So there I was in WalMart doing the usual errands, when I notice this stack of cardboard cartons on the shelf with bold type proclaiming “You can use $40 Coupon,” and inviting me to WATCH FREE DIGITAL TV PRGRAMS with my analog TV!

Cartons have a hard time with grammar and spelling, but it was enough to excite me – until I realized that my coupons were at home on my desk.  It was the first time I had seen an actual converter in a store, ready and waiting to come home with me... and that was enough to bring me back the next day, coupon in hand, worried that the store might  have sold out of them.

As it turned out, my worry was unfounded: the stack appeared to have been untouched, the demand evidently not up to Wii-before-Christmas levels.  I grabbed a box and took it to the checkout counter, where the cashier gave the coupon a look and smiled, “so that’s what they look like!”  But she knew what to do with it, and I took my first step into the digital future, having spent only $9.87 plus tax.

What’s in the box

It took major self-control to not open up the box right there in the car, but I managed to wait until getting it home and onto the dining room table before taking a look:

My first reaction was, “Is this all?”  The converter is about the size of a hardback book, with a handful of connectors on the back and no controls other than a main power switch on the side.  There’s a remote control with batteries, an antenna cable, and the manual.  Sure, the thing cost me less than ten bucks... but it felt unimpressive, somehow.  Hope it works.

Hooking it up

Please... I’m a guy!  Besides, how hard can it be?  Ordinarily that would be the cue for a blinding flash and a cloud of smoke, but the converter was ridiculously easy to install.  Put the batteries in the remote, move the antenna plug from the TV set to the converter’s antenna input, and hook the new cable from the converter’s output to the TV set.  Just like hooking up a VCR.  Hit the power button on the remote, and... nothing.  Turns out the converter comes out of the box expecting your TV set to be on channel 3, and my TV was on channel 4.  Easily fixed, and I was greeted with a display that guided me through the rest of the setup.  It stepped through every channel to see what it could find, and automatically programmed itself... exactly like my last VCR.

As I’ve said before, I live in the Valley, where off-air reception means ghosts and snow year round, not just in the winter.  I was stunned when the box recognized every single DTV station in town without my having to mess with the antenna once.  Real-world things are not generally this simple.

How does it look?

In a word: amazing.  I can flip through all of twelve DTV program channels and get pictures and sound that look like what I’d see on a monitor in the control room.  The funny thing is, I expect this at work: it never dawned on me that my TV at home could look so good... and it isn’t remotely close to high definition.  Wow.  This Magnavox box sure doesn’t look like much, perched on top of my TV set, but it sure does make a nice picture.

How easy is it to use?

Ay... there’s the rub.  While the converter box just seems cheap, the remote control actually is.  The buttons you use most often are small and packed together in no obvious order; the labels are hard to read.  But with the Magnavox, you’d better get used to it:  there are no controls on the converter itself, so if you lose the remote, the converter is useless.  You can’t even turn it on.

But the problem goes deeper than a cheesy remote control:  the designers as Funai (the Chinese company that actually manufactures this for Magnavox) apparently have no feel for making something easy to use.  Want to turn on closed captioning?  You have to drill through a series of menus and options.  Want to change from widescreen to normal screen size?  More menus.  Want to change the volume or mute the audio?  Oops... you can’t.  You also can’t turn off the TV, a standard feature on other converter boxes I tested.  Fie.

Surprise!

Despite the pitiful remote, I was quite pleased with the box and played with it for long enough to annoy my wife and daughter, who tend to be more interested in the program than in the box playing it.  Mercy prevailed, and I left things alone and went about various other chores.  About four hours later came the dreaded words:

“Honey, your new box just died.”

Indeed it had... but the remote turned it right back on.  What I had forgotten is that all of these converter boxes, in order to be eligible for the $40 coupon, must be energy efficient: which means that they shut themselves off unless you disable that “feature.”  Yup, you guessed it:  more menus.

What’s the bottom line?

• It’s the cheapest converter I’ve found, about $10 less than the competition
• Setup is quite easy, even if you’re a guy and don’t read directions
• The picture quality is outstanding
• Controls are the weak spot, clumsy and inconvenient
• Don’t lose the remote.  The converter won’t work without it

There are more features that deserve mention, like the electronic program guide, but they will keep for later.  All in all, I’m giving the Magnavox a C+.

-- Jeff