Channel Master CM-7000 Digital to Analog Converter - Page 5

Fry's is NOT on NTIA's "Participating Retailer's List", dated 28Mar2008:
https://www.ntiadtv.gov/info.cfm

Unless they go through the effort to join the program and follow the rules,
they can't honor your coupon....

Why? So I can listen to a ringing phone that none of the employees ever answer??? Forget that.

Bottom Line:

Customer service in the U.S. retail industry is piss-poor. You call; they don't answer. You ask for help; you can't find anybody. You try to buy an item; they refuse your money. And I'm sick of being treated as if they don't want my business.

Frye's is not listed on the government website.

dtv2009.gov/VendorSearch.aspx

Participation in the coupon program is voluntary, not obligated by law. Certified retailers are free to drop out of the program if they wish.

Furthermore, the coupon is not legal U.S. tender - it does not bear any marks of the U.S. Treasury Department.

Poor customer service is one thing, but unjustified customer demands are no better.

Yes, NO.
I had a little time to experiment over the weekend. The buzz must be coming either from my switch or crosstalk from another power source. When I removed the CM-7000 from the shelf and connected it directly to my TV, the hum went away.

I think the deadline to sent in applications to redeem coupons as a retailer was March 31, 2008. So if Fry's didn't make up its mind to send in an application last month, they might have lost the ability to redeem them in the future. That's unfortunate for consumers, I think. There are far too few brick and mortar stores selling the CECBs.

Maybe there's a chance the deadline could be extended. The whole coupon redemption process could stand an overhaul.

DJ99,

Hiss or buzz is not a new problem with Zenith products.

Back when we first got Rogers (CableSystems Pacific) around 1982-1983 we had Zenith converter boxes that had volume controls on the box as well as on the Zenith Space Command remote.

The same hiss or buzz was present. One had to be sure, through trial and error, that the TV volume range and the Zenith converter box volume range were balanced to avoid hiss or buzz.

In those days half of our city (Portland Oregon) had Rogers and the other half had Liberty Cable. It seems to me that the Liberty boxes did not have volume controls. The original Rogers cable has changed hands several times and, at some point, took over the Liberty franchise. Comcast now controls the Portland cable franchise. Current Comcast Motorola cable boxes do not have volume controls.

I just hooked up my CM-7000 and I'm seeing the flashing closed captioning line across the top of my screen. (see 2 attachments).

I emailed Channel Master and they told me that their test unit there does the same thing. Do all brands of DTV converter boxes have this same problem?

I "zoomed in" as far as I could to get rid of it but then I lose some of the sides of the image.

This line drives me crazy. Should I put a big piece of duct tape across my TV screen?

Welcome to the forum!
I generally use the Zoom1 mode on most programs.
My TV has a fair amount of overscan and c/c bleedover isn't a problem for me.

Thanks, DJ99, that's good to hear. It might be worthwhile to edit a little note to the bottom of your original post in case a newcomer misses your follow-up.

Interesting. My Samsung DTB-H260F does the same thing. I read somewhere it was the EPG data.

Are you seeing the captioning line on different stations?

Hi frtundra
Yes, those two graphics files I attached are from two different stations. If it is a wide-screen broadcast, I see the line up high.

If it is an older show (like Seinfeld) which wasn't filmed in widescreen, then the line is right along the top of the picture.

Thanks, bromleyc.

I think you just eliminated this box for me. We're running out of worthwhile candidates...

It's closed captioning data.

I haven't seen this problem with the Zenith or Insignia CECBs.

There's been some discussion of this kind of line, starting at:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post13448218

I'm not sure what the answer is, but the line might be produced by an error somewhere, not by normal closed caption data.

For what it's worth, I saw this kind of line when I made an DVD of an analog TiVo recording of a song from Nip/Tuck from an analog DirecTV set top box. Can't do anything about it on the DVD, but I'm curious also as to what's causing this obtrusive line. Doesn't seem like an ATSC issue since I was using analog equipment.

Several people who have discussed this issue think this line might be the result of a mistake somewhere rather than normal closed captioning data;
see:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post13448218

The top (VBI) lines in an analog TV field contain Time, ID and Closed Caption data:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_blanking_interval

Hence it is a mandatory part of NTSC and MUST be output by converter boxes.
So don't blame the CM-7000.

If you have a conventional CRT type TV, there should be height adjustment(s)
that can be used to push the VBI up and out of sight.

They may accessible from the rear panel or are for service personnel only.
If you are comfortable working inside a TV, a Service Manual may be available here:
http://www.servicemanuals.net/
There are numerous other sites that will sell you an inexpensive Service Manual.

If you are viewing via an LCD or Plasma type DTV, there may be choices other
than 1:1 mapping to enable overscan.

also - while watching my CM-7000 yesterday on a cloudy day with light rain, I was seeing frequent video skipping.

I pushed the "info" button on the remote to see the signal-strength meter during these skips, and it never deviated from 100%.

I still need to watch it on a sunny day to see if it skips then.

A 7-year-old Wingard antenna strapped to my chimney.

Normally, I would suspect a multipath issue of some kind if you are having that particular problem.

does this do stereo audio

bromleyc - Have you tried connecting your CM-7000 to a different TV to see if the vertical blanking interval would still appear on-screen?

For those who have purchased the box; has anyone done a comparison between the composite and S-Video?
I am wondering if I will see a difference on my 5 year old 32" tv.


I am of this same thought ! But as this box is more expensive then other boxes (albeit $10-20). I am wondering if it is worth the price.

Thanks!

The main difference between S-video and composite is that you won't see any dot crawl on S-video.

However, the extent of the dot crawl depends on the quality of the comb filter inside your TV. If you have a higher-end set with 3D comb filtering, you may see little difference between the composite and S-video.

Do you have a DVD player or game system hooked up to your TV? Dot crawl artifacts (or the absence thereof) seem most visible with computer graphics displayed on a TV, so your DVD's setup menus or a video game would help show if your TV has a quality comb filter.

Thanks, this sounds like a great test! I will and will hook up my dvd player with composite video either tonight or tomorrow and test it out! I have never actually connected the DVD player with composite so I forget I even have it

Thanks again!

That's a good point, and I've heard that comb filtering will also affect the display of digital closed captioning, but I don't understand enough about comb filtering. Because this is getting off-topic for this thread, however, I'd like to ask dingo99 if you could answer some questions about comb filtering at this other posting:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post13606033

(People trying out the digital closed captioning from the different CECBs would benefit from understanding more about how comb filtering will affect the appearance of the digital closed captions.)

Dana

Not always true. I have used relatively recently manufactured sets that have a much higher color and brightness accuracy with s-video than composite. The conversion from digital seems like the perfect use for the extra color preservation of s-video.

Of course, everything depends on the particular set and how well it was engineered. I never claimed that dot crawl was the only difference.

This box pawnz! I have had the zenith for a week I just gave it to my mother it sucked so bad. Plugged this one right in no buzz or noise to drive you insane and it picked up channels the zenith could not after running a search on them using the same antenna at the same time. The s-video input looks great. The only bug I see is the guide needs the clock on auto to work and the local channels can't tell time right.