Customer Reviews

Samsung DTBH260F HDTV Terrestrial Receiver

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(69)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

This item has been hard to find in stores and online. After being waitlisted with Amazon for some time, I finally ordered it from another large electronics vendor that offerred free shipping, but I had to pay sales tax.

Last year I purchased two HDTV's (without built in tuners) thinking I would always get HD from my cable company. When I totaled up the cost of HD on cable with all of the extra boxes and fees, over-the-air HD for the price of a tuner seemed like a much more reasonable alternative.

The tuner was not difficult to hook up. I used an inexpensive HDMI cable (purchased off the web), regular rabbit ears/UHF antenna and plugged the tuner directly into my TV. (Remember to flip the switch on the back of the unit and to set your TV to HDMI input.) According to the manual, audio is supposed to be transmitted to the TV through the HDMI cable, but my TV does not accept dolby 5.1 surround sound. I had to change the audio setting on the unit to PCM to get sound out of the TV. Alternatively, I got stereo sound by running separate audio cables (included with the unit) to my home theater unit.

Being at an age where I grew up with over the air TV and recalling that we continually had to adjust the rabbit ears to improve the picture, I was astounded by the quality of the signal. The transmission towers are about 19 miles away and I was getting all bars on the signal strength. No fidgiting with the rabbit ears was required and the picture has no ghosting. Clearly, this is not the over the air TV of the 60's and 70's.

In addition to the HD shows, I'm also getting a 720 digital signal on most of the non-HD programming, which is a big improvement over the 480 analog. The improvement is so good, I'm thinking of getting another tuner for my other hd-ready TV.

I do have a couple of small complaints. As noted by other reviewers, the channels seem to change very slowly using the remote and you need very good aim. And, don't lose the remote because you cannot change the channel without it. Another reviewer noted that it takes a bit of time for the unit to boot up when first turned on, which I can also confirm. He also noted that the unit gets very hot, which is NOT my experience.

Happy viewing!

Many people may consider using this receiver to upgrade their analog (non DTV-ready, non HD-ready) TVs. (Why replace that big old projection TV with plasma at 10 times the price? Wait a couple of more years for the inevitable price/performance improvements.) There are a few things that you need to know, though.

(1) Nearly all of the TV stations in your area simultaneously broadcast analog and digital signals over the air. Many stations broadcast several digital sub-channels, which effectively multiplies the number of programs available to you at any time.

(2) Because of the Samsung's sensitivity, your old TV antenna will pull in all of the digital channels with crystal-clear reception. (Obviously, it won't change the resolution. It will never look like a digital TV, but every broadcast will look as sharp as a DVD played through the same set.)

(3) Some digital broadcasts use the 16:9 aspect ratio, while others use the 4:3 dimensions of your old set. This results -- somewhat unpredicably -- in blank strips at the edges of the screen and/or a slightly compressed horizontal picture, because both the broadcaster and the Samsung are trying to compensate for aspect ratio differences. (When stations broadcast 4:3 content on a 16:9 signal or vice versa, it is they who insert the blank areas. For me, 3 out of 4 stations broadcast signals that come through undistorted at full screen size.) BUT, the Samsung's aspect ratio adjustments DO NOT work through Samsung's analog TV output, so what you see is what you get.

(4) Further, the Samsung will NOT show you any station information on the screen. When you select channels or set up the system using the remote control, you are flying blind unless you can infer your position in the channel sequence or on the menu. (These caveats apply only to analog TVs.) It's not as bad as it sounds, but it does take a little getting used to. You can, if you like, follow the somewhat cryptic advice of an earlier reviewer. Temporarily plug your yellow video composite cable from your TV into the green DTV OUT (component) jack in the Samsung. Slide the rear switch to Y,Pb,Pr. The menus will become visible over a black-and-white TV picture. After you complete your setup, plug the cable into the appropriate yellow jack. (If your TV has multiple video inputs, e.g. Aux1 and Aux2, or Composite plus S-Video, you can leave the B&W menus on one input and watch your shows on the other.)

Hey, all transitional technologies have their limits, but some of Samsung's choices seem a little arbitrary. All in all, I think this is a neat little product and fairly priced at $180 or less.

p.s. Watch for prices to drop in 2008 when federally approved TV converter boxes go on sale. Check out https://www.dtv2009.gov/ and apply for a $40 coupon while you're there. But beware that coupons expire 90 days after they are issued.

p.p.s. Exactly 2 years after I purchased this unit (i.e., 1 year past warranty), it stopped working. Apparently something in the power supply. Not the fuse. Not the remote. I am not happy. I won't bother trying to fix it.

