Zinwell ZAT-970A? - Page 37

I contacted the Zinnetusa email just last week regarding the timer issue and received a reply. The confusion seems to be that there is a Zinwell website and a Zinnetusa website and Zinwell doesn't deal with converter boxes.

Regarding the timers, they answered promptly:


I infer from the second sentence that they are still supporting the boxes.

For the record, I replied that if any of the later models used a different chipset and did not corrupt the timers every time the channel lineup changed, I'd be interested in knowing about that. If not, I'd just as soon keep this otherwise useful box.

Yeah I've contacted the Zinnet folks in the past and they forwarded questions beyond their scope to the Zinwell folks (Cc).

Essentially blaming it on the chip makers. Too bad they don't give the specifics as we might be able to engineer a solution (maybe having to contact the chip makers). Sometimes the solution is as simple as adding a pull-up resistor on a logic line, of course something they won't do. I suspect these CECBs weren't fully certification tested due to time/cost, especially when it came to bonus features (ex: why didn't the Zinwell hidden EPG make it to market?).

All I can suggest on the timers is to: 1) follow the suggestions in this thread on the subject, 2) set everything possible to manual (clock, tuner, etc. vs auto BS), and 3) delete all stations and subs that you can afford to live without.

Good job, you got more info out of them than I was able to (Favorites issue, etc.).

I've been busy with this converter this week. I'm trying to get it to work as well as possible since it's the box connected to my wife's dvd/hdd dvr and the timer problems cause her some displeasure (and that always gets expressed to me). She doesn't want to buy a new recorder with an ATSC tuner (and deal with a whole new list of bugs), so I'm kind of stuck trying to get the Zinwell to be as user friendly as possible. I plan to take the advice to delete every channel she never will watch to lessen the opportunity for the channel lineup to corrupt the timers. Unfortunately in my viewing area the local ABC affiliate seems to have its PSIP disappear from the Zinwell's lineup.

I also tried to use a Philips PM435S Universal remote with the unit. The Philips can control the unit, but only for power on/off and channel up/down. So, if the remote were lost the box could be operated short term w/o timers using the Philips remote.

For my purposes, that was a major fail.

Try the manual vs auto stuff too. The clock comes form the stations which makes me suspicious.

I have a Philips SRU2103/27 U-remote I got at CVS for free after sale&rebate, does all the menu stuff for my ChannelMaster. The code book lists Zinwell under converter boxes so I'll try it when I have time (does your Philips literature list converter box codes?).

I'm keeping my eye on this for an ~$100 DTVPal DVR deal:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post18567489

I saw a lot more stores on the east coast with deals the last I looked.

I just hooked an Artec to pass-thru to a Zinwell in my bedroom. The Artec will give me a decent EPG while the Zinwell gives me a better pic, timer, etc.

Any warranties would be through Amazon. One of the Zinwell spin-off companies told me that they knew my unit was out of the 3 month warranty because Zinwell hasn't distributed any units to the USA since LONG before that. I'd say Amazon bought up all that was left, which makes them NEW as opposed to USED, but no factory warranty. But if they asked "howie14" --- "Please let me know what you would want to do with the box. " then MAYBE they WILL honor the warranty (probalby have to send it to Taiwan).
Here's what I was told in an email from the Electronics Editor of Consumer Search today -----

[b]At this point in the game, most still-available CECB converter boxes ARE going to be left over stock. With the conversion and the coupon program behind us, few companies have any interest in this market segment at all. One exception is Channel Master, and they have just released an over-the-air DVR that will do what you are looking for -- and a lot more -- but it is expensive at $400.

Not that it does you much good, but Zinwell is still around, but does look to have rolled up its U.S. operations. The parent company is in Taiwan, and the current, apparently still active site is at: AVS won't let me post the URL

I've been keeping manual time ever since things kept jumping to one hour off last fall. I think my locals don't understand EDT vs. EST.

Of course, I need to remember to reset the time any time there is a power failure.

My Philips remote was a freebie from a Staples Black Friday a couple of years ago and doesn't have converters listed. My biggest surprise with the Philips was that I tries to control a Philips DVD HDD recorder I bought remoteless and this "universal" remote didn't have the codes for it. How can Philips sell a universal remote that doesn't have the codes for all Philips products? A lady at Philips support told me that is often the case.

I don't recall if it exists but it would be nice if one could turn off the auto channel updating as that may be a cause.

Good news, my Philips remote accessed all of the menu functions. The buttons I lost were AUDIO and ZOOM (shucks but can still be toggled in the menu). The CC button is inactive but that function works under SLEEP (weird). I get the FAV with the OK button. I recall there was a fancier model too that controlled more devices; this one only controls a TV, VCR OR DVD, and CBL (you can program whatever you want into all but the TV button). Also has some nifty punch-through programmable modes (I P-T TV volume/mute while in VCR mode). Anyhow, based on this I suspect there are plent of remotes you can use in the event you lose your Zinwell remote.

