I prefer the CM-7000 over the Tivax for digital quality analog output and it performs much better in fringe reception areas, but the CM has no passthough, but analog passthrough could be done with a simple splitter arrangement anyways.originally posted by ota_canuck

I picked up one of these bad boys for my dad's 36 inch SD CRT television but realized that there was not an analog pass through. I guess you could just use a 2 way splitter and attach the analog side to the televisions RF input and use the RCA connections for the digital ones.

It has a very nice tuner, and the add digital channel feaure (add scan) does not lose previous stored channels.
The down fall is the basic signal meter but for my dad it should be good.

Hi. After some lengthy searching and reading I haven't been able to find the information I'm searching for.

I'm looking to buy a set top box to receive digital tv signals for my 10 year old tv. I'm not looking for hdtv or anything technologically extensive at all, just the cheapest solution to receive local stations through dtv transmissions.

I've searched the major retailers online and no one appears to sell what I'm looking for. I'm guessing this is to do with the fact we are still over 1 year away from the mandatory inception date for the broadcasters.

Thanks for any replies.

My first pick is CM7000, second pick is Tivax.

follow this link:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=1028104#post1028104

CTC and The Source[radio shack] sell Tivax. The Channel Master CM7000 is better for fringe area reception. You'd have to call some of the electronic store for anything else. Try this link to see if there's something near you.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51079

You should post your questions in your local area thread to see if anyone local can help you further.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=36748 <-- Vancouver area

I've been using the Aska Qterra DTA1100 (aka unspeakable DTV2500) for over 2 months now with our 32" sony tube. Rock solid, great sensitivity, great picture quality. No complaints. And I've seen the DTV2500 selling for as low as $40 now at local stores..can't complain about that either :)

Picked up a Digital TV Convertor box in the U.S.

Had some free time so I went across to Watertown NY to look around.
Found it in a Radio Shack store in the U.S.

Digital Stream DTX9950 DTV Convertor Box
(box says made by NHENS Digital inc. Torrance, CA. California. )

So far it looks like a pretty good unit for a very reasonable price
(approx $60 bucks U.S.)

Seems to have some good features ...

-DTV convertor with ANALOG PASS THROUGH

-CH 3 or 4 RF output, switchable at the back
-or-
Composite Output. RCA connections at back: Y-for video, R & W for audio.

-SIGNAL METER - bar with red yellow and green ranges and 0-100% reading.

-REGULAR SCAN

-RESCAN channels with ADD
(i.e. keep the existing channels in list but look for and add any new ones found)

-MANUAL CHANNEL EDIT (ie delete any channels you wanna get rid of)
(this seems to be good just for viewing the current list too. And as you arrow up or down the "on screen" list ... it tunes that channel... neat)

-FAVOURITE CHANNELS - I have not played with this feature yet.

-EPG - electronic program guide. station info and tv guide for that channel.

-REMOTE CONTROL with 2 AAA batteries incl.

-PARENTAL control / CONTENT control / V-chip / Password control
The manual talks about these features. I have not played with them yet.

-VOLUME CONTROL on remote.

I have not explored ALL the features of this unit yet, or how they all behave ... nor read in great detail the user manual yet ... but so far seems like lots of good features for the price (approx $60 bucks U.S.).

One thing I do not see, that I would have liked was an LED display on the front of the unit showing the current channel. It just shows a LED dot.
... but I think I can live with that.

I'm using it now just as a receiver to test the outdoor antenna that I recently set up. To see what all channels I can pick up ... and how well ...

So far it seems to be picking up channels O.K.
I'm posting Reception results in Reception Thread:
"East of Oshawa ... KINGSTON."

As I learn more / gain more experience with this unit ... I'll post more.

Anyone else have experience with this Digital Stream DTX9950 unit ?

Re: The Digital Stream DTX9950 Convertor Box.

member ota_canuck (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/member.php?u=64090) pointed me to a few online reviews of this unit. Thanks very much Ota canuck! Reviews seemed mixed. Some people wrote that the box stopped working after only a short period of time (typical, I think, with some electronic stuff - yet still concerning).

So far so good with my unit. But that's not alot of time yet for a real trial.

