Digital TV Converter Box ?

[tinkerbell615]

I have also posted this question on the budget board because I need to purchase one, but I have not gotten any responses yet so I thought I would also post here.

We need to purchase a digital converter box, but know absolutely nothing about them. Can any of you tell me the best place to buy one? Can you tell me what to look for? Unfortunately, we did not need one when the coupons were available, so we are looking for the most reasonable place and price.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Imzadi]

Try Craigslist. I'm sure way too many bought them, who didn't find out till after the conversion that they didn't actually need the converter after all, as their TV is already digitized.

 

[crazytp93]

I work in government, get them ASAP.

Changes are coming to improve the service, so the price will only go up.

 

[FireDancer]

I would check Best Buy and Wal-Mart locally (without any screeching kids of course) or Amazon or NewEgg online. You can also find some deals on eBay from people who bought them with the coupons and are trying to cash our or people who bought them and then later upgraded to cable or satellite. The same goes for Amazon, they will also have used equipment.

They are pretty much all the same. Some have added features like parental controls and channel guides but they are all withing about $30 of each other.

The box, however, is only half of the equation. The antenna you have is also important. A digital signal is more directional and doesn't have the range of analog (all things being equal and this is a bit of a simplification) so you might need to switch from a passive to an active (powered) antenna. There is a good site here that explains the difference and has a configuration tool that takes your area and shows you what antenna will get what channels in your area.

 

[tinkerbell615]

I would check Best Buy and Wal-Mart locally (without any screeching kids of course) or Amazon or NewEgg online. You can also find some deals on eBay from people who bought them with the coupons and are trying to cash our or people who bought them and then later upgraded to cable or satellite. The same goes for Amazon, they will also have used equipment.

They are pretty much all the same. Some have added features like parental controls and channel guides but they are all withing about $30 of each other.

The box, however, is only half of the equation. The antenna you have is also important. A digital signal is more directional and doesn't have the range of analog (all things being equal and this is a bit of a simplification) so you might need to switch from a passive to an active (powered) antenna. There is a good site here that explains the difference and has a configuration tool that takes your area and shows you what antenna will get what channels in your area.

FireDancer... Thanks! I guess I am just really clueless about these things. Where exactly on this site does it show me the best antenna? Can you actually pick up channels other than local channels with this converter box?

 

[FireDancer]

FireDancer... Thanks! I guess I am just really clueless about these things. Where exactly on this site does it show me the best antenna? Can you actually pick up channels other than local channels with this converter box?

Uh, oops, wrong link, sorry about that. Here is the link to chose an antenna. What it does is use your address to make a best guess on the distance you can expect a signal from based on the antenna type. I am just southwest of Cleveland and with a powerful enough antenna I can get channels from Canton and Sandusky. Having a lot of tall structures around you (like a building in the way) or living close to something that will provide interference (like an airport) all comes into play but it will give you an idea.

If you are in an area with digital substations you might get channels you don't even know exist. For example, Universal Sports is a channel owned and operated by NBC. In NYC NBC is channel 4 and Universal Sports is channel 4.4. If you are in a rural area but a strong antenna can get you a larger city's broadcasts your chance of getting these subchannels goes up.

 

[tinkerbell615]

Thanks!

 

[SanFranciscan]

I bought a converter box from Target a couple of weeks ago because we have decided to cancel the cable service we got due to the digital conversion. Our converter box was $49.00 and says that we can get extra channels with it. I don't know what these channels are, if any, because we haven't hooked it up yet. Of course, I don't want a bunch of channels, which can be a nuisance. I just want my channels.

I don't think you'll need to spend much on a converter box. Digital conversion was long enough ago that the demand is down. Yet you might find that the converter boxes could start coming off of the market due to declining demand, especially since the electronics companies want you to buy a new television instead.

 

[bicker]

Given that the demand for the boxes has plummeted to near-zero (and the fact that all new televisions have the digital tuners already built-in), many folks are reporting difficult finding the over-the-air digital television converter boxes available for sale. Unfortunately, the best bets may be the auction sites. A lot of folks "speculated" when the coupon program was going on, and bought boxes they didn't need, figuring that they'd sell them and pocket the value of the coupons. These folks are now trying to unload the converter boxes (and finding not much of a market for them, by the way).

 

[tinkerbell615]

Given that the demand for the boxes has plummeted to near-zero (and the fact that all new televisions have the digital tuners already built-in), many folks are reporting difficult finding the over-the-air digital television converter boxes available for sale. Unfortunately, the best bets may be the auction sites. A lot of folks "speculated" when the coupon program was going on, and bought boxes they didn't need, figuring that they'd sell them and pocket the value of the coupons. These folks are now trying to unload the converter boxes (and finding not much of a market for them, by the way).

How do you know if you already have a digital tuner built-in your television? We have an LCD television that was purchased in December 2008. How would we know?

 

[Imzadi]

Given that the demand for the boxes has plummeted to near-zero (and the fact that all new televisions have the digital tuners already built-in), . . . These folks are now trying to unload the converter boxes (and finding not much of a market for them, by the way).

That's why I said in the second post to try Craigslist. Someone in the OP's neighborhood probably has one to unload.

 

[tinkerbell615]

That's why I said in the second post to try Craigslist. Someone in the OP's neighborhood probably has one to unload.

