Philco TB100HH9 – Digital Converter Box
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Philco TB100HH9 Digital Converter Box
- Brand: Philco
- Model: TB100HH9
- Price: $44.99
- With Coupon: $9.99 ($40 Discount!)
- Pros:
- Analog signal passes through when in standby mode.
- Coverts all HD (High Definition) video formats to SD (Standard Definition) 480i format.
- Allows for both 4:3 and 16:9 TV Formats.
- Energy Star compliant
- Picture “Still” Button Feature
- V-Chip Parental Control
- Closed Captioning
- Dolby Digital DTV
- Available Online: Best Place to Order
TV Converter Box Coupon Program
This digital converter box is a bit wider than most digital converter receivers with a height of 1.7″ the front panel is 9.5″ and extends 6.0″ backward. Although wider than other digital converter boxes, it is slim that can easily slip into many TV setup shelves and stands and it’s white look gives it a nice white clean feel similar to many other modern computer and electronic appliances. This has a trilingual (English/Spanish/French) On-Screen Display (OSD) and a remote control as some of the conveniences. Outputs are both in RF antenna and Composite RCA Video and Audio.
After searching for the supplier for more specifications and photos, Philco seems to not be US based and all Philco websites found in Google are in Argentina, Brazil and Greece and it made me a bit worried on where to get warranty support until Wikipedia answer all questions. Philco (Philadelphia Storage Battery Company) has a long history that goes back to the employee Philo Fransworth, the inventor of the Cathode Ray Tube TV, and after numerous aquisitions in the past, the company has been passed along from the hands of Ford, GTE/Sylvania, then Philips in 1981. Today, Philips is using the Philco brand name for digital converter boxes for analog TVs in the USA that is being licensed by Philips to Funai, who is manufacturing these boxes. Funai Corporation has corporate offices in New Jersey and California.
$44.99, but can be bought at a price of $9.99 with a TV converter box program coupon. You can buy this here.
Popularity: 10% [?]
I have recently added the Philco TB100HH9 DTV converter box to my DXing and viewing gear.
Whereas I had earlier assumed that the conspicuously white Philco unit, being made by Funai, would be identical to the Magnavox black box, further reading showed the Philco has a desirable feature – RF pass-through for watching analog signals without an RF switch or pulling plugs (useful here, since Canadian stations from Windsor will be available in analog for another 2 1/2 years and will likely never go digital).
After unpacking the product, plugging the CM 3020 (big V/U antenna) into it, and plugging it into the Sylvania 6427GFF (TV set), my first impressions were disappointing – the sensitivity was about the same as the 6427GFF, and the picture quality (using RF out ch3 mode into the antenna jack of the 6427GFF) was only fair.
I then noticed that all the Toledo DTVs came in perfectly well with the CM 3020 pointed at Detroit. I wondered what propagation conditions were allowing this to happen, then took the antenna off of the Philco and put it on my Sylvania DTV. With the antenna in the same position, only WUPW-DT 46 (36) was reliable. WNWO-DT 49 (24) was spotty, and all three of the other Toledos were completely unlockable!
With the Philco, a single antenna position at Detroit worked perfectly for all of the DTVs I can receive here but two (WBGU-DT 56 obviously can’t be seen under analog WTVS, and WLMB-DT 5 likely suffered from noise).
Even through the Philco TB100HH9 and my Sylvania 6427GFF are both Funai products, when it comes to DTV performance under multipath, the difference is like night and day! I further checked the Philco with a (lousy) “rabbit ears” in a bedroom on the wrong side of a brick house, where analog reception suffered from ghosting, pictures often rolled, and my RCA ATSC11 had proven to be a basket case. The Philco came through beautifully. This is a quantum leap for DXers and TV viewers alike!
As for the picture quality, mine seems to have a significantly better picture if you use channel 4 for RF output instead of channel 3. However, you would certainly want to use the (passband) composite video and audio outputs if you possibly can – better picture and much better sound will result.
Then there’s that RF pass-through that drew me to the Philco – almost useless. I was expecting that this meant that the RF would pass-through simply by turning the box off. No, the box has to be ON for the pass-through to work. You access it by going through several steps in the menus, and then the insertion loss is considerable. It is useful if I use video and audio cables for DTV, and the RF output for the pass-through, but I don’t think the general public would go to this effort.
