What is best CECB box to use on a 16:9 RPTV 57" NTSC tuner CRT HDTV?

Real quick question.

Whats the best CECB box to use with a 57" CRT rear projection 1080i 16:9 HDTV, that only has a ATSC tuner?

Background:

My local cable provider has a lousy analog feed for our local CBS affiliate and due to a local carry pissing contest I cannot get that station on my digital HD cable box as a HD channel. Only the lousy analog version is available on local cable.

My local OTA digital ATSC broadcast feed for that station would be an improvement even if its only digital 480i. I'm getting HD for most of the local stations except PBS and one other station, but they look fine on my cable system. But the analog CBS channel really sucks on my 57" RPTV.

I know the Zenith and Digital Stream CECBs do not have S-Video, but I'm sure my Toshiba 57HDX82 HDTV has a pretty good comb filter and zoom functions.

I'm most concerned about how the 480i output would look on my 16:9 display.

I'm looking to have the CECB convert the widescreen OTA 16:9 ATSC 1080i60 HD broadcast to widescreen 480i60 and then use my NTSC HDTV to upconvert that to the CRT displays native 1080i60 16:9 resolution. I know its a cludge, but if its widescreen and digital its better than the poor analog 4:3 feed I have now.

Its only this one single channel that I have an issue with, so I really don't want to buy a HDTV ATSC tuner box. Its really just that watching CBS golf and NFL football is irritating. Plus my local CBS affiliate and cable system may come to an agreement for HD carriage.

I would rather get a box locally that I can get at Wal-Mart Circuit City , Radio shack, Best Buy or Frys.

Between the Zenith DT900 and Digital Stream DTX-9900 what would look best on a 16:9 NTSC HDTV? Would the Channel Master CM-7000 S-Video output make a difference? Any other options?

Help from you CECB experts?

Just got my two government coupons.

I have an unusal problem. I want to use a CECB as a cheapie ATSC tuner for one of my NTSC tuner HDTVs. I'm most concerned on how it will look on a 57" 16:9 HDTV, not a smaller 4:3 TV.

I just saw on a video that the Zenith DTT900 can set the aspect ratio to match a 4:3 or 16:9 display.

That would be good in my situation.

Does the Digital Stream DTX-9900 offer this option?

Which would better on a native 16:9 display? I would assume the Zenith would push be better as it would be filling the native 16:9 display from left to right instead of doing an anamorphic squeeze, but would the DS work like a anamorphic DVD and produce a better picture? I know anamorphic DVD works because precious SD MPEG-2 encoded pixels are not wasted on encoding black bars, but how would that work in a CECB?

Thanks for the comments so far.

I think I'll probably going to try the Zenith because of the 16:9 mode. I like the S-Video of the Channel Master but I think the comb filter of my Toshiba may do good enough with the composite input off the Zenith.

Looking for any addition bits of wisdom before I pull the trigger here.

from another thread I cross posted on.

So it looks like if I set the Zenith to a 16:9 "TV Aspect Ratio" in its setup, it will fill my entire 16:9 screen up on my HDTV for any 16:9 OAR programs and will pillarbox any native 4:3 OAR programs?

Thats what I want.

If I set it to "TV Aspect Ratio" of 16:9 its not going to window box a 16:9 broadcast, so I don't have to worry about zooming. Right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGLPN...eature=related

at the 4:21 mark in this video

Thats an idea. But I have a couple people around that are in the exact same situation I am in, so I'm trying to act as a Guinea pig.

Plus CECB- $40 coupon is around $20, and its only the one damn channel with the issue that can go away next month if the cable company and CBS station managers can stop acting like children.

Cool. Thats what I want. Not a big deal for me to switch display modes on the HDTV itself. So I would use the same mode I watch anamorphic DVDs on. If not, it takes 15 seconds try all the modes using the HDTV remote.

I'll probably get a HD capable ATSC tuner in September if my local CBS HD cable issue is not resolved by then.

Don't have a clue yet.

Ask me a question on front projectors, HDTV display technologies, HD DVD, Blu-ray, audio video codecs, upconverting DVD hardware, HDM studio releases AVRs, home theater receivers and a lot of other A/V things I'm very knowledgeable.

