Customer Reviews

Sansonic FT-300A Digital To Analog TV Converter Box

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

It scrambles the tv signal - on and off. Sometimes the picture is ok, sometimes (most of the time) it is completely scrambled and unwatchable. I have a really good antenna as well. Buy something else. This is getting returned.

The unit is small and the picture and sound quality are excellent. We wanted a conveter on a fairly new TV that we use in the kitchen and this fits the bill. We can receive all of our local channels on a rabbit ear antenna with only ocassional pixelization and drop-out (I've had a DTV for a couple of years and I think the general digital scheme, if you're using an over-the-air antenna, is marginal at best).
This unit is digital only; there's no analog pass-through. That won't matter in the future, though.
I've also noticed our unit regularly turns itself off (after several hours). I can't find anything in the manual about this other than the unit being "energy complaint". If I were using a VCR with this, I'd never know if the unit would still be operating when the VCR was set to record. Maybe our unit is defective in this regard.

This product is a waste of money. I have owned one for a few months and have not been satisfied with it performance even when it was working properly!

I purchased this DTV converter several months ago and I was able to receive a few channels from local TV stations with transmitters ca. 2 miles away with minimal problems, but stations more than 10 miles away have always been a problem to receive. Within the last week I have been unable to receive any stations! I tried a new antenna with no success. I tried going to the second story of my house with no success. I have tried many times to scan for channels with no success.

Just bought this unit on lightening deal last week. two days and I am done with this garbage. After connecting and scan only got 12 digital stations...same antenna (philips HDTV digital) catches 25 channel on my other TV with built in tuner.

Unit is weak in getting digital signal and does not have any analog passthrough. After 5 minutes, unit got heat up and looses sound. After a reboot, sound would come back only for few minutes....

Now it also freezes pictures after 10 min. or so or shuts off and restart by itself. I do not know why US Govt. allow use of coupon to such low quality products....this thing is either going back to Amazon or my dumpster.

This box is a waste of the Government's Money if you use the coupon. It is a waste of the comsumers money if purchased on own or if you have to pay any difference. I have another converter box and a very good antenna that I am able to pick up some channels on. This box will not pick up ANY channels AT ALL!!!!!!! Do not WASTE your money!!!!!!
Not to mention all the hassle I went through to get this box as it was advertised in a Gold Box Lightning Deal. Very Disappointed and will be finding out how to return it, if I'm able to get credit back for my $40 coupon.

This box does what it's supposed to most of the time, but there are some major issues. For one, it changes the channel randomly. I can have the remote sitting on the table, not even pointing at the box, and the channel will just change randomly. The remote itself is a piece of junk (goes through 4-5 sets of batteries in the time it takes my DVD remote to go through 1 set even when I'm watching more DVDs than TV, has to be aimed just right or it doesn't work, buttons have to be pressed just right or nothing happens) and it's the only way to change channels! There are no buttons on the front of the device other than the on/off button, so if the remote gets misplaced or isn't working, you're out of luck. The box also takes forever to turn on and off. You have to press the power button and wait a few seconds to see if the light on the front is actually going to turn on/off. This wouldn't be so annoying if the remote actually worked, but since pressing the power button on the remote only works 2 out of 3 times, it can get very annoying to press the button, wait, press the button again, wait, etc. until the device actually decides to turn off. I think the "signal scrambling" issues other people are talking about have more to do with reception than the device, but this thing still isn't that great.

I was initially disappointed that this particular converter box was not capable of also controlling the television. Also, new channels cannot be individually added. You have to go through the programming sequence again. Otherwise, however, the performance has been quite acceptable. Any reception problems I have encountered were actually due to the antenna or its positioning, not the box. Picture quality has actually been quite good. Would I buy this model again? Yes, but only if the price were around $20, as I can get other brands with more features for the same price I paid for this one...and the second one I have, still in the box in the closet.

What can I say? This tunes in digital TV. I like that it has options for changing aspect ratios depending on the programming and what kind of TV it's connected to.

My biggest problem is that it will turn itself off after a couple of hours of not touching it. Say you're leaving it on the same channel all day (for sports or something). Be sure to adjust the volume or change the channel once in a while. If not, it'll turn itself off after a few hours. It takes a while, but it's still a quirky little issue.

The unit was great when I first got it. It brought in all the stations in my area. But after 18 months it died. It stopped powering on. Prior to it ceasing to work it slowly started to have problems bringing in certain stations and occasionally jumped to other stations on its own. Initially I thought it was a good product but I am glad I had a backup (different brand).

This unit has no way to change channels without the remote. I have not found a code to make any universal remote work with it.

This unit will randomly change channels, bad if you're recording something unattended.

This unit freezes up, requiring you to "unplug" the unit in order to reset it.

Pros:
it has an coaxial output as well as rca outs
readily accepts many types of antennas (I use rabbit ears)

Bottom line:
The unit functions, but has unpredictable behavior.