analog to digital converter box for sale

#Analog to digital converter box for sale upgrade
#Analog to digital converter box for sale tv

Sometimes, much to the surprise and consternation of engineers, a data-acquisition system will exhibit much lower performance than expected. To submit a tech question, e-mail Rob at Follow him on Twitter at /robpegoraro.Using a 12-bit-resolution analog-to-digital converter (ADC) does not necessarily mean your system will have 12-bit accuracy. Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington, D.C. As part of this industry agreement, the companies involved have said they will post power-usage figures for their boxes, so the people answering the phones or the comment forms on their site should be able to answer this question. If your cable box or DVR dates to a prior presidential administration, you won't be benefiting from any of those recent engineering advancements, and you should ask your cable operator if they have a newer, more efficient model. A briefing in Washington offered some evidence that they've already taken major steps: where a 2002-vintage, standard-definition DVR would have used about 219 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, a 2013 model that records in high-def and offers far more features would use just 170.īut as the subsequent discussion revealed, the service life of a DVR is anywhere from five to seven years.

#Analog to digital converter box for sale upgrade

Tip: Your old cable box may be padding out your electric billĪ group of major cable and satellite operators pledged in December to upgrade the efficiency of the receiver and digital-video-recorder boxes they provide to subscribers. Playing around with different antennas can help improve your reception - newer models are flat and light enough to stick on a wall - but if geography isn't cooperating, there may not be much you can do.

#Analog to digital converter box for sale tv

You may find that you can get high-def local TV for free, but you might also find that the stations you remember coming in with just a bit of snow over analog break up over digital. Digital reception, as my own experience and reader reports have endlessly reminded me, doesn't match analog. The last bit of advice I'd give: If you can, first borrow somebody else's digital TV or DTV tuner to see whether you get acceptable reception at home. (This question, however, came from somebody who had bought an LCD before all manufacturers included digital tuners in their TVs.) Years ago, I was alarmed to discover that a mid-1990s model drew 8 watts even when off.

It's not hard to find name-brand, flat-panel LCD sets with screens 24 inches or smaller selling for under $200, sometimes under $150, and those will not only include a digital tuner but throw in the higher-resolution inputs you might need to add an Internet-media receiver like a Roku box or Apple TV later on.Īn older cathode-ray-tube model, meanwhile, may have a thirst for electricity that's silently costing you money. The other thing to consider is the age and size of the TV in question. Searching on eBay and other resale sites is another option, and may give you better odds of finding one of the models Consumer Reports endorsed at the time. You can still find models on sale for $50 or so at retailers like Radio Shack, Sears and Walmart. The coupon program the government ran to subsidize the purchase of digital-TV converter boxes ended in late 2009 (with just over 64.1 million of those $40 coupons mailed and almost 35 million redeemed), and since then the market for converter boxes has largely dried up. What are my options?Īnswer: This question helped remind me that the digital-TV transition isn't exactly finished, even though it's almost exactly four years after most analog broadcasts ended in June 2009.īut if you're looking to get an analog set back on the air, that job has gotten harder since 2009. Question: I need a digital converter so I can watch over-the-air television on an older set.

Replace your DVR box if it is more than 5 to 7 years old.

The market for analog-digital convertor boxes is shrinking.

Radio Shack and other stores still sell analog sets for %2450.