What CECB is the best? And worst. Vote here. Updated tally 7/24/10 - Page 14

Are you sure you got a solid connection on the coax when you hooked it up? This is not normal for a DT502.

Yes, the coax connection was good. Before I disconnected TR-40 and connected DT502 to the same coax outlet in my master bedroom, I did go through all the channels on TR-40 and saw most showing normal (a couple of weak ones were on and off). Then I hooked up DT502 and after the lengthy scan, it reported finding all but one of the available 34 channels (I felt pretty good at first). But when I went through the channels, a bunch of channels (ABC, NBC, FOX, CW, etc.) were just black screen, and only the strongest channels had normal showing (CBS, PBS, ION, etc., if connection was bad, this is impossible). Then I checked 1080D in the sitting room, which had normal showing on ABC, FOX and CW. Both outlets in master bedroom and sitting room are through -7db splitter. So DT502 is the worst to me. BTW, the zoom button of DT502 always gave "aspect ratio cannot change" message on screen even for HD channels.

After I disconnected DT502, I hooked up Insignia right away. The scan was fast, found all 34 channels, and showed pictures on all channels (with less off for the weakest channels than TR-40). Maybe it is my personal preference, I like TR-40's softer picture and warmer color than Insignia's.

HD channels do not mean 16:9 viewing. The message you received, was probably because the setting in the menu (for this function) was set to "Automatic."

1. Looking to buy the zenith DTT901 & Channel Master CM-7000 so I can compare & review it here, but not looking to pay shipping, I live in NYC, does someone know a store I can walk into & buy these two? thnx!

2. Will these converter boxes function as a tv tuner for my Dell E248WFP monitor?

sure but not directly

the CECB output video as composite or RF channel 3,4

the monitor has DVI and SVGA video inputs

you would need a device to convert from one to the other, a video transcoders, there are numerous types of those and you have to find one for your situation

Can't I just purchase a dtv converter box w/ HDMI out? I have a DVI-D to HDMI connector already, for my PS3.

I couldn't resist, bought 2 CM-7000's already online, I'm too excited to try the S-Video out on my SONY KV-20TS32!!

There are DTV converters that have other outputs, but they're not CECB's.

1. Seems counter intuitive to downscale dtv to analog, then upconvert it to HDTV using a video transcoder $275 S-video to 1080p???

That's prohibitively expensive, probably get better PQ & pay less w/ a HDTV converter box w/ HDMI out like this guy Dennis from another forum, he paid $59 from Solid Signal!

2. Will My CM-7000 display 576i when connected to my SONY KV-20TS32 via s-video? Still waiting for my CM-7000 in the mail.

There is a big difference between the APEX DT250 & DT502. Is there any way to differentiate the two?

I second the motion, there is a huge difference between the 250 and 502 apex and should be differentiated....

Without scrolling through, I'm pretty sure that it is 4 best and 1 worst for the APEX 502. That would make it 3 worst and 0 best for the Apex 250. 4:1 is more accurate reflection for the 502 than 4:4... IMHO.

How do you generate your summary? Do you use an excel sheet? Not too many people on the list for apex...

Okay, thanks. I tried going through the list but I'm not sure how you decided when something was a elgible for be best or worst distinction. For example, if someone tested three boxes and said XYZ is best, does that make ABC, DEF worst?

Voting for Channel Master CM-7000 as best. Picture quality is as superb, pulled 27 channels max in Brooklyn, NY after 5 scans. Don't have other CECBs to compare, but I can attest the pq & sound is superb. It locks @ 60-100% signal strength w/ no picture freezing or stuttering & on most channels. 8 channels lock @ 100% w/ a 45db gain RCA ANT525 amplified antenna. S-video w/ RCA audio output gives superior PQ(576i?) & sound on my SONY KV-20TS32 compared to coaxial.

Ken, the ChannelMaster is also at a disadvantage in these ratings because it's not readily available for most people at a store. It looks to me that most of the people who voted for the Zenith or Insignia probably had not tried the ChannelMaster or the other CECBs that had to be shipped to them.

I do think the Insignia/Zenith performs well, but so far, the ChannelMaster appears to be the best-performing CECB with S-video.