After much soul searching, I decided to get rid of cable, satellite, etc. because I was spending too much time watching the same programs over and over again. I decided to free up my time. However, I knew there would still be times when I would want to watch some TV. Limited basic cable in my area only covers the major networks and independent stations, which I knew I could get with a TV antenna. So why pay? However, reception was bad, so I wondered if I would get better reception if I had an HDTV tuner. My Sony Trinitron Wega is only three years old. There was no way I was going to upgrade to a newer model, so I did some research and found that if I bought an HD receiver that could be set to analog (480i), I could watch TV in digital format. The Samsung works wonderfully. It is an especially useful receiver for those of us who do not have HD TVs. This tuner, plus a Radio Shack "Indoor VHF/UHF/HDTV Antenna with RF Remote Control" (model: 15-1892) will save me hundreds each year.

I need to add that I have two analog TVs. I am able to get the onscreen menus. You have to hook the S-composite video cable to a VCR or DVD player. I'm also using a splitter. So this one box serves two TVs. Also, HD is broadcast in 16:9 aspect ratio--not 4:3, so the aspect ratio on an analog (4:3) TV might have to be adjusted. You can adjust the aspect ratio via the tuner's remote. There is a delay of 2-3 seconds when changing channels. That's because the tuner has to take the analog signals from the antenna and convert them to digital signals. Like another reviewer said, I intend to spend part of my savings on Netflix. I live in San Francisco, surrounded by high buildings and hills, and with this combination, I'm able to get HDTV stations from as far away as Sacramento--80 miles.

To get onscreen menus (analog TV)

This is the arrangement I'm using. Perhaps others will work as well.

Main cord w/splitter: TV to antenna to tuner
Sound Cord: TV to tuner
RWY: TV to VCR
RWY: DVD to tuner
GBR: TV to tuner

RWY=red, white, yellow cord
GBR=green, blue, red cord

Hope that helps!

Update: I now live in Chicago. Picking up HD channels is even easier than it was in San Francisco. I live toward the back of a 16 story building and I get every last channel.

I've been using this receiver since mid-December. I have an indoor antenna, and an RCA 27V530T standard def tv. I've connected this receiver to my tv using both the s-video and the component cable (not at the same time). I don't have Cable so I was using rabbit ears to get locals. There has been a huge difference b/n tv before the receiver and after. Using the s-video connection, the picture looked great; 100x better than before. Not only the picture, but I was also getting several more channels than before. When I connected the receiver using the component cables, the difference was amazing. It's literally like I have DVDs of these channels (again I don't have a HDTV). There was also richer color using the component connections instead of the s-video connections. I'm getting FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, 5 different channels of PBS (including PBS HD), a couple of weather channels, and the two WB channels. I'm missing one local channel, but the channel is not worth trying to readjust my antenna, as it took a while to place the antenna in the perfect spot.

The problems w/ this receiver are minor, and more annoying than anything else. For one this receiver does not have channel changing buttons on the front of the receiver. If I can't find the remote, I better hope the last channel I watched wasn't the weather channel, otherwise I'm out of luck. Another complaint I have is that I can't access the channel's signal strength directly; I have to go through the menus to view the signal. It doesn't seem like much of an issue, but hitting a button once is a lot easier than hitting "menu - right - right - enter - up - right" (and you have to do that everytime if you change the channel). There's also no sound to indicate whether your strengh is high or low (like the strengh meter on a Dish Network or DirecTV DBS receiver). The problem w/ these "little" issues is that I believe these are the same complaints that users of the previous generation of Samsung HD receivers had, yet Samsung hasn't addressed the issues. I believe these issues are the difference b/n this being a good receiver and a great receiver.

All in all, I still think this receiver is a great buy. The receiver is not perfect, but the pros far outweigh the cons. Again, I don't have a HD tv, but I still used the component connections (not composite!!!) and get an EXCELLENT PICTURE.

