[Scan-DC] RE: DTV converters

[oldsdoug at hotmail.com]

I've been reading reviews on some of them from Best Buy, Circuit City, and Walmart) (Zenith, RCA, Insignia, and Magnivox are the brands, I forget who carries what) and none of those four have analog pass-through.  There's only one Wal-Mart in Mutttgummery County (blessedly) and I went in there the other night to ask about one... and the Wal-Martyr looked at me as if I was from Mars (he was from someplace just as far away).  The RCA one seemed to be well thought-of, but on Wally's web site, it said "not available in stores".  Then when I navigated to the more detailed page on that one, it said, "not available on-line".  ??

The other things that I've noticed in the reviews is some complaints about the sound quality, but those seem to be mainly from people who have high-end theatre sound systems; and there has been some belly-aching about the remote controls and programming... the remotes are supposedly "universal" but people can't get them to talk to their particular brand of TV (I have experienced this myself with universal remotes and a fairly-recently purchased Sylvania TV that is actually made by somebody called "Funai".)

People either love these converters or hate them, there are no average reviews... the complaints from those who dislike them are either that they got a DOA one or it failed within a couple of days, or that they receive fewer channels than before.  Many of the ones who are receiving fewer channels seem to be in the western part of the country, in places that I'm not familiar with, and I wonder if they are just too far away from the transmitters.  There seem to be other issues with hooking the converters up along with a VCR.

I wonder if all the $60 ones are the same electronics with different brand names.

I know a guy who has one of the Insignia ones and he seems content with it.

Stupidly, I requested my "coupons" back at the end of May and they expire on Aug 20... I had forgotten that my plan was to wait until after Labor Day when I will be at the Delaware shore to purchase something, thereby saving the 6% MD sales tax... arrgh!

DK
_________________________________________________________________
Do more with your photos with Windows Live Photo Gallery.
http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_Wave2_photos_022008