Philco TB100HH9 DTV Converter Box

probably just another overpriced funia clone box just like magnavox and sylvania. all have the same shaped chassis, no controls on the unit, internal power supply with no ventilation and junk 1980s style remote. interesting enough they are so dissimilar the sears website has a picture of the so called sylvania version of the tb100 box that says magnavox on it. philco units may be the version destined for kmart since the big box retailers all seem to sell the same poorly thought out inferior junk.

Dont get me wrong the funia box does perform its basic task but with no buttons on the unit to control it, no ventilation holes to cool it, and no auto reboot after power loss, all are inexcusable deficiencies if you ask me. All would have been caught if they had any one give them feedback on a prototype. I mean what would it have cost for them to have made ventilation in the lids of the tb100s, heck they would have reduced the boxes weight.

walmart magnavox tb100mw9 = tb100 magnavox walmart
sears sylvania tb100mg9 = tb100 magnavox grey
possibly kmart philco tb100hh9 = tb100 hh=??

Got mine yesterday - setup took all of 5 minutes (if that). Tuner is on a par with (but not any better than) all of my other ATSC tuners.
Analog RF passthrough - when the unit is on - works great. When the Philips is off - it works, but you get a significant hit in signal strength/quality.

Closed captioning - appears to mirror my Samsung DTB-H260F- will provide more detail when I have more time. No "CC" button on remote - must be accessed through the menus. Signal meter is there, but slow to respond. Unit is pretty quick on tuning in channels. So far, I'm only using it in mono A/V cables, but I don't hear any high frequency buzzes / chirps (and I have EXCELLENT human range high frequency hearing). At this point, haven't seen if the STB remote will operate TV on/off, and there is no volume control on it (yes you'll have to use this remote and your TV remote together).

Edit Got around to hooking CECB to stereo - NO high freq buzzes/chirps on DD material.

Yep. If you go here: http://www.funai-corp.com/support/manuals.aspx
and search on "TB100", you will find the manuals for both the Philco and the Magnavox converters.

here's the direct links:
http://www.funai-corp.com/6pdf/om/TB100HH9.pdf
http://www.funai-corp.com/6pdf/om/TB100MW9.pdf

Other than the lack of buttons, the Philco sounds like a good unit. The sound problem as I understand it was in the left channel and only when decoding a DD 5.1 broadcast. Sibilant sounds like "s" and "t" were distorted, along with pther high pitched pings or chirps. From what I know you won't hear it on plain old stereo, but only DD 5.1. Have any Philco owners tried decoding DD 5.1?

Rob

Could someone look inside and let us know the numbers on the big chip(s) and tin-can tuner??

Macro photos would be even better...remember to shoot at an angle to avoid flashback.

Just purchased this unit from Meijer (midwest chain) for my father's Toshiba 27" console. Price ended up being $13 after using his coupon. A few observations:

- Analog passthrough works, but the signal is degraded. Analog signals that are viewable normally, get terrible reception when the Philco unit is powered on. Once this unit is powered off, full reception strength returns to the TV. (SEE POST #10 BELOW)

- Picture quality is noticably better through composite (yellow RCA) than the coax cable. Maybe this is a "duh", but I wasn't expecting that much of a difference.

- The remote is strictly for this unit and can't be programmed to operate the TV.

- You have to enter Setup and drill down a bit to change the display options. eg. zoom, letterbox, full. Would have been nice to have a dedicated button for this. This is also the case to get to the signal strength meter. (SEE POST #10 BELOW)

- Our PBS station is using channels 17-2 and 17-3, currently. 17-1 will be HD, but is not available, yet. This converter won't let you delete a subchannel. You lose the main and all sub channels on a particular frequency when deleting a channel. As you scan the channels, 17-1 is there, but there is no signal and you can't make it go away.

To make this as user friendly as possible, I've programmed a universal remote for his TV and the Philco converter. To watch analog channels, turn off the Philco converter first. Switch over to "video 1" on the TV to watch DTV to get better PQ. Analog passthrough is available, but not usable due to poor signal passthrough and poor PQ on coax compared to composite.

I'm wondering if your poor analog pass through is because you have the CECB set for channel 3 /4 instead of RF passthrough (see page 19 of the user manual) ? My experiance is that with it set for pass through , there is ZERO degradation of the analog signals with the Philco powered on, but I see a bit when the unit is powered off. I haven't really looked at the picture via RF - all my viewing has been with the A/V outputs.