I decided to get this tuner when my cable company refused to provide most of the local stations in HD. I live 6 miles from the transmitter, so the signal is at full strength with only rabbit ears for an antenna. The picture is perfect for the 1080i broadcasts, with no digital artifacts or loss of signal. The only drawback is if you want to view content at the correct aspect ratio, you have to manually change the aspect ratio when switching between broadcasts in standard definition (4:3) and high definition (16:9). Otherwise, the HD channels are squashed down to 4:3 (everyone looks skinny) and the standard definition channels are stretched out to 16:9 (everyone looks fat). The remote has a button that allows you to manually change the aspect ratio without going through the on-screen menus.

Pros:

- Good tuner performance, awesome HD picture quality
- Relatively fast channel switching performance
- Nice station info and display (station ID, 480i/720p/1080i, etc)
- Nice responsive graphical interface
- Favorite channel setting
- Small profile. No fan, quiet.

Cons:

- annoying picture shift and overscan on 480i SD material.

This can be easily seen when comparing the output with an analog VCR tuned to the same station as the digital one.

Toggle the output switch (480i/p/720/1080), and the shift/overscan is gone. BUT, as soon as you switch the channel, it happens again. This happens on all of the outputs, even HDMI.

- No option to output HD material at native resolution (as is, not either 720p or 1080i).

- Rescanning channel loses favorites

- QAM tuner includes encrypted/blank channel. You have to delete them manually afterwards, horrible!

- No program guide for QAM channels

- Cannot output both hdmi component at the same time.

- No menu/GUI on s-video/composite output

I've had the tuner almost two month now and love it. I've used both an amplified and unamplified antenna and am about 10 miles from the closest signal and pull stations in very well. It has an excellent signal strength meter that makes tuning easy. The tuners feature set is good and it is very easy to set up and modify. The only thing that keeps this tuner from being perfect is that there are a couple of minor issues with the software that will probably be cleaned up as the product matures. Channel change speed and guide load times could be better. That said, I like this tuner enough to have bought a second one for use on a different TV.

I've been using two of these beauties for a year now connected to my Comcast
basic-basic $13/mo cable. The first one was to provide HD to my older "HD ready"
wide screen TV. Later, I bought a smaller Sharp Aquos LCD TV for another room and
was disappointed by its HD picture quality. I moved the Samsung box from the other
TV to this one to try (via HDMI) cable and, voila, awesome picture quality. So, I
bought a 2nd Samsung DTB-H260F and am foregoing the inferior HD tuner in my new
Sharp TV (I've since learned that the best thing to buy is a TV monitor [no tuner inside]
and attach it to one of these Samsung set-top-boxes).

Reception is exceptional. I get all the HD channels I'm supposed to get plus the analog
ones. Only a couple of times has the box not responded to up or down arrow channel
changes. Powering off/on the set-top-box resolved this.

I recently bought a TivoHD thinking it was time to move in the recording, time delayed
mode mode of watching TV. I have been disappointed that the reception of the Tivo is
worse than the Samsung that I have become used to. In fact, 3 HD channels and 3 PBS
analog channels come in choppy cutting in/out (or not at all) on my Tivo, but have
been rock solid beautiful on my Samsung. I'm close to returning my Tivo and living
with commercials and beautful picture quality with the Samsung.

The only concern I'll tell you is not a problem with the box, but a problem I have with
my cable provider. Since this is not a Comcast set-top-box, it doesn't have Comcast
specific filtering in it. It will receive/broadcast whatever Comcast (my cable provider)
sends unencrypted over the wire. I've been disappointed to learn that pay-per-view or
on-demand (I"m not sure of the difference since I don't use them) selections come
across as unencrypted channels. When channel surfing, if some neighbor is watching
one of these options, Samsung sees them. I've been aghast to see porn scenes come
across my TV while channel surfing. These are usually in the channel 80-nn range.
Even manually removing them from the channel selection within the Samsung box
doesn't keep them "off". I don't know how to block this so kids don't accidentally
stumble over these channels when they surf with the up and down channel buttons.
And worse, they might think that this programming must be acceptable since it's on
"mommy and daddy's TV". I didn't ding Samsung a star for this because I think it is the
cable company's fault. But I wanted everyone to be aware of this.

To help me workaround the problem, I've used the Samsung "favorites" feature to
mark all the channels that I want to surf and then use its "favorites" button on the
remote to move through my favorites (only goes up, unfortunately), instead of using
the up and down channel buttons.

