Best Analog-to-Digital (DTV) Converters
1byone Digital TV Converter Box converts over-the-air ATSC digital broadcasts for playback on your analog TV. Additional Features: Pause Live TV, Parental Controls, Program Guides, Favorite Channel Lists, USB Multimedia Player, Auto Tuning, Recording PVR, Closed Captioning, and Auto & Manual Scanning.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"We like this 1byone ATSC Digital Converter Box for Analog TV, Analog TV Converter Box with Record and Pause Live TV, USB Multimedia Playback, HDTV Set Top Box for 1080p(New Version)-Black. Remote control and batteries. 4 Yellow red and white cord connector. 5."
"A product that surpises me a lot.The HD Antenna ATSC Converter Box was super easy to install, and it beats having a bulky antenna on the top of my house."
"I am going to have to buy a plain old USB drive to record, assuming I can figure out how that works."
"I received my ATSC Digital converter Box the other day and was was amazed at its size. There is a place in the front to plug in a usb based storage device. for your programs you wish to record. I did find it relatively easy to record a few shows that I watch at times. I did plug in a usb drive to test the fact that I could view my photos on it, on the tv."
"Great product, I canceled my cable and now have 68 channels free !!"
"Great product, would buy a gain."
"It works great!"
"Works as expected."
Please NOTE IMPORTANT: While this device DOES have limited QAM/Cable capability, it is NOT officially supported due to incompatibility issues with some cable providers. c. To delete channels go to Select Menu, Program, enter password 000000. (Credit to Andy) IMPORTANT: European DVB-T RF signal is NOT supported and will NOT work! Please REMOVE Clear Plastic Covering from the top of Viewtv Box before use! If you have any issues with your device please contact customer support provided on your warranty card. Features: Auto Tuning, Program guide, Recording PVR, Closed Caption, Favorite Channel List and Parental Control Function.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Update- 29 January 2014 The box has been running everyday, recording about 6 shows a week, and a fair amount of time-shifting too. The box has independent hardware keys for Power, Menu, OK, VOL -/+ and Channel -/+. The box also has a display that shows channel numbers- however these are the numbers of the memory positions that the box has stored the scanned channels into- these are not the actual broadcast station numbers. You can program any key function into any key- which makes using this box a lot better. The key point I can make is that this box tunes all of the broadcast stations available in the area- my expensive TV's tuner doesn't do that. Under MENU/ Channel Search/ Modulation you can enable "Loop through" which will allow you to watch one channel using your TV's digital tuner and record another using the box's tuner- you won't need to use a splitter inline before the box. If the box is in time-shift, playback, or currently recording it will not allow you to go to the EPG. So make sure you have scheduled your recordings before the box starts a scheduled recording. (Added 23 May 14) SO far my single greatest complaint, and honestly it is a minor annoyance, I wish it allowed setting a label for a recording when setting up a scheduled recording. Scheduled recordings are labeled by channel name and timed/date. So I keep a 3x5 card handy to remind me what shows I record by channel, time, and day. (Added 29 January 14) I've had recordings fail with scheduled recording if I didn't set at least one minute difference between the end of one recording and the beginning of the next. While time-shifting the OSD shows on the bottom of the display, press the EXIT key to hide the OSD, press the INFO key to recall it. While the box is recording you will have a recording OSD in the top left corner of the display- press the EXIT key to hide the OSD, press the INFO key to recall it. The box will time-shift to a external hard disk drive, it will play back your movie collection too, but I have had it fail scheduled recordings with the hard disk drive- even when I observed the 1 minute after rule mentioned above. When the scheduled recording kicks in the box spins up the hard-drive, but if the hard-drive speed is a little slow the box detects that the drive is not ready so it aborts the recording. Pressing the USB button on the remote will take you to the USB menu, then select the PVR icon and look for a folder called HBPVR to find your recordings. You can press the OK key to select the file and it will start playing the recording, or you can press the PLAY key, you will be presented with a choice to "StartResume", press the OK key to resume a previous playback or press the EXIT key to play from the beginning.fast-forward in the preview and see the relative position as it fast forwards, then press the HOLD key to go full screen. This box doesn't have some features that I would like to have: grid EPG, more than 1 USB port, ethernet or wifi, dual tuner recording, capability for an internal hard-drive."
