iView-3500STB Digital to Analog DTV Converter Box FULL HD HDMI OUT and USB input

iView-3500STB Digital to Analog DTV Converter Box FULL HD HDMI OUT and USB input
  • Set-top box converts digital broadcast stations for viewing on your analog television set
  • Standard RF antenna output and RCA with stereo audio outputs for connecting to your television
  • FULL 1080P Outout makes this better than the competing DTV boxes.
  • USB INPUT allows you to play a variety of audio/video from your USB source directly to your TV
  • Video Decoder: MPEG-2 MP at HL, MPEG-4 SP, ASP, H.264 HP at L4.1, DivX 3.11, 4.X, 6.X, FLV format and VC-1

I bought a new TV that replaced my 2005 Phillips 32" Flat Panel TV. I took the Phillips TV to work with the thought that I'd at least be able to get network TV for the news or whatever (I have no intent of getting pay tv). I picked up and antenna and to my surprise came to find that this tv was not digital TV ready!? Okay, no problem I roll over to my local Walmart and pickup a DTV converter box, hook everything up and everything works great. Except.... the picture looks like crap. While it maybe an 7 year old TV, it's still 1080i and the xBox looks great. So here I am at Amazon where I find this little box of wonder. And I couldn't seem to find too many of these converters with an HDMI out. I was a bit skeptical because no reviews were written on it. But I figured it couldn't be worse than the RCA converter. I ordered it on Monday arrived at my office on Thursday. Plug everything in, the box boots and does its channel scan and low and behold (queue the church choir "ahhhhhh" and the golden rays of sunshine emitting from this box) the picture looked AWESOME! The menu is easy to navigate. I would have paid double for this product. Huge value in my opinion.

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About a year and a half ago I had purchased the iview 2000stb converter box for the TV in my bedroom. Our cable service provides a decent amount of clear qam digital cable channels so I figured I'd go that route instead of renting another DTA converter box from the cable company. The 2000stb turned out to be a good choice for me as it found all the digital channels and also had great picture quality.

A few weeks ago I happened to stumble upon the 3500stb online and it caught my eye. After being satisfied with the older 2000stb I thought I would also try the 3500stb, and the fact that it could handle clear qam Hi-Def was an added bonus if I decided to use it with a compatible TV later on. I ordered the 3500stb and was looking forward to trying it on another TV in the house to see how it would perform.

Needless to say, I was instantly disappointed with the 3500stb. After hooking it up, I started testing it out I noticed that it functioned nothing like the 2000stb at all. This was immediately apparent when I tried scanning for the digital channels. Although it found most of them, it did not find several of the local channels, even after a few more attempts. Even worse is that it doesn't display the channels like most other qam tuners. Each station is given a strange code starting with the letters "PR" and a series of several numbers rather than the standard qam numbers I was used to (58-9 or 73-4, for instance). On top of that, the channel number displayed on the box itself is totally different from the code shown on the screen, and is also not the qam number either. I thought that I might have missed something during setup so I experimented with several menu settings, including channel labeling, and unfortunately nothing changed. Now the worst part it wouldn't even let me change a channel with the number buttons on the remote! Every one I tried resulted in "invalid channel", even on stations that I knew were valid.

The digital music stations were found, and were placed in a separate category labeled "radio", with the same strange numbering as the cable channels. What I found really odd was that this box didn't display the title and artist picture that corresponded with the music channel. Instead, there was a screen showing musical notes and a blue sky. This appeared on all the music channels, and it actually looked more like a scene taken from a children's video.

As for the on-screen menu, it was another disappointment. The menu screens were all in shades of gray and white, making them very difficult to figure out. The white commands placed over tiny gray symbols at the bottom of the screen were almost impossible to read, and in some cases I couldn't even make them out at all.

In the short time I had it hooked up, picture quality seemed fine at first, but then I noticed faint vertical lines drifting across the screen. This appeared on two different TVs I tried, and with different composite video cables each time.

A few other things to note:

1. The cord is rather short (maybe four feet) and is somewhat thinner than most.

2. No batteries come with the remote, but chances are that most of us have 2 extra AAA's lying around. It does come with standard A/V cables (red/white/yellow) but no coax.

3. The manual is rather small and I didn't find it very useful. It certainly is a far cry from the very detailed one that came with my Toshiba DVD recorder.

Unfortunately, I just cannot recommend the 3500stb. After spending a frustrating hour and a half with it, I immediately packed it back up and will be returning it. While the older 2000stb may not have been a high-end unit, I was very satisfied with its performance for the price. Too bad it isn't available anymore I would gladly take another instead of this new model. Maybe I didn't experiment with the 3500stb enough, but most likely I would not have kept it either way. Guess I'll have to keep looking.

Read Best Reviews of iView-3500STB Digital to Analog DTV Converter Box FULL HD HDMI OUT and USB input Here

I bought a multi-system television while serving overseas. I had forgotten that the salesperson informed me that it didn't have a digital tuner. Plugged the TV in when i got back stateside to find out it didn't have a digital tuner although it had a multi-system tuner in it. I started searching for a digital tuner with full HDMI output and this is the only one I found. Was a little worried until I plugged it in and started using the product. One word... Outstanding. I am absolutely happy with this digital tuner. Glad that there is a product for my application. As always Amazon's shipping was quick. Keep on rocking Amazon!!

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I purchased this tuner to receive over the air TV signals and display them on a projector at our church--there are not many Digital Tuners in this price range capable of HD output, and this one is not only HD capable, but also has a ton of other features like a Program view, media player, and the ability to act as a PVR if you connect a USB drive (including the ability to pause, rewind, etc live TV). Not that it is why you would get this tuner, but it also has some quality retro games like Tetris. To be fair, the manual is very poorly translated english and the device smells like a harbor freight store, but, overall, I think it is a very purchase for the price.

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This is the only one of it's kind that I found. I needed a box that would accept a coaxial input, but I needed the output to be HDMI becuase I am sending the signal wirelessly using a HDMI wireless tranmitter / reciever. I could not find any other device that had HDMI output and was very happy to stumble on this one. This fit my needs perfectly! I also picked up many, many more stations with this tuner compared to my Sansung internal TV tuner. I also like the fact that you can add a usb drive to this and it acts like a DVR. Great product, and well worth the price!

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