 Very Nice. You can record different stations while away from home. Works great with a VCR |
| Review Date: March 10, 2009 |
| Reviewer: couchbum, California USA |
I only have an outdoor TV antenna. No cable or satellite. I too bought this converter for the built in timer. You can record different channels at different times while you're away from home with your VCR and TV antenna (However, you can not record one station and watch another station "at the same time"). You have to set your TV and VCR to channel 3 (always) and the timer in this converter is what you set for the time and channel to record. Make sure the clock time on the converter box matches the clock time on your VCR. Or you may miss part of your show. There is one problem that I haven't figured out yet. I hooked this converter to the TV in my living room. My outdoor antenna cable line continues on and goes to the bedroom and the TV in the bedroom only plays the channel that the converter box is on in the living room. I have 2 of these converter boxes and so I hooked the second one up in the bedroom. It receives no channel signals. Well, that didn't last long since I received my DVD recorder in the mail (Toshiba DR560 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built-in Tuner, bought on Amazon) and this DVD recorder has a built-in ATSC/NTSC/QAM digital/analog tuner. Meaning, I don't need a converter box in my living room now. This DVD recorder allows me to record one station and watch another station at the same time from my over the air, outdoor antenna. Just like a VCR. Awesome! Now the converter box works on the bedroom TV. Since the DVD recorder is allowing the signal to continue on through to the bedroom. I am a happy camper. I now have an extra converter box. Maybe I'll sell it on Amazon.
Over 3 years ago, I got rid of my cable (yes, the first 3 months was very difficult). I bought an outdoor TV antenna and lived with that for about a year. The reception wasn't good, lots of white specs or lines. Then I bought a "booster" for the antenna. A big improvement almost like receiving paid cable. This converter box allows me to receive more TV stations then the outdoor TV antenna alone. I haven't figured out yet what these stations are. I think they're cable or satellite channels. This converter box also improved the reception of all the TV stations. My new DVD recorder, as I mentioned above, also improved the reception even better then this converter box.
By the way, so far I've saved over 2 thousand dollars by getting rid of my paid cable and going to an outdoor antenna. Add up your monthly cable bill and times it by 12. That's what you're paying a year for paid cable. |
Works as advertised!
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| Review Date: February 2, 2009 |
| Reviewer: rafeller1, OK USA |
I was looking for a converter box that I could use with my DVR/DVD recorder, since very few recorders of this type are available with an ATSC (digital) tuner. I found nothing comparable to my Panasonic DVD recorder with built in Hard Drive. You program your DVR to record at the desired time and then program the Zinwell ZAT-970A to come on at the that same time. If you want to change stations at a later time, you simply program another start time into the Zinwell ZAT-970A. (You can program up to 8 start times) The only drawback is that you cannot program an end time. However you set the overall run time for how long you want the unit to stay on and it will turn itself off after that amount of time. (I chose 2 hours) Since your DVR will stop recording at the end of it's program, leaving the converter box on longer doesn't pose a problem. (actually this is not so bad. you don't have to set a stop time in the Zinwell program) To be able to watch a different show than the one recording, I simply put an RF splitter on the coax cable coming in from the antenna then used the two outputs from the splitter for the TV and converter box. The unit has a video output that I use an the input to my DVR and recording quality, although not high definition, is very good.
The bottom line: It does everything that I want and saved me hundreds of dollars on a new DVR. I am purchasing another one for my DVD recorder that I have in my bedroom. |
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