Zenith DTT901 - Page 48

I'm about to buy one the Insignia versions, I think, and I have a question: Do you have to turn the box off to get the analog pass-through to work? I live in a small city with a couple of low-power analog stations that I still watch, and it would be awfully inconvenient to turn the box off every time I wanted to check on those channels.

I wish we still had a Kmart in our town so I could get the Zenith. There's one about 30 miles away, but I don't guess it would be worth it to drive there. With gas I guess they'd cost about the same.

Yes, you need to turn it off to use the APT feature.

The local KMART just got a shipment of Zenith 901 build date of 2/09. Works great !!!

My local KMart (Plymouth, MI) has about a dozen units with 2/09 build dates on the shelf. I've been keeping an eye out for one for my sister-in-law and used her coupon to grab one.

I don't see any differences in menus, PQ, or sensitivity from my Insignia box (10/08 build date), not that I expected to.

I'm happy to buy online, or in person, so if you know of a good place to get me a Zenith DTT901 with my Coupon, post it!

I've called the local Radio Shacks, Sears, K-Marts and Best Buys. The Insignia is in stock at Best Buy, and I found 1 K-Mart far away with 1 in stock (not willing to try and fight Beltway traffic to get there before someone else).

Has anyone else found the DTT901 in stock locally and at $50? At this point I should probably give up the best deal and spend the extra $10 just to get it, but I wanted to ask first. My coupons don't expire until July, so I'm ok on time. Thanks!

Anyone found the DTT901 locally at $50... Yep, no problem - I've bought several at K-mart @$49.

Trick is:

A: Not to wait till the last few days before your coupons expire. (Murphy's Law- Start looking 2-3 weeks before coupon expires to increase chance of hitting the store after it gets it's re-stock.)
B: Hit the store after they get their re-stock.

At K-mart (and other vendors) they get shipments every few days... at my local K-mart for example they get a case , twice a week. What you need to do is to call (with UPC in hand), Or better yet visit your store local in person and find out what day they get their re-stocks, how many they are expecting.

That's about the only thing you can do.

(On most stores the delivery trucks will make a circuit- Monday and Wednesday, Or Tuesday- Friday)

Keep in mind that alot of times people in the department may not "know" what the heck they carry... that's why it's important to ask them to do a lookup with a handheld LRT, or computer at the cash register.

Keep in mind also that when calling- that when asking if they carry converter boxes you have to be VERY SPECIFIC that on what MODEL you are desiring, and ask them to VERIFY STOCK, (* preferably asking them to physically put their hand on one)... If you don't the standard answer (that I've been getting) is A: We don't carry xyz, OR B: We're out of them, OR C: Yea we got converter boxes.... when they don't, or it's another model altogether.
(EG; To allot of employees all converter boxes are the SAME...)

* Note: If they are low on units- and physically have their hands on one you may be able to sweet talk them into holding one back for you.
Additionally note that at some stores- they don't have units on "the-shelf", there may not be a store tag (LOL) - they will be in the STOCK-ROOM, or maybe in a display case.

* Yesterday at a K-Mart I had previously called and they said they didn't have any DTVPal Plus units- they had them in a locked display case- buried where they were out of sight... no tag, no nothing.... When I asked the lady- She said she didn't have any.... I then responded that I had called and talked with John and they had (8) in stock... It was only then she "remembered" that they were buried in a display case... (I've been getting the same story on the Zenith- point is the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing so you have to be persistent when calling /visting your local store(s).
Note that on that store I had called just a day before- and another person told me they did NOT carry the DTVPal Plus... It was only by visiting my "local" store (which was out of stock) and getting the guy to do a lookup to see if any other stores in the system had units, and asking him "who" I should talk to when calling the store who had just said they were out of stock was I able to find some units!


PS: At my local BestBuy when I had to go swap out a defective APEX DT502 just yesterday- I noticed they had the APEX's @$49, when they are normally @59 - So they may have a similar sale on the *Insignia units...

(*FYI: The Insignia and the Zenith DTT901 are the SAME unit, both manufactured by LG, Electronics)

One last thing- as someone with "several" APEX DT502's, Zinewell ZAT-970A /950A's, Zenith DTT901's, and DTVPal Plus units I really like the DTVPal Plus for it's EPG (GUIDE)... Picked up (3) at K-Mart @$59
(Remote is nice as well)

While I like the Zenith DTT901 @$49- For $10 extra the DTVPal Plus is money well spent.