The channel mapping is just like my 6427GFF DTV set. It is DXer friendly. You can enter any actual RF channel directly (you cannot, however, surf through actual channels by going up/down). Channels only go into memory when you add one or when you use autoscan.
The Philco box has a still (freeze-frame) function, which may be useful if you want to save an ID graphic for a photo.
Sadly, like the Magnavox, the Philco is totally remote-dependant. There are no switches nor buttons on the unit of any kind.
Two predictions:
1) CECBs will replace integral DTV sets, HDTV receivers, and software-driven USB DTV appliances as the tool of choice for DTV DXing. The multipath performance is simply so much better.
2) After transition, E-skip loggings of the few lowband DTV stations, with moving video and audio, will not be unusual at all.
All in all, it will be interesting to see what the CECBs arriving in the next few months will offer for DXers. I do not regret buying the Philco TB100HH9 with cash and not waiting the the coupon. I’m sure I’ll find at least two more CECBs worthy of my coupons, when they arrive.
Source: Worldwide TV-FM DX Association
Got mine yesterday – setup took all of 5 minutes (if that). Tuner is on a par with (but not any better than) all of my other ATSC tuners.
Analog RF passthrough – when the unit is on – works great. When the Philips is off – it works, but you get a significant hit in signal strength/quality.
Closed captioning – appears to mirror my Samsung DTB-H260F- will provide more detail when I have more time. No “CC” button on remote – must be accessed through the menus. Signal meter is there, but slow to respond. Unit is pretty quick on tuning in channels. So far, I’m only using it in mono A/V cables, but I don’t hear any high frequency buzzes / chirps (and I have EXCELLENT human range high frequency hearing). At this point, haven’t seen if the STB remote will operate TV on/off, and there is no volume control on it (yes you’ll have to use this remote and your TV remote together).
Edit Got around to hooking CECB to stereo – NO high freq buzzes/chirps on DD material.
Source: AVSForum
Here are my notes from comparing the Philco TB100HH9 and the RCA DTA800B.
EPG (Electronic Programming Guide):
The Philco activates the EPG with one button (labeled “EPG”) on the remote, while the RCA requires you to go through the menu. Also, the Philco allows you to scroll through approximately several hours of programming for a channel and displays title, start/stop times, and descriptions of each program. (I’m not sure whether it’s limited to 6 hours, or if that’s all that my local stations are providing.)
While the Philco only displays programming information one channel at a time, the RCA provides a grid of all available channels. The grid shows all the channels, but it shows a lot less detail than the Philco. The RCA grid only displays abbreviated titles for current and next programs, and you have to give it time to download all of the data to populate the grid.
I like all of the extra programming detail on the Philco and its one-button EPG, but it’s very handy to get a quick look at the entire grid on the RCA.
Remote:
The RCA remote has large ergonomic buttons, and the Philco has very small buttons. This may make me seem very non-technical, but those large buttons make a big difference in making the RCA easy to use. It didn’t take long to get used to the using RCA remote without looking at it, but I had to keep cheating and looking at the buttons on the Philco.
The RCA also has buttons for controlling volume, on/off, channel 3/4, and mute on the TV.
To select a multicast channel (e.g. 22.2), the Philco requires pushing a decimal button, and the RCA doesn’t. On the RCA, I can just press “222″.
The RCA has a button for closed caption while the Philco required using the menus. Most people don’t change their closed caption settings often enough to care whether or not it’s on the remote.
The Philco has “still” button for freezing a frame. However, it hasn’t been much use. When I decide that I would like to freeze something, it’s usually already off the screen before I can pickup the remote and get my finger on the button.
The closed caption and still buttons were both effectively useless features.
The Philco has an “Alt Channel” button for switching back to the last channel. I’ll admit that I do use this button, but I still like the RCA remote much better.
Zoom:
Both units have “wide screen” and “full screen” modes, but the Philco has an extra “zoom” mode. I thought that it would be nice to get rid of those annoying letterbox black bars without losing the sides of the picture in full screen. Unfortunately, it looks too much like a circus mirror, and I switched it back to wide-screen.
Smart Antenna:
The RCA has a smart antenna jack. I don’t know how important this will be in the future, but at least I’ll be prepared.
