Customer Reviews

TIVAX STB-T8 Set Top Box (Converter Box) With Analog Pass Through!!

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I live in the Washington DC burbs and I'm one of the few, the proud, who still doesn't have some form of cable TV. The February deadline is approaching quickly, so I applied for my Gov't coupon, received it, and purchased this converter box to convert the digital signals to analog for my 32" Toshiba CRT TV. Having the converter box is nearly like getting cable--there are subchannels for the main networks. For example, WJLA, channel 7 in our area, has a 7.3 channel which a retro tv channel that airs re-runs of popular 80s TV shows M-F, like the A-Team and Magnum PI.

Pros:
* Metal housing is durable--no plastic parts except for remote control and front panel.
* Easy setup - Antenna to box, A/V cables from box to TV and you're set.
* Signal strength indicator - shows you how strong of a reception you're getting.
* TV guide button tells you what's on now and what's on next.
* Aspect changer - button lets control the aspect ratio of the video signal coming through the TV
* Dolby Digital certified sound. Not many other DTV boxes on the market can claim that.
* Analog passthrough! Yes, with the device in standby you can still get analog signals to your TV. Not all converter boxes have this feature.
* RS232 service port -- calling any computer geeks, here's your DB9 for s/w updates.
* One of the top three converter boxes rated by Consumer Reports.

Cons:
* Sound quality through TV OK. I have the volume at near max in order to hear the audio. I need to get some 6' audio cables to see if it sounds better out of my Yamaha receiver.
* This is digital TV. All stations come in clear, but if there's a weak signal, you'll get blotchy images and inconsistent sound.
* User manual could use a better translation, but it does the job.
* "Smart Antenna" not explained well. This box allows you to hook up either a regular old antenna or a "smart antenna," which adjusts the rotation and gain to get the best reception for a particular station. [...] carries one for $[...], but the one on my roof seems to work well.

I highly recommend making the DTV transition now before the rush, especially with this box. It takes 4-6 weeks for the Gov't to process your application and send you a credit card for $[...].

I bought this device because it was one of Consumer Reports's top-rated products.

Set up was easy (just four or five connections!) -- I plugged in the power cord, hooked the device to my TV using the AV and RF cables that were included, then connected the antenna cable to the converter box. There are few sockets on the device and thus little room for error. The converter automatically scans for channels and I was able to watch DTV within minutes.

The impressive thing about the converter is that it was able to find a few more channels that the other TV in my house, a bona fide HDTV. Both this set and the other use the same roof antenna (I am in the NYC area -- on the other set I could not get the three ABC or PBS channels, but with this converter I could)!

Pros:
-crisp video, loud volume; does what it was designed to do
-remote control is mainly intuitive, only a few weird design choices
-remote control has a signal button to display signal strength (which I guess could be useful if I had some kind of indoor antenna I could orient at will; or perhaps it's a way of gauging the weather outside?)
-last channel memory
-very lightweight and small (I would guess less than 2 lbs) so will not weigh down other devices

Cons:
-main annoyance: the captions are much smaller than they are through analog and are a strain on the eyes (I'm near sighted). It is nice that their color/transparency/size can be customized, but even the largest size is no match for the analog captions
-the box itself only has three buttons: on/off and two channel changers. If anything were to happen to the remote control then there's no way to access the menu for setup/channel scanning or any of the other features
-it took me a while to realize the round OK button in the center (why is it ABOVE the number pad?) is the 'enter' button for choosing a channel; I should not have to read a manual to use a remote control (and I don't think this function is mentioned in there)
-the remote control uses two AAA batteries (would have preferred AA)

I just got one of these. Agree with the first reviewer's thorough assessment. I have no cable at home, have a 7 yrs old JVC with a rabit ear on top of it. In my area, before the converter I could get NBC, CBS, ABC, CW, PBS, Fox 1 and sometimes Fox 2. With the box, on automatic chanel detection, now I could see NBCx2, CBSx2, ABC, CWx2, PBSx3, Fox1x2 and give up standing up to adjust the antenna to get Fox2. When the weather gets windy I lose lots of signals (same as before the converter), can't stand the choppy stuffs and crackle sounds so just leave the antenna in the best position for the best programs. What has been said about the digital signal is so very true: the signals that get to the tv are much much better than before. Luckily my TV has two sets of red/white/yellow connections for audio and S-video, just enough now to accomodate this converter box and my dvd player.

I bought this box on complete faith in Consumer Reports' rating (this box is the best). The guys from PBS's "Ask this old house" were showing how to use a converter box with antenna and they used the Zenith box which was also rated favorably by CR.