"This device has its own internal power supply ( RCA version has a an external brick ). 2."
"SO FAR SOO GOOD DEC 2nd We Hooked Up At DEER CAMP To an Old 12'' TV ONCE Had BUNNY EARS Help Of THIS & THE VILSO TV Antenna Outdoor Amplified w/ motorized rotor came RG6 Coax Less Than $80 we Now Has 8 Hd Channels Up In No Man Land Mtn Hills U Watch full hd tv crazy old days Lucky 1 CH snowy poor Qty Pic Now clear hd Pic Liked box Easy 2 program Run Scan 2-4min we able get 7 face south only 1-2 stations w/ Antenna being 3ft off dirt other ways pointed u must run scan ea time Since we had just Ordered this box + Antenna we unable mount on Roof still crazy one now is able receive 7+ station free only made possible using this box or had upgrade old tv this box less $39 walmart tax ur looking $50-58 depends one u get there has 1 star why i picked AT163 THIS Rate 4-4.5 star Rating on few sites new egg amazon ebay walmart this best $ less $40 & 150Mile Vilso Tv Antenna $22-or kit $32+ gets 50ft RG-6 Cable with kit u Has Less $80 at the most u gots ur self set up able view free tv Here in mtn hills works it work any place I has 2 set up one 4 home ice snow 4 deg now wait til spring time warm up some ill has fair weather safely hook up Antenna Be 45-50 ft Tvfool.com Get stations they suggest 42+ft so we see if they correct SICK TIRED New Tax WAS $56 NOW Paying $77 + for my Dish TV Only Watching the same old Stupid Drama TV shows on Ea month after month if i get My Local ch Working here I'll be Able to Pocket That $77 Is wasted on My Monthly dish TV bill or more $ paid using direct tv my savings use it help buy or rents a handful of new DVD When Ever Fair Deal on package dish TV if i wants i go back just becoming more more more $$ they offer Less Tv shows i likes seems all great shows done with nothing as good taken place Those who is new get best lower Rates Screw the ones who has been with the Last 5+ yrs Tired getting over charged why im cutting the cord til much better rate comes along Try This Roof Top Antenna Deal see how well it does."
The built-in Media Player function allows user to play back picture and video files via USB connection. Recording require user to connect a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 2.5" / 3.5" External Hard Drive via USB (Up to 2TB). **PLEASE NOTE**:This converter box is designed to receive Over-The-Air signal, and it is not a replacement of cable box.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Most purpose built DVR's are expensive and/ or have a monthly service fee. That option works well but is not as easy as a high end unit."
"In a nutshell, both units do a comparable job of recording (crystal clear), output signals in SD/HD via RF-coax cable, RCA cables (red/white/yellow), and HDMI, and at various resolutions/screen widths, allow pausing of live TV, etc. -Has a Composite Out/Component (YPbPr) High-res Video Output for accessories that can make use of this signal. - Can tune cable channels (unencrypted QAM) with the QAM firmware update. The 180STBSTB: -Has a better remote (though smaller). -Presumably has the latest programming and circuitry. -Displays multiple pages of the programming guide. -Has a small form factor for tight spaces. [NOTE: I don't have cable, but I read in Daniel Solomon's review that he has used it to tune cable. One caveat- I did various recording, all went well, except when I hit the RECORD button and just let it go- it stopped precisely on the next hour (started at 5:02 pm and stopped at 6:00 pm exactly). But when I used it the default mode for any type of recording was "record." I mention this because if you're having trouble recording, look down at the last option- "Mode" and change it to RECORD. On the 150PVR, in EPG (program guide) mode, on a particular channel it might show "Page 1 of 4" but I could never get it to page down beyond the first page of program listings. I was gratified to see that this unit/remote does (via both the down arrow button, down one listing at a time, and the NEXT/fast forward button, for a page at a time, even though unlike the 150PVR it always showed Page 1 of 1, even when on subsequent pages). So now I can record something more than just a few hours ahead by paging forward then hitting OK/Enter while on a program listing. It recognized the drive, listed the recordings, but wouldn't play them. I recorded several things using the 180STB onto this drive- it interspersed/listed these new recordings with the old, and played the new recordings just fine. I plugged the drive