Where can I buy the DigitalSTREAM D2A1D10 converter?

[toogerbug]

Where online can I buy the DigitalSTREAM D2A1D10?

Does the QAM feature work? Is it a good converter?

[walford]

AFAIK taxpayer subsidized CECB converters are not permitted to support QAM since it is a cable trasnmision method not an ATSC OTA transmission method.

[toogerbug]

But it's listed on the official coupon converter box program website?

[goldrich]

Originally Posted by toogerbug

But it's listed on the official coupon converter box program website?

As mentioned above, these coupon-approved receivers are for OTA (over-the-air) reception only. They are not made to work with cable signals.

Per this site http://www.afterdawn.com/hardware/pr...stream_d2a1d10 this receiver does not feature a QAM tuner.

Steve

[walford]

Originally Posted by toogerbug

But it's listed on the official coupon converter box program website?

I understand but where is the vemdprs spec that says it will accept QAM?
I could not find that anywhere.

[Nitewatchman]

Originally Posted by walford

AFAIK taxpayer subsidized CECB converters are not permitted to support QAM since it is a cable trasnmision method not an ATSC OTA transmission method.

The Funding for the CECB program is from proceeds from spectrum auctions of the portions of Current TV channels 52~69 being auctioned to highest bidders, not from taxpayers. See here :

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv...ctsheetDTV.pdf

[wlf3701]

I believe that there is no QAM tuner as others say, but where can you but this model?
RShack has the low end Digital STREAM DTX9900 model only.

[walford]

Originally Posted by Nitewatchman

The Funding for the CECB program is from proceeds from spectrum auctions of the portions of Current TV channels 52~69 being auctioned to highest bidders, not from taxpayers. See here :

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv...ctsheetDTV.pdf

It is a matter of semantics IMHO tax payers/Congress have control over all monies spent by the federal government. Where these general funds come from is a different subject.

[DigaDo]

I thought of thanking the government for giving me $80 worth of converter box coupons. Then I realized that I pay taxes so it's my own money in the first place. I asked a government official about this. He said that I was greatly mistaken, it was not my own money coming back to me. He said that $250 taken from a taxpayer in North Carolina was converted by the federal government, after deducting the government's expenses, into my coupons worth $80. Whew! I'm sure lucky to live in Oregon. (And let me add my thanks to the taxpayer in North Carolina.)

[Nitewatchman]

Originally Posted by walford

It is a matter of semantics IMHO tax payers/Congress have control over all monies spent by the federal government. Where these general funds come from is a different subject.

The term you used "taxpayer subsidized" is going to be read by most(see post immediately proceeding this one for instance) IMO that funding from taxpayers is involved. That is incorrect. It's not semantics.

Taxpayers aren't funding the CECB coupon program, therefore in that context they aren't "subsidizing" them. The funding involved is very specific, it's from the proceeds of spectrum auctions.

If you would have said "government subsidized" CECB's, while I would have been comfortable with that, it still doesn't tell the real story.

Update: Now, if manufactuers had voluntarily(yeah, right), or had been required to, put the ATSC tuners in all new sets/VCR's/etc, at the time the legislation for DTV transistion+analog shut off were first enacted in 1996 (or even when 1st DTV stations started hitting the airwaves in 1998), then I suspect it's very possible we probably wouldn't even need the CECB program, and we also probably could have had analog shut off at end of 2006, when they "originally" thought it would happen, in which case the portion of the proceeds from spectrum auctions of ch 52~69 being used for CECB program could have been used for other things ....

[DITTOTEX]

Originally Posted by toogerbug

Where online can I buy the DigitalSTREAM D2A1D10?

Does the QAM feature work? Is it a good converter?

Don't know were it's sold on line. I saw a pallet full at Fry's last

weekend.

[jspENC]

THe Digital Stream 9900DTX has an option in the menu to scan if you have cable. I haven't tried it yet, but the instructions say it will pick up whatever the cable operator re-broadcasts...

[TalkingRat]

jspENC, I'd really like to know about that cable switch! If you try it soon, please post results.

[jspENC]

I don't have cable TV, I'm on Directv, so I don't have a way of trying it unless I take it to someone who does have cable... Maybe someone else here has tried that feature?

I'll see if I can hook up to a neighbors maybe at least by a day or two and see how exactly that part of the box works.

[TalkingRat]

ot

[jspENC]

There are no channels past the 50's with digital OTA. There is no need to switch the tuner of the box to cable tuning unless you actually have CATV.
The Digital Stream picks up all the broadcast channels in my area that I expected it to. I am 60 miles from some towers,and I get signals in the 60's to 80's from those stations, using an outdoor antenna.

