Blu-ray Forum - View Single Post - Info On SDTV And HDTV External Atsc Tuner Boxes For Use With Outdoor/indoor Antenna's

HDTV1080P · 03-28-2008, 07:18 AM

The Samsung DTB-H260F is the best true 1080I ATSC tuner model on the market with HDMI output. It will output 1080I, 720P, 480P, and 480I which is rare to find these days with all the low cost external 480I SDTV tuners on the market.

The Samsung appears to also have QAM (but no IEEE-1394 for perfect 1080I and 720P digital recordings).

The marketing department at Samsung should not have missed the important QAM feature. According to the official Samsung spec sheet the QAM feature is not mentioned at all and one would think this unit is an ATSC only product.
http://media.onecall.com/Image_Produ...260f100506.pdf

Now if one looks at the official manual it clearly mentions the QAM feature on page 28 and other areas of the manual. It does not mention if the tuner tunes both 64QAM and 256QAM formats. So I do not know how good the unit is unless I actually ran some tests on it. I have seen some QAM tuners that do a poor job of locating and tuning in some unencrypted MPEG-2 channels. This Samsung can be found on the Internet for under $160 new. One can purchase it at Best Buy also for a little bit more then mail order with the advantage of a 30 day return policy.

Official Samsung Manual link that mentions QAM feature
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/200610/20061012132223296_1012_DTB-H260F_MF68-00414A_book.pdf

I currently own a HDTV with a built in ATSC/QAM tuner. I also have a JVC 1080I D-VHS machine with a built in ATSC tuner but no QAM tuner. I wish Samsung or another company would make a 1080I external box that offered both QAM and an IEEE-1394 interface so that I could record in 1080I quality from the several in the clear unencrypted QAM channels. I prefer watching BLU-RAY 1080P movies and do not subscribe to any of the movie channels, but once and a while it is nice to record stuff off cable for other family members that watch cable. My only option appears to be to rent a HD cable box so that I can use the IEEE-1394 interface located on the cablebox. Since I mostly watch BLU-RAY’s renting a cable box would be a waste of my money.

03-28-2008, 07:18 AM	#5
HDTV1080P Blu-ray Champion Top contributor Member since:Jan 2007 Blu-ray reviews: 205	The Samsung DTB-H260F is the best true 1080I ATSC tuner model on the market with HDMI output. It will output 1080I, 720P, 480P, and 480I which is rare to find these days with all the low cost external 480I SDTV tuners on the market. The Samsung appears to also have QAM (but no IEEE-1394 for perfect 1080I and 720P digital recordings). The marketing department at Samsung should not have missed the important QAM feature. According to the official Samsung spec sheet the QAM feature is not mentioned at all and one would think this unit is an ATSC only product. http://media.onecall.com/Image_Produ...260f100506.pdf Now if one looks at the official manual it clearly mentions the QAM feature on page 28 and other areas of the manual. It does not mention if the tuner tunes both 64QAM and 256QAM formats. So I do not know how good the unit is unless I actually ran some tests on it. I have seen some QAM tuners that do a poor job of locating and tuning in some unencrypted MPEG-2 channels. This Samsung can be found on the Internet for under $160 new. One can purchase it at Best Buy also for a little bit more then mail order with the advantage of a 30 day return policy. Official Samsung Manual link that mentions QAM feature http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/200610/20061012132223296_1012_DTB-H260F_MF68-00414A_book.pdf I currently own a HDTV with a built in ATSC/QAM tuner. I also have a JVC 1080I D-VHS machine with a built in ATSC tuner but no QAM tuner. I wish Samsung or another company would make a 1080I external box that offered both QAM and an IEEE-1394 interface so that I could record in 1080I quality from the several in the clear unencrypted QAM channels. I prefer watching BLU-RAY 1080P movies and do not subscribe to any of the movie channels, but once and a while it is nice to record stuff off cable for other family members that watch cable. My only option appears to be to rent a HD cable box so that I can use the IEEE-1394 interface located on the cablebox. Since I mostly watch BLU-RAY’s renting a cable box would be a waste of my money.