refer to this link for the antenna http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=107857

I have 3 different types of converter boxes:
channel 13.1 is broadcast on 210mhz(channel 13) for comparison, channel l 8.1 is broadcast on 174mhz (channel 7)
The below was done with rg6 drop down from antenna no preamp.

airlink atvc102
13.1 signal strength flashes between 49% and 74%
8.1 signal strength flashes between 49% and 74%
both channels come in great. Wind blew and there was pixelation I think the antenna mount is loose and I am going to fix it today.

magnavox tb110mw9
13.1 signal strength 18% peak sits at zero then moves up to 18% once and a while. had to manually will not autoscan.
8.1 signal strength 28% peak sits at 28% most of the time
8.1 come in great 13.1 breaks up badly

RCA dta800
8.1 signal strength 43% come in great
13.1 will not autoscan in. no way of manually add channel.

In summary the airlink works on 13.1 the rest do not. Do you think the airlink has a better amp or better multi-pathing rejection?
Do you think a preamp would help or do you think the problem is because of multi-pathing?

You help would be greatly appreciated

zjts, judging from your TVFool results in your other thread I'm guessing you're in the foothills north west of Missoula, MT? Is the terrain part of the problem with no lock on 13.1?

yes I am west of Missoula. If it was a terrain problem how does airlink atvc102 lock on to 13.1? The airlink atvc102 locks on and the picture is great. I am trying to decide if an preamp would get the other converter boxes working or create more problems.

Hi,

I told previously some members that when I would get my 2 other CECB boxes I would make a small review of them.

OK first off, my favorite is the Zenith DTT901. The onscreen menus are superb. It is really enjoyable to surf the menus, not like the boring and badly designed CM 7000 onscreen menus. I find that the sensitivity is the same as the CM 7000. I have a hard time to get WVNY-DT from my location even with a 10y13s and 40 feet tower, so I tested my 3 boxes on the 10y13s and it is was tie (CM 7000= Zenith). The picture quality on the composite output is very good also. Nice looking design also. Analogue Pass-thru is a plus here in Canada (until 2011 maybe) .


Second place, CM 7000: good sensitivity, s-Video output. Nice looking box. Good picture quality.
Bad menus. No Analogue pass-thru.

Last Apex 502. Sensitivity is good but not as good compared to CM 7000 or Zenith. Menus are good (better then CM 7000). S-video, analogue pass-thru. Cheap built I find. I did not find the use of the signal meter and signal quality at my location. I will have to test that more maybe If I go on the roof and connect the Apex directly after the antenna.

My Winner: Zenith DTT901.

Thanks for that Intravino, I'm guesing that the Zenith (its really an LG because Zenith is one of their brand names) and the CM both have the latest Generation 6 chipsets in them.

The Apex might have one of the new series of home-grown Chinese ATSC chipsets but I could be wrong - just a guess.

Stampeder,


Form this info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_CECB_units

It looks like the Apex uses Samsung DTVS22D. There must be other variables also.

One thing I learned over the years as a electronics technologist is that you cannot judge on specifications alone.

You need real life testing. Imagine choosing a high end audio amplifier or speakers just on a piece of paper!


Intravino

intravino: Then you also know that a $29 digital amp can cream a $10,000 one ...its no joke !

Hello all

This is my first post. I have read A LOT of posts in the last few days so forgive me if I am asking a question that has been answered. I got a older but very sweet pioneer plasma for a very low price. PDP-433CMX

This thing has a very nice picture with output from a PC over VGA and it has a tuner card TVP1000 by Aurora. I would like to add OTA. What is my best option for input, is there a ATSC tuner with VGA out? it also has RGB inputs, is this the same quality signal?

I also have a HD/CS,VD in port. any info what that is?

Thanks in advance for your help

Andrew

Aside from safety benefits, does reception improve when you use a ground spike or water-pipe antenna ground? Not even my TV house outlet is grounded at present. Are lightning arrestors justified and are they unharmful to the signal?

