Zenith DTT901 - Page 2

I've looked for DTT901 too. Nobody I've found so far has it, or will let me pre-order it. If they don't allow preorders, then why doesn't the NTIA look at product in the market before they green light a box?

Many retailers won't put it up for sale until they know they can accept coupons for it and thus sell some units, I'd imagine.  If the NTIA wouldn't certify a model for coupon eligibility until it's available, Alphonse and Gaston will be standing at the door forever.

Today the Zenith DTT901 earned its asterisk on the NTIA CECB list. Now it's up to the stores to stock the DTT901 (the one with the*) so we may evaluate this model.

Until Circuit City clears its shelves of DTT900s, don't expect to see any DTT901s. I'm sure LG Electronics was instrumental in delaying placing the DTT901 on the NTIA CECB approved list so that they could clear out their remaining inventory of DTT900s and prevent competition like Microprose from putting out an LG-based CECB with pass-through before the Zenith came out. And because Circuit City was so willing to help LG clear its DTT900 inventory by buying up and stocking boatloads of them, Circuit City will be the FIRST to have the DTT901 in stock. Think maybe some NTIA officials may be taking a bribe???

P.S. You won't see the Insignia NS-DXA1-APT on the CECB list until BEST BUY has cleared out the Insignia NS-DXA1 units.

They sell the the DTT901 at RadioShack as of today. At least you can fid it on their site. It's $59.99.

You can correct posts by clicking the Edit button in the post.

Yeah... And it's OUT OF STOCK!

Radio Shack's Zenith DTT901

Curious.  Per Radio Shack's pages for the DTT901, it comes without A/V cables included (the DTT900 had them in the box), only an RF cable; and its remote requires two AAA batteries though the DTT900's remote operates on one AAA.

Abt.com's product page states only one AAA battery so it's likely just a mistake on radioshack's page.

I can't manage to locate their page for it, but if Abt's site and Radio Shack's disagree, odds are that Abt is right.

BTW, Raddok, you just may be the first member discussing Abt's sale of the DTT901 here to capitalize the store's name correctly instead of putting it into all caps as if it were an acronym for Asomething Bsomething Tsomething.

The links were on the first page

The Circuit City here now has a load of 901's in stock. They are dated May and are mixed in with the 900's, and they don't mention analog pass-thru on the box at all - they look exactly the same as the 900's box, except for the one number difference.

Now that Circuit City appears to finally be running out of DTT900s, it is not surprising they would be sneakiing in DTT901 boxes. They still are playing to the ignorance of buyers in complicity with LG/Zenith to clear DTT900 inventory. But this should be a sign that DTT901s will now start being delivered to Radio Shack stores. As I said before, because Circuit City helped LG/Zenith clear its remaining DTT900 inventory, Circuit City gets first dibs. I'm on my local Radio Shack store waiting list for the DTT901 and have now ordered my 2nd CECB coupon just in case my first expires. Funny how only 42% of NTIA CECB coupons have been redeemed before expiring and NTIA is now complaining they need more money for postage to mail additional coupons using funds reclaimed from the unused expired coupons. Well now its going to cost them to mail me a second coupon which I wouldn't have needed without the 90 day limit.

TV converter-box coupons expiring before use - June 10 2008
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/finan.../D917DHCO0.htm

U.S. could face glitch in TV converter box program - June 10, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...080610?sp=true

Went to my local CC today (Santa Clara, CA). They had about 200 DTT900 in the store, I think all of them were April builds. 3 weeks ago I went there and they were all March builds.

I am thinking of getting a DTT901 to use it together with my Samsung DTBH260. The Samsung does not handle 480i output well (The right side is clipped off a bit, and the resampling it does degrades the picture a bit). The Zenith provides a better output on 480i stations.

But are you saying there is no pass through IF the DTT901 is turned on? That's a shame. Why can't they build this like VCR? Every VCR has a toggle switch somewhere that controls whether it sends output to RF out. When the output is turned off, it works like a pass through.

