Transonic UHF Decoder

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semigeek

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#96748 3-Feb-2012 13:07

Anyone know how these rate? The Warehouse has them on special for $69.99
Info here

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#577177 4-Feb-2012 12:31

Wondering on what outputs it has. Seems a shame that noone is doing ones with scart output on them since I have a couple of decentish 28 or 32" widescreen crts for the spare bedrooms and one in the dining room that I would like to take digital at low cost.

Richard rich.ms

sbiddle

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#577203 4-Feb-2012 14:04

Any idea if they include a HDMI cable?

semigeek

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#577233 4-Feb-2012 15:29

sbiddle: Any idea if they include a HDMI cable?

Sorry, no idea

JimmyH

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#577260 4-Feb-2012 16:55

richms: Wondering on what outputs it has. Seems a shame that noone is doing ones with scart output on them since I have a couple of decentish 28 or 32" widescreen crts for the spare bedrooms and one in the dining room that I would like to take digital at low cost.

You can buy an inexpensive adapter that lets you plug standard AV feed into a scart input. I think they cost around $15-20, and recall that Warehouse may even stock them.

richms

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#577264 4-Feb-2012 16:58

Thats composite tho. scart nativly is rgb.

One came up on dx aweek or so back that hangs off the scart plug and has an ir eye on a wire which I might order after the bank acct recovers from this rates payment

Richard rich.ms

bfginger

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#577328 4-Feb-2012 20:04

Wondering on what outputs it has.

Probably composite and HDMI.

Seems a shame that noone is doing ones with scart output on them since I have a couple of decentish 28 or 32" widescreen crts for the spare bedrooms and one in the dining room that I would like to take digital at low cost.

There are some DVB-T receivers with SCART. This information was on wikipedia but it looks like someone deleted it
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Freeview_%28New_Zealand%29&oldid=435085273#Digital_Television_Set-top_Boxes
Trademe is probably the only place to find those models now.

Many widescreen CRTs were infact HD televisions. The specifications in the manual will mention support for "1080i" if it does. HD CRTs usually handled SD badly so that is another reason to have a 1080i signal going to the TV if possible. Not many STBs output HD over analogue.

If a CRT is SD but has SCART then the thing to check for is RGB. If the TV supports RGB then pairing it with a STB that does RGB over SCART will give better picture quality. Some SCART setups don't handle RGB.

Any idea if they include a HDMI cable?

I don't know but I'd be surprised if they did. Retailers hate printers, players and receivers including the vital cable because they make their margins by selling the cable separately.

Thats composite tho. scart nativly is rgb.

SCART can also take YPbPr. But it looks like most converters are designed to break YPbPr out from SCART and not the other way around.

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techricky

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#577359 4-Feb-2012 22:02

I Picked one up this afternoon for a look..

First Impressions are that this is a pretty good unit for the price!

It does have both Composite and Component RCA outputs, with a menu option for one or the other.

Watched it via HDMI for a while, quality was great, menus very easy to navigate, very responsive to channel changes (< 1sec) and EPG. Remote is the usual very directional at 3 or so metres away
Testing with marginal signal using a short piece of wire for an antenna it performed almost as well as the other decoders here, but possibly not quite as sensitive as the panasonic I dropped it in place of.
The Over The Air firmware update took a while which is probably pretty usual. Setup channel scan was quite fast.

The only possible issue I found was that switching to 5.1 audio definitely changed the source, but it continued to output only 2 channel via the HDMI. Couldnt find any options realting to this so maybe its just not supported?
There are a lot of setup paramaters available for video too! a real tweakers delight.. and audio delay etc..

Should probably test the composite/component outs, but I reckon for the price these will be great to throw on all the old TVs aroud the place here, hopefully still some on the shelves tomorrow but didn't look like they were moving that fast!

rockman

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#579268 9-Feb-2012 13:24

looks like it allright and has the HDMI port

bfginger

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#579313 9-Feb-2012 15:41

The only possible issue I found was that switching to 5.1 audio definitely changed the source, but it continued to output only 2 channel via the HDMI. Couldnt find any options realting to this so maybe its just not supported?

Doesn't HDMI have an ID system to tell the receiver whether what it has handshaked to supports receiving surround sound or not. Is it an old TV?

But if Freeview is approving receivers that don't properly support surround sound that is very disappointing. It would be great if a firmware update was forthcoming to fix this.

looks like it allright and has the HDMI port

I think all the Freeview DVB-T receivers are required to have an HDMI port. If YPbPr has HD disabled they'd be better to put an S-video port in its place.

steve2222

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#580179 11-Feb-2012 14:26

Saw this thread last Monday (NZ Day and last day of Warehouse sale).

It was 7.30pm.

Thought about getting one Tuesday morning, but thought they might say that the sale was over.

So took the plunge and ordered on-line with the Warehouse for extra $5 odd for freight. Now 8 pm public holiday night.

Got home from work on Tuesday and it had arrived.

That is pretty impressive.

The device is excellent as well.

Very happy with the purchase especially when you compare to the $65 to $85 ones on Trade Me with no 8 day EPG.

robjg63

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#580199 11-Feb-2012 16:27

techricky:

The only possible issue I found was that switching to 5.1 audio definitely changed the source, but it continued to output only 2 channel via the HDMI. Couldnt find any options realting to this so maybe its just not supported?

I think this is just a function of the way they broadcast 5.1 here.
If its a full 5.1 soundtrack then all channels are live and all is good.

If its just a stereo program (2 channels) then only the front left and right channels have sound.

I have to set the audio on my home theatre to fake 2 channel to 5.1 when its a stereo program over the 5.1 audio.

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allan

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#581879 15-Feb-2012 14:56

Purchased one of these last week, but it was DOA and the power light wouldn't come on.

Took it back and it was swapped for a functioning unit, which I let do its initial scan and which then prompted me for an "over the air" upgrade. I said yes to this and it downloaded to around 95% of the file, but it has hung there ever since. There are all of the usual warnings about not switching the device off whilst performing an upgrade and so I just left it to see if it would complete. However, it has not and it's been around 24 hours now.

Any ideas on how to reset without bricking the box?

robjg63

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#581908 15-Feb-2012 15:46

Maybe take a photo of the screen showing it stuck at 95%.
Turn it off and see if it restarts.
If not - then you have proof that it did get stuck.

That sounds like bad luck though - first one DOA then the update hangs.
Maybe number 3 will be ok.......

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allan

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#581957 15-Feb-2012 17:19

Thanks that's a good idea about taking a photo.

techricky

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#581975 15-Feb-2012 17:49

bfginger:
Doesn't HDMI have an ID system to tell the receiver whether what it has handshaked to supports receiving surround sound or not. Is it an old TV?

I had it connected to a Pioneer SC-LX71 receiver so should be fine, it displays the mode and active channels of the HDMI input but just stayed on L R standard PCM whereas the other DVBT receivers will change the display to the 5.1 mode.

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