Over the course of the weekend I finally got around to hooking up my Magnavox DTV Digital to Analog Converter. The model of this particular converter is TB100MG9 for those interested.

For those that just read the above and said, "What’s that for?", it’s the thing used to receive a digital over-the-air signals for an analog TV. Or to be very specific and quote directly what’s stated on the box, it’s "intended for receiving digital terrestrial broadcasts with an antenna (indoor or outdoor)."

Here’s the good and the bad:

The Good

The setup was fairly straightforward. I hooked up the rabbit ears to the box, then let it perform an auto-scan to get whatever channels it could.

I do get more channels compared to when I did on analog.

All channels have crisp clean images. Digital has no "snow" to speak of.

The color is notably better.

Channels have descriptive text boxes appear on-screen whenever you tune to them – a nice touch.

The Bad

(Bear in mind these complaints have everything to do with the box and box alone.)

I have yet another remote control to deal with. And the remote provided is terrible. Yeah, it works but it’s hard to read, the buttons are tiny and it’s a nuisance to use. Hopefully a universal remote control will take care of this.

The setup menu is absolutely infuriating to work with. It’s just not user friendly. Thankfully you don’t have go there that often.

The way this particular box renders close captioned text is just bad. To put this in perspective, imagine you’re watching a DVD with the spoken dialogue text being displayed on screen. Now imagine that text half its size. That’s what DTV closed captioned text is like on this Magnavox.

The audio for whatever reason is way too quiet when coming from the DTV box. I really have to crank up the volume compared to before.

The aspect ratio does not auto-adjust for standard definition or wide. Yes, you can manually change this option, but wow is it buried in the setup menu. And it’s not obvious where to find it either.

My thoughts and recommendations

I want to say first that yes, it works. Yes, TV looks better compared to before. Yes, you will really like DTV compared to over-the-air analog if that’s what you have.

I will however recommend against use of this particular Magnavox box. I’m sure there are DTV converters far superior to this one with a better menu system, more user friendliness, better remote control and so on. Yes, it will cost you more to get a different converter box, but I honestly think the cash would be well spent.

Again, the make/model I have is the Magnavox TB100MG9. I am uncertain whether this is still a current or discontinued model – but if you see it, I’d steer clear of it, and not because it doesn’t work (because it does work), but because of the complaints I outlined above.

A blog I recommend for everything to do with DTV converter boxes:

http://dtvconverterboxes.blogspot.com/

The Magnavox mentioned here is in there with a review as well as many others such as those made by Tivax, Zenith, Philco, RCA and several others. Definitely worth the read if you’re in the market for one.

As everyone (and I mean everyone) has been hearing for about, oh, a year’s time is that analog television will cease transmissions on February 19, 2009 and switch to digital – so if you receive TV via rabbit ears (pictured) you’ll have to throw those out and buy a new set that can receive digital.

But now the soon-to-be CINC is suggesting that this date should be pushed back until summer. The FCC chair disagrees and says the Feb 19 date should go forth as planned to avoid confusing the crap out of people. And to be honest I agree.

Why is the date at this point being suggested to be pushed back?

One reason, money.

The deal is that there was supposed to be some funding provided by the US government in the form of coupons to help people buy new digital antennas (which some of you out there may have received – but many didn’t), and the consensus from the powers the be is that money could be better spent elsewhere at the present time.

Furthermore the plan to bring everyone over to digital has been anything but smooth. Said honestly, it’s all botched up. You can stamp a big ol’ FAIL on the US gov for this one.

Personally I feel the plan should go forward regardless. There isn’t a single person I know who isn’t aware of the switchover date. And in every major department and electronics store there are signs both big and small explaining to people that yes, if you receive via antenna you have to get digital. These signs have been up for over six months.

Concerning the coupons, yeah they’re a nice idea and all that, but digital antennas are as cheap as 15 bucks!

What will the decision be come February? Nobody knows yet. But hopefully we’ll either get a solid YES or NO concerning the switchover to avoid further confusing everybody.

A recent trend with is really gaining steam is TV networks placing full episodes of their shows online. Many stations from the major networks (NBC, ABC, CBS) and cable networks (TNT, TBS, etc.) are putting their shows, everything from soap operas to reality series, online for you to view anytime.

The great thing about this trend is, obviously, you can watch them anytime you like and there are typically only a few commercial interruptions. The downside, however, is the quality is not the best (which is to be expected) and depending on the show, it can be several days before it is available online.

Overall, it is best to catch your show on TV (or record it) if you can, but the ability to be able to catch up with shows available online is a great option to look in to.

On February 17, 2009, all TV stations will cease broadcasts of analog signals and go completely digital.  What this means is that analog TVs will be obsolete, so anyone with antennas or rabbit ears would no longer receive TV signals.  People with satellite and (most) with cable boxes should be unaffected.

Instead of forcing everyone in the US to buy new TVs that don’t already have digital signal capable equipment, a $40 coupon for a converter box is being offered here: http://dtv2009.com

Here is a list of converter boxes that can be purchased with the $40 coupon, but you may have to put an additional $10 or so towards it as well, since the estimate price was rumored to be somewhere around $40-$60.

On the website, it says the coupons should be on their way out in late February or sometime in March, and are only good for 90 days from the date of issue.