into my computer, and VLC Media Player played BOTH units' recordings just fine. I found with the 150PVR that when you played a recording and let it run, it continued to play them one after another in the order they're in on the hard-drive. I record a whole list of shows she likes and have them play automatically, she needn't do a thing. And since the unit auto-tunes to programs you have set to record, and you can watch them while recording, I can pre-set it that way to tune automatically to a channel, or to programs I know she wants to watch, like Judge Judy, Huell Howser, whatever (and keep the recordings that were a big hit, delete the others). UPDATE: as mentioned above, the "view mode" will auto-tune to my mom's shows WITHOUT recording. The Skip Ahead/Back key when you're in USB/PVR mode, looking at the list of recordings, skips forward and back by recording- it will advance to the next or the previous recording on the hard drive. I've worked with special needs populations, in residential, hospital and classroom settings, and this feature allows caregivers/teachers/aides, whomever to advance from recording to recording, to illustrate points while teaching/training (for example, skip from one exercise video to another one). You can watch just part of a recording, and then skip to next one- show just the scenes you want in each recording. There's also fast forward and back buttons, so you can go forward or back at 32X speed within a recording, to quickly find the scene you need. Regarding the auto-play feature in general (the fact that recordings automatically play one after the other), if you have small children, cognitively/ perceptually challenged children, adults or seniors or seriously ill patients who can't master a remote or the TV in general, this will allow you to have something good (and/or reviewed for appropriate content) going in the background all day or evening long. The unit automatically lists recordings on the hard drive in alphabetical/numeric order, so if you want them to play non-stop in a particular order, just rename them with 1, 2, 3 or A, B, C at the beginning of each file/recording name. OTHER ISSUES: I imagine, as with the older unit, this one will commence recording at the designated time, but only if the channel indicates the program is actually on. For example, if a program has been preempted by a football game, it won't record (nor will it if both the program and the time don't match the local station's data). It will commence recording according to a timer you've set, but if the station's time doesn't match the unit's time it will stop. If you want to record these you have to leave the box on the desired channel AND use that station's time (obviously, a hassle, too much trouble but the point is that it's the stations' fault, not the unit's). It's too complicated to discuss here, but you can't do this while ALSO having other timers set for stations with the correct time (due to dueling time conflicts, nothing will record properly). A programming/recording feature I like is the fact that if you attempt to program a recording and it conflicts with another you've already set, you're given the option to cancel the existing one, right there, very handy. Also in this mode, you can delete old recordings, look at any recording while fast forwarding with a time elapsed/time remaining counter on the screen- so for example if you want to fast forward to the last five minutes of a program you can (you see the video fast forwarding in a smaller window). Since you're looking at the list of recordings you already have while doing it, you can rename a new recording accordingly, e.g., BORGEN3,6 (Borgen season 3 episode 6) or whatever. If your TV has a built-in digital (ATSC) tuner, you'll have two tuners so you can watch one thing while recording another, utilizing the unit's built-in pass thru feature, which passes the raw signal thru to the TV's own tuner just like old VCRs used to do. You could easily hook up a 2nd 180STB to record two shows at once, connect both of them to your TV with an A-B switch from Radio Shack, if you haven't the jacks on your television to accommodate two units (you'd also need a splitter to split the incoming antenna signal into two leads to feed both). The 180STB not only tunes but records any over-the-air channel (INCLUDING PBS stations that show Acorn and MHZ programming for FREE). With the number and quality of over-the-air channels and offerings ever-increasing, there's lots to watch and record with this NIFTY unit."
