Samsung DTB-H260F ATSC tuner - Page 108

I agree. Any chance for warranty repair or replacement?

I feel your pain, truly.

Your bad tuner may be to blame for seeing a difference in PQ between Component and HDMI. HD TV's need to be calibrated per input. But, I assure you, with properly functioning equipment and proper calibration the PQ is identical. Professional installers, also having the same HDMI issues (handshaking, incompatibilities, etc..) have chosen Component over HDMI for years. They know the PQ is identical but lacks the technical issues and hiccups associated with HDMI.

But I do understand the convenience factor with HDMI. I run both HDMI and Component to the TV as I often have no need to have a 980 watt AVR running to watch basic source material.

You got caught between technologies with IR and BT, same here. BT is the future of remotes and IR will slowly disappear. More and more consumer devices are incorporating BT, even the low end AVR's on the market.

I think there is a lesson to be learned here about who you buy your electronics from. It is tempting to go with the cheapest online retailer, but it is very difficult to judge how well a product will perform based on written reviews. There is something to be said for buying from a place that has a good return policy, even if it is a little more expensive.

I think even the most generous return policy would have expired long before I finally got the system up and running and debugged sufficiently to understand which component was misbehaving and why. Perhaps if they had a 1 year return or some such that would be different but which retailer does that?

Basically, I think of this as being self-insured. It is difficult to justify paying double for something from a retailer that has no better return policy than a generic online dealer. I do tend to stay away from the bargain basement dealers, however, for some items, I have had good success buying from them.

The place you REALLY have to be careful of is EBAY. On ebay, you could be buying a unit that is defective, has passed thru three people trying to unload a defective unit because it was a "grey market" item whose warranty the manufacturer will not honor and it cannot be returned to the seller.

My gear was purchased from a variety of sources. I bought the TV from a local retailer specifically because of the return policy and practicality of actually returning the unit in the event that was necessary. I regret buying the AV receiver via ebay because I cannot send it back now that it's a year old. SONY honored the warranty (advance exchange program) but this SONY model just sucks (DA-5300ES). It is a dog. It has taken a year to realize that and now it is too late.

I agree about reading online reviews, especially of consumer electronics. Be very wary - retailers write fictious reviews using pseudonyms, professional reviewers are paid to write reviews, periodiclas have to cow-tow to the advertisers, ...

I did a search of this thread and had two questions I could not find answers to.

Are the color buttons **needed** to navigate the guide? I have a universal remote which does not have the color buttons and was wondering if you can navigate simply with the arrow buttons. Otherwise it may be a pain with my universal remote.

Second, is there a way to setup to have closed caption when muting?

Thanks!

I don't understand your need of buying this box either. If your TV has a digital tuner, why would you think you'd get better video from an external tuner box? And first you say you bought the Samsung because it has HDMI output, why do you then switch gears and say you connected it up via the component outputs? As for changing the volume, you set the volume level of the Samsung box to 100% max and don't touch it again. If you want to adjust the volume out of your TV, you adjust the TV's volume control, not the Samsung box.

There's also a switch in the back that needs to be adjusted depending on whether you use the HDMI or component video output. It's called DTV Out Select.

I only use the arrows for guide navigation on my universal remote, works fine. You'll just need to program a button on the remote to bring up the guide or main menu including the guide to start.

Unfortunately, I think this was part of your overall dilemma, in that you bought a number of devices all at once and then tried to hook them all up long after a normal return period. This was then compounded by the fact that you were unfamiliar with this newer technology.

I have fourteen AV devices in my main AV rack (not including my TV) and I added each as an individual unit to avoid the very issues you are having (incompatibilities, glitches, handshake issues, etc...). Until I am familiar with the most recent addition and comfortable with it's performance and features, then I add a new component as needed. And, yeah, that involved a couple of hiccups and returns as well. Same thing with my other AV devices throughout the house, and they all play nice together.

Again, I agree with you on how poorly the CE industry has implemented such new features like HDMI with all of it's issues. But if you added such devices, slowly, you could have returned each and every one of those components that was not to your liking including the H260f.

I don't have mine setup right now, but the user manual says you can use the guide without using the color buttons:

1 Press the MENU button on your remote control.
2 Use the </> buttons to select the
Guide menu and press the ENTER
button. Use the ^/V buttons
to select Go to Full Guide and press
the ENTER button. The Full
Guide screen will appear. You may
also go to this screen directly by
using the GUIDE button. Once in this
screen, you can navigate using the
buttons on your remote control.


The manual seems to say that captions are either on or off. There's no "on with mute" setting.

bcarlsen and toby 10.

Thanks for the help!

Depending on how sophisticated your universal remote is, you may be able to create a macro to do that, and you may even be able to assign it to the mute button.

