Samsung SIR-T451 High Definition Terrestrial Tuner

by Samsung

Product Details

Product Manual [18.46mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00064L1AI
• Item model number: SIR-T451/XAA
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,868 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #27 in Electronics > Home Audio & Theater > Stereo Components > Tuners

Product Description

Amazon.com

Samsung's SIR-T451 is a crucial link to your enjoying free over-air digital television signals on your DTV-ready television or DTV-capable computer monitor. The SIR-T451 easily tunes and decodes all 18 ATSC broadcast formats so you can view HDTV, SDTV (standard-definition programming), and listen to your choice of Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio through your sound system. Just plug in your receiver (and possibly an external antenna, not included) and start channel surfing.

You get a selection of output options, including 1080i, 720p, or 480p/i DTV formats, and connections include 1 each component-video, composite-video, and S-video, as well as a DVI (Digital Visual Interface) outfitted with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection). Audio jacks consist of a stereo (left/right) RCA output and a pair of digital-audio connections (1 each optical and coaxial). A programmable remote control simplifies operation of this and other components.

What's in the Box
DTV receiver, component-video cables, stereo analog audio cables, a remote control, 2 AA batteries, and a user's manual.

Product Description

Samsung brings you great flexibility for delivering FREE over-the-air digital television signals to a DTV-ready television or DTV-capable computer monitors. Award-winning Samsung technology easily tunes and decodes all 18 ATSC Table 3 broadcast formats. With the Samsung SIR-T451, you can view HDTV, SDTV, and listen to Dolby(R) Digital 2.0 stereo or Dolby(R) Digital 5.1 surround audio through your audio system. Samsung solves output worries with a wide selection of output options including 1080i, 720p or 480p/i DTV formats, and connection options including DVI (1), Component (1), Composite (1), Audio-Rt/Lt, Dolby(R) Digital Coaxial and Optical. Attractive styling and affordable pricing make the Samsung SIR-T451 a perfect solution.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

143 of 148 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The answer for those who like something great for free, January 26, 2005

By 

Kevin M. Powell (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung SIR-T451 High Definition Terrestrial Tuner (Electronics)

I recently purchased the Samsung SIR-T451. Although not advertised on this site, there is a $50 rebate from Samsung that makes this a very affordable unit indeed.

But now for the really good news. About two years ago I purchased a Mitsubishi widescreen "HDTV-Ready" TV. DVDs looked great, but regular TV did not--if you preserved the 4:3 aspect ratio of over the air broadcasting, the vertical bands looked bad; if you expanded to fill the 16:9 format, the faces looked bloated, the legs like stumps, and the overall image looked muddy. My next step was to order cable with HD. The HD channels looked great... but there are really a very limited number of them--just the basic networks, plus Discovery, a couple of cable-only channels that repeat a limited amount of content and a few (very few) HD things on ESPN. At $45/month, not a good value.

And now: the answer. For the price of less than five months of cable, this unit works unbelievably well with almost no setup, straight out of the box. Set up equals connecting your standard antenna (I have way substandard coax running for miles an old rooftop antenna) into the box, plug a set of component cables to your HDTV ready TV, and an audio cable to whatever you are using for audio (I am using a "home theater in a box"). The Samsung seeks out channels effortlessly, and an awful lot of them, and sets them. Presto allegro, in less than five minutes, you are watching some of the clearest, sharpest television you can imagine, much of it perfectly suited to your 16:9 format TV.

But the best thing is this. Oddly--amazingly-you will receive, for free, over the air, a lot of stations broadcasting HD content. In my case, more content that I actually watch than what is carried by cable! Imagine: on cable: no Super Bowl in HD (Fox is not one of the HD stations), but of course Fox is there for this happy owner of the Samsung! And then there are the 6 channels of PBS content, much in true HD, all very child friendly... truly the family friendly answer.

And --best of all--it's all "free". Why this isn't all the rage is beyond me.

PS: the competition is a Motorola decoder that has a serious liability: not only does it cost $100 more, but it has a very noisy, whining fan. You do NOT want the Motorola if you are watching TV in a reasonably quiet room.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works well for over the air HD (ATSC), February 19, 2006

By 

Stephen Holland (Naperville, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung SIR-T451 High Definition Terrestrial Tuner (Electronics)

I bought the tuner at Circuit City to watch the Olympics in high def. The signal for channel 5 (WMAQ) here was always a little snowy. Since the tuner has been used, I have to say "Wow, great picture!" All Chicago stations are crystal clear on my regular TV and when I put the high def on my video projector I get a spectacular 8 foot wide image on the wall of the family room. I am west of Chicago by 35 miles and have a roof-top antenna (mounted in the attic over the garage) connected to coax routed to this tuner. Since over the air digital broadcasts use the same frequencies as current TV channels I can use my TV antenna system. Not only am I getting the Chicago stations, but I am even getting Valparaiso, Indiana with good results. If I got an antenna rotator and put the antenna on the roof I could probably get even more distant stations.

A little background. The regular TV we have been watching for years is sent in a signal style called NTSC. The new TV is sent in a style called ATSC. In the US, the FCC has allocated channels of radio frequencies for TV transmission that we know as channels 2 though 69 on the TV. Due to advances in computers and in digital signal processing techniques it is possible to send up to 4 regular quality TV programs with ATSC on a channel compared to only 1 regular TV program on NTSC. Broadcasters have the option of sending 2 high def signals, 1 high def and 2 regular, or 4 regular signals. They can even send out more if you include some things like weather pictures and other such still or little moving images. On top of that they can send out data like program content details the tuner can capture and display as text. When you can tune in ATSC signals you therefore get not just the signals but a whole lot more shows to watch at various levels of quality and a lot of program details. And it is all FREE to receive! And it gets better. For technical reasons, you cannot have two broadcasters transmitting on adjacent channels when using NTSC. However, it is possible to do that when using ATSC, so more stations will be able to go on the air in the future. With over 60 channels and 2 to 3 programs per channel we might be able to get 120 to 180 channels in major metropolitan areas over the air. My, how that might change things.

