Some Facts About Digital TV Converter Boxes

On February 17, 2009, all TV stations in the US will switch from analog to digital and there are many different digital television converter (DTV) boxes for sale now. There are still a lot of people who are unaware of this change and still a lot of confusion with the electronic stores and consumers.

Who needs a DTV converter box.

If you have cable or satellite, you do not need a DTV converter box for those televisions connected to the service, it doesn’t matter if your television is the older analog or newer digital.

But even if you have cable or satellite, any analog television not connected to the pay service will need a converter box.

If you aren’t using cable or satellite and use an outdoor antenna or rabbit ears type antennas and your television is of the analog type, you will need a digital converter box.

If you are using a digital television you don’t need to worry about a converter box at all, whether you have cable or not. Most televisions sold after May 2007 should be digital.

How do you know what your TV is, if the television says on it or in the manual “NTSC” or analog tuner, then it’s an analog television. By now most stations are transmitting in the normal analog and also the digital signal, find their digital channel and you can try your television.

What is the cost of a digital converter box

The government is giving away 2 free DTV box coupons per qualifying household, you can go to their web page and get one or two coupons at https://www.dtv2009.gov/

These coupons are worth $40 a piece. Most of the DTV converters range between $60 and $80 right now.

Features.

Everyone wants this feature or that feature, and it seems no box has all the features some people want.

You will see the phrase analog pass-through. What this does is let you watch an analog station without having to disconnect the box. These types might be useful for people living along the Mexico or Canada border and watch those countries stations, since they will not be converting to digital until a later date, and they will still be analog.

Some low power TV stations (LPTV) in the US will also continue to broadcast in analog after the switch date, so if you normally watch one of those, you will want to have the analog pass-through version, that way you can watch the digital stations and the analog stations without having to disconnect the DTV box each time. By this time most boxes might be the pass-through so it won’t matter if that’s what you get.

Another consideration is if the box has S-Video connectors or not, that will be your choice.

The ability to add channels manually has some importance as well and not all boxes have this capability.

The best converter boxes.

There are many boxes to choose from.

One of the best boxes is the Zenith DTT-901, this costs $59.99 at Circuit City.

The Insignia NS-DXA1-APT is the same box as the above Zenith, just a different name because it’s the Best Buy store brand name. It costs $59.99 at Best Buy.

The Channel Master CM-7000 has a good picture and this one does have the S-Video connectors on it. It costs $50 to $60 depending on where you buy it, there might be shipping costs as well.

Some reviews say that the Zenith/Insignia boxes pick up weaker signals better than many of the other converter boxes, and this could be important in many parts of the United States.

Consumer Reports writes that the Tivax STB-T9 as one of the best pictures.

All these prices are before using the coupon, so subtract $40 if you are using a government coupon.

Here is a list of DTV boxes and features from Consumer Reports: Click on each brand name and see the Consumer Reports notes.

Consumer Reports compares digital converter boxes

Compare DTV boxes and features

CNET reviews DTV converter boxes

Sam Montana © 27 November 2008