I have a Panasonic pro plasma without internal tuner so I bought this tuner hoping to get some OTA HDTV. Thus far I am pretty pleased. The picture looks great. I'm connected to the box via HDMI to my Denon 889 AVR which connects to my plasma via HDMI without any hiccups at all. My only complaint is the aspect ratio problem. It seems if you have a 16:9 HDTV then choose "full" will automatically stretch your 4:3 content. When choosing "pillar box" it'll automatically squeeze your 16:9 content. It seems I can't preserve the original aspect ratios for both widescreen and fullscreen. I can only pick one or the other, so I've basically picked to stick with full and deal with the stretch. Anyone find a way around this? Thanks.

This has never been an issue for me. I use this box for watching HD channels on a projector. All of the HD channels I get put out a widescreen image - even when those channels show SD programming, they put the black bars on the side and upscale it to HD. I guess if I wanted to watch a 480i channel and I wanted the aspect ratio to be correct, I would change the aspect ratio on the projector (which is just a click of a button - no menus to go through).

I think the true HD channels place black bars on the side so it's in a sense a 16:9 full picture with black bars placed in. A true SD channel with 4:3 ratio will get stretched. I just wish there was a way to leave the aspect ratio in its original form. Seems like this isn't the case.

The Samsung just doesn't have the Automatic Frame Description that some newer tuners do. Your only real recourse is to flip through the aspect button for each channel as you tune to it.

Using the Echostar DTVPAL DVR gives you a tuner at least as good, with DVR AND it can automatically adjust each channel to the aspect that the station is sending out.

Me too, never been an issue. I output to a commercial plasma monitor like the OP. H260f is set to FULL and never touched it since.

I see absolutely no stretching or squeezing whatsoever. I will simply toggle my monitors aspect as needed between Anamorphic and Stadium (a *very* accurate stretch/justify)

I just picked up one of these tuners and I am trying to get the QAM tuner to work. I have removed everything in the signal path, e.g. extra splitters, power strip..., and I have done all three types of scans for cable and have had no luck at all. I even disconnected the cable that I have connected to a TV that is receiving QAM without a problem, did the scan(s) and got nothing. The only thing I can think of is that the QAM signals are somehow encrypted such that the Samsung tuner will not detect them. Could that be the case?

Thanks, jt, I'll try there.

Another possibility is your cable co's QAM ch's are in analog. The H260f will only tune in digital ch's via QAM or OTA. Anything in analog will not be seen by the H260f.

Thanks, Toby I've posted your question the Omaha thread.here.

I have an OTA outdoor antenna and cable with some Analog (and I assume some Clear QAM) Channels seen without subscription. I don't have a Cable Box at the moment. How I can connect both coax cables to a single coax Input of H260F? Will I be able to switch by H260F's Remote between Digital OTA and QAM Channels? Can the box scan and remember all channels from both these cables?

- To use both cable and OTA input you must use an A/B switch, a simple splitter will cause interference
- Analog cable ch's will be passed through (not tuned) on your H260f, but then your TV must have a cable tuner to get analog ch's
- Yes, you switch via the remote between CBL and OTA tuning
- Yes, it will remember all tuned ch's per input (CBL/OTA)

Remember you will only get UNENCRYPTED QAM ch's via cable, this box is NOT a replacement for a cable STB converter.

Thanks. Is that what "configurable" means: the tuner mode is selectable by user via Remote without firmware change or factory preset? Which model of Samsung VSB-NIM is used in 260? Will it tune to Clear QAM HD, or only to SD digital cable channels?

Also, you say, both QAM and OTA channel sets will be remembered simultaneously and easily switchable. Why then 260 can't remember all channel sets, obtained from different OTA antenna orientation angles? Is there a way to restore a channel set from previous angle without rescanning (may be from a USB Stick or PC, etc.)?

Can you recommend a cheap Remote controlled A/B Switch? Can it be controlled by the same Samsung Remote (how: via 260 or directly)? Would a Combiner or single Diplexer like this (but for Cable & OTA signal combo) right before H260F also interfere with signal quality? Or Diplexers must be used only in pairs, or can't be used to combine Cable with OTA?

Can signals from 2 identical OTA Antennas, set at different angles, be combined in a Combiner or single Diplexer? Will Samsung 260 tune and remember all the channels from such combined signal?

Also, are Terminators required for each unused coax Splitter port, or just plastic Caps? Which Splitter and Terminator makes / models are recommended for OTA and Cable? Will the same models be good for both signal types (in separate OTA and Cable TV Coax runs)?

Sorry for asking so many questions, but proper H260F setup has many aspects.

- No, a true A/B switch must be used for OTA and QAM. Mine is a manual switch (I rarely ever bother with QAM). There may be a remote operated A/B RF switch out there somewhere, dunno.
- I dunno about using a combiner for two set top antennas. If you are going to that length then just get a decent outdoor multi-directional antenna. I wouldn't mess with multiple indoor antennas.

I was talking about 2 OTA Yagi antennas of the same model. Can signal from both be combined?

I'm pretty sure you can but there may be some issues. I think it's important to have the same length of coax going to each antenna from the combiner. I think I saw an article on antennas direct website. I'd be interested to hear if you can make it work. Report back.

Two antennas = interferometer?

No - if done correctly, 2 antennas = twice the gain