[smpowell]

Originally Posted by TalkingRat

jspENC, I'd really like to know about that cable switch! If you try it soon, please post results. I am waiting for my digital coupons, but in analog I get half a dozen crisp stations in the 70-110 channel range. They are local stations, and entirely OTA. I get strong signals, but at night, "catv" mode saves having to adjust the antenna. I assumed that once I got my converter, I'd be limited to channels 2-69. It isn't a big deal, but if I can access 70-125, I'd know if there's anything out there.

The only explanation I can think of is that your local cable system is fouled up and is leaking it's local cable signal over the air. It's not supposed to do this but if nobody complains, it might take a while for them to find the problem. (Hint: don't complain or ask questions).

With this massive of an RF leak, you might be able to pick up QAM digital channels with an OTA antenna. There's only one way you are going to find out.

However no CECB will have a QAM cable tuner.

[TalkingRat]

ot

[walford]

TalkingRat
Are the stations you are getting OTA possibly low powered local stations? in any case what sort of programming do they have and can you indentify them?

[jspENC]

The Digital Stream is a good box. I am DXing Charleston SC stations WCSC and WTAT tonight with it. They are 200 miles from Eastern NC

[TalkingRat]

ot

[dagger666]

bull the tax payers aren't picking up the bill. The government doesn't have any money other than the tax payers money. It's a typical government smoke screen that if any one buys i got a bridge in NY i can sell you.

[Nitewatchman]

While companies like AT&T/verizon/etc. who won the auction bidding are likely "taxpayers", the funding for the CECB program didn't come from their Tax $.

The funding of CECB program is from spectrum auctions. It's THE LAW. The Gov't brought in over $ 19 Billion from the 700MHZ auction (portions of what is now TV ch 52~69). The coupon program is only going to use a portion of that revenue. That is our (taxpayer) money only in the sense that they are "our" airwaves, and WE ARE the government (and only in that sense we are "footing the bill"), the actual $$$ is coming out of the companies pockets who won the auction bids .... It is not coming from the Taxes we pay (such as Income tax) ....

Again see here :

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv...ctsheetDTV.pdf

Or see title III "Digital Transition and Public safety act" of the "Decifit reduction act of 2005" here : (scroll down to title III, as this document contains title I-III of the "Deficit reduction act of 2005) :

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv...1_TitleIII.pdf

Or Here for the full text of "Deficit Reduction act of 2005"

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv/S1932.pdf

[DigaDo]

TalkingRat,

In North Portland I have OTA reception line of sight to the west hills less than five miles distant. I also have Comcast cable. KOXI-CA in Camas WA is not a local must-carry station on Comcast (perhaps because it's a Washington station?).

I usually get more snow than picture when watching OTA analog KOXI in the overnight hours. That's when KOXI shows obscure 1930s/1940s movies and even more obscure early 1950s sitcoms.

The eventual KOXI digital location will be on a west hills tower with several Portland stations. KOXI is located in a large older house in the Pearl district of NW Portland. KORK-CA (HSN) shares this location.

Antennaweb.org gives the wrong analog channel number (19 instead of 20) for KOXI-CA. On the street level map with my address at the center it shows that KOXI should be received directly off the backside of my antennas aimed at the Portland stations. The KOXI distance is shown as 17.3 miles. My indoor Philips antenna consists of fully adjustable 43" VHF dipoles with a pivoting and rotating circular UHF loop. I also have a smaller RCA antenna of the same basic design but with non-swiveling dipoles and a fixed rectangular UHF loop. I have not been able to find out when KOXI-CA will go digital. In the meantime it would probably require an outdoor antenna if I want better reception.

[TalkingRat]

ot

[DigaDo]

TalkingRat,

The old house that houses offices for KOXI and KORK is at 1628 NW Everett Street, one block from the I-405 Freeway. If they have studios in this house they would have to use STLs (do they still use this term?) to get the programming to the transmitter(s).

Antennaweb.org shows KORK-CA (analog channel 35) at 177* and 5.3 miles from me. I would assume that is on or near the huge "EyeFull" tower at the south end of Council Crest Drive on Healy Heights. I can get this station by adjusting my antenna but with HSN why would I want to? KORK might be nearly line of sight from Healy Heights to Wilsonville whereas KOXI-CA, probably more than 30 miles of rolling hills from Camas to Wilsonville, would certainly pose more of a problem for you.

[TalkingRat]

ot

[wlf3701]

Really?...I suspect you just saw the brand name...and the cheap Digital Stream DTX model, sold also at the Rat Shack, not the "D2A" Models.
Where was the Fry's store you say you saw this "pallet" of "D2A's"??

[DITTOTEX]

Originally Posted by wlf3701

Really?...I suspect you just saw the brand name...and the cheap Digital Stream DTX model, sold also at the Rat Shack, not the "D2A" Models.
Where was the Fry's store you say you saw this "pallet" of "D2A's"??

Concord, Ca.

[wlf3701]

What is the model number, was it the Radio Shack DTX-9900 or one of the "D2A" models?
Where did you buy it?