My info lists 1211, 1414, 0599 (A), and 0699 (B) for a Philips DVD-Recorder and 0738 (A), 0036 (B), 0136 (C), and 0763 for a Philips DVR. They say to use the A, B, etc. if you have 2 or more of the same device.

OK, I picked up one of those dollar store remotes-for more than a dollar, BTW-and it does indeed work on my 970. I noticed that the EPG was very spotty when I first accessed it. I assume this guide works like TVG and needs to be off to download. Is that correct? I haven't been turning ours off at all to avoid additional timer problems.

Howie14, the Zat needs to scan each station to pick up the PSIP data. It will likely not 'hold' all the data it can access. I believe it is a memory limitation.
I find that as I scroll up and down through the list, it will sometimes jump to a different group than the one I set up, but I haven't spent a lot of time trying to set up groups that don't need to 'page' up or down, as that seems to be the action that wigs it out.
tom

I don't set up any favorites. I just scan the available channels and work from that list.

The problem cropped up again on Saturday and it was the same culprit I seem to always have. The ZAT failed to read WMAR-2 and its two subs as 2-1, 2-2, 2-3 and instead moved them on the list to 38-1, 38-2, 38-3.

This moved every one of my timers up three channels. My timer for 7-3 instead recorded 11-1, for example.

For the record, all I have to do to get the ZAT to read the PSIP again is to tune to 38. It then reads PSIP 2 and moves the channels back where they belong on the list.

I think I may try locking out channel 2 to see if that solves my problem. We get all the ABC shows off of Channel 7 as well, so we'd only be losing some local stuff.

Update: I removed Channel 2 along with several rarely watched channels from my wife's ZAT. Now we'll see how long we go before a new timer meltdown occurs.

Does anyone know if the Infra Red code(s) used by the Zat 970 match up with any of the cable/satellite box codes included in the TiVo database used by Series 1 TiVos?

The Series 1 machines weren't updated with the converter box database that Series 2 machines were updated with. If you can find a code known to the Series 1 that matches that of a given converter box, tho', there's a work around that's pretty effective.

I've got both DTV Pals and Zat 970s, but one of my Pals may be dying and the TiVo might end up having to use a different box. Be nice if there's a code it knows that'd operate the Zat.

Thanks.

OK. It has been one month since I deleted WMAR Channel 2 (actually 38) from my lineup and I haven't had one timer malfunction since.

I guess that's the only station my ZAT loses the PSIP info for, causing the lineup to reshuffle and alter the timers.

My mother-in-law's GE converter box loses channel 24 all the time, turning it into channel 41. But that converter has no timers and it doesn't do any real harm.

Hi, just got the Zinwell digital converter from amazon.com and was online when trying to find information.
I got rid of my cable and got my friend's magnavox digital converter. Which worked fine until I tried to set the timer on my vcr to record. I got a rude awaking. Long story short, I found out I need a converter for my tv if I want to watch another channel while recording and a converter with a timer for recording when I'm not at home.
Okay this is my setup, an Onkyo receiver that I have my vcr, tv, and dvd player hooked to. The magnavox convertor is hooked up to the vcr. So any idea how I do this?

I don't understand the Onkyo receiver part but the VCR needs to be fed by the Zinwell. You program the Zinwell for the DTV station and time and the VCR for the same time with the VCR channel set to whatever VCR input your feeding the Zinwell ouput into; I use channel L1 via the VCR's composite input for best pic quality (vs CH 3 or 4).

There's good stuff on this topic if you read back through this Zinwell thread.

If you want to watch another channel while recording, you are going to need to connect the Magnovox to the receiver's RCA input, and the Zinwell to the VCR's RCA input. The VCR's output would then go to the receiver. The RCA video outputs of the mag and VCR would have to go to seperate RCA inputs on the TV in order for both to be active. You also have to split the antenna signal to both converter boxes (the VCR doesn't need antenna anymore - its signal will be coming from the RCA input (Zinwell) only).

Be aware that the timer function on the available converter boxes is somewhat to extremely unreliable (depending on several factors related to your particular broadcast market), and the manufacturers have ended all support and production, so any frustration you experience will have no remedy other than to purchase a DVR ($300+).

I had this box for awhile. It was a lot better than the DTVpal (you could set the time manually), but only received about half as many channels. The receiver wasn't as sensitive.

The Zinwell can probably get the same number of channels as your DTVPal. You just have to go through the hassle of knowing the missing channels/frequency and then manually scanning for them.

