[opendtv] Re: Zenith box at Radio Shack

Manfredi, Albert E wrote:


It would indeed be ironic if the DTV convertor boxes perform
better than integrated TVs.


I don't think they do. Cliff says that his new Radio Shack box performs
the same as the Philips DVDR3575H/37. If that's the case, then it also
performs like new LG TVs. At first, I thought the Philips was slightly
better, maybe, but in more recent comparisons, they both did the same
with marginal stations. Hard to say which is better.

Even if they did perform better, the only logical next step would be for
TV manufacturers to use those good and cheap front ends on their updated
products. (After re-enabling the NTSC tuner.)
There are three STBs connected to the roof top antenna using RG-11 all the way.
The first box is in the basement, a Samsung DTB-H260F. The second and third boxes are upstairs in the living room by the 38 inch TV, at least 35 feet of coax distant from the Samsung.
The second box is a Philips DVDR3575H/37 DVD Rec/Rcvr and the third is the newly acquired Digital Stream DTX9900 which outputs 480i only.
Reception on the Samsung is much better than any previous STB I've tried over the years, but now the Philips beats it easily and I now think the Digital stream STB is a little better than the Philips. All this considering that the Samsung is getting the antenna signal directly, the Philips second and the Digital Stream last.
The Samsung and the Philips both have RF through-puts and I'm using those to feed the antenna signal to all three boxes. 

The interesting thing I have discovred over the last week is that I now
*believe* overall reception through the Digital Stream box is slightly better than the Philips. This is based on checking reception of all the channels at various times of day and night and during varying weather conditions.
The Samsung never found two of the channels that both the Philips and the Digital Stream found when they were first setup. 

The Digital Stream STB has better reception of the two weaker channels
than the Philips.
So after a week of playing, I think the Digital Stream STB performs the best of the three. 

Cliff






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