The manual only gives a 6 month warantee. Not very long. That concerns me also. Normally you see at least a 1 year warantee on electronic stuff don't you?

Well ... anyway ... the trial of the unit I have continues. So far O.K. It's still receiving fine. And has lots of good features - given the low price.
Performance so far seems fine - it's picking up the channels and working good - no problems so far.

I currently have my CM4221HD setup on the roof of the house. It is connected to the Tivax converter. I was wondering if there is a way to combine the signals of both the Digital HD and the analog channels together. I did a search and could not find the answer here. I am not able to get TVO kids when the antenna is connected directly to the Tivax box.

I am at Dixie and Sandalwood in Brampton. The antenna is 35' up and pointing south along side Dixie.

Tivax T8 has Analog Pass-thru...connect CH3/4 output to your TV to view Analog.
This can be done in addition to Video/L/R connections for digital, if you use them....

Tivax T9 does NOT have Analog Pass-thru, so install a 2-Way RF Splitter (4 dB loss) or
an RF A/B Switch (0.5 dB loss) to feed both Tivax and your TV.

See Figure 4 (with or without VCR):
http://dtvtransitioninfo.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html

Thank you for the reply, I thought that is how I had to do it, but I just wanted to check.

If you have the Tivax T8 model, just simply turn the box power off and the pass through should allow the analog feed to pass through. Otherwise follow holl_ands direction to build a manual analog bypass.

I am new at this so I apologize if I am in the wrong part of the forum
I have a Panasonic HDTV projection TV mod PT-47WX42C Pre Digital converter At this present time I am on cable reception.
I am in the process of building a DB4 antenna,
My question is as I am on fixed income. What is it going to cost me to convert OTA signals for my TV :confused:

Hi carot, I've moved your post into this thread about Converter boxes. The price range depends on what you want in a DTV box since there are many different options depending on your preferences and budget. You've mentioned you're on a fixed income so if your budget is tight I'd suggest a cheap DTV converter box as described earlier in this present thread. You can find them in many stores like Wal-mart and Target for less than $40USD and they are easy to setup and use. :)

The problem is that they only output in SD (your HDTV will only be able to show a station's HD program in SD) and they do not record programming for later watching. If you want true HD and/or recording features you can read through the following threads to decide on which one suits your budget best. You'll find out from the appropriate thread what the price range will be but some of them are almost $300USD.

ATSC High Definition Tuner Boxes (Non-Recording) (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=108740)

ATSC DVR & PVR Recorders (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=56806)

ATSC Tuners in Satellite or Cable Receivers (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=20730)

TiVos for HD OTA in Canada (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=95819)

DTVPal OTA DVR (EchoStar TR-50 & Channel Master 7000PAL) (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=95820)

and more, including computer-based solutions too.

Hey ota, i noticed you got the CM 7000 box.

How is the tuner sensitivity? Is it better than any other TV/tuner you have?

I wonder if my reception would be better if I got one...

I've tested many STB's about 2 years ago 'back to back' and the 7000 was the best performer for fringe reception lock. The Magnavox was the worst, it went out in the garbage bin. I recently tested the Tivax STB T8 and the newest Zinwell ZAT-970A, but they still didn't do as well as the 7000 for the distant reception. The Tivax STB T8 and the Zinwell ZAT-970A have analog passthru,but what's the point ? Everything we need is digital anyways ;) so why sit on the fence for some odd ball religious or home shopping low power analog crappola?

It's worth a try if you can get one with a good return policy just in case it doesn't show any improvement over what you have. The 7000 units are still a bit pricy compared to the others.

BTW: If your going to try a Stealth Hawk, I have something new that I've tried recently. PM me before you build one.

I found a Canadian dealer for the CM7000 ASTC D2A converter box at $69.95.

From the reviews on this thread it is a considered a good unit - (6th generation ASTC tuner, but without analog passthru).

I had seen hints on other forums that the digital audio components were removed to qualify for the USA coupon rebate, and there was a suggestion that it might be possible to re-populate those components and have digital audio. Does anyone have more information on this subject.

Regarding analog passthru, it should be relatively easy to add a relay or two and achieve analog passthru when the CM7000 is powered off, and normal operation when powered on.