"------------------------------------. ORIGINAL REVIEW. Having been locked in the cable and satellite television market for years, I've been accustom to using a rented box to receive my television stations. In the process, we purchased this box as a way to receive local over-the-air (OTA) content. This little box grabs signals from your antenna, converts the analog signal to its digital constituent, then passes this processed signal to your television or home theater receiver for viewing. Our television doesn't have an HDMI return channel feature to pass the audio from the television back to the receiver, so if we didn't have this box, we'd forever have to use the television's internal tuner and speaker, leaving our surround sound unused. All I did was plug in the HDMI cable from our old cable box into the HDMI out on the back of the converter. A total OTA tune took only a few minutes, and this tuner found 28 channels in our modest, local market. Using this box, you get uncompressed OTA digital stations. Using the tuner in my Samsung television, I wasn't able to view the channel programming guide. If you want to view cable stations, the Mediasonic HW180STB also supports tuning to your cable provider's cable line. It also isn't as feature rich as your cable provider's cable box. We cancelled our cable service, but I connected the cable line and performed a cable tune to see if I could grab anything off our cancelled service. Sure enough, I was able to tune all our local stations and a few cable stations. The PVR feature records programs either by pressing record while viewing a program or scheduling a program to be recorded at a later time. Programs can be recorded to either a USB thumb drive (up to 64GB) or an external USB hard drive (up to 2TB). Using a memory device, such as a thumb drive or external hard drive, programs can also be paused and played during general viewing. It supports a number of very helpful features, allows for HDMI connectivity (not found on all converter boxes), and supports both OTA antenna connectivity and cable/satellite connectivity."
Best Audio/Video Receivers & Amplifiers
This 7.2-channel network AV receiver features Dolby Atmos and DTS:X object based surround sound and is paired with the latest in 4K Ultra HD video technologies. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Airplay and Spotify Connect, Pandora, Rhapsody, SiriusXM Internet radio and vTuner.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"While I'm not new to A/V I am new to dedicated home theater equipment, so I immediately called around to a few local professionals who design and install this stuff for people to find out what kind of equipment they work with and recommend and this receiver was at the very top of the list for really good equipment on a budget. I HIGHLY recommend this receiver for use in a home theater setup!"
"Once I got past the Japanese setup screens (the language is the icon with "ABC" on it), it was pretty simple. That's normally a good thing; but not if you want to continue to listen to a CD and only had the TV on to change a setting. But I do have an older TV that requires me to use audio out (RCA plugs) linked to Audio1 on the amp. The amp produces the upper frequencies beautifully and cleanly, and the timber of the violins and cellos is exquisite. I had an Onkyo which I thought handled those things really well until I heard this Yamaha."
"This unit is designed to link video equipment and output their associated audio. The unit offers a number of pre-configured sound-modifying selections, each adding fixed amounts of reverb along with slight fixed tonal adjustments to enhance your movie viewing or gaming experience. Yamaha devoted a lot of hardware and firmware to decoders, special spatial effects and multi-room networking but left out the most important audio adjustments."
Best HD DVD Players
Supports Multiple Modes and Formats. Thanks to a built-in USB port and SD card reader, you can enjoy your digital movies and MP3 files directly from a USB flash drive or SD card. Disc Formats: CD, DVD, DVD+R(-R), DVD+RW(-RW), VCD, SVCD-R(RW), CD-R(RW). Video File Formats: VOB, AVI, MPEG 1, MPEG 2, MPEG 4, XVID. Audio File Formats: MP3, WMA. Image File Format: JPEG. SUPPORTS HUGE ARRAY OF MULTIMEDIA: Supports direct play of CD, DVD, CD-R/RW, DVD -R/+R, DVD+RW/-RW, VCD, SVCD (but not blu-ray DVD). Two like DVD players can also be connected by an AV to AV cable so that the same movie can be watched on two players at the same time.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I use the bubble package to store the player in as it fits like a case. I find myself watching DVDs as I kick back with the player on my lap."
"As a truck driver finding things to occupy me out on the road is important."
"Makes it easy to watch and screen resolution and picture is great!"
"The unit work great, the finish and workmanship are excellent, the response from the seller was prompt and courteous."