By-Pass:
I chose the Philco because it has the analog by-pass feature. I initially thought that this was a big deal, but it was overrated. All of my local stations are already digital, so I don’t need it. Even if I did need it, it would only be useful until February, 2009.
Reception:
The picture quality is about the same on both units, but the scan time when changing channels is different. The Philco had a 1-2 second delay on both picture and sound each time I changed a channel. During the delay, the screen is blank except for a message stating that it’s “scanning”. The RCA had less than 1 second delay on the picture, and the sound was instant.
Front Panel:
The RCA has buttons on the front of the box for on/off and for changing channels. If most consumers are like me, they are not buying these boxes for their large living room TVs. My converter boxes are for the cheap portable TVs in my kid’s bedrooms. Since kids frequently misplace the remotes, those buttons on the front panels will be very convenient.
Conclusion:
I definitely prefer the RCA’s remote and its quick response in changing channels.
For the EPG, I’m still split between the RCA “grid” and all the extra programming detail on the Philco. It would be nice to have both in the same unit.
Source: DTV Toys for the 21st Century
With the clock marking the DTV transition ticking more loudly every day, we’re starting to see more converter boxes showing up in stores. We recently posted First Look reviews of three boxes—the $50 Magnavox TB100MW9, the $60 Insignia NS-DXA1, and the $60 Zenith DTT900. Now we’ve just completed our preliminary tests on one of the first boxes with “analog pass-though” capability, the Philco TB100HH9.
Analog pass-through can be an important feature for households in areas served by so-called “low-power” broadcasters. Though all full-power stations are required to broadcast only digital signals as of February 17, 2009, the low-power broadcasters can continue analog broadcasts, at least for the time being. Since the converter box does not include an analog tuner, you will have to continue using your TV’s built in analog tuner to pick up these stations. A converter box with analog pass through will not only put digital programs on the RF antenna output to the TV (channel 3 or 4), but will also pass along traditional analog antenna signals as well. For more information, check out “The DTV Transition: The low-down about analog pass-though.”
A low-priced option
Priced at $47, the Philco TB100HH9 is a compact, no-frills box that’s similar in many ways to the Magnavox TB100MW9 we tested. Like that model, it has a built-in ATSC tuner that can receive digital off-air signals and convert them to analog. Unlike the Magnavox box, however, the Philco allows analog signals to bypass the digital circuitry, routing them directly to a TV with an analog tuner.
The Philco performed its basic functions well. Picture quality from its antenna RF output was decent; it improved slightly when we used the composite-video output. While the digital tuner can pull in digital HD signals, they’re converted to standard-def analog inside the box. Some images had jagged edges, especially when HD images were converted to standard definition.
Tuner sensitivity tests showed that this model performs as well with off-air digital signals as other converters and flat-panel HDTVs we’ve tested. (Note: Analog reception will depend on the sensitivity of the TV’s built-in tuner). A signal-strength meter, located in the channel information banner, helps you adjust the antenna’s position for optimal reception.
The box proved fairly easy to use. An electronic program guide offers the program title, run time, a brief summary of each show, as well as a 7-hour timeline for the currently tuned channel. A “setup wizard,” which appears the first time you power on the device, makes the initial set-up and channel scan fairly simple. You can adjust the color and size of the fonts in Closed Caption, and aspect-ratio controls let you adjust the size and shape of the programs, so widescreen HD broadcasts can appear either as a letterboxed images with black bars above and below the picture, or they can be zoomed and cropped to fill a squarish 4:3 screen. Unlike some converter boxes, though, there’s no aspect ratio button on the remote—you have to change it using the set-up menu. The box itself has no controls; since they’re all located on the remote, you won’t be able to use this box should you lose or break the remote control.
A minor note: The Philco is colored white, rather than dark gray or black like most converters we’ve seen.
The Bottom Line
This Philco TB100HH9 provides access to free off-air digital programs for analog TV owners on a budget, and enabling those who receive analog broadcasts from low-power stations to continue enjoying them after the DTV transition in 2009. However, its only fair performance with downconverted HD programs means that those who want optimal picture quality, particularly on TVs with larger screens, may want to look elsewhere. While there may be better converters, this Philco is still worth its $47 price, especially since you can use a $40 government rebate to defray most of its cost.
Source: ConsumerReports
i would like to know that TB100hh9 digital to Analog to tv converter box have closed caption color option background.
please let me know