Any place still selling Apex, Insignia, or Zenith?

Apparently the Zenith DTT901 has achieved some sort of cult status, since the Amazon new price is $ 159.99 and the used price is $ 64.73. Makes the two I paid $ 10 each for (after $ 40 coupon) seem a real bargain, especially since I still use them daily and they are great.

The Insignia is the same unit other than the exterior cosmetics, but was only sold at Best Buy as far as I know and is no longer listed there.

The Apex 250A is new at Amazon for $ 45.00 and new at Best Buy for $ 54.99. I still see this unit in my local Best Buy also and it seems like the price the last time I looked was lower than that; you may wish to check yourself if you have a store close by.

There are some other units available at Amazon including the Coby DTV102 which is also sold at Best Buy. Personally I wouldn't go with a Coby unless a lot of people vouched for it. The $ 40 Zinwell ZAT-970A is on Amazon.

I love the Zenith DTT901 but not enough to pay $ 159.99! Given your parameters I would say go for the Apex 250A. Good luck!

I've read to avoid the Apex 250s but the 502 (s?) are OK.

I've seen the Zeniths and Insignias at good prices on Craigslist, like $20 or so. Also new ones a little higher. I use the key words "tv converter" but also look at the ads for TVs as many bundle 'em up as if one of the two are free.

Those Amazon prices are just crazy, an Artec is basically the same unit. What code(s) are you looking for?

Good tip! I see those listings frequently. I wonder how the seller would respond if one said "you can keep the TV" My guess is they would want to get rid of the TV since it would only cost them money to dispose of it.

My DTV Pal uses the same code as my Dish receiver.

The Channel Master CM-7000 uses an old, Pioneer cable box code and works with just about every IR blastered recorder.

The LG's use an LG DirecTV DVR code.

RCA's use a pretty common code, too.

I don't know exactly how old your recorder is, but the DVD recorders and remote controls that are more than a few years old are more likely to have the CM and the Dish code than the other two.

(edit: oh, wait - you said "Series 1 TiVo" - that's pretty old. It could have one or both of the other two, but who knows.)

LOL, I wondered that myself on the big boat anchor TVs like consoles. It does look like a majority of them are to sell the box while clearing out the TV, fortunately many are smaller TVs that are easy to carry (stick in the bathroom? ).

There's one guy that keeps listing an old small knob TV with a rabbit ear antenna and box for $85 . I've seen the ad repost weekly for a year or two. He just recently dropped the price to $75 - what a deal!

Fort Worth gives us a whopping two electronic device recycle/dumps per year as part of the sanitation service. But there may be folks that pick them up for their own recycling if listed in the Craigslist Free section.

I'm not familiar with those longer codes.
I looked at my Panasonic U-remote table and the Artec (1577) doesn't match the Zenith/Insignia (1676); don't know if that means anything for your app though.
Unfortunately my Artec (nor Zinwell) manual doesn't say anything about codes like my CM manual that has a ref to Pioneer cable box codes.

Sorry I couln't be of more help.

Indeed, in ref to the Artec being basically the same unit as the Zenith/Insignia (sort of a clone). That being the case I thought there was a chance the Artec may work for you too and they can still be purchased new online at a reasonable price.

The Zenith DTT900 and DTT901 models use the same remote. The Insignia models also use the same remote, bearing the Insignia name.

Many of the Zenith DTT900 and Insignia models produced before March 2008 have the much-discussed sibilance problem. Some of the audio problems were corrected in March and April 2008 production. Keep that in mind when purchasing a DTT900 or a similar Insignia model.

The audio problems were resolved by the time DTT901 production began around 8 April 2008. The DTT901 and the similar Insignia model have the analog pass through feature. Earlier models do not.