Zenith DTT901 - Page 46

Atthe Circuit city by me, the shelves were bar as far as Zentith 901 were concerned. I find that highly suspect consideirng they had at least 50 or so on the shelves two or so weeks ago. With them not taking the coupons for the first week of that time period, I cant believe people paid 55 bucks out of pocket for them nor did that many people with coupons come in.

Could they have sent them back or something?

Okay...I went to said K-Mart this a.m. to check availability. From 400+ 3 weeks ago, now down to around 102 units on shelves as of today. All Aug and Oct '08 build dates..except for one lone July (exchange perhaps)...

102 units at Kmart ! The store here has never had more than 4 or 5 at a time, and they don't even have room for much more than that.

The Kmart near where I work had about 26 901s late last week. Yesterday, I noticed that there were none on the shelf! Since they don't advertise them, and didn't even keep them next to their other CECBs (Magnavox, DTVPal), I suspect that they didn't suddenly sell off two dozen boxes in a couple of days.

Curious...

The Commerce Kmart has them. They had 179 yesterday, and I bought 2. Though I didn't look at each box like vwoom did (go to the head of the class, dude!), I did look at the dates on one stack of boxes, and they were a mixture of December 2008 and January 2009. $49.99.

5704 E. Whittier Blvd (cross street Gerhart), Commerce. (323) 724-2750. Walk to the back of the store, turn left and walk until you, uh, hit the wall (seems like the southeast corner of the store, but I frequently get confused about directions).

Also FYI, the 3rd/Fairfax Kmart (6310 W 3RD STREET) and the Vermont/Slauson store (5850 S VERMONT AVENUE) in L.A. had no boxes at all yesterday. I was pleased that the third store I called had them, so I didn't have to ride the lovely MTA all the way to Temple City.

I was also pleased not to have to pay sales tax nor to pay $10 more per box at Best Buy, nor, in fact, to have to give BB any business at all. Moreover, I found a dime in the parking lot.

As everyone has said, the clarity of the picture from the downloaded digital is something to behold. I'm still playing around with my rabbit ears -- one second I get no signal at all, and the next there's a sharply-defined picture.

Thank you, vwoom and delia.eve, for the info about the Temple City store.

I'm grinning as I type.

Would you believe I counted the units/boxes per stack...for real!

Ah, yes....The obscure K-Mart at Commerce...I used to work around those parts (west of 710) and nearby Vernon...mainly businesses and manufacturing.

Wow...Dec '08...Jan '09...Ya hit the "new issue" jackpot!

Guess I'm going to hit the Citadel Outlets tomorrow with my Chinese gf...won't mind passing thru Commerce, and *might* swap the 2nd sealed/brand new Oct '08 Zen 901 I have...for the recent Jan '09.

Thanks too for the tip, Elizabeth!

Longmont, Colorado K-Mart has both Zenith DTT901(s) and DTV Pal Plus(s) on their shelf today

Has anyone else noticed that the clock seems to run wacked?

My time-zone is Eastern; but it's an hour ahead when I set the clock to that. If I set it to Central, then the time is right.

Anyone else seen this problem?

Are there plausible explanations for it other than a problem with the box?

See this thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1118149

JN...could be Daylight savings time issues.

That's my speculation. The question is where the problem is -- box, or broadcaster. I should think box, as PBS, et al., should be able to set the time correctly. :]

I didn't note which, but on one (set of) channel[s], the time was "correct". (I have one clock I know is correct. Make that two, more-or-less. One that is ahead by about an hour -- high on the wall, I've not reset for DST. Another that sits on a computer monitor and is so wacked I don't rely on it.

(And then there are these clocks in TV, in box, and in broaccast signal.

(So which to rely on, other than the one analog . . .)

Hey, JNagarya.

I had the same problem. Here's how I corrected it:

1) Press the MENU button
2) Press the arrow key until OPTIONS is highlighted
3) Press the SELECT button (the button that has a dot with a circle around it -- it's in the center of the ring of arrow keys)
4) From the menu that results, select CLOCK
5) Arrow down to DAYLIGHT SAVINGS, select it and turn it off

The time should change to Eastern Standard Time. Of course the question remains, where are the broadcasters getting the time and how accurate is it?

Has anyone seen any of these boxes at K-Mart in the Orlando FL area? I have been looking for about 3 weeks without success.

Thanks.

If you're looking specifically for the Zenith 901 boxes, I can't help.