So, who needs this? The question arises because more and more TV's already have an ATSC tuner built in. You could just buy a TV with an ATSC tuner built in. In a year or two (it keeps changing, but now looks like early 2007) all TVs will be required to have an ATSC tuner and there will be no NTSC broadcasts at all. Well, for me, I wanted to watch the Olympics now and I didn't want to buy a new TV at $1000-2000. The Samsung can decode an ATSC signal and create an NTSC signal that I can watch on my regular (NTSC) TV. It also has an antenna out jack, so I can still use my regular TV in the regular way. I also have an HD video projector, and the tuner output displayed on that is just spectacular. I have a lot of options on what signal to send where, so I can record to VHS tape and pipe the audio through the stereo, for example. Even with the TV's in the future having a tuner, they are not likely to have a high-def video out jack. So if you have several displays you want the picture to be on you need a tuner. In the future I will get a high def TV, but I figure the price will be in the $200 to $1000 range in 2008 compared to the $900 to $6000 range for HD TVs now.

Digital (ATSC) is pretty spectacular. When you get a picture it is perfect. When the signal is marginal the picture is still usually perfect, but there are occasional blotchy rectangles that pop up with brief image freezes. When the signal is really bad you don't get anything, but you wouldn't like an NTSC signal that weak. The Samsung unit seems to be able to handle the occasional glitches very well, with no problems on the good channels and just occasional picture breakup on the station out of Indiana.

Other reviewers have given good reviews. My experience agrees with them. There was one review that commented on poor channel change performance and other issues. I suspect he needs a better antenna. With digital there is always some delay during channel changes, which represents the time it takes for the processor to process the digital signal stream, decompress the signal, and create the signal stream to the display. Another issue that was complained about was the inability to go to specific sub-channels directly. I think that is an incorrect complaint. Stations can change sub-channel designations on the fly, changing from 2 to 6 signals broadcast from time to time as it suits their needs. One thing you can do is go directly to the show you want by going to the program guide selecting the show and pressing the enter button. That gets you there directly with this system.

There is a nice feature called channel reminder. You go to one of the program display guides which is an on the screen listing of upcoming programs. While the guide takes about a minute to load on first use it comes up quickly on subsequent display. You can select future programs and select a remind feature. A display pops up 5 minutes before the show and the tuner will automatically change to the channel when the show starts.

The menu system is intuitive and even fun to use. You can check signal strength in real time on each channel for aiming the antenna. There is an antenna out connector so that for analog station tuning you just connect the antenna out to your old standard TV which can then tune in NTSC standard signals.

My remote is a little slow to respond to button presses. I suspect it has something on the internal contacts. It has improved with use. Aside from that one glitch I am very happy with this unit. 4 out of 5 stars for the remote being a little buggy, and for lack of the HDMI connector option. Also, the unit requires selection with a back swith for monitor quality. Should have been menu driven, with option for a pass-through unchanged from the station for those monitors that are able to handle multiformat. The remote control has sparse controls to control the TV when used as a display device, so you will need the old TV remote by your side.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Hardware with Poor Software, February 6, 2006

By 

Dave - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung SIR-T451 High Definition Terrestrial Tuner (Electronics)

The Samsung SIR-T451 is a very nice piece of hardware running poorly written software. If you can forgive a tedious setup through a poor interface, you'll be very pleased with the video, audio and reception quality.


Hightlights:

- Stylish, light-weight, and relatively small (13.5"x9"x2.5")

- lots of video output options (composite, component, DVI, DTV, s-video)

- lots of audio output options (rca stereo, digital coaxial, digital optical)

- supports all current resolutions (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i)

- has both antenna in and out coaxial connectors, making it easy to switch your tv between analog and digital reception (for those times when the channel you want to watch isn't broadcast digitally, UPN for example)

- comes with component video cables instead of the crappy composite ones that usually come with video devices

- video output quality is spectacular with widescreen HD broadcasts (for a good test, watch the Tonight Show in HD on 1080i or an ABC sports presentation in 720p)

-digital audio quality is also spectacular (for a good test watch CSI:Miami in Dolby Digital 5.1 with the tuner connected to your surround sound capable receiver)


Minor flaws:

- No 1080p option which makes no difference right now because no one broadcasts in this resolution yet (could hold you back in the future though)

- No HDMI out port (only a problem if you're a true video quality snob)

- Remote control could be more responsive

- Doesn't come with an antenna, so be sure to buy one separately (I get great reception with my Terk Indoor HD antenna)

- Channel changing is a bit slow (1-2 second delay)

- The mini program guide loads instantly and is fairly useless. The full program guide is useful but can take a long time to load (30 seconds to 2 minutes).

- No digital audio cables are supplied (most people want to choose their own anyway)


More Serious Flaws:

- Automatic channel search and memorization tool was completely useless and didn't find any of the dozen strong signals in my area. Save yourself some time and go to www.antennaweb.com to find your available local stations to manually program into the tuner. Once I did that, reception was perfect.

- The interface for adding and deleting channels is clunky and slow. I spent 5 minutes deleting 10 channels only to have them come back automatically the next time I turned the tuner on.


The bottom line here is that if you don't insist on HDMI output and you have the patience to endure a flawed user interface, you'll be happy with the quality of the hardware, the input/output options, and the audio/video output quality. You can probably do better, but you'll probably spend a lot more money.