"We just got this in a couple days ago Bought this for my toddler to help keep him occupied during the plane ride."
"the portable dvd is excellent use several formats of recording and reads all except some taxed by me but those do not count since I am not specialist my children are very happy to go entertained in the car."
"The picture quality is fantastic and the remote has all the buttons that the actually player has, including volume buttons (I've used a few portable DVD players where the remote did NOT have these buttons--horrible!)."
"I'm just happy to have this because I have no other way to watch the DVDs I have received as gifts from friends and family who assume I live in the "modern age" and have the kinds of entertainment systems most people have today. Now, I don't have to drag my laptop, battery cords, added speaker wires and the like from room-to-room to watch a DVD--a great relief and that makes this just right for me!"
Best TV-DVD Combinations
The built-in DVD player in this 22-inch LED TV lets you enjoy your favorite movies and songs any time. SD Input Compatible, plug and play, enjoy your music and photos on the big screen via SD.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Fits well in our basement room for playing DVDs on exercise and yoga practices!"
"Purchased for RV and it works as described..only used several times however I am happy with my purchase."
"Nice picture and sound is fair but works well with small plug in speaker."
"Fit in the spot has the 12v cord."
"Ours the DVD player would accept the disc, then say loading, then just never spun up and ejected the disc."
"Picture quality is good, audio is awful."
"Poor picture quality, Poor sound."
"Few red dots on screen that means LCD are burned out got three kinda irritating but livable .. speakers terrible !!"
Best Blu-ray Players & Recorders
Come home to a more immersive experience with 4K HDR playback and the amazing realism of Dolby Atmos surround sound, plus the incredible detail of Hi-Res Audio. Stream in 4K HDR and play almost any disc or file format.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Positives: * Build quality (feels like a high end player). * Sleek, minimal, understated physical design. * Excellent scaling so 1080P Blu-rays look great (set to output 4K so the player does the scaling; I use the "Auto2" setting for '4K Upscale Setting' in 'Screen Settings' which outputs 4K video for everything when connected to a 4K compatible TV). * Supports 3D Blu-rays (as well as UHD BD discs, regular 2D Blu-rays, SACD, DVD, DVD-Audio and CD). * Has a 2nd HDMI port for audio only so you can connect it to a receiver (like one that doesn't support 4K). * Includes a wired Ethernet/LAN port (as well as built-in WiFi). * Includes Bluetooth so you can listen with Bluetooth headphones. * Decent paper/printed manual. * Small but functional remote. * Netflix starts very quickly. * 2x free 4K movie discs when you register the player and get a coupon (must do this before this offer expires). * Quiet. The downsides/quirks: * I had trouble manually checking for an update. * No Dolby Vision (DV) support. * No HDR support in Amazon app (but does support 4K) (the Netflix app does support 4K & HDR). * UPDATE 2017-08-12: Twice now it has frozen while watching 2 different 1080P Blu-rays. Other: * I could not get a bitstream/Atmos audio feed to my receiver until I turned off the "BD Audio MIX Setting" in the Audio Settings. * No display on front; just a small green LED that isn't annoyingly bright (use the 'DISPLAY' button on the remote for a nice on-screen display). * No analog outputs. * Made in Malaysia. * No optical digital out (instead it's coaxial). * No cables included (no HDMI cable so you'll need a "Premium High Speed" or "High Speed" HDMI cable that supports 18 Gbps bandwidth). So far this unit has been performing without issue and even updates over a wired connection (unlike my first unit). If this unit continues to perform well then I'll up my rating back to 5 stars and assume that my first unit was just a bad one. UPDATE 2017-09-02: The new unit has been working very well. UPDATE 2017-10-11: My new unit continues to work better than my old one (no freezes and reboots) but there are bugs playing content back, especially Netflix when it tries to do a Dolby Digital+ soundtrack... some very strange things can happen if you try to go back 10 seconds."