However, last week, while in the Orlando area, I happened into the Best Buy at Exit 55 off of I-4. They had a couple zillion Insignias (identical to the Zenith) and another couple zillion Apex boxes.

Harry

The Zenith DTT901 has a metal case with perforations on the top and sides. Does the Insignia NS-DXA1-APT, also?

Yes. Other than the branding label, the two are identical clones of each other.

Harry

They are so identical that they went through FCC testing as one unit. Consumer Reports added to the confusion by comparing them in their first CECB review, and rating the DTT901 better.

Unless it is proven that the Dec/Jan build is better than the Oct build you might want to re-think that.

WHY?...

Dec/Jan-09 boxes were built, shipped in a "hurry" to beat the org Feb 17, 2009 cut-off deadline.

Oct boxes were built during a time frame a manufacturer would be less likely to be "rushing".


.

Then again, they had more lead time to debug glitches, so maybe the later ones are of higher quality.

Actually, your post gave me the best laugh I've had all day.

I understand the principle of more lead time to debug glitches, but short-cuts are taken and quality is affected when there is a big deadline coming up.

Keep in mind these units only have a 90-day warranty- So there is not a great incentive that the units remain functional beyond that point.

....

Zenith Warranty
90-day=Labor
1-year= Parts

Warranty Translation= Parts have a 1-year warranty, but labor cost after 90-days is bound to exceed worth of unit with most shops charging at least 1-hr of shop time @$60hr.

******
Question of the day:

Manufacturer is NOT going to ship you the replacement part(s), and you're going to have to pay $60 to get a $50-$60 item repaired.

Do you repair it?, or buy another and use the broken one for parts, extra remote, extra cables?

.

That, my friend is why I wanted to swap my sealed 2nd Oct' 08 unit...for comparison (I do have the 1st Oct '08 unit in use).

Not for the remote. I've already bought inexpensive learning remotes and use them for daily use instead of the original ones. The remotes are too vital to the use of CECB to risk not being able to access its functions when the remote breaks. Which is pretty common with remote controls.

Howdy everybody,
I just thought I'd check in with an update. I went through the 'transition' last summer, and after trying out a Channel Master CM7000, which was nice but had problems with the severe multi path at my location, I ended up with a July build DTT 901.

I'm happy to report that it has worked flawlessly all this time, to the point that I've pretty much forgotten about it and now simply enjoy all the fine free over the air digital programming available in my area.

It wasn't easy, my particular situation was quite challenging, but with a lot of reading in these forums and a lot of experimentation with various antennas and amplifiers I ended up with a nice indoor setup that receives all the channels it should with no further tweaking or adjustment required on my part. Just clean, clear, perfect audio and video.

So keep trying stuff until you get that perfect signal...... it's worth the effort.

Does anyone know how to delete channels from the FAV list?

Thanks.

Simple Menu Setup Channel Edit then > over to fav list highlight channel to remove and hit fav button.

Hey DTT901 owners, try this experiment:

(1). Go to manual tuning in the menus and up arrow to an empty RF channel.

(2). Get out of the menus, and turn the box off.

(3). Turn the box back on.

(4). Press "Guide", and look at the date/time displayed.


Apparently, the Zenith either resets the date/time to a default if it wakes up on a channel with no signal, or it doesn't actually update an internal clock when it gets a good value from an active station.

I guess this is just a curious feature, since it doesn't have event timers, and so preserving the date/time from use to use isn't critical.

Not likely. From the Lucky Goldstar block diagram of the SOC inside:

http://mvptek.koreasme.com/en/product/img/pro3_1.gif

The SOC (LGDT1111) appears to only have composite and RGB video outputs. And it is unlikely the RGB is supported in the DTT901 version of the software - or, that's what I would have done if I wrote it.

It is interesting that the same web page supposedly has the LGDT1111 on a board demonstrating it's usefulness as an HDTV sub assembly:

http://mvptek.koreasme.com/en/product/product_03.html

Regardless, even if the knowledge existed to access the RGB outptus of the LGDT1111 inside a DTT901 - I doubt it would be worth the time over buying a ready made small HDTV.

I searched this thread for someone having a similar issue as mine. I just got a new DTT901. Setup was easy and it works well. Except after I power down the unit and power it back on it will only go to setup again and I have to rescan the channels and enter the menu to set all my preferences. It is like the non-volatile memory isn't working? Any suggestions?

It shouldn't do that under any circumstances. Sounds like it's faulty. I'd exchange it if you can.