Scooper,
You da man! Someone who shall rename nameless didn't have analog passthrough selected in Setup. With passthrough active, reception is best when the box is on.

Also, if you press "display" after changing channels, the signal strength meter shows up which negates having to drill through setup each time. Now, the box is getting closer to being worth what was paid for it!

Scooper, I know this is a subjective question, but how much does the Philco degrade the passthru signal when the box is off? If you have a Samsung 260 tuner could you relate it to that? I do have the Sammy and with that box OFF it noticeably degrades the passthru signal on marginal stations. So much in fact that I have resorted to leaving the box ON basically all the time. Attenuation numbers would be best, but since I don't currently have a signal strength meter myself I don't really know what the Sammy does, so a subjective answer would be OK.
If I had to venture a guess I'd say the Sammy attenuates the passthru 15? db when off. Entirely too much IMO.

I don't have a signal meter either, but I'd guess the Philco is about as bad as the Samsung (maybe a bit less) when the power is off. Strong signals get through OK, it's the marginal ones that start fuzzing up.

Thanks Scooper, that's what I was wondering. In my setup I may have 2 or 3 boxes in series(to feed analog DVDR's) so even a little degradation will add up. I may need to go the amplified splitter route unless I can find boxes with little to no drop in OFF passthru signal.

This box is $40 at HEB (not necessarily HEB-plus) which is a Texas based grocery chain.

My gf is debating picking one up. I'm put off by the silver color as all of her other components are black. She already has her coupons.

Does this box have a Now/Next like Wikipedia says or a 7-hour according to holl_ands Features List - mod 28Mar2008?

It depends on what the station is sending, but it is more than Now/Next.

Mine is not silver - it's more of a "putty" / white color than silver.

Found the philco here http://www.etronics.com/p-39897-philco.aspx $54.34 with out shipping. To use the $40 coupon purchase must be made by phone.

Consumer Reports tested the Philco TB100HH9

The article states the price is $47. Where can you get this box for $47? All the online places I found were $52.95 to start all the way to $70

1) Can you manually add TV stations on this box?

2) does the remote have On/OFF for tv? Or just box

3) how is the overall pictures quality and sensitivity?

40 does this box have a good epg? Does it show more then one show on the list?

1 - yes - directly tune the RF channel number, then add in the menues
2 - no
3 - I find it acceptable, even though all it has is a composite
4 - as good as anything else out there.

To expand on your number 3 answer. When you say Composite do you mean just RF (coax) Or RCA cables? My tv just has RF anyway no RCA cables.

Do you know a cheap place online to order 1?

Thanks Scooper your the best

I was trying to wait for the NEW DS or RCA or Zenith with passthru but looks like more and more delays
coupon expires in may

I have not found this box for the $47 but does this take into account shipping charges?

You could always try SavingLots once they get more in http://www.savinglots.com/lotprod.asp?item=TB100HH9
$59.95 but the nice thing about ordering with them is that Shipping is FREE.

Did you find anywhere cheaper lexus2108, Shipping included.

I too have noticed a trend of prices increasing.

Sounds the cheapest if you live in Texas

Still is cheaper than SavingLots

#2- remote controls the box only - no TVs

#3 - it has both RF and composite (RCA) as required for the CECB program. No S-Video. Also has 1 set audio (RCA) jacks output.

I found it as low as $51 plus $9 shipping. So your savinglots seems to be good with free shipping. Thanks for info How long will they be out of stock?

question on the box. How do you change from Cropped, Letterbox, normal ect. Is there a button or you have to go to menu settings?

Menu settings.

Thats the one thing I dislike about this box.

Once you make a setting change for lets say NBC does the setting stay forever or everytime you turn on the box and go to NBC you need to change the settings via menu?

Can someone post pictures of what this box interface looks like

As far as I can tell - there is ONE setting for ZOOM, Full, or letterbox, and it is used for all channels.

Ok so once this is set you do nto have to keep going back everytime you turn off the box?

Also can you link me to where I can see pictures of this box in action

I found only this pic

http://www.highdefforum.com/showthread.php?t=65824


You had no problem with the box crashing? like the zenith