Customer Reviews

ATSC / QAM (HD) / NTSC (Pass-through Only)Tuner Receiver Box

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In addition to its application with cable TV, this receiver enables your TV or video recorder to pick up high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) digital broadcasts from your existing TV antenna. (Unless you have an HD television, HD broadcasts will only display in SD mode.)

Any antenna that works for both VHF and UHF analog stations will also work with digital broadcasts. The better the antenna, the more stations you will be able to receive.

If your TV only has an RF input, then you will also need a video-to-RF converter.

The receiver also picks up analog channels, but this feature will no longer be useful once analog stations shut down in Feb 2009.

The unit does a good job of picking up the channels, and reception of local area stations has been reliable so far.

The manual has a very good explanation of general concepts, but it is not so good at explaining how to do things. For example, it says you can use the master channel list to add or remove channels, but it fails to mention that you can only add channels that you previously removed, and it doesn't tell you what buttons to press to make the changes. You have to figure that out on your own. (You use the right arrow key to move the cursor over to the list, the up and down arrow keys to move the cursor from one channel to annother, and the OK button to add or remove whatever channel the cursor is on.)

Another example is running manual scans. This is something you may need to do if you have a directional antenna that you can rotate and there are some stations that are in a different direction from the others. You would first run auto-scan with the antenna pointed at the main group, and then you would point your antenna at the other stations and do individual manual scans for any that were too weak to be picked up with the antenna pointed in the other direction. The user's manual doesn't explain any of this, but what's worse, it doesn't tell you that you have to enter the actual physical channel numbers that the digital channels are on rather than the virtual channel numbers that are normally displayed on the screen. So for example, if Channel 2 in your area has three digital channels associated with it, they would be identified on your screen something like 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3, but if you do a manual scan on channel 2, it won't find any of them. What you have to do is go online and look up the physical channel number for Channel 2's digital broadcasts and enter that. Then the receiver will find them, assuming the signal strength is adequate.

For those who are wondering, one place to look up the physical channel numbers is on the National Association of Broadcasters' (NAB) "Antennaweb" site. They don't allow URLs in reviews, so you will have to search for it. Once you have found it, click on "Choose an Antenna," enter your zip code, and continue through the menus until you get a list of stations available in your area. The physical channel numbers are in the right hand column, labeled "Frequency Assignment." (You can leave the name and address fields blank if you want.)

Some other things that could be improved:

After pressing the Guide button twice, there is a little signal strength display which could be useful for getting your antenna aimed in the optimal direction, but it's not very sensitive to changes in antenna direction.

The on-screen menu display times out after 15 or 20 seconds. It would have been nice if they could have included a menu item to make the timeout user-selectable, or even have it stay on the screen until the button is pressed again. This would be especially useful when using the signal strength display to aim your antenna.

One feature I would have liked to have seen is a timer that would allow me to program the unit to tune different channels on different days and times. There are a lot of legacy VCRs, DVD recorders, and DVRs out there, so I would think there would be some demand for that feature.

On the other hand, whether this unit is less expensive than buying a digital-capable recording device is not something I've researched.

This unit is also considerably more expensive than the Zenith set-top box. I haven't seen the Zenith yet, but if you are just going to use it to enable your old analog TV set to pick up digital channels, you might be better off getting it instead.

epvsales delivered as promised ... prompt and in good order. This is the only external tuner I found that hooked up to my basic cable and received all the same cable stations and some extra digital ones. Bought it to facilitate my Sony Bravia picture-in-picture (PIP) function ... worked great. HDMI connection would have been nice, but component cables work good.

I purchased this because its a relatively new on the market and isn't well known. I wanted something that did everything and this delivers.

The PHD-205 is breeze to set up, and has a variety of video outputs to use including composite, component, VGA, and DVI. Pretty much any TV you own can use this box as long as it has a video input.

The menus are easy to navigate and use large easy to read text. It will automatically locate channels both in digital and analog. The hi-definition picture is simply stunning - especially with over the air reception - blows the cable away.

The best part is, this box decodes everything. It will also decode the DTV when the changeover occurs in 2009. It will even decode cable tv if you have it.

All in all, this box rocks. Best thing I did for my HDTV. If you receive TV over the air and have HD capability - you need this box. Forget the rest.

Unit itself works well but the remote is truly awful, very hard to use and it does not work more then about 5 feet from the unit, totally unacceptible, would never recommend. On screen TV guide is also very poor.

The unit itself works great whether it's OTA or Cable broadcasting. Offers several different connection options for older TV's as well as HDTV's. However, the remote is just awful. The reliable range of the remote is somewhere between 4-6 feet (no joke). I've (painstakingly) programmed a universal remote to eliminate this problem. I would give the whole package a 4 star rating if it weren't for the awful remote.

I was loving this product. It's one of the few that actually performs as an HD Tuner. It allows me to watch high definition programs on my projector. However, from the beginning I noticed it runs very hot. After a few weeks it quit working.

I'm just wrapping up the shake-down period for this box. It had an issue with H-synch on certain channels and reception issues on digital channels, I contacted the manufacturer on this and was told to implement a minor modification to the circuit to get better performance. It now works great. Although you could count this apparent defect against the product, the willingness of the company to share information and allow the customer to make his own mods is a strong positive. (the mod required a pile of soldering equipment and some skill to disassemble the unit safely, if you don't have experience, you should have it done professionally, or wait for the next release). I only get 3 HD stations from my cable company. The main issue is that my cable company is stingy and encrypts most of the channels, even ones I don't think it is legally allowed to! I hope a future model will have a cable card reader. I am using the DVI output at 720p. It is not a great match for my dell widescreen flat panel display but it works well enough. It's much better than the Panasonic VCR I was previously using as a tuner!