UPC / K-Mart item number:

Zenith DTT901 @$49= 7-1919217340-8

DTVPal Plus.. @$59= 7-5396001084-7



.

I got 1 Monday at the K-mart in Kentlands (Gaithersburg, Md) they had about 30

For what it is worth to you: A few months ago our local (Colorado) Radio Shack was often out of their CECBs (not Zenith DTT901) offered to accept your 'order' and have it shipped directly to you.

The number of active coupons has been way up, due to first the December bubble and then the wait list being cleared. Meanwhile, supply didn't anticipate a lot of new coupons being added to the program, and they were stocked for a Feb 17 transition. It takes about 3 months to ramp up production. We made it to April without a total sellout, but I imagine the hunt is like it was a year ago.

When I had expiring coupons, stores were not getting the 200/week they ordered, instead they got 10/week, sometimes split into two shipments. I called all the stores and found out what day their shipments came in, and then called to see how many they got and when the truck would be unloaded. Stores sold out within 2 days, so even when there was online stock info (e.g., every RS store within 30 miles), if you didn't time it right, it looked for months like they never had any. It doesn't hurt to ask if they will hold them for an hour while you drive there, or if they have a wait list -- chain stores do not follow the same policy in every store.

The problem is that since the transition has been moved back to June, no stores are ordering large #'s. Why would they? Everyone's going to wait till the last minute/right after the transition to buy (isn't that why the gov't delayed it? grr!!). So here we have people w/coupons about to expire looking for boxes that are in low supply. Ugh!

Our local K-mart got a shipment in on Tuesday night and by Wednesday lunchtime they had ONE left. I might end up getting a DTV pal just to end the suffering!

The suffering begins when one gets a DTV Pal.

You beat me to it.

lol is it that bad? Some people on here seem to swear by them...

Nah - you just invited that with the perfect setup. The comedians among us couldn't resist.

The ones with the more recent firmware versions (which is all you'll get new now, so I wouldn't worry) are *alright*. You can get better picture quality for sure, though, and I still wouldn't depend on the timers being 100% reliable.

just curious - so far I have a Radio Shack (s-something), Apex 502, ChannelMaster, Tivax, and Zenith. Rather than get six of a specific box, I figured I'd get six different boxes so I could pick the best box for each tv...

Well, I'd say if you want to have that fancy guide, then get the Pal. If you'd be interested mostly in reliable timers you might want to go with the Zinwell.

Other than that, I think you've got all the rest of the best features covered between all of those boxes (though, unfortunately, not all-in-one) - except for the guide.

There might be a couple of boxes with slightly better PQ than those two boxes left to choose from. But they're not really anything special otherwise.

If timers aren't your main priority, I say what the heck - might as well go with the Pal for the fancy Dish Network-like menus and guide (and if you ever need the timers, and they do work adequately, then that's a bonus).

So I didn't know that my DTT-901 would add channels automatically. Today I found 32-2 here in the Portland, Oregon area. I am sure I never had that channel before, but I did have 32-1, which is CW. The new channel is Universal Sports, and right now I am watching cycling after watching some intense head-to-head skiiing (didn't know that was done.)

I wonder if this channel was added only because the main channel was already in place. Will the DTT-901 also automatically add main channels?

Cool new station, I like it. There don't seem to be any commercials per se, but that certainly won't last.

Yes, it will add subchannels automatically. No, it won't add main channels automatically.

However, if tropospheric ducting or other unusual signal propagation brings in a different channel using the same RF channel as one you have on your list, The Zenith will replace the previous channel with the interloper. Once reception returns to normal, it likely will pick up and display your local channel again.

I went into Best Buy and Fry's today to do a check up on the CECB's and ask about sales, antennas, etc.

Fry's used to carry the Zenith boxes and Best Buy had the Insignia boxes. They no longer do. Fry's had 1 CM box and a bunch of Cobys (about 50). Best Buy only had Apex boxes.

Fry's said that they wouldn't be getting any more Zenith's and Best Buy said they wouldn't have any more Insignia's for 5 months (that I found hard to believe).