Once my CM7000 arrives, I can post pics of the cct board re the digital audio, if anyone is interested.

I received my Channel master CM7000 D2A converter box and have attached pics of the pcb.

There are 4 main ICs: three by ST Microelectronics and one by ELPIDA Memory Inc of Taiwan.

The ELPIDA D2516AETA is identified as part # EDD2516AETA, Class 5B-E.
A memory chip of 256Mbit density, wordxbit of 16Mbitx16 with 4 int. banks.

The three STM chips are: STx7707NUC, M29W16OET & STV0373.
I was not able to locate these chips on the STM website.
http://www.st.com/stonline/

The RCA jack(black) for the digital audio is mounted on the pcb and is marked as (Not Used). In the vicinity of the track from the black RCA jack, there are unpopulated components identified as C28, 29 & C30, R60, R61 & R62 and transistors QD9 & QD10.

It could be the STM datasheets would provide info for typical ccts for the digital audio output. To proceed, I need the STM datasheets, so If anyone knows of any links, please forward to me via the pm system.

..... thanks


CM7000 Full pcb View
http://public.fotki.com/autofils/cm7000-d2a/cm7000-d2a-1.html

Digital Audio Close-Up
http://public.fotki.com/autofils/cm7000-d2a/cm7000-d2a-3.html

Autofils, the pcb layout suggests a swiss army knife tuner box was originally planned. The pcb layout under the can tuner suggests to me that an earlier, bigger one was to be used, or probably available optionally as an NTSC/ATSC device. What is the embossed text on the lid of the can tuner? I could not make it out in the photo.

Also for those of you who might be wondering, the CM7000 is a converter box, not the CM version of the DTV Pal known unfortunately as the CM7000PAL (weird marketing there with the "7000" reused like that).

Autofils, the pcb layout suggests a swiss army knife tuner box was originally planned. The pcb layout under the can tuner suggests to me that an earlier, bigger one was to be used, or probably available optionally as an NTSC/ATSC device. What is the embossed text on the lid of the can tuner? I could not make it out in the photo.

Stampeder,

The tuner is by Thomson. The CM7000 D2A converter box is spec'd at -83 to -5dBm / SNR -15dB, and AFAIK has the latest 6th generation chips.

The quality of the hardware (from Bulgaria) is quite good, except for the Ch3/4 slide switch. This mini-switch is easily flexed when setting the channel output. A simple application of "goop" or "epoxy" will cure this shortcoming.

The video quality via s-video, as seen on my 27" Sony Trinitron (1996 model) is very good and free of the "dot-crawl" and other artifacts that are inherent with composite video. I also plan to capture specific TV programs using an analogue TV card with S-Video input and convert to XviD format.

Analog pass-thru is not on my requirements list for a converter box, although it would be a simple matter to add a relay hack to switch the antenna input to the CM7000's 75 ohm output connector, when you power-off the converter box. Analogue shutdown in Canada is set for 31 Aug 2011, so the relay hack is probably not worth the effort... use a splitter or an A/B switch on your antenna instead.

I did manage to find a data-sheet for STM7710NUC, which might be similar to the STx7707NUC at this link -->
http://www.st.com/stonline/products/literature/bd/12654/stm7710.htm

If the existing firmware of the CM7000 D2A has S/PDIF support, re-populating the removed components just might restore digital audio :p

Cheers

I wrote this about Thomson can tuners in another thread in which a Winegard RC1010 was opened up:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=1066201&postcount=182

I don't know if NXP just continued on using the Thomson name on the lid of new can tuners, so I'm intrigued about whether this CM7000 pcb is older than it might seem. OTOH maybe the CM7000 box's manufacturer just had a lot of them in a bin. :)

Very interesting data sheet on the chipset (http://www.st.com/stonline/products/literature/bd/12654/stm7710.pdf) being used. I was right about this being a swiss army knife box: there are processor firmware interfaces for HDMI, Infrared control, a USB 2.0 external hard drive, Dolby Digital audio input/output, dual display, etc. etc. although that is only the chipset's capability, not what the CM7000's designers maybe had in mind or even provisioned on the pcb.

Suffice it to say that the CM7000 could easily have been morphed into a top level ATSC HD receiver had they desired.