Someone talk me out of the Zenith SAT520

[darrinps]

Well given the price for these (under $600) is a lot less than I thought, and since I'm getting tired of waiting on the new Toshiba, I'm thinking that maybe this box is a good choice for me.

I will be hooking it up to a Toshiba TN50x81. This set does NOT have DVI input (evrything else...component, S-video, etc.).

I live less than 20 miles from the HDTV sending towers and I get very good reception of my locals OTA (I also have the DriecTV locals for my wife...she hates to flip).

So, given my scenario, is this the best box for me, or should I wait and see on the Toshiba?

Thanks!

[FullBandwidth]

Originally posted by darrinps

I live less than 20 miles from the HDTV sending towers and I get very good reception of my locals OTA (I also have the DriecTV locals for my wife...she hates to flip).



I seem to remember reading here (or somewhere) that all HD-capable DirecTV receivers also have ATSC OTA tuners too (I know my Hughes box does). So plug in both the sat & OTA antenna cables to the set-top box and watch everything without "flipping." Save yourself the $5/month for local-into-local. And, if your locals are actually broadcasting in HD, you'll get a better picture than the DirecTV locals (HD vs. digitized analog SD).

[Bunnyman]

I've been using the Zenith SAT520 for 5 months now and generally I'm very happy with it. Before I had a Samsung TS-160 and it made me nuts with its freezing-up problem, see my thread elsewhere in this forum.

I had my SAT520 on component video (Y, Pb, Pr) for a couple months until I got bored one day and decided to get a DVI cable and try the DVI output. I saw no appreciable difference in quality between the two, and left it on DVI.

Want to be talked out of the SAT520? Here are my two gripes:

1) The remote control has to be pointed *directly* at the STB for it to work. Being lazy and pointing it slightly off-angle doesn't work, the STB is very unforgiving. Although I think this is a feature of all HD STBs regardless of brand.

2) Every so often the STB will lose its mind and stop working and reboot itself, requiring the channel list to be rebuilt. I HATE that because then I have to go into the menu and rebuild my custom channel list. There are a lot of channels on DirecTV that I never watch, and I don't want to have to flip past them while viewing the onscreen guide. When this happens I use language that would make the baby Jesus cry. If anyone knows of a fix or software upgrade that helps this, pls let me know.

I also have a rooftop antenna for the digital locals. That gets plugged into the back of the STB and I have my digital locals available along with the DirecTV channels. So worth it, because the local digitals come in with fantastic quality.