[opendtv] Re: Digital Stream 3150 Plus

  • From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 17:14:57 -0500

Bert -

You seem to be having quite a good time at this.  ;-)

Some of us kidded you forever for not getting an ATSC receiver and now=20
suddenly you have two of them.

- Tom


Albert Manfredi wrote:
> We went to Circuit City yesterday and bought a brand new,=20
> still-not-in-their-inventory-system Digital Stream 3150 Plus. No specia=
l=20
> deal, it was the basic $229 price, but I figured if it was anything lik=
e the=20
> Accurian, at least we'd have a good chance it would work well.
>=20
> Turns out, this Digital Stream is virtually identical to the Accurian, =
in=20
> terms of features and performance. The only differences I could see are=
 that=20
> the component outputs can also be set to RGB (but using the same three =
RCA=20
> jacks as YPbPr, not the PC-standard RGB multipin connector). The other =

> difference is that, much to my relief, there is a sort of master volume=
=20
> control. You press the "select" button while watching TV, and a volume =

> control bar appears on the screen, along with a basic signal strength m=
eter=20
> and station/program description, which the Accurian also displays. The =

> volume was set rather low at the factory, which had me a little concern=
ed=20
> until I discovered this additional control. Aside from that, this is ab=
out=20
> as close to the Accurian as you can be. The menus are identical.
>=20
> First thing I did was to set it up downstairs, in place of the Accurian=
=2E It=20
> auto-scanned channels and, with the external antennas, found exactly th=
e=20
> same ones the Accurian had found. Good deal.
>=20
> Then I took the unit upstairs, to "transition" our upstairs setup to AT=
SC.=20
> With the Radio Shack double bowtie, and some experimentation of course,=
 the=20
> STB found all the local stations, minus the aforementioned WETA (PBS Ch=
 26)=20
> and minus the aforementioned UPN 20. But it also managed to receive one=
=20
> Baltimore station, CBS 13, which in digital is of course a UHF channel,=
 as=20
> are all digital channels in this area.
>=20
> We had marginal reception of NBC 4 at first. I tried the antenna close =
to=20
> the window, but that didn't help. Turns out, the original position, whi=
ch=20
> worked best for analog, was still the best. I tried touching one of the=
 VHF=20
> rabbit ears, and that helped a lot. While I was contemplating adding a =
wire=20
> to that rabbit ear, I tried instead to simply collapse down the other V=
HF=20
> ear. That did the trick. So now, with the antenna in that one location =
on=20
> top of the cabinet, all local channels, and CBS 13 from Baltimore, are =

> available (minus those mentioned).
>=20
> I can safely say that the experience of receiving ATSC via rabbit ears =
was=20
> very much the same as fussing with rabbit ears for NTSC, in our case. I=
t=20
> took no longer to find the sweet spot. Walking around does not seem to =

> affect reception, now that I solved the NBC 4 reception issue by collap=
sing=20
> the one VHF ear. Perhaps an antenna with more gain, like the Silver Sen=
sor,=20
> would find more Baltimore stations, but then my bet is that it would be=
 more=20
> touchy about all the local stations.
>=20
> Bert
>=20
> _________________________________________________________________
> Don=92t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search!=20
> http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/
>=20
> =20
> =20
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