need Magnavox vs. Zenith converter box comparison

Looking for suggestions/guidance re: what box might be best buy.

Am in South Florioda and won't need special antenna.

S-vid may be nice but not a show stopper.

Programming guide sounds like a nice new thing to have. I'm seeing that the programming guide is not too good on the zenith.

Thought i saw someone mention that the zenith and the magnavox were the same but other comparisons i've seen seem to show differences between them. do you know if they are the same box just rebranded? I'm seeing good things about the Zenith but think the programming guide would be handly to have.

looking forward to any input/guidance members may have...

The Zenith & Insignia boxes are the same, but the Zenith and the Magnavox are very different boxes.

The Zenith has a power, channel up and channel down buttons; whereas the Magnavox has a power switch on the right side, it does NOT have any channel up/channel down buttons.

You can read the reviews of the Magnavox at the link below:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/allReviews.do?product_id=8283870

The Zenith/Insignia Reviews are here:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;jsessionid=FO0OKL5URMGABKC4D3FFAHI?skuId=8624081&productCategoryId=abcat0104000&type=product&tab=7&id=1199495190393#productdetail

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/ExpandedModule.do?oid=204154&callingModule=9#custRatings

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?parentPage=search&summary=summary&cp=&productId=3006502&accessories=accessories&kw=dtv+converter&techSpecs=techSpecs&currentTab=summary&custRatings=custRatings&sr=1&features=features&origkw=DTV+Converter&support=support&tab=custRatings

Remember when reading reviews, some people give the product a bad rating, because they didn't know how to set it up correctly or they wanted some feature that the product didn't have. You have to read the whole review to see what issues the person had.


I like the Zenith, because it was easy to set up and works very well.


Bob Diaz

Consumer Reports short summary article "first tests of digital TV converter boxes (http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2008/03/exclusive-first.html)".

jwinters,

The Consumer Reports short summary shows the Zenith ahead of the Magnavox.

Exclusive: First tests of digital TV converter boxes

With the digital TV transition less than a year away, digital-to-analog converters have started showing up in retail stores. These set-top boxes convert digital transmissions pulled in by an antenna into analog signals that can be accepted by an older tube TV and other sets that don’t have a built-in digital tuner.

We tested three of the first digital-to-analog converters to hit the market: the Magnavox TB100MW9 ($50 at Wal-mart), Insignia NS-DXA1 ($60 at Best Buy) and Zenith DTT900 ($60 at Circuit City). If you buy any of these boxes, you can use the $40 coupon offered by the government, reducing your out-of-pocket cost to $10 or $20. (The Magnavox is pictured above. You can click on it for a closer look.)

These converters did what they're supposed to—they provided access to free, off-air digital TV programs when we connected them to a rooftop antenna at our Yonkers, NY, lab. In addition, we tested to see how well each box performed when we lowered signal strength to marginal levels. All three boxes did an equally good job with weak signals, comparable to several late-model 42-inch flat-panel HDTVs we tested for comparison. (One important note: While the boxes can pull in both HD and standard-def digital channels, they'll convert HD programs to standard-definition analog.)

Picture quality from all three converter boxes was decent and should be fine on a relatively small-screen set. It's likely to be better than analog broadcasts you're watching on that same TV now. It won't match what you can get with a good digital TV, but the difference in quality isn't that great that you should buy a new TV unless you're ready to change for other reasons.

For an extra $10, the Insignia and Zenith boxes provided a slightly better image than the Magnavox and some added features that make them more convenient to use. The Zenith and Insignia performed closely overall, but the Insignia had a few quirks in picture quality when we used the composite-video output, so we would opt for the Zenith.

If you're in the market for a converter box, stay tuned for our full test report on these three models, which we expect to post next week on ConsumerReports.org

It's odd that the Zenith and Insignia didn't do exactly the same. Maybe it's due to slight differences from box to box.


Bob Diaz

If this is important to you or your customers, the RCA converter box (I get them at Shopko) has a universal remote that will operate the on/off and volume on most analog TV sets.

With one remote operating on/off, volume and channel changes you are making things about as easy as it is going to get for folks that do not like having multiple remotes.

It seems weird (to me at least) that RCA managed to get the remote control right in this regard. I have noted neither the Zenith or Magnavox converter box remotes will operate native TV functions as slick as the RCA does. The RCA box also let's me accumulate channels into the memory from different directions when using a rotator. (Most, but not all converters are set up this way)