It would be useful to try to tally the votes of people who have compared the ChannelMaster with the Insignia/Zenith boxes and other CECBs not available in B&M stores.

I'd say that the Insignia/Zenith CECBs may be the best of the CECBs available in the national B&M stores. What's not so clear is what CECBs are the best overall. I'll be trying the CM7000 myself soon and will be able to compare it with the Insignia CECB.


Dana

The Apex 502 also has S-Video... is the CM superior to the Apex?

Where it counts most, yes.

As far as I know, the only thing that *might* be better in the Apex is the guide. And that's just going on what I hear, because I've never actually had one myself.

My choice of the LG as the "best" CECB is really based more on my considering it the #1, all-around recommended box.

Unless somebody specifies when asking that they are looking for a particular, "best" feature, I recommend the LG as the first choice. (Of course, that particular feature that they're asking about could be best in the LG. Obviously, though, everything about the LG is good enough for me to rank it there).

For best PQ and reception, I'd still go with the CM over it. It also has a much better guide. But, of course, if you need pass-through, then the CM's out.

The APEX DT250 has S-Video also.

More than availability, the CM didn't take off because of cost. Frys didn't take coupons for months, and when they did, the non-sale price was $30 more than for the Zenith. And by then, people were looking for analog pass through.

For prime time reception, CM is what I watch. But for all other times, the VBI lines annoy me (cropped pictures are blurrier), the orange color on the guide bleeds, and the font on the description is hard to read. The CM doesn't get PQ bragging rights with that stuff.

We recently got a Class A station, so I now see how great the CM is for weak and unstable signals, but my usual reception problem is strong unstable signals -- unwatchable on the CM, nearly perfect on the Zenith. Together, they make a great pair! The Zenith has a lot of nice features, like aspect ratio by channel, and direct input of a new station on the keypad. If someone wants only one CECB, I think they'd be happier with Zenith. If the CM were the overall outstanding box, they'd have caught up with the Zenith by now.

That's interesting to hear. Is this a matter of the CM handling HD broadcasts better than SD broadcasts? Is it possible that the properties of your analog TV are a factor in this? (For example, if your analog TV doesn't do comb filtering, these problems might show up more on your TV than on many other TVs.)

I've read that the CM7000's S-video output is very good on HD monitors, but perhaps some CECBs are very good primarily on the more upscale TVs (and not so good with older TVs) and some CECBs are better with older TVs.

For example, the Insignia was much better at recording captions onto TiVo recordings that could be read easily via fast-forwarding than the DigitalStream was; the DigitalStream's captions seemed to be relying on my TV's signal processing to show up well during normal broadcasts, but the TV's signal processing couldn't work fast enough to resolve the DigitalStream's captions when the TiVo was on fast forward.

(Thus it might be relevant to know what kinds of TVs are being used with the different CECBs and how old they are.)

One reason I decided to get a CM-7000 was because I already had a Insignia CECB and the CM-7000 has an S-video output that might be helpful for recording higher quality TiVo recordings or for viewing on an HDTV that doesn't add new channels if they're not picked up on the initial scan. Thus the fact that other people with HD monitors had enjoyed the CM7000's output on them was important to me.


Dana

I get those VBI lines with my CM, too, but I zoom all the HD channels on the 4:3 SDTV I use it with, so I never see 'em. I can't handle tiny little postage-stamped 4:3 images on a 32" TV from 10 feet away.

I thought someone said here that they fixed that with later editions (?).

I don't have any of those "instability with signal" problems, though.

I expect the TV does have some effect on our impressions of various boxes. My 32" TV is a 13 year old Toshiba. I notice an improvement with dot crawl using the S-vid connection, but since most images are in motion, dot crawl doesn't usually bug me. It's more something I notice in ads. About the only time during a program I noticed it was the yellow lane dividers in Olympics swimming. On my TV, there is an obvious improvement when the station is HD. Zoomed images seem blurry, so I leave format in letterbox. I get VBI lines with letterbox during newscasts, when they import material. It's also there for ads, which I don't watch. Other than for ads, I don't tend to see postage stamp format as much as I used to, except on Fox, and that crazy station puts postage stamps where they don't need it, their vertical masking is about 1/2" too low and you can see a perfectly good picture underneath.