Queue up for a digital set top box coupon for CT-100, etc...

[kbmuri]

The Philco and Magnavox units are mostly identical. The Magnavox has a power switch. The cases are different colors (Philco is white, Mx is black).




These two do not seem to have the low-audio/intercarrier-buzz problem that the Zenith/Insignia units have. I think the Digitalstream also has low audio, not quite as bad, but bad enough. These two have good audio. Also they pass-thru the antenna feed when not in use. Only drawback is the remotes aren't programmable for the TV, and they do not adjust volume internally (you have to use the TV set's remote for those functions -- not an issue on a '40s roundie though!).

So for your new set, for general use, the Zenith/Insignia is best. The menus are cool, the remotes program, and the boxes have internal volume control.

For your ancient roundies, Magnavox/Philco is the way to go.

I still don't have an RCA, so the jury's still out on that one. Anybody having low-audio/buzz problems with it? What are its pros and cons?

[Phil Nelson]

My coupons finally arrived (two months after applying on the website). I went to Wal-Mart looking for a Magnavox, but they only had RCAs, which looked so cheesy that I passed.

At Circuit City I bought a Zenith DTT900. I initially tested it with a 1980s solid state color TV and was quite impressed. Setup is a snap; it found about 20 channels.

This was using a Radio Shack amplified rabbit ear antenna. In this neighborhood, everybody has satellite TV. Analog reception on rabbit ears is marginal: only a few stations, lots of fiddling with the antenna, and reception is often degraded if you walk within a few feet of the antenna.

Using the DTV box, reception was dramatically improved in every way. Video and audio are excellent -- and look at all those new channels.

I next moved to the room where my RCA 630TS lives and hooked it up. Again, dramatic improvement over what you could get with naked rabbit ears. I have never seen this kind of performance from my 630, apart from playing a DVD.

I had heard other reports about low audio volume with the Zenith/Insignia boxes, but that does not seem to be a problem here.

I did switch the audio to mono using the menu, and turned up the box volume all the way. With those settings, I get good volume and excellent fidelity with the 630's volume control turned up one-third to halfway at most. That's higher than I would turn it using analog rabbit ears, but there is still plenty of "headroom" if you want to turn it to get blasting volume (& eventually distortion).

The converter turns my beloved 630 into a practical daily watcher, as opposed to a novelty that you demo for occasional visitors. You can basically sit back and change channels with the remote. I need to get out of the habit of darting up to fiddle with the picture control, fine tuning, etc., for every channel change.

A few of the channels discovered during the initial setup with a modern TV were not watchable on the 630 (freezing or blanking out). Again, these TVs are located in parts of the house and this is a marginal reception area, so that may be understandable.

A good initial experience, in short.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html