"It got to a point where the picture was distorted, would blank out, and/or the player would freeze up and only a hard reset would fix the issue. To be clear, yes the HDMI cable was updated and more than capable of handling 4K, the picture would distort when playing both discs (DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K) and apps (Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Vudu), and it wasn’t the TV because I even purchased a new Sony XBR55930E. Buyer beware, this is a great player when it works but it is absolutely not worth the time, effort, and frustration. Player #1: Easy set up, everything loads very quickly, and the control is noticeably heavy, in a good way. Therefore, unless you absolutely ~must~ have a 4k blu ray player (we've invested pretty heavily in 4k movies at this point), then I would hold off on this purchase until improvements have been made."
Best DVD Players & Recorders
USB and SD Card Ports. Watch your movies and listen to your favorite sound tracks directly from a USB flash drive or an SD card. SUPPORT MULTI-MEDIA: Direct play in formats: CD, DVD, CD-R/RW, DVD -R/+R, DVD+RW/-RW, VCD,SVCD; USB and SD Card supported: MP3/WMA/WAV, JPEG, NES(game format), MPEG2/AVI/DIVX, TXT. MULTIPLE WAYS TO PLAY: AV input and output can be connected to the TV, watching movies on the big screen.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought it for my 3 year old for a trip to Florida.Other reviews stated the plastic seemed cheap and I would agree When I first got it. That is not the case though My daughter is very hard on things and it has been super durable."
"Iv included a picture and video which have diagonal lines which are caused by the camera and are NOT visible on the actual screen itself."
"I bought this portable DVD player on the 6th of March, 2017; received it through Amazon prime on the 8th guaranteed."
"Included in the package is a mini DVD game disc, game controller, AC adapter (3 foot cable ), remote control, three foot long car charger/power cord, antenna and an audio/video output patch cord to plug the device into a TV that has composite video input ports. A glance at the instruction manual was not illuminating so I proceeded testing this review sample player by trial and error. The antenna (included) plugs in and I pushed the mode button until radio appeared on the screen and then stopped. Well, there was one problem, the battery was fully depleted after 103 minutes so I could not finish the movie without plugging in the AC adapter – something to note if taking the player on the road. This media player performs many functions but it is not built to withstand a lot of abuse, not surprising given its modest price point, so it may be better in the hands of an adult rather than a child."
"I'll refrain from regurgitating the product specs, which are comprehensive, and focus my review on what I liked about the review sample that I received and why I awarded it five stars. For me I love the convenience of having this in the kitchen to catch glimpses of movies while I am cooking. The video is more than adequate, as is the sound quality for close in watching. If I were more of a CD listener I would use that feature too, but to be honest I usually stream my music from a phone to a bluetooth speaker, so am not going to speculate in the sound quality for music."
Best DVD-VCR Combos
4) Press the VCR button on the remote, press Play on the remote, get to the proper point of the tape, then press Pause on your remote. External tuner source is required to record television programming.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought this DVD recorder to copy many old family home movies on videocassettes to DVDs. After some advice from customer service at Toshiba, I have been able to use the recorder to dub my old home movies successfully to DVDs. Like several other users, I found that when I followed the instructions for dubbing to DVDs, the recorder showed a "Barred" icon, a slashed red circle. I got some very helpful advice from the first customer service agent at Toshiba, but I was still unable to resolve the problem. Both customer service agents at Toshiba were very knowledgeable and did an excellent job of explaining their advice. I will summarize the advice below so that other people who have difficulties with the recorder can try these steps to resolve their problems. Press Play and then Pause (not Stop) at the point slightly before you wish to start copying."
"Prompt delivery, excellent packaging, and the product is working just great for us."
"Also machine was damaged on arrival with a dent in the top front, unsure how this happened, but reported to Amazon. Had literally 1000 VHS tapes to dub and was hopeful for a machine to hold up and do the job. Although VHS is an outdated format, I wish a more reliable company than Toshiba would produce a great machine that would do the job advertised."
"BUT THIS Toshiba DVD Recorder is full of frustrations and their customer service is even worse! The first time I got this same device was from a local pawn shop and it worked good for a while. This time when I bought it new at Amazon, I made sure to insure it and they said they will take care of my claim! If you buy this dvd recorder from Toshiba, you were amply warned and I can promise you'll regret it as I deeply do!"