The DigitalStream 9950 has an A/D button on the front to do just that. And it's got the same chipset (LG) as the Zenith. I wonder if there would be a hidden remote code that would control the Zenith the same way.

I suspect due to EnergyStar ratings, they want to spec it as having low power usage when on APT therefore they just force you to put it into standby.

That's interesting. It was there a week or two ago, out of stock naturally, but there nonetheless. Sounds like they were worried that they couldn't unload the 900s if the 901 was listed.

So then there is no real difference between the 900 and then 901 if the passthrough is disabled?

Yes, the Samsung is not the box you want to use with a 480i 4:3 analog TV that has no zoom mode of it's own.

Otherwise you'll be watching postage-stamped 4:3 images on the 720p/1080i channels.

Does the remote have a toggle switch to turn it on or off like the DTX-9950, or do you have to go into the menu to do it?

The Samsung does have a Zoom mode, and I don't have a 480i 4:3 analog TV.

The Samsung does provide awesome HD image via 1080i HDMI output. However, the output setting is controlled via a hardware switch. So 480i SD image is scaled up to 1080i. The scaling is OK, but the worst part is the right side of the image is clipped off. (around 10%).

My TV, a Panasonic plasma, does a better job at showing SD material when fed a 480i signal. Therefore I prefer to watch SD channels through the Zenith.

If there's a way to turn off the RF output in the Zenith via a menu item, so pass through works when the unit is on and off, the great! Otherwise I'll have to buy a splitter and the 901 offers me nothing useful.

You'll lose up to half the signal strength with a splitter.

Anyway, the zoom mode on the Samsung does not display proper picture proportion with a 4:3 image from a 720p/1080i channel on a 4:3 display, other than in "postage-stamp" form. The two modes other than "full" make everything tall and skinny - one mode leaves black bars on the sides, and the other fills the screen, but still stretches it vertically.

The only way you can fill the screen and keep the proper proportions is for the (4:3) TV to have the proper zoom mode, which stretches all 4 sides evenly.

It's a shame, because my DTB-H260F set to output at 480i on my 4:3 SD CRT over component looks noticably sharper and more detailed than even the Zenith. The Zenith does look excellent, but the Sammy looks even better.

Unfortunately, my 32" CRT doesn't have a zoom mode.

If the power switch is an acceptable answer, yes.

You can't do it through the menus.  Passthrough is on when the unit is in red-LED standby and off when the unit is on or disconnected.  There's no other switch for it and there's no possibility for use in a chain.

As far as that goes, the A/D button on the Digital Stream DTX9950's remote is also a second on/off switch.  The only difference is that if you turn the DTX9950 off with the A/D button, there's a quick flash of the words "Analog Pass Through" at the bottom of the screen as it shuts off, which do not display if you used the regular power button on the remote or the one on the unit.  (The words "Digital TV Mode" always appear when the unit is turned on, regardless of which of the three buttons was used to turn it on and regardless of which of the three buttons had been used to turn it off.)

Just bought 2 of the DTT901 at CC here in Phx Ariz.
All units are April dated, the ones I got both have LG Tuners, green sticker on top of back right corner of tuners. The number on the boxes are:

84E00946
804SHFK447491

84E00946
804SHBS447493

I'll let you know how well they do when I get them hooked up I got them 45 mins ago : )

Thanks for the help and the heads up that CC had them on the shelves.

Well I'm back and glad to say after running this new Zenith DTT901 for 3 hours it does not feel hot at all as I would have expected from a converter box. Very impressed with the picture, it went from hardly able to get channel 3 and 5 plus numerous other channels coming in snowy, to now every single one is the clearest I have ever seen them. I only have it hooked up on the RF cable and I can't believe it would even work as bad as that coax is. Very old it will get replaced asap. I'm in the middle of Phoenix with the antenna is facing south mountain and channel 7 that was 27 on analog that was always a bad picture is clear as the other channels now, amazing. Don't hear any sound issues but haven't hooked it up with the composite cables yet. I think they finally got it right. I'm getting 28 channels and they are all clear. I have used both coupons and am still going back to buy another one at full price for the back room TV.