You guys are probably correct, but before I look for one I would like to know how to see if you have a digital tuner built in your television. I did not know there even was such a thing. LOL.

 

[bicker]

What you're looking for is "ATSC" or "8VSB" in the specifications. Alternatively, it may just say: "Tuner: digital" or something like that.

What's the model number of your television? I can look it up for you.

 

[Imzadi]

If your TV was made and bought after a certain date/year, they all are supposed to have a digital tuner inside. I don't know the year. Bicker probably does. It was in all the instructions for when the FCC made the announcement about the upcoming switch. It's probably online somewhere.

You could probably Google your TV model number and see if it has a digital tuner and/or what year it was made.

 

[tinkerbell615]

Okay... I have checked our television model online and it says we do have built in digital tuner and all we need is an antenna. We can purchase that and thanks very much for the info on that.

Now what do we do? How do we start? I am hoping some of you very knowlegeable people can help. As you can tell... we have never done this before.

 

[bicker]

If your TV was made and bought after a certain date/year, they all are supposed to have a digital tuner inside.

Or no tuner. That's allowed... typically the television, in that case, is called a "display" or "monitor". What that law, that you're alluding to in your message, prohibited was the sale of televisions that had an analog tuner, but not an ATSC digital tuner.

I don't know the year. Bicker probably does.

May 25, 2007. (Had to look up the specific date though. The memory is clouding y'know, as time goes on.)

 

[FireDancer]

Okay... I have checked our television model online and it says we do have built in digital tuner and all we need is an antenna. We can purchase that and thanks very much for the info on that.

Now what do we do? How do we start? I am hoping some of you very knowlegeable people can help. As you can tell... we have never done this before.

I am pretty sure almost any LCD TV bought in the last 5 years will have a digital tuner.

All you need to do is get an antenna and plug it into the television. Find a hole that looks like the plug fits and point your tuner to whatever that hole is labeled. Most televisions have a function that scans all the channels and then saves those with a detectable signal.

The same antennas that would have worked with the converter box will work with the TV with the same ranges.

 

[bicker]

Okay... I have checked our television model online and it says we do have built in digital tuner and all we need is an antenna. We can purchase that and thanks very much for the info on that.

Now what do we do? How do we start? I am hoping some of you very knowlegeable people can help. As you can tell... we have never done this before.

If I cannot help you here, I belong to a forum which exists solely to help you get up and running. (LINK)

The first step is to get a survey of television reception for your location. Start by clicking the
TVFool Transmitter Locater link, below, and following the instructions under the link.

TVFool Transmitter Locater

Enter the exact Address & Zip Code, or, in very rural areas enter the GPS Coordinates, to acquire the most accurate information.

...

To Post your Chart:
On the second page, if you look right above the Graph and Station Chart, you will notice a Link line in bold script.
That is the one which you should copy and paste into your post, where when necessary, others can view your complete chart with you.

Warning
Please do not post your home address or personal information in your post. We will never need to know that kind of detail.

 

[bicker]

I am pretty sure almost any LCD TV bought in the last 5 years will have a digital tuner.

Again, or no tuner. I know this is off-topic, but I thought I should share a bit more on that point, since it might not be obvious why someone would want to buy a television without a tuner.

Tuners are not cheap. They're one of the parts of the television that are a significant source of cost. So if you buy a television with a tuner, and you don't actually use the tuner (I'm guilty), then you're essentially wasting money. To be fair, you're not wasting too much money. Even though tuners are costly, you don't save that much money buying a monitor.

Like I said, I'm guilty. I have FiOS TV service, hooked into my TiVo. Then the TiVo is connected to my television, via an HDMI connection. If you're using an HDMI connection (or the yellow video connection, or the black s-video connection, or the red/green/blew component video connection) to get the video to your television, you're not using your tuner in your television. Only that round, typically-screw-on coaxial cable connection feeds signal into your television's tuner.

In my case, I'm using the tuner that's in my TiVo. If you have a DVR, you're probably just using the tuner in the DVR, not the tuner in your television.

In the OP's case, you need the tuner -- absolutely. Rabbit ears, over-the-air reception -- definitely need the tuner. And that's increasingly going to be the only case when you're going to make use of the tuner in your television. Already, satellite services require you to use the tuner in their receivers and DVRs, instead of the one in your television, and that's either already the case for most levels of service for most cable companies or they've got plans already in motion to make it the case within the next year or two, though in the case of cable companies, there is another option: CableCARD. Very very few televisions, though, are CableCARD-capable, and you will pay extra for that capability.

All you need to do is get an antenna and plug it into the television.

Please keep in mind, though, that not just any ol' antenna will necessarily work for you. That link I posted above is intended to help you (1) figure out what kind of antenna you need, and (2) help you understand what channels you'll be able to tune in with that antenna.

 

[Kirby]

We have two digital converter boxes. One is a Zenith and the other an APEX. We much prefer the Zenith.

We've never had cable or dish at the house we currently live in. We have a huge antenna in the attic that our main tv is hooked up to. We get a number of "new" channels that we did not used to get, mainly from joining tv areas. Some overlap our main channels and others are totally different programs.

We hooked up our bedroom tv at the last minute to an APEX converter box and purchase rabbit ears. We had to get the more expensive rabbit ears to pick up the channels. We could have hooked the tv up to the antenna in the attic but it would have been difficult where the tv currently is.