There were only 3 in stock on their website when I originally found them.
Check your local store, they might have them.

Hi there,

I just bought a RCA DTA809. It was not expensive and should get me going for a trial on OTA. It has a smart antenna interface, can anyone elaborate on what this is? Does it mean it will control the rotor or gain if overloaded?

thanks

Smart Antenna, TMK, is for a switched phase antenna, with directlional elements electronically selected.

I am sure though, someone could hack a rotor system to work from Smart Antenna, or use it to select from one of a couple fixed direction directional antannae.

Hi there, I am still getting basic analogue cable as I haven't made my mind yet if I will be using HD provider or going OTA. If I could acquire affordable but efficient receiver, I would be willing to do some testing with OTA. I have ordered an indoor/outdoor antenna and will also put my old VHF/UHF antenna back in service for testing purpose. I would appreciate your suggestion for an affordable OTA receiver/tuner I could use to do so. I am in Gatineau and would like to validate the potential of using HD OTA in my area. I also want to do some testing on the south shore of Montreal as my sister will be replacing her old CRT TV in her bedroom for a small LCD (26") TV. She presently uses digital videotron and it could be interesting to try her bedroom HDTV on OTA. My first part of the testing will be done in Nepean as our office provides the best suitable location as many LCDs and plasmas are avialable on site. What is also interesting, I'll also be able to give DHC a review on the monoprice indoor/outdoor antenna which was mentioned in a previous post. While I have a good grasp of antenna and the gear around it, I still need some leads on this new digital and HD technology. Any help in the matter would be much appreciated.

Cheers!
René

While I have a good grasp of antenna and the gear around it, I still need some leads on this new digital and HD technology. Any help in the matter would be much appreciated.Salut René! Here is the Reception thread for the Ottawa, Outaouais, Eastern Ontario area, which is full of informative reports for your area:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=33034

And here is the thread for the South Shore to also give good information:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=53296

When you are looking for an ATSC tuner you need to first of all decide on whether you need one with these capabilities:
HDMI component output, and presently the best on the market for that is the Samsung 260 discussed earlier in this thread
only 480i capability for watching ATSC digital stations on an older TV you need a converter box like the one BitTwiddler just reviewed. There are several CECB converter boxes mentioned in this thread.
HD PVR: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=56806
DTV Pal DVR: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=95820

Thanks for the info and links Stampeder. I'll get on with reading the previous posts. Yes, I'd ratter get HDMI connection. The main goa is to be able to watch everything that is available on OTA from 480i signal up to 1080 signals be analogue or HD.



Can anyone comment this beast: Panasonic 10809 DVD Recorder as I did not see any review or comments on this site??? Has built-in ATSC/NTSC tuners and DVD recording capability. Available at London Drug; with pricing at 250$ I tought it could be an alternative to stand alone tuners which are only available in the US and at almost the same pricing.

Can anyone comment this beast: Panasonic 10809 DVD Recorder as I did not see any review or comments on this site???

This is off thread, but all the DVD recorders I have seen will downconvert the broadcast to SD (480i) and then upconvert it back to HD, thus you will not get real HD programming.

This is off thread, but all the DVD recorders I have seen will downconvert the broadcast to SD (480i) and then upconvert it back to HD, thus you will not get real HD programming. Thanks roger1818, my main cocncern was to know if the tuner was efficient but this is also goo information to know. Now back to the topic, it amazes me that HD tuners aren't still available in Canada. Pricing looks good on the samsung 260f but I am worried about surprises after US to CDN dollar exchange, brokerage fee and all that good stuff. Stampeder, is the place you bought in 2006 still recommended? I'd prefer buying from proven/recommended sites than simply throw a credit card number "blindly"!

Cheers!
René

Hello,

This is my first post on Digitalhome.ca although I have been reading it for about 1.5 years. I love the amount of information on OTA available on this website!

In regards to the topic, I also tried to buy a ATSC tuner box from Futureshop in the Fall of 2007 but was unable to as they only sold NTSC DVD recorders. What I did find is that there are many ATSC tuners legally available in Canada however they are typically marketed for other purposes.