"I made a couple on the machine itself and I took a few I had made on my prior machine. None of them upconverted although all my HDMI cables were set up correctly (I also tried Component cables to no avail)."
Best Satellite Television Products
Get superior reception without the whole neighborhood noticing. DISCLAIMER: Reception quality and channels received will depend on distance from towers, broadcast power, terrain and other factors.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Havana FL Terrain: Hilly in a slight valley and trees surrounding the property. Movies and TV shows streamed via my DSL and my DVD collection helped. Recently I decided to try a converter box on my TV, it's an oldie but goodie HD 1080i DLP. I used my old satellite RG6 cable and hooked the antenna to it and laid it on the patio rail. I also decided to pick up a Windgard XT LNA-200 Boost preamp since this antenna is not amplified at all. I placed the LNA on the pole right under the antenna, hooked everything up and aimed the Yagi to 94 degrees magnetic. Construction is of high quality aluminum, stainless, and plastic/nylon parts and I have no doubt it will last for years to come. Networks received - ABC CBS NBC FOX and a few piggyback stations that transmit from the networks including a channel that plays old B&W movies, love 'em, and a local weather channel so I can tune into MY area for up to date weather feeds. All the other antennas I tried only got signal strengths fluctuating of around 49 - 55% amplified - that was unacceptable to this engineer. The RCA ANT751R and the Wingard LNA Preamp are a perfect combo if you live in an area like mine. -v-. Update: 04-04-2017. The antenna reviewed above with it's Wineguard Preamp are still functioning perfectly."
"Once i got the antenna installed and correctly oriented, I went from 0 to 48 digital and analog channels!"
"I've also added a 4 tuner Tablo Wi-Fi DVR with a 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard drive. With the local channels covered, Amazon Prime and Netflix we have plenty of content to watch."
"So I purchased and installed this antenna up in my attic and ran a coax to the splitter downstairs to feed my house."
Best Video Projection Screens
The Silver Ticket Products Fixed Frame projection screen offers powerful performance for the price. The material is a white stretchy, high-quality vinyl at 1.1 gain that is designed for watching movies. Forget about tucking the screen material into the frame - the Silver Ticket Tension Rod System saves you time and frustration. The screen surface provides a 1.1 gain and an exceptionally wide viewing angle at 160 degrees with no resolution loss at any viewing angle.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I have nothing to compare it to other than my lightly textured tan wall and boy what a difference!"
"After the screen was attached to all the clips, I released the screen from the two top/center clips and two bottom/center clips (where the center posts gets wedged in). Then, with far end of the center post in the groove of the frame, I was able to use my index fingers and thumbs to force the post and frame away from one another just enough for the end of the post to drop down into the groove."
"Easy to install and looks amazing!"
"Also when you put the first tension rod in place, you want to measure its position first to make sure it aligns with the tension point at the opposite side of the frame."
"Also very much appreciated the person who posted the video instructions, as I've never assembled anything like this and it really helped me to see how it all went together. I would highly recommend watching the 4:59 "Excellent Screen" video before assembling."
"I am giving this 5 stars!!"
"This is my first screen - bought to go with my first projector and I couldn't be happier. The projector looks great against even a white wall .. but this screen takes it to another level."
"The only thing that we struggled with was the very last step which was inserting the support bar across the center so one thing I suggest is putting that bar in place before snapping the last few pins for the screen."
Best Video Display Glasses
Holy Stone 3D Virtual Reality Headset is an entry-level VR headset for both techno-geeks and the casual customer looking to explore the hottest new technology this century. Real 3D VR Viewer: Fully immersive viewing angle, provide you a virtual reality experience via games, video and movies.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This VR set is AWESOME, as is everything from Holy Stone!!"
"as a bonus I got these for free."
"Product was as advertised and arrived on time."
"SERA, from Holy Stone was great to work with."
"He loves to goggles he even watches movies on it when he's not flying his drone."
"Work great with iPhone 7."
"Bought this for my 10 yr old and he absolutely loves!"
