I wish there was the perfect DTV converter box. I really do.

I've spent time comparing the Magnavox set top box to the Accurian box I already own. There are many differences but in one or two important areas, there are not.

If the Magnavox converter has a 6th generation chipset (and we're not completely sure it does), I'd expect to see it decode stations I can't decode on my Accurian box, but the Magnavox is as good as the Accurian for decoding stations. But right now, let's jump around and talk about meters for a second and we'll explain.

The Accurian box has a really neat meter that shows you signals that are there, but below the threshold of decoding. This a great feature for DXing because you can "see" a station even though you can't decode it. You know it's there. So, using the Accurian meter, I aimed my CM 4228 at ch36 (WCDC-DT 60 miles N.E.) and ch42 (WSAH roughly the same distance SSW) and saw signals just too weak to decode. The Magnavox would not decode these either. I was a little disappointed.

I wish these boxes had a signal meter that meant something. S units maybe. Comparing the meters of two different boxes is like comparing apples and bananas. The Magnavox meter is a numerical spread from 1 to 100. My strongest locals ch31 (WTIC) and 46 (WUVN) register at 90-92. On the other hand, the weakest station that will decode is ch29 (WUNI) in Worcester, MA about 50 miles to my east and it decodes at 16 and stays locked. If a signal is there but too weak to decode, you'll never know since the Magnavox meter can't tell you.

The Magnavox is an improvement over the Accurian box in the following areas:

1. Direct entry of channels. Punch in 33 (WTIC's RF channel) and 33 appears in a little box in the upper right side of the screen. It then changes to 33-x. Then it immediately remaps to 3-1 and displays the call letters on the top of the screen and shows the signal strength. You can then access this information by pressing "display" on the remote and this information will stay there for 5 minutes until it times out. If you need to take a photo of this information with your digital camera, you have plenty of time.

2. The antenna screen. You go into the setup menu to find this screen. What you will find is the re-mapped channel number, a large meter showing current signal strength as a number (88, for example) and another small box showing the peak signal number of the session. You also have a live picture under this information. Contrary to the Accurian box, you can change channels with the remote when you are in this box. The only item missing here is the channel's call letters. However, if you have a camera ready and are lucky enough to catch an ID at ID time, you'll have a nice record of the reception. 

You can do a channel scan with the Magnavox but you may not need to do it. You can access everything you want by direct entry. But if you do want to do a channel scan, the process is easy and only takes a minute. And if you want to DELETE the channel scan you can do it quickly and easily with the Add/Delete channel function in the setup menu. Press add/delete, then delete. A menu opens up with all your scanned channels and you just delete each one. You'll see them disappear and the process just takes a few seconds.

The Magnavox has a picture "freeze" feature called still. The freeze will not time out as it does on the Accurian box. If you freeze the picture before it dies you will have plenty of time to get a camera and make some coffee before you take the picture.

Let's go back to direct entry again. You can enter 33 on the remote, or you can enter 331 or 332 to view 33-1 or 33-2 (these will show up re-mapped). You do not need to scan the channels to view the sub-channels.

This converter can be used with the television set to either ch 3 or ch4. Or the A/V cables can be used.

I found one channel that would not remap (ch46).

This box is small. It's roughly 6" by 10" and perhaps 1.5" tall. It's just a tad larger than a copy of the VHF-UHF Digest, the official WTFDA club publication.

I also give this box a thumb up. You cannot go wrong with the price of $49.87 at Walmart. I can only fault it in two areas. The many advantages outweigh the few disadvantages. The Magnavox holds the signal much better than the Accurian and local channels don't drop out as the antenna is rotated. The unit is very user-friendly.

My equipment used is a Channel Master 8 bay at 25 feet. I also use a Kitazamp for UHF with RG6 cable.

Mike Bugaj - Enfield, CT 2/3/08