Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)After doing a lot of research, I decided to wait for this converter before getting my coupons. I recommend it, but it does have its drawbacks.
The Pros
1) I'm getting 22 crystal clear channels now, compared to 3 clear and 7 fuzzy analog stations I was getting before.
2) The Guide, presents you with a grid that you can page through to see whats on.
3) The Search presents you with a chronological list of what's on, and can be filtered by spelling part of the name. And then you can SAVE your searches for future use. For example FOOTBALL can be saved and reused every Saturday.
4) The Browse feature, is great when you are watching something, but would really like to see what else is on, or what's going to be on next. This lets you explore other channels and other time slots, while not missing the dialog of the current show. I use this feature when I want to explore during commercials and don't want to miss out when the show resumes.
5) The event timer is great, because I go through the list of shows and have the unit change all my channels automatically after I planned my viewing for the day. You can set up an event timer while using the guide, search or browse function.
6) One of my favorite features is I can rename the channels, so I can call the stations ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CW instead of the number and call letters, which is great because I travel a lot and can never remember the channels.
7) These boxes can be controlled with Echostar and Dish codes for universal remotes, which is good because there is no way to control this box without a remote. No Power, +- Channel, no menus.... .
The Cons:
1) Tech support isn't too sharp. I've had 3 problems and tech support couldn't solve any of them, and didn't give me any usable guidance.
2) I had the clock time wrong which was really annoying because it kept showing me the information for the previous show when changing channels. This also screwed up the event timer. It wouldn't work because the time was wrong. There is no way to correct the time through any menu options. I called tech support 2 times and both techs kept telling me that the time was picked up from the individual channels. Well how could ALL OF THEM be 20 minutes behind. Finally I reinstalled the unit, and the time self corrected on ALL the channels. It appears the long power outage that we had screwed up the clock.
3) I have several of these units under the TR40CRa and DTVPal label, but on one, the remote isn't working well for me, sometimes only changing channels when the remote is held 2 inches in front of the box. I changed the batteries out and I swapped out the remote. Neither action helped. The only way to correct this, is to unplug the unit and then plug it back in, sometimes several times until the unit until the green light goes out and stays out. I'm thinking that this happens anytime there is any stress put on the cords, but I can't cause it to happen on purpose, so it might be caused by some download going on in the background. Its really annoying when it happens.
4) This unit REQUIRES A REMOTE, there is no way to operate it without a remote. If your prone to misplacing your remote you will have a real problem because after february 2009, you won't be able to fall back to analog if your remote goes missing!!
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