Use of Digital TV Converter Boxes

To receive over-the-air digital TV broadcasts, your television set should have an ATSC tuner. If your TV set is one of the millions of analog sets still in use in many households, then you would need to buy a small digital TV converter box - also referred to as DTV set-top box or simple the digital TV box.

The DTV set-top box converts the digital TV signals into signals that an analog TV understands.

You would need one set-top box per TV since this is serving as the digital TV tuner for your analog television.

This may sound like too much of an investment but digital TV converters are relatively inexpensive; the average set-top box sells online at around $30 to $40.

Hooking up a Digital TV Converter Box

Installing your DTV converter box is a relatively simple process. It is somewhat similar to connecting an old VCR to your TV.

These boxes have all the connections you need to feed an analog TV with the new digital TV signals. These include:

An antenna input which connects to an indoor or outdoor antenna, an RF out for use with TVs which do not support a composite video input, and the standard yellow, red and white composite video/stereo audio outputs. Some digital TV converter boxes also support an S-video connection for a higher quality video feed to your TV.

These DTV set-top boxes come with all the required connection cables and an installation manual which will guide you through the setup process; the latter covers both the hook-up and the automatic tuning process.

A handy easy-to-follow digital TV converter box installation and set-up guide (in PDF format), has also been prepared by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). You can download this guide from here.

Use of Digital TV Converter Boxes: A few points worth taking note of

DTV converters will help extend the lifetime of your analog TV in that you will still be able to use your old TV to receive digital TV programming. However, there are a few implications worth taking note of:

		Your TV will be rendered nothing more than a monitor in that to change channels, you will have to use the DTV converter box remote. Nothing serious in that this is nothing more than a nuisance, yet it may take you some time till you get used to running around with two remotes.
		While an analog TV set connected to a digital TV converter box will be able to display available free over-the-air DTV broadcasts in your area, yet the displayed image on your old TV need not necessarily be in its full original quality. This depends on the picture quality of your old TV.
		If you have a sufficient reception signal, you will get a picture that is clearer than what you are used to with your old analog connection, but it will not be high definition TV. To watch free over-the air high definition TV content, you need a new digital TV; this will have the required digital tuner built-in and a screen with a high enough native pixel resolution to support high definition programming.
		If you wish to continue watching analog low power TV broadcasts, Class A, or TV translator stations, you should purchase a converter box with 'analog pass-through' capability. This feature allows RF analog broadcast signals to pass through the digital TV converter box, to be tuned by your analog TV. Without analog pass-through, you may have to connect an antenna switch or a signal 'splitter' to bypass the box when viewing low-power analog TV broadcasts.

Which Digital TV Converter Box to Buy?

There are quite a couple of interesting inexpensive digital TV boxes at a number of online retail sites - including amazon and Best Buy. Prices range from as low as $30 to over a $100. However, basic features are always the same.

Among the best $40 digital TV converter boxes you can buy, there is the Zinwell ZAT-970A Digital to Analog TV Converter Box featured on top of this page. The Zinwell supports analog pass-through. It comes with a rather flimsy remote control but it also supports eight timer events.

Another DTV converter box is the TIVAX STB-T9; it is not one of the cheapest around but it is one of the few boxes that include Smart Antenna support. In addition, it includes an auto set-up function, a basic EPG, parental control support, closed caption controls, and Dolby Digital audio out.

A cheaper alternative from TIVAX is their STB-T12; it does lack a few features found on the T9 like Smart antenna support and the ability to manually add channels found, but otherwise it is a good and affordable DTV converter box.