Digital TV Converter Box Recommendations

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GeoffSchultz
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Digital TV Converter Box Recommendations

Post by GeoffSchultz »

The long awaited switch to digital TV will take place next week. I spent a lot of time researching converter boxes and I selected the Zenith DTT901 based upon recommendations for best weak signal reception. I installed it on Monday and was very impressed with the reception.

BlueJacket is in Portsmouth, RI and I was able to pick up about 20 Boston stations, which is about 50 miles away. I had scanned for the channels at home, which is ~25 miles due west of Boston, and forgot the controller, so I wasn't able to access the menus to rescan in Portsmouth. However, it received, without any breakup, all of the channels that it found at home. Note that before I installed this, I could barely watch channel 7 out of Boston and only got 2 UHF channels.

Sears sells the Zenith DTT901 for $50. You can get a $40 coupon from the US government https://www.dtv2009.gov/ which drops the cost to $10. Note, you have to pay cash if you use the coupon!

Anyhow, I can highly recommend the unit. Note that other units have better Electronic Program Guides (EPG), but I was primarily interested in weak signal reception.

-- Geoff
BlueJacket
1997 Freedom 40/40
http://www.GeoffSchultz.org

User avatar
GeoffSchultz
Posts: 1135
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:39 am
Location: BlueJacket: Guatemala
Contact:

Re: Digital TV Converter Box Recommendations

Post by GeoffSchultz »

After we returned from our 4th of July trip, I noted that we were only getting 7 digital TV channels. I didn't have a chance to figure out what was going on, but this weekend I took a look. I looked at the antenna :oops: and noted that the antenna cable was floating free of the antenna and connector! I had been working on the WiFi antenna and I guess that I pulled on the cable, causing it to pull out of the connector. I was only using a twist-on gold-plated connector and it had managed to work loose.

The amazing thing was that I only had about a 1/2" piece of the conductor sticking out of the end of the cable and I was still getting 7 channels! When I plugged it back into the antenna, I got 40 channels including all of the Boston channels that I had before.

My only issue is having the WiFi antenna right next to the TV antenna. When it transmits, it breaks up the signal.

-- Geoff
BlueJacket
1997 Freedom 40/40
http://www.GeoffSchultz.org

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