The sat boxes and HD cable boxes I've used have been good enough.

On ATSC HD tuners and CECBs I'm a freaken newbie.

just tried a Zenith CECB box.

The HD channel I was concerned about (using the 16:9 TV aspect ratio setup option) produces a anamorphic image which is easily converted to a nice upconverted DVD quality full 16:9 image on my 57" CRT.

Looks like it does the same thing as the anamorphic mode on the DS box.

I will get one of those and compare the experience. But it does better better than I expected.

Interesting.

Just got the DS box. First impressions on my 57' 16:9 NTSC Tuner RPTV. It does not do as good a job on the 4:3 SD digital transmissions on its anamorphic mode. There is a lot of dot crawl and shimmer around bright area transitions. The Zenith is better on most SD digital channels. The DS looks softer an their is more clay face and dot crawl and edge shimmer.

But the native 1080i60 ATSC HD signal on a real HD 16:9 broadcast looks pretty good. Maybe a little bit more of dot crawl than the Zenith, but its certainly better than the bad analog signal I was dealing with.

I'll try to get both boxes and compare them head to head later tonight on the HD channels.

The DS certainly is a easier unit to use, the remote is clearly better and might even be my choice if I am going to get get other boxes for my old TVs. It certainly would be my choice for smaller 27 televisions, which is it intended use.

But for a use as a cheap ATSC tuner for a larger HDTV, the Zenith gives a better picture overall for the non HD ATSC 4:3 signals when blown up to 57" screen. If I was going to get one for the use for all the available digital channels , that would be my clear choice.

Since I'm really only concerned about that one dog analog CBS signal, as I get the others stations in real 1080i60 16:9 HD on my cable box, either one will work in my situation.

I'll try to do a A:B comparison tonight.

Let compare notes tonight.

Wow. Interesting findings here.

I first connected the DigitalStream DTX9900 using the composite connection (using both a 6 foot set of high quality RCA composite cables and then a set of component cables) . I was less than impressed with the SD digital channels being sent and OK with the 1080i HD 16:9 result. But I saw some clear shimmer, dot crawl and clay face lose of color depth compared to a true 1080i60 HD signal. The Zenith CECB looked better at first using its composite and 75 ohm outputs.

But then I switched to the coax ANT (75 ohm) output of the DigitalStream DTX 9900 and plugged that into my ANT1 input to my Toshiba 57HDX82 NTSC 16:9 rear projection HDTV.

Wow.

Night and day difference. Now looks even better than the Zenith did. As a matter of fact, it now looks better on the 1080i60 down converted to 480i60 by the DigitalStream CECB (using anamorphic mode) and then back upconverted back to 1080i60 by the HDTV.

Standard def digital channels now look even better than the Zenith and the shimmer is gone. Their might have been cross talk on the 6 foot composite cables or the HDTV is optimized for upconverting on the ANT (75ohm) in.

Either way, I happy with the result.

Most amazingly, this down convert upconvert kludgey chain works extremely well on actual native 1080i60 HD material. I was able to compare (edit: multiple (3)) HD channels of my SA8300 HD cable box and the OTA HD 1080i60 version processed thru the DS box which down converted to anamorphic 480i60 and then feed thru the cable ANT out back to be upconverted by my HDTV. The result was astonishing on the 57" rear projection HDTV. Not quite HD , but I had to look hard to see the background difference. Certainly very watchable and light years beyond the crappy 4:3 analog version of CBS that I lived with before.

I am a real happy camper. All of the digital stations I can grab now are superior to their analog versions on my HD cable box. Not quit HD , but very much better than I expected.

The DigitalStream DTX9900 CECB using the ANT (75 ohm) out (do not only try and use the composite out. try the coax out as well ), is the clear winner here when connected to a larger NTSC tuner based HDTV.

I also connected it to the 27 and 32 inch 4:3 CRT TVs I have as well. Overall the DigitalStream DTX9900 looked good there too.

It will be my clear recommendation between the two.

I liked the DS EPG, remote , tuning speed etc far better than the Zenith. Both had same reception ability for me. YMMV.