Tivax STB-T8 Digital to Analog TV Converter Box
by Tivax
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List Price: Category: Home Theater See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Tivax STB-T8 Digital to Analog TV Converter Box
Customer Review: Impressive Converter Box
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased two Tivax STB-T8 converter boxes based on other reviews I read on Amazon and further research through Google. My experience with the image quality and clarity of digital television using this converter box has exceeded my expectations. The clarity of the television broadcast are truly equal to the image quality you can expect from your home DVD player. The audio quality is also exceptionally clear, you can here clear stereo separation same as your home dvd player or cd player -- impressive for broadcast television. The only weakness of this converter box maybe its remote control. The remote control looks pretty cheap and sometimes the button will stick. However, if cost had to be cut, I am glad they did so with the remote instead of the converter box. A good quality universal remote can be easily obtain from BestBuy, online or your favorite electronics store. Digital Broadcast TV isn't perfect, but its better than old analog broadcast television used to be. Once you have positioned your antenna in the proper direction and obtain a strong enough signal, the clarity of the broadcast is perfect. Bad receptions, ghosting, and snow are experiences of the past. You can expect a perfect picture with the exception of the occasional digital pixalation blip you may get from a dirty or lightly scratched DVD in bad or stormy weather. If you are looking for a broadcast digital TV converter box, place this one on the top of your consideration list.Customer Review: Easy setup
Summary: 4 Stars
This seems to be a really good product. I only say "seems to be" because I am on the outer fringe of all broadcasts in my area. I am in a rural area and can only get a few "over the air" signals late in the evening. But when the signal is coming in from the distant stations, this box works great. I will probably need to get an amplified antenna to notice a big difference.
It is an easy setup, easy to understand. It also lets you know what the signal strength is for each station. It also seems to help with the 2 analog stations that are still being broadcast in my area. It has a standby setting which allows the analog to come through. Good item.
January 2010.
I now have a nice doorstop that looks exactly like a converter box. I did a double rescan, as per the FCC website, and now I get NO stations at all! I contacted the company, but found it very frustrating. The rep wants me to take this unit to someone else's house to see if it will work there. My friends have either cable or dish, so that's not possible. Beside it's silly. It worked at my house right up until I did the double rescan. I guess he thinks that Virginia lost all station transmissions to my street during that hour I rescanned, So, I am watching 3 very fuzzy analog stations (when the weather is good) for the news, Otherwise I use Netflix for entertainment. TV is becoming less and less important, So I will not buy another converter box,
Customer Review: Tivax Reliability and Usability Challenges
Summary: 2 Stars
I purchased this Tivax unit a few months ago when I decided to drop my local cable provider in favor of an over-the-air source.
The first thing I noticed when using this device is how sensitive either the remote or receiver are when in use. For example if the Tivax unit it installed low (on a shelf next to the TV) it's almost impossible to get the remote to change stations on the first click so you end up waving your arm around like you're flagging down a taxi. Putting the reciever on top of the set seems to help a bit. In an case my 10+ year old electronics components have less sensitive remotes than this Tivax unit.
More importantly is the reliability of the unit. When watching tv for an extended period of time like a football game the Tivax will error-out and display a black square that covers 75% of the screen. All the controls still work and you can change stations but the black box does not go away. The only way I've found to fix it is to power off the box then start it again. Today for example during a football game I needed to turn it off and on about 6 times. Not a big deal when you're home alone but if I was hosting a football party I would've been laughed at!
I would've given the Tivax receiver 1 star but the guide feature is pretty nice though not as nice as most cable or satellite providers offer. Hopefully the Amazon purchasing staff can work with Tivax to improve their quality control.
Customer Review: Works Well Great Picture
Summary: 5 Stars
After visiting review sites of digital to analog TV converter boxes, I chose this model. More than one review in particular noted that the picture quality of the conversion was excellent. Picture quality is paramount for me. Well, the reviews were correct. The picture quality is excellent. Admittedly I don't know a lot about analog to digital and digital to analog converters, but this one works very well. Very easy to set up, and easy to understand and navigate menus. I was up and running with high definition digital programing on my old CRT/Cathode Ray TV in approximately ten minutes.
Whether any converter would give you the same picture quality I cannot say. My instinct tells me that a digital signal should be pristine no matter what the receiver, so I guess the key is in interpreting/converting that digital signal to a clear crisp analog signal for your old TV to display. If that is the key then this unit does a very good job. Per the reviews better than many other models.
In the end I paid a bit more for this unit (picture quality was important to me) as the average price for a converter, I think is about $50.00 per unit. I paid 60.00 ($59.99). Note: Amazon dropped the price by $10.00 since I bought it. Now it sells for $49.99. Now it is inline with the average price (as I understand it). With the $40.00 Government rebate this is a very affordable unit. If you buy it I don't think you will be disappointed.
Customer Review: updated...no longer a rip off
Summary: 4 Stars
i agree, i shouldn't have given it as poor of a rating as i did; however, value is included in rating...and considering the price they were selling the item for, it definitely deserved no better than 3/5 (previously, i gave 1/5). anyways...i'm happy amazon finally came around and lowered the price. it appears they're out of the item now.
for those of you that said i didn't leave a review of the product, you didn't read far enough (look at the 2nd paragraph, below).
previous review:
why pay amazon 80 when you can buy it for 1/2 somewhere else?
amazon... why don't you understand that no one will buy this item unless you lower your profits, i mean price!
from research i personally decided this converter and the zenith dtt901 were the best available (~10/1/8). tonight, i plugged both into the best of 2 antennas (an amplified antenna from radio shack) to my 43" hd widescreen tv.
advantages of this tivax: better quality picture, could view ~6 hours in advance of up-coming shows.
disadvantages of this tivax: bars above/below picture on hd channels unless zoomed in, could not list info from other channels without changing to that channel and then pressing info.
advantages of zenith dtt901: good picture, could view info from other channels while on another channel.
disadvantages: could not view up-coming shows, bars on sides of picture on non-hd channels.