Likely there are plenty more experienced users here, but my 2 cents...
Suspect mostly for safety/lightning protect, typically vertically polarized antennas are more susceptible to man made noise than Horiz Pol. antennas. TV Antennas are generally Horiz Polarized, right? Wouldn't hurt to try (experimenting 'eh), and see if ya saw any diff on a really weak digital signal's Quality (Bit Error rate) with & without a decent ground on the antenna system.

I think ur better off to use a low noise pre-amp right there as close to the antenna as possible (for optimum system noise figure) than skimping out for ease of installation on some amp installed inside somewhere. I have only recently been playin with tv reception in a metro area, but did find the mast mounted pre-amp did make the difference in being able to pull in digital Canadian Stations over here (no interest in analog as it's dead here anyway). Initial look here, seems like a Winegard Ap 8700 someone gave me is gonna be enough to keep me above the cliff for some at least. I'm a little suspicious at this point in the quality of the built in ATSC Tuner here and it's suitability for DX'n vs a typical CECB. Kind of alluding to that in the below post, but withholding final judgement for a while till i can do more experimenting as you are.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=48027&page=5

it also has RGB inputsThose Component inputs are fine for an ATSC HD tuner box like a Winegard RC1010.

Good day all. I just picked up an Apex DT250A. Because all of my antennas are currently directional (e.g. Winegard Batwing on RV) I have to try to manually add channels to the channel map after running the auto channel setup with my antenna pointed in a particular direction. As always, the manual is pretty useless and although I found elsewhere instructions for the DT250, I can't seem to get it to work for the DT250A.

Anybody have any experience with setting up channel maps manually on this box?

Thanks
Len.

I can tell you that on the Apex 502, it is impossible to manually add channels.

I've split the topic of ATSC High Definition Tuner & Converter Boxes into its own separate thread:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=108740

This present thread will continue with discussion of ATSC Converter Boxes that are Non-HD and Non-Recording.

i have 2 analog tv. can i buy 1 digital box and use a splitter to share the signals between these tv?

With an ATSC converter box, certainly.

My suggestion though would be to hook up the bigger TV via the composite or S-Video output as well as put the audio L/R (White/Red) into that bigger set. Run the RF to the smaller set that's elsewhere in the house. If you have an A/V receiver, the L/R audio could go into that instead.

That way, the bigger set gets the better picture and sound, and the other set gets the direct RF feed (on ch3 or ch4) without a splitter to degrade the signal.

Cameron

junkone, if you run one converter box into 2 TVs through a splitter both TVs will show the same program and will not be able to show different programs from each other.

If you want your TVs to offer their own different choices, you need 1 converter box for each TV.

pl clarify. Post # 809 says its possible. Post 810 says its not possible. i am really confused.

There is nothing to be confused about because they say the same thing.

Do you want the two TVs to always show the same program? If yes, run them both off the same converter box. Whatever channel the converter box is tuned to will show up on both TVs at the same time.
Do you want the two TVs to be able to independently show programming from each other? If so, you need a converter box for each TV.

Got it? :)

As Stampeder said, the key to the answer is: Do you want the SAME programing to show up on BOTH TV's?

If the answer is yes, then what I said was correct.

If you want DIFFERENT programming on each TV, then Stampeder's post is quite correct, you need a box for each TV.

:)

Cameron

I have read all the posts here, and in the other related threads, and still cannot see any logic in the claim that a digital converter STB's tuner can be more "sensitive" than the tuner in ANY recent HDTV with built in ATSC tuner(say within the last 18 months), at least based on the NOISE figures.

I did a lot of research to determine the NOISE FIGURE of my HDTV, and found it to be 5-6 db's based on the chip manufacturer specs. I seriously doubt any of the standard def. digital converter STB's have a noise figure less than 5 db's. To notice any real difference the STB's would have to have a NOISE FIGURE in the range of say 2-3 dB's!:eek: Not even the latest designed tuner chips claim such figures (in the order of 4-5 db's)

So my conclusion is the sensitivity differences are due to some other factor or the HDTV tuner specs are falsely listed as lower than actual :rolleyes:

Please let me know if my thinking is sensible...