My Zinwells get all the stations my Channel Master and Artecs (two different tuner versions) do.
The DTVPal is known to have a weak tuner, hence the DTVPal Plus was released with an improved tuner (check the highlight sheet).
My Zinwell ZAT-950A has the same MicroTune tuner as the DTVPal Plus. My Zinwell ZAT-970A give me about the same reception performance as my 950A.
By reason of logic his post doesn't make any sense...

Yeah but then my Zinwell just displayed "no signal" for those channels instead of a picture. Maybe I got a defective unit, because it's performance was substandard.

When it comes to tuners you could have two connected to the same antenna and get different results... I have it with my Zinwell and the tuner in my computer Zinwell does alot better than my computer's ATSC receiver [less dancing with the antenna if you know what I mean]
....
On the Zinwell subject I finally "caught" [more like DVR'ed] the Zinwell resetting itself yesterday / NYC area at 8:02pm:
I had it set to change to FOX 5-1 at 7:59p which it did and at 8:02p the image went all grey the display came on with 12:00am for a couple seconds and the channel changed to ABC 7-1 and the time on the display changed to 8:02p & only the timers that were set for ABC were changed to the last channel WXTV-dt... this is what happens whenever "IT" happens: PSIP loss, engineers playing name games with channels, I just don't know
I was under the impression that the reset/timers changed at the time of the original timer was set for {I have a daily one set for 10pm for ABC 7-1} I don't know if there was a channel change/addition/subtraction or if the name of a channel changed which was my theory for the crazy Zinwell flipping out on occasion...
It is annoying to see cuchifrto news instead of Nightline and whatever the cause wish it could be solved by unplugging the machine on a daily basis.
.
and BTW does anyone even use the 'monthly' timer setting? WTF was that all about, a Sat/Sun setting would have been better.

Sorry I haven't reply recently but my computer died shortly after posting my first post. I've have spent the last week and half trying to catchup on emails plus others things. I haven't set the converter boxes yet will get working on that this afternoon. visualsensation only the Zinwell has the timer and I read how the timer can reset itself. I always did daily programing on my vcr and plan to do so with the Zinwell. The DVR is a much better solution I agree, but until my VCR dies not going to get one.

Okay let me see if I understand what your saying. I need to I connect the red and white RCA cable to the R&L on the magnovox and the input R&L on the receiver. The same thing with the zinwell and vcr. Then take a yellow RCA cable and connect it to the output of vcr and receiver. However you lose me on connecting the single output on Magnovox and the other output on the vcr to inputs on the tv.

FWIW, http://www.meritline.com/ has Zinwell ZAT-970A on sale .. right now for $40.00.

Go here:
http://www.meritline.com/zinwell-dig...--p-47973.aspx

tom

Your links were inactive when I tried.
I guess Amazon is out of the free shipping ones for the same price.
I did see Meritline dropped the price on the Artec TVG models to $50.

I just 5 seconds ago right-clicked on the link, and opened it in a new tab. worked for me, with an eta of 9/20/10 [which I hadn't seen before]
tom

A standard left-click gives me this pop-up:

"The link is not currently active.

There are a number of reasons that you may have received this message. The most common is that the merchant who was advertising is temporarily not-actively promoting that program. If, however, you feel you have reached this page in error, please let us know. Shareasale.com does not tolerate or send any SPAM mail to anyone. If you feel you have been targeted by a SPAM message, we would appreciate if you could forward the message to us at abuse at shareasale.com.

Shareasale.com manages the relationships between advertisers and affiliates, which is why you were directed to our site. Since the link that you clicked is not currently active, you were not redirected to the site.

If you are a new affiliate, your links will not be active until Shareasale.com gets a chance to review your account - you will receive an email when your account is approved and links are activated. This process generally takes around 24 business hours."

but a right-click>menu>open works. Weird.

Probably the way I embedded the URL. I just cut'n'pasted it into the message box.
tom

Well I had two Zinwells and both had lousy reception on weak stations. In contrast my Channel Masters have performed excellently across all 5 receivers.

In case you missed my post in the "other thread", here's a copy of a e-mail I sent to Zinwell:

"Some TV stations are now transmitting MobileTV using MPEG AVC (ITU H.264) video coding. My Zinwell 970A can receive the audio portion of these transmissions but not the video. Can you modify the software, so that the Zinwell boxes can also receive the video ? "

Modifying or making up new software will be easier on boxes that have an RS-232 port but I'm requesting with the Zinwell anyways since they already get the audio. Not all CECB's can aquire the MobileDTVsubchannels onto the channel list.

If your CECB has an RS-232 port, I suggest you contact the mfg/cs to see if they can add MobileTV reception to it. The potential advantages are better reception and more channels

Some major cities (like LA and San Diego/Mexico) are doing trial transmissions right now. In Mexico it's being used for fixed applications. See the HDTV Technical section of avsforum for more info on MobileTV.

Amazon currently has the Zinwell in stock again for $40.00.