I can't imagine that the Zenith & Insignia boxes would be out of production. It just seems strange that these two stores have dropped them, especially at this point in the transition.

I bought an Insignia box from my local Best Buy about a week ago. They had a good sized stack of them. I first tried calling my closest Radio Shack because they had told me they could get the Zenith in the past. I was told they could no longer get the Zenith. Have you tried other Best But stores?

Are you sure the store clerk isn't just making it up, as usual? BB getting them in 5 months makes no sense, agreed!

The NTIA worked with the larger manufacturers to ramp up production again. I assumed that included Zenith. Supposedly mfgrs would be restocking in April, which is about a month faster than retailers had been told earlier. Most manufacturers stopped production in January, with enough inventory to last through March. Nobody wants to be caught with excess product. The last few weeks, there has not been a rush for coupons. Eight weeks, and then a few late buyers, and we're done. Who would re-order on a product with such a low profit margin.

In the last week I visited the 122nd & Sandy Blvd. KMart in Portland Oregon. On the shelf at the rear of the electronics department, next to four or five DTV Pals, there was one display Zenith and a (fake) Magnavox display mock-up but no actual Magnavox stock. As I was walking out of the electronics department I came to a long low shelf with perhaps one hundred DTT901 models. The ones I checked were of January 2009 production.

KMart is still selling the DTT901 for $49.99.

KMart lists it as out of stock for shipping, however. But there is a button for them to notify you when they are in stock again. Of course, I know how that worked with RS.

The K-Mart in Rosemead, CA has a pretty good stock of Zeniths stacked on the sales floor.

The Insignia can be ordered from bestbuy.com. You can't use a converter box coupon on the website, but you can use a coupon if you order by phone: 1-877-BBY-DTV9.

My Kmart near work has gotten more Zeniths in (Feb. 2009 manufacture). They had been out of them for a couple of weeks.

Safe to say that Kmarts are still getting them.

FYI, the same store is currently out of DTVPal Pluses, but I expect that they will get more of those in at some point.

Finally found 7 Zenith DTT-901 Feb 09 in stock at the Springfield, VA K-Mart. Hurrah! Now I just need a decent free analog TV to go with it... :-)

Persistance pays!

For a free TV, consider joining and checking http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecycledc/
regularly.

I got a Zenith DTT901 at Kmart in Costa Mesa, CA today. $49.99 minus the $40 coupon. They had quite a few but even more of a Magnavox model.

I hooked it up and went through the set-up process, and am getting "No Signal" on any channel. Relying on analog reception, this same TV picks up three or four channels rather fuzzily. Should I be concerned that perhaps the antenna jack on the new box doesn't work, or are the digital broadcast signals not operating at full power yet? To not even get a weak signal on one or two channels scares me. Any answers/advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Working off the only location information you provided - the K-mart store location...

Costa Mesa appears to be about 40 miles from the big L.A. "antenna farm" (Mt. Wilson, where all the TV towers are there).

Whether you get an analog signal or not is not necessarily an indication of a digital signal. Those fuzzy analog channels could have their digital counterparts (pre-transition or even post-transition) with much better facilities - or much worse, if the station is lagging.

(That's not so much a problem anymore, as very few stations are on STAs now - i.e. a low power stick they put up just to check off the digital part of their license. A couple of years ago, this was a much larger problem.)

After June 12th, some stations will move their digital facilities to their old analog channel, so the digital signal you get or don't get now means nothing in the long run. I believe at least one of the L.A. major network affiliates (KABC/7???) is moving to its old VHF analog channel on 6/12.

But if you've generally gotten fuzzy reception in analog 40 miles out from Mt. Wilson, you might still need to look into a better antenna for digital, even if some of those facilities improve after June.

There's much more information and help here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=191672
* AVS' own Los Angeles local OTA HDTV reception thread...read through a few pages, at least, to get an idea of ongoing local problems...you can then post and ask specific questions about your market.

http://www.tvfool.com/
* TVFool, lots of help with coverage targeted to your own address, station lists, coverage maps, etc.

http://www.antennaweb.org/
* AntennaWeb, consumer electronics-industry sponsored site that's a much more primitive, earlier site similar to TVFool. No maps here, just lists of stations that you "should be able" to receive at your address, with antenna-type suggestions.