts. The tuner chip is a MT2131F 0JH370023G There are posts inside for a legacy style tuner.

The Flash memory is an 8x8 Spansion S99-50048, possibly 512 MBs Lots of room for a good GUI and a catalog of channels with methods for accessing and storing extended channel guide information.

The work memory is a Hynix HY5DU121622DTP-D43 64 MBs DDR Not a lot of memory.

The main CPU chip is a ST STi7707WUDP, The ATSC decoder chip is a ST STV0373.

There's headers for a 4-pin connector, and a 2-pin jumper

On the bottom there's another unknown 7x7 solder-ball mounted chip It has no markings other than 156054 D822 and the A1 marker dot. There is probably info on the other side (sometimes the case with certain chips like these (from past experience with EEPROMs,) but I'm not sacrificing this DTV converter, but another board suggests that it's a substitute for a subscriber card in a Dish Network box.

The remote control looks pretty heavy-duty with its twin-IR transmitters. It comes preloaded with batteries. It's nice, but not very safe.

There have been reports of this box responding to the remote control of an Echostar Dish Networks box, and vice versa. (the remote says Dish Networks on it)

I'll add to this when I receive the one I bought from a consignment shop - the eBay ad said it was broken, so I got it really cheap. "Item powers up but the setup returns an error state." With any luck, it's in perfect working condition - it was the antenna setup that was no good.

Don't have any time tonight to review it. I got to get to my work early tomorrow morning.

divxhacker

It works nice. Instead of repeating what's already said about this box, I'll just give some additional notes based on what's already written here.

Program guide is totally dependent on the data transmitted from the stations, it's read live from the bands' data streams. Navigating around causes some data to disappear. It's good, but, not perfect.

I'll see if I can get my hands on a DirectTV remote control, and try it out. That one should have a TV control option which was left out of the DTVPal's remote.

Channel changing is a little slow, but not too slow. There is no picture delay seen as compared with my VOOM box, response is about the same.

There's a lot of familiar feel in the GUI of this unit, compared with the VOOM receiver, installation menus and everything feels quite similar to a real satellite receiver. I think this box could have had some competition if Motorola had gone into the DTV converter market instead of sitting it out.

Anyways, this DTVPal Plus makes one feel they're getting a whole lot of value out of the free digital TV system with the impressive GUI and program guide, and THAT makes this box really worth every penny spent on it.

I'll burn-test it, see if anything unusual comes up after more than 8 hours of operation, since it doesn't have any ventilation anywhere. Hopefully, nothing.

CptlA

This is the one you got off of Ebay?

divxhacker

I got two of them off eBay. The broken DTVPal and the working DTVPal Plus. This one was the working one. It came from an electronics clearing house. DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG CONVERTER BOX DTVPAL TADD - eBay (item 270383334030 end time May-03-09 20:23:20 PDT)

My bids capped at 15 dollars for any box, s/h inclusive. Surprisingly this one went for far less. There's a couple of Car/RV-powered tuners direct from China, running more than 100 bucks a pop. I don't think the picture quality of those would be too good since it states framerate limits. The remote control looks terrible, so thin, it would too easily get stuck behind the chemical toilet. Here's a quick an easy search for converter boxes on eBay. Be sure to read the details before bidding. Some of the prices are criminally high, so watch out for those. DTV converter, Electronics, Computers Networking items on eBay.com These are NOT Tickle-Me-Elmos, people!