Dish Network TR40CRA

by Dish Network

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B001HWTSYY
• Item model number: TR40CRA
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,073 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 16, 2006

Product Description

The TR-40 is a digital-to-analog converter box that will get your analog TV ready for the Digital Transition. With the TR-40, you will be able to continue watching digital TV broadcasts with your analog TV.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Digital TV - FREE, November 3, 2008

By 

Vicky (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dish Network TR40CRA (Electronics)

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!!

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Converter box so far.., November 8, 2008

By 

Danny K (Middletown, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dish Network TR40CRA (Electronics)

This is the best digital to analog converter box available. I have tried the RCA model, the ZENITH model which is also the same as the insignia model and this one is the best. Why? As far as reception, they all worked the same for me. But when you hit the guide button, the other models show 1 or 2 shows ahead but the guide on the TR-40 converter shows a huge guide hours ahead. Its the same guide you would see on your cable or satellite receiver. Since this converter is made by Dishnetwork, I'm guessing they are using the satellite program guide, but it is worlds ahead of any other converter. The TR-40 is also very small , half the size of the other converters and does not get hot when left on 24hrs. Don't waste your time with the other converters, this is the one to buy. I used my goverment coupons on 2 of these and sent the RCA and Zenith models back ....

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Converter - if you know a couple things, December 3, 2008

By 

John S. Bowling "John B" (North Central Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dish Network TR40CRA (Electronics)

This is an excellent box with a better Channel Guide than almost all other converters. I got it yesterday and have worked on getting my ancient rabbit ears w/ UHF loop to work ever since. No luck. Tonight I bought a Radio Shack 15-1878 indoor amplified antenna 35$ just to see what it would do before I bought an outdoor UHF antenna and it works like a champ. Keep it in mind if yours doesn't work well enough.
IMPORTANT: Move this converter box as far away from your antenna as possible if the antenna is indoors. My signal went from an unwatchable 63 with the antenna base sitting on top of the converter which was on the TV, to 88-90 with the antenna still on the TV and the converter three feet+ away on the counter. Second trick not in the manual, if you want to delete a channel from the ones it finds (maybe not your language, etc.), the DELETE button in the list is grayed out and you can't choose it. The trick is to highlight the channel and press SELECT. That puts a check in the tiny, nearly invisible box on the left. NOW the DELETE button is available! One last thing. Any static you see is the result of your cables right by the TV, not interference. There is no interference on digital TV so the signal's clean when it leaves the converter box. Get your power cords away from your coax cables and do not tie your coax cables into coils. You'll have static. Stretch them out straight and use all available cable length to move this box away from your indoor antenna. Your signal will shoot up.
The supplied remote is very powerful. It works when pointed anywhere in the room, even the opposite direction. They give you batteries and a coax cable in the box so you don't have to buy anything else to get going, except an outlet splitter because you'll plug in three things; TV, antenna's amplifier, and converter. The converter comes with yet another plug-in transformer and a 4' or 5' cord. The picture is crystal clear on my little TV (once I moved the power cord and uncoiled the coax) on all channels that have any signal at all. That was far from the case when I was using the ancient rabbit ears. Another of its very useful features not on many other boxes is the ability to see numerical signal strength while you adjust the antenna. I bought two of these things and am glad I did. Very nice.