I am going to caveat my review by saying that if you are looking at this product to get free HDTV premium channels through your cable, it's not for that. It can grab the HD channels that are NOT ENCRYPTED and that's it, which are the exact same channels you can get Over The Air (OTA) for free. By law the cable company can't encrypt the OTA channels. If you want ESPN/TLC/TNT in HD you must get your cable company's HD box. They encrypt these to get more money from you, bottom line. Conversely, if you simply want to recieve OTA digital TV to an analog set or NON HDTV set, get a cheaper box. I think a lot of people who give this a negative review buy this box for the wrong purpose.

If you want High Definition TV done right, this is the ticket!!

Now with that said. Your cable company will never be able to match the picture quality of this box hooked to an antenna due to the fact that the OTA signal is NOT COMPRESSED and a cable/satellite signal is via MP2 or MP4. Also, you must use an HDMI cable to fully take advantage of this. It's worth it and it's only a one time cost. I'm connected via HDMI to an LCD projector on a 100" screen. You can see the footprints in the grass, sweat on the players faces and the seams on the ball when watching an NFL game!! HD through the cable box or this box connected to cable and the TV via HDMI was darn good, but with a quality OTA antenna connected via HDMI in 1080i, this is amazing. That's what I bought this box for and it rightfully deserves 5 stars as it does exactly that better than any other product out there.

I use a roof mounted medium range antenna with a pre-amp (the blue one)and am about 30-35 miles from most antennae in the DFW area with a fairly clear shot and get about 30 channels. If it weren't for ESPN and Cartoon Network for the kids we would ditch the cable altogether and put one of these in every room and will have saved enough cable costs in a year to pay for four of these.

Right now I use component left/right stereo sound and it works fine. My next purchase in a few months will be a true 5.1 reciever connected via the fiber optic port so I'll get to see how the Dolby Digital Surround works. For now, no complaints.

Slight delays changing channels are to be expected when processing signals with this amount of complexity and information. Regular TV just doesn't look right any longer.

Just for a goof we hooked it to our new LCD HDTV we have in the bedroom that has a built in ATSC tuner. It was connected to cable via HDMI for a comparison. It does change channels slower than the TV's built in tuner but this had slightly better picture definition. I guess it depends on what exactly you prefer. The bedroom TV it still on the cable. I want to see the Cowboys on the big TV in pristine high definition and this is the thing that does it better than anything else without a monthly fee.

If you know for certain what purpose you are buying this product, that being Over The Air High Definition Television, it will not let you down. This isn't 70's TV any longer!! Shoot, if people start switching to this, we may see networks like ESPN and Cartoon Network go OTA in metropolitan areas when the cable and satellite companies start losing customers in large numbers.

The Samsung DTB-H260F is a high definition digital receiver that I researched for a long time before purchasing it. Pros: 1) the tuner is quite sensitive and will pick up many more digital tv stations than the government-approved converter boxes; 2) with a strong enough digital broadcast signal and the right equipment, you'll be able to receive gorgeous hi-def video with hi-fi 5.1 surround sound for free; 3) digital broadcasts are a definite improvement over analog ones. Cons: 1) you cannot add stations manually--all you can do to add a new channel is perform an auto scan after moving your antenna and hope that you pick up additional channels (but you may also lose some channels); some of the menu items (e.g., signal strength meter) are buried deep in the menu and require the user to go through several layers of choices to access them. Please note that in order to get the full benefits of this receiver, you must have a tv that has either HDMI and/or component video inputs. If you have only RCA composite inputs on your tv, you will not get the best video quality and you will not be able to view the complete viewing guide. Your tv should also have a flat screen with the capability of showing hi-def resolution (e.g., an "HDTV-Ready Monitor"). It also helps to get the best sound if you have a home theater receiver with a dolby digital 5.1 surround sound decoder and a digital optical audio input in close proximity to the tv. Using a digital optical audio cable to connect the Samsung receiver to the home theater receiver, you can get crystal clear surround sound on many of the tv shows. I would also recommend having a digital antenna rotator with a remote control to make finding the "sweet spot(s)" for your antenna easier than with the old style of rotator. Finally, get a decent programmable remote control that can "learn" the functions of the remote for this receiver and all of your other remotes (e.g., Sony RM-VL600 8-Device Universal Learning Remote). Having had this receiver now for several weeks, I find that I'm watching more tv than I have watched in years, simply because of the gorgeous hi-def video and the beautiful hi-fi surround sound. I'm still disappointed in much of the content of tv broadcasts, but at least it's wonderful to view and hear!