Best Televisions
Size: 49-Inch |. Configuration: TV only. Dimensions (W x H x D): TV without stand: 43.7" x 25.3" x 3", TV with stand: 43.7" x 27.7" x 8.5".
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Here's the short version: If you grew up poor and can't mentally justify spending a month of rent in urban California on a single television, if you're poor as heck right now but could conceivably afford this television, if you've never owned a 4k TV, if you've never owned an especially large TV, you will not be disappointed by this gigantic freaking monstrosity of a display. The detailed version: Given the extremely low cost compared to similarly sized TVs it is surprisingly high quality. It has a lot of service integrations, such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play Movies, and a few others. IT'S HUGE OH MY GOD I AM BAD AT CONCEPTUALISING PHYSICAL SPACE I DID NOT REALISE HOW BIG FIFTY-FIVE INCHES IS EVEN WHEN ESTIMATING ITS SIZE BASED ON MY EXISTING 40" TELEVISION I LITERALLY HAD TO REARRANGE MY ENTIRE ROOM AND BUILD NEW FURNITURE TO ACCOMMODATE THIS THING??????? Regarding complaints I've seen in other reviews: My product did not show up broken, it has not stopped working despite extensive use since I got it, I have no complaints about the refresh rate, it displays 4k content over HDMI with no issues, they say it's a glossy screen but it's really just unusually and disconcertingly smooth and otherwise significantly less glareful and reflective than my previous television, it has effectively no inconsistencies with backlighting or colour (just a small spot that's slightly brighter, which is only visible at extreme viewing angles or if the screen is effectively displaying nothing but black, and I don't mean like really dark or a scene at night I mean like literally it is displaying the colour black over 50% of the screen, and only then is it noticeable from a front angle, and just barely at that). So if you're one of those folks that buys artisan gold plated audio cables aged seven years in oaken casks, if you buy two of the Ti version of the latest nVidia graphics card because you absolutely need to run everything on "Ultra" at 120FPS in 4k, if you're the kind of person who thinks Grey Goose tastes better, you probably won't like this TV."
"It is a ridiculously good price, says it has HDR (HDR10), it has some local dimming type qualities and is under $400…It’s also from a manufacturer that, quite frankly, I am not very sure of as I am not familiar. What pushed me over the proverbial “edge” to buy this was two-fold…First, it is quasi suggested by Amazon, the price is great and I know it has a Roku built in. The reviews, research and data specs I found for this TV all outweighed going with a more familiar brand. Now, the premier models (aka, flagship) for Samsung and LG are absolutely AMAZING but they also cost a lot more. This TV has a refresh rate of 60hz but some internal hardware bumps it up to 120hz but does give it a bit of a “soap opera” effect. This is different as calibration usually makes the tv show it’s best picture but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. What I love about this is an option to use to have “Speech” mode so language in movies, shows, etc, is clearer without having to turn the TV up in general to loud levels. Breakdown. It has HDR (HDR10 and it looks great for the price). Great up scaling. Screen cast. Roku remote and User Interface. Simple, fast and easy to use User Interface. Good apps/thousands of channels because it is a Roku. 3 HDMI (All can do 60hz 4k at 4:4:4 or 4:2:2). Headphone/speaker out. OTA Tuner. Component input. Great Sound for a budget TV. 1 ARC HDMI. 1 MHL HDMI. As wide as my 2010 Sony 46” TV (small bezel on this). Inexpensive. Full LED backlight array, it seems, with local dimming. It doesn’t perform as well as much more expensive TV’s but it performs well at this price point. Wifi – True Dual Band AC and have had ZERO drop outs thus far. Some cons are: Needs another HDMI input. No 3D (if that is a con). Could use more than 1 USB port. I would recommend taking advantage of the 2 year warranty available so you get the 1 year manufacturer one and 2 after that."
"The Roku OS is super easy, The antenna integration and USB storage for recording live programming are great. If this set can continue to perform, I will replace my main Panasonic Plasma with the new TCL C Series. The pic is from a nature show "The Hunt" streamed from Netflix."
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Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Thank god these are still around."
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