The set up with the remote was confusing due to incomprehensible chinese English. Need patience to go though initial trials/errors to decode what the instruction means.

I got this Converter box after having issues with my RCA DTV Box losing audio or video from overheating. Huge improvement in reception for some reason. I also love the fact that I can Add Channels and it doesn't lose the ones you already have. I have the Smart Antenna and it works great.

I ordered this Tivax unit based on customer and Consumer Reports reviews. The first unit sent to me produced no RF input to my TV set, either on Ch 3 or Ch 4. I returned it and was sent a second unit and it, too would not produce an RF input signal to my TV.

I had previously purchased a Lasonic LTA 260 from Amazon with my other government coupon and it worked fine right out of the box on the same TV set. Thinking that maybe I was doing something wrong or that there was an incorrect setting, I made a direct swap between the Lasonic and the Tivax several times using the exact same antenna and RF cable hookups. I followed the directions and tried every possible setting on the Tivax. The Lasonic always worked fine, but neither Tivax unit would produce RF output to the TV set. I am returning the second Tivax unit for a refund as I am not willing to continue trying to get a Tivax unit that works.

Second thought. My TV has no A/V inputs, only an RF input at the antenna connector. Does the Tivax work only on TVs that have A/V inputs and thus has to have a connection between its A/V outputs and a TV with A/V inputs? This is not a requirement on the Lasonic unit.

I only had this unit for a few weeks and the remote stopped working. Now I can only change the channels and power on/off from the unit. Very disappointed for a unit that sells for over $50 full price.

Reading all of the reviews I could find last May it was clear TiVax was the cream of the digital converter boxes. WRONG! Our experience is exactly like kzrvstuff.

I purchased several of these for my immediate family. They all worked fine for approx 4 to 5 months. Eventually, all of them loose the ability to translate analog to digital one station at a time. Today you may have a stong signal but tomorrow you will never get the station again. Replace the failed unit with a working one and everything is fine for a period and again failure. To date 6 out of 6 units have failed in the period of 4 to 6 months.

TiVax customer service (after you spend days to learn how to contact them) repeatedly sends back form letters that they will allow returns but if your unit is older than 90 day they will return it to you freight collect AND UN-REPAIRED. Again 6 out of 6 units failed within the 1st half year. DON'T BUY THESE THINGS.

When I responded to thier form letter and advised that 6 of 6 failed they simply advise that they can only deal with one at a time and I must open 6 separate disputes and ship all back to them separately AND if they are beyond 90 days they will charge return shipping on each unit I return.

I would not trust any of their products and the customer service is a joke.

SAVE YOUR MONEY, DON'T BUY TI-VAX

I purchased 8 of these. Unfortunately, not from Amazon because Amazon would have refunded my money while TiVax will not.

To date 5 of the 8 have begun dropping channels within 4 months and we anticipate the others to do the same shortly. Note that the warranty is only 90 days. Search the web and you will find that these units are full of problems. TiVax indicates they have upgraded the firmware and if you will pay shipping both ways they will upgrade the firmware.

I had packaged 5 of the units to ship for re-programing and then began to learn that others that had the firmware upgrade saw absolutely no improvement in their problem. Those with the upgrades were told by TiVax that there was nothing more they could do and they were sorry.

My advice: Do Not Waste Your Money on TiVax unless you are satisfied with a unit that will only work until it gets out of warranty.

Same thing happened to us. The remote stopped working after a few days. After several months, it decided -- on its own -- to drop one of the stations, and now we cannot get it back as there is no way to rescan without the remote.

A real disappointment. And now it's gone, like the snake oil salesman of old, leaving us without recourse but to start all over again.

I bought this box because of reviews on various sites and because of the positive Amazon recommendations. While the picture quality is good, I have been extremely disappointed with it. First off, the remote control is cheap. It does not work outside 3 to 5 feet of the unit and isn't very tolerant of clicking at angles. The remote has to be pointed directly at the unit. Even when it does work, the box takes a second or two to respond to changing the channel or navigating the menu system.

The box has an auto-program mode but is missing any sort of manual programming (except for removing channels). If you want to add a channel to the list of known channels, you have to go through an auto-scan which takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. This wouldn't be too much of an issue except that the box seems to forget channels and lose their signal when the unit is turned off. Even if you manually enter the channel, the signal will be lost till you re-run the auto-scan. This seems to happen nearly every time the unit is turned off.

Overall, this unit is a cheap device that is frustrating to use. While the picture quality is good, that doesn't really matter when the device is nearly unusable. If this is one of the better digital converter boxes, then there must be a lot of really bad products out there.