Digital Converter Boxes Ranked
Washington, D.C. – Consumer Reports magazine has published their ratings for a limited number of HDTV converter boxes. These are also known as CECB boxes or decoders. These stand-alone units will allow consumers to watch digital and HDTV signals from Over The Air TV stations on their non-HDTV (analog) TV sets.
As for a “review of the review”, I can’t say as I am all that impressed with the article. Besides only listing a small number of the units currently available to the public, the article really does not provide any type of technical specifications to back-up their claims. Simply saying that Brand A gives a better-looking picture than Brand B is not at all useful to those of us who want to know the real facts. Unfortunately, the reviews seem to be “dumbed down”, so that the average consumer with an IQ in the double digits can feel like they’ve actually learned something.
I’ve typically found Consumer Reports articles to be of limited value, if not being downright misleading in many cases. Exactly how it is they go about choosing which brands they will or will not test seems to be a trade secret. They commonly review a lot of “brand name” products while completely ignoring smaller companies that produce much better products and carry much better warranties. So, don’t expect to find any leading edge technology, a focus on small manufacturers that do not participate in mass marketing via chain stores or actual technical data that would allow you to compare apples to apples. A huge part of their ratings are based up their own personal opinions, rather than simply giving people the “numbers” they need to make decisions for themselves. Opinions aren’t really worth much, in my opinion. :-) I just want the technical specs, so I can decide for myself.
You will need to pay a yearly subscription in order to view most of Consumer Report’s website. This particular page happens to be on the non-subscription side though. The page is at:
NOTE: Since we first publishe this story, Consumer Reports has removed the DTV converter box rankings from their website.
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