What you need to do is search for FTA Receiver with ATSC input capability. There are many brands which I can discuss via PM or in other threads but essentially the FTA Receiver will be able to decode both the FTA signal (DVB) via one input and the ATSC signal via another. Several of them also support recording capability (with no downconversion or encryption) onto a hard drive you supply. In my area, I know of several local computer stores along with online outlets which legally sell these.

Good Day,
I am looking for a converter box to work with my antenna/VCR/classis tv. I want to record on my VCR when I am not there.
I found one, Zinwell ZAT-970. Any ideas where this unit is available?

It appears that having the atsc tuner build in a tv is a cost effective option when buying a tv. For those of us who have a hd tv without atsc, the cost of atsc hd tuners seem to be still prohibitive. I could buy a small HD tv with atsc tuner for almost the same cost as that samsung receiver!

The Zenith ATSC converter box that was listed at bestbuy.ca seems to have disappeared. No matter as they never seemed to have any stock anyway. Great effort Best Buy! Now I see an Apex DT250 listed on the futureshop.ca site and at least it is listed sensibly under TV & Video/Video Accessories/Other Video Accessories. Best Buy had the Zenith "hidden" under computer adapters. Futureshop has the same problem stock problem though with the Apex listed as out of stock! Are these stores really trying to sell these things?

Another visit to local Best Buy and the Insignia boxes are gone, but there are about 20 of the Apex DT250 boxes.

Online check under "Home > TV & Video > Video Accessories > Other Video Accessories" and they are listed as "in stock" but no quantity listed.

Looking for a hd (atsc) tuner to receive ota stations for my 4 year old 50" hd ready tv. After searching, found 2 types of units. One is Samsung 260f that lot of people uses which is a bit expansive. The other type is so call 'converter ?' such Apex dt250 which is more reasonably priced. I gathered that Samsung will receive and display hd(720p) in resolution, while those converters can only display 480p. Am I right ? Or, some of those so call 'converter' can display 720p in resolution ? I have checked a lot of units over the web and can not tell.

I am fairly sure if it is labeled a converter, it only outputs 480i. If it does more than that, it isn't eligible for the coupon program.

I see the Apex dt250 has only RF and composite video out so for sure, it won't give you HD. The samsung will give you 720p or 1080i.

Hope that helps.

The DTV converter boxes only output to 480i which is meant to get the HD signal on to an older CRT TV. If you use one of these with your LCD you'll get SD on your HD screen

Gordono911, how do you like your Pany dmr-ez458v so far ?

Hey Guys,


I read on other thread that the Channel Master CM7000 converter is the most sensitive tuner on the market right now.

Right now, I get WVNY-Dt at about 20-40 % 5 out of 7 night.

My question to you is:

I think I read here that someone is using CM 7000, I want if it would improve my reception of WVNY?

I read somewhere elsewhere, that CM 7000 is great in picking up signals even the best HDTV tuner cannot receive.


Thanks,

Intravino

Hey Intravino,
I have CM-7000 and two Artec T3A Pro, when it comes to D2A STBs. All give me a solid lock 90% of the time on ABC HD. Also have a Viewsonic HDTV and a Pany DVD recorder with HD tuner and they also give me a solid lock 90% of the time on 22 HD. All this to say that ur antennas , pre-amps and distribution amps r the items that matter when it comes to reception. I have 3 antennas, 2 pre-amps and 3 distribution amps with many splitters and many feet of cable in my system. But beside all this, the CM-7000 is indeed a very good D2A STB and worth the price.

Intravino:

Gordono911 makes a good point that the antenna, preamp, and distribution amps matter a lot; but I would argue that the tuner sensitivity matters just as much.

In my case, I use a BEV 6100 satellite decoder with ATSC tuner and an Insignia STB. The Insignia uses a more recent chipset than the BEV decoder. The BEV decoder not once gave me a lock on WVNY but the Insignia STB locks 90%+ of the time. Also, the Insignia STB is 50 ft of RG6 behind the splitter while the BEV decoder is just 10 ft of RG6 behind the splitter.

All this to say that the tuner matters lots but I do not know if the CM 7000 specifically is a better tuner.