Tivax STB-T8 Digital to Analog TV Converter Box

I bought the Tivax as a stop gap solution to firing Directv and their irritating price creep. I use the net for most of my information gathering, but still need to watch football on a tv. The first unit was defective (couldn't set it up using the handset), but Amazon quickly replaced it with a working unit. Coupled with the Tivax amplified HD antennae, I got 17 channels (including 4 HD channels that I didn't know even existed in my area) with great pictures and sounds. I feel like I am paroled from $80 a month to Directv, and I watched the Cowboys whip the Raiders on local HD...sweet!

I purchased this when they were issuing vouchers and did not use it until three months ago. Before that I had cable for over 20 years. I believe I made the right choice, because now I am getting about 50 channels and some stations I could not get with cable unless I upgraded. While I do miss backing up to see what I missed and recording with the cable box (tivo), I have found I can live without it. As an added bonus, I do not have a huge cable bill each month.The Tivax is easy to setup and easy to use. I do not like that the audio sometimes varies when you change channels, but not enough to be a big concern. I also have a Channel Master D2A converter box for my other TV and it does the same.You simply cannot rate the Tivax converter box over another brand box until you connect it up and actually use it in action and then do the same with the other one. Since I have done that with the Channel Master and this one, I give the Channel Master a slight edge for overall performance and features.

THIS IS A NON-RETURNABLE ITEM.I ordered this unit to attach to my HD TV to get the addtional channels that are offered on Time Warner Digital cable. I am not a novice when it comes to TV, audio or other electronic equipment in that I have 36 years experience with this kind of equipment. This unit took 2 hours to hook up - had it scan to find channels, it found 22 more channels than I have normally over the cable. But it won't pass them through to the TV. Each time, the response is: "You need to scan for channels." After 4 scans, I decided this is not worth the effort, and the unit must be broken. So, pack it up and return it to Amazon, right... after all, it is sold by Amazon, etc. etc.Now I am told that THIS IS A NON-RETURNABLE ITEM.... remember that, THIS IS A NON-RETURNABLE ITEM.SO, unless Amazon management is paying attention, it looks like I bought a two pound fishing weight. I don't even want to TRY to sell it on their web site, because I don't want to saddle any other sucker with this piece of junk.THIS IS A NON-RETURNABLE ITEM.

STB PVR using Serial port channel changer.That's what I got this DTV converter for. The HD pvr recordings were about 7Gb per hour of recording. For most TV programs, I don't need high def. So, I am recording at Standard Def which takes about 1.2Gb per hour. This saves considerable Hard drive space.As far as picture quality, It's pretty near perfect. Tuner sensitivity is also very good. I'll post my channel changer perl script on the GBPVR forum once I get it completed. It changes channels from the PC, but I need it to interface with GBPVR. You can have look there for details.

I researched the internet to find the best digital converter box available and I think I found it. The Tivax STB-T8 works fantastic! Easy to set-up and use. I was so happy with its performance and features, I bought two more Tivax converter boxes for my other TV's. All three units work perfect. I would recommend this product to anyone. Also Amazon shipped the item quick with no problems. I am completely satisfied with my transaction!

After viewing the consumer reports review on this product and reading the reviews on Amazon, I decided to give this product a try. Overall I DO NOT LIKE the product and I WOULD NOT recommend it to anyone. I live in a rural area and have used an indoor antenna to pickup my local channels for the last 15 years. My local channels are all I expected. I purchased a Magnavox TB110MW9 eariler this year along with an outdoor antenna and it out performs this Tivax. The Trivax did not have a good picture and it only picked up one of the five local channels I could see with the Magnavox. I connected both models to the same television, using the same outdoor antenna, and the Magnavox picked up many more channels than the Tivax. I also hated the font on the Tivax. I had to walk up close to the TV in order to read the displayed information (and I have 20/20 vision). I searched the menu hoping to change the font size, but I could not. However, there were options to change the font for the closed caption feature.

I purchased this unit after reading rave reviews of the product and have found it to be an acceptable, but not outstanding, piece of equipment.Pros:Receives many more channels than the unit I replaced and picture quality and sound are decent.Cons:Takes the unit a second or two to acquire the signal when changing channels which is problematic when coupled with the lousy remote.Remote control has illogical colored buttons for on/off: Red for On - Green for Off functions.Buttons require extreme pressure to perform function and often get stuck in depressed position (this coupled with the units delay in acquiring a signal will always have you guessing if the button was pushed hard enough or if the unit is still trying to pick up the signal-often you will pass up the intended channel by pressing buttons a second time.Sensor unit is not very sensitive and requires a nearly perfectly direct angle for the remote to function.Overall-the unit is acceptable - but the remote is extremely aggravating-and since that is what you will be using repeatedly- it can make using this unit very annoying.

A created necessity for converting (in the end) to pay TV. To cover the cut off to free TV........ I remember when all this was transitioning, we were told there would be no advertising on cable TV, because you were paying to use it. This kept your analog TV working until it died, or you bought a digital TV......the next step was cable when you could no longer get the free signal.