HDTV Tuners Comparisons (1 Viewer)

[Harold_T]

Iam to trying to decide on the best HDTV-Sat Tuner.
Can anyone point me to a comparison that any review agency has done?
I was leaning toward Sony SATHD200 but would some of the others be worth considering? like TOSHIBA DST3000?
Thanks, Sid

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Sid,

I have a Toshiba DST-3000 that I've been using since Oct of 01. It's been a decent and reliable unit. It's a clone of the Hughes E-86, which can be had now for $400-500.

If I did not already have the Tosh, and were new in the STB market right now, I would pick the Sony HD-200 or Zenith 520
(both are made by Zenith and have the same guts and features). The Zenith/Sonys have the capability to display ntsc via component cables, and have more upconversion options for 480i.

With the Tosh/Hughes boxes, the component connection only outputs 1080i, either native from an HD source or upconverted from ntsc. The 480i upconverted to 1080i is pretty nasty. 720p is also converted to 1080i, but looks very nice. It will output 480i natively, so your set can do the line doubling and the pq will be much better than the 1080i upconversion, but you will have to run an S-video cable to another input on your tv to do it and switch inputs on the tv as well as switch output modes on the stb--a real nuisance.

With the Sony/Zenith you can choose several upconversion scanrates or choose to send out whatever the incoming signal is, all thru the component connections.

The Sony/Zenith also has more and better stretch/zoom modes if you have a widescreen set.

The Sony/Zenith is a few hundred more than the Hughes/Tosh, about $800 for the Sony and $100 less for the Zenith version, but probably well worth the extra expense if it's not a budget buster for you.