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Apex DT502

December 22nd, 2008 No comments


Rating: ★★★☆☆

This is one of the cheapest DTV converter box on the market. Despite its cheapness, this device actually provides quite a few features such as a programming guide and analog pass-through.

Picture Quality:

Picture quality is decent but not great compare to top tier DTV converter boxes such as Tivax STB-T9.

Audio Quality:

Audio quality is an improvement from analog signal.

Operation:

The menu is very basic and very easy to navigate. It provides a basic program guide, title and run time.

Technical Specification:

Feature
Analog pass-through Yes
Smart antenna Yes
Closed captions Yes
EPG Yes
Outputs RF output
Composite video
S-video
Resolutions 480i

User Manual & Set-up Instruction

Price (after $40 coupon):
$0.01 (TigerDirect)icon
$0.01 (CompUSA)icon

Artec ATSC Model T3A Pro

December 21st, 2008 2 comments

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Generally positive reviews among users. Picture quality is not the highest you can find on the market.

Picture Quality:

Picture quality is a little lower than top tier converter boxes but it’s still an improvement compare to analog signal.

Audio Quality:

Excellent sound quality that’s way better than TV sound coming from analog signal.

Operation:

This device provides an excellent programming guide and quite a few customization including changing of closed caption font and size.  It has an external 12V DC power supply, so potentially it can be used in an automobile.  One interesting feature is that it provides brightness, contrast and hue adjustments. 

Technical Specification:

Feature
Analog pass-through No
Smart antenna No
Closed captions Yes
EPG Yes
Outputs RF output
Composite video
Resolutions 480i

User Manual & Set-up Instruction

Price (after $40 coupon):
$11.99 (Meritline)

Lasonic LTA-260

December 20th, 2008 1 comment


Rating: ★★★★☆

This is one of the highly rated DTV converter on the market. Consumer Report rated this converter among the best picture quality players. User reviews on this product are generally positive. Operation of this converter is extremely simple. While it lacks a lot of bells and whistles that you find in high end converters, the picture quality and the ease of use make up for it.

Picture Quality:

Excellent picture quality that’s close to what you get from DVD.

Audio Quality:

Decent sound quality but numerous users report that the RF output is noticeably lower than the RCA outputs.

Operation:

Very simple operation with basic run time and program title. It’s lacking programming guide to browse upcoming shows though.

Special Note:

Despite many web sites said this device provides analog pass-through feature. This is in fact not true. This converter DOES NOT have analog pass-through feature.

Technical Specification:

Feature
Analog pass-through No
Smart antenna No
Closed captions Yes
EPG No
Outputs RF output
Composite video
Resolutions 480i

User Manual & Set-up Instruction