Insignia™ - Digital-to-Analog Converter for Analog TVs - Multi

This unit is very easy to set up, and has a good remote controller, which has a separate power button for the TV. The controller also has buttons for digital menus, on-line TV guide, zoom (changes aspect ratio if supported by the station), sleep, CCD, channels selection, volume control, and mute. The volume control and mute work by changing the audio that's sent to your TV. The converter box comes with an antenna in, an RF antenna out, an RCA plug composite video out, and RCA plug stereo out. It is not passthrough (allowing analog signals through), nor does it have S-video out. There are three buttons on the front of the box: power, channel up and channel down. After hooking the unit up, we went from receiving 6 analog stations to receiving 12 digital stations. The picture quality is excellent - when it's not breaking up or losing the signal. Audio tends to break up frequently. We have it connected to powered rabbit ears, and also tried it connected with non-powered rabbit ears (it doesn't seem to make a difference), so perhaps a different antenna arrangement would work better. The sound, if connected through the RF antenna out, sounds terrible, but when connected through the stereo RCA jacks is good. The sound is slightly tinny, but for most stations not noticeable. Due to the frequent breaking up of the signal (both video and audio), I cannot yet wholeheartedly recommend this product, although as mentioned above, it could be the way digital signals come to our antenna. We do not live very far from the TV stations' broadcast antennas, but we do have aluminum siding on our home, which also affects digital cell phone signals (we barely get a cell phone signal inside).

I find this unit brings in a station Magnavox & RCA had missed. In fact this unit missed it the first time. The EZ ADD is great. I had this one up & running in a Jiffy. I still have not looked at the manual. It's that simple. I see a fault that all others have missed. We have a sub-channel that plays music in mono. When this unit is set for stereo, there is no sound when using CH 3 output when viewing that channel. When using the RCA jacks, the audio is present. Also, this unit produces great stereo sound when I watched a concert on PBS.

This product was easy to use,easy to setup, and seemed to do an okay job at finding the channels. The channel guide is nice,and the picture quality is pretty good compared to what it was before the gf and I picked up this converter box. The only real problem I have is that the picture seems to glitch (similar to having satellite tv during a rainstorm) wayyyy to often. I adjusted the antenna and even with maximum reception it still glitches...unacceptable.

I have this box hooked up to my analog bedroom tv, with a set of amplified rabbit ears. This thing works great. I am getting 20 digital channels. It has really breathed new life into my older gear. I actually have two converter boxes. One is a Magnavox. the other is this Insignia. The Magnavox is wired into my DVD recorder, while the Insignia is running to the TV. My DVD recorder was considered high end in it's day and to costly to just discard or replace after the digital change over. This way I can record one show while watching another. It is a good idea to use two different model converter boxes if you plan to do this, so the remote don't control both boxes. Both units are about equal in picture quality, but the Insignia is better overall because it has channel up/down buttons and an on/off button on the units face. The Magnavox is 100% reliant on the remote. Also, The TV guide and menu system are more nicely laid out on the Insignia. Both units work great but the Insignia is a little better unit. There are two ways to hook it up to your equipment. One way is with the F-type antenna output, the other is with a three way A/V output (audio Left and Right and video). This is a basic tuner. It does not have S-video or HDMI, but for 59.95, I would not expect it to have such hookups. HDMI would not make sense on this unit anyway since the reciever is SDTV. Besides, these boxes were designed to work with older TV's that may not have such hookups anyway. Overall these units are great and deliver a very nice picture on an older set.

We bought this unit to use in a RV. We've had it almost a month and have had no problems with it. When using it in a RV, the 'add channels on the fly' feature is a requirement. Some of the cheaper converter boxes don't have any 'add channel' feature, thereby requiring a complete auto-scan everytime you change the antenna direction ... and in a RV, this happens often. You can't watch analog channels, which is expected since this box is designed to convert digital channels to analog. In addition, in a few months there won't be any analog channels to watch. The audio/video breakup is not a problem unless it's worse than other Digital TVs or converter boxes. This video/audio breakup is a digital trait when signal level is borderline or the antenna system needs attention. The breakup on our converter box is less than with a LG HDTV on the same RV antenna system. ***The following sound problems were only noticed when connected via the RF connector.***. We also experienced the 'tinny' sound. In addition, we noticed a slight hissing sound when the volume was set low. Both of these problems were solved by doing two things: 1. setting the converter box's "Option/Audio Output" to "Mono"; and 2. set the converter box volume to near max and do the volume adjust with the TV volume. As far as the S-video/Component/HDMI connections: I haven't seen any converter box, which ACCEPT THE GOVERNMENT CONVERTER BOX COUPON, that have any of these connections. There may be some, but I've looked extensively and haven't found any. This box took us from a few analog RV channels that were sometimes 'unviewable' to a good solid picture with many more channels. I'd recommend this box over two others we've looked at which are a few dollars less. You get what you pay for; and this is close to 'middle of the road'. Considering the price, I would give it a 5 ... except anything electronic can (and will) be improved!

I have this hooked up from my rooftop antenna to an old analog TV/VCR combo set. Analog reception in my area is spotty at best with maybe 10 stations that come in at all and only a couple of the close ones are good. To capture all 40+ digital channels (not to mention the obsolescence of the analog stations by next year), I decided to buy this tuner and not a new digital TV. All stations come in very clearly as is typical with digital TV (I use the standard audio and composite video cable to my TV's AUX input). The biggest bonus is the feature set of this tuner. It has on-screen menus and an electronic guide including a "Favorites" menu! All for $60 (without the coupon)! The remote can even turn your TV on and off in many cases. This is a great value in my opinion. If you have an older TV you want to keep around and you currently get decent analog reception from your antenna, this is a great buy.

This a is good product, even without the gov't coupon. I had no analog ghosts or multipaths. Just had white streaky short horizontal lines on some channels - sometimes in 2 bands, slowly moving up. It sometimes affected the sound quality. I live in a deep fringe area, with outside antenna, and rotor. This product, produced a digital quality image, without picture problems. Sound was good. Keep in mind that the picture is not as good as HDTV. Have only used the devices antenna output so far, not the AVI. The (Electronic Programming) Guide is fine. The unit has a signal strength indicator that works well! Picked up 3 additional channels from my directional antenna's back side vs. my HDTV. I routinely get signals from stations over 100 miles to nearly 130 miles away. My State has about 52 broadcasters. I can receive 15 or 16, and all their multichannels, with the antenna rotor. If your live in a city, with ourside antenna, have old TVs, then you may want to get this device pronto!

Setup was really simple and fast, except for finding how to enable the TV power button on the remote (the instructions are buried in the manual). Also easy to scan for new channels later on -- for instance if you adjust the antenna for better reception. We live outside Champaign, IL, and get the channels we expect, except Fox. We use a Terk indoor TV5 antenna, and have to elevate it to get a good signal, but then all the stations come in very clear. It has a channel guide that shows the current and next shows for each channel, but you see only 1 channel at a time. The remote is straightforward. The box has its own volume control, with the TV acting as a master control. (So at the box's max volume, you get whatever the TV volume is set at.) The picture and sound quality are fine. Any problems with garbled sound or images were the fault of bad reception, so get a good antenna.