Samsung SIR-T451 High-Definition Terrestrial Tuner

Rating:
Summary: A bargain
Review: After buying an HDTV ready display, I investigated what HDTV services were available from my cable company. I signed up for their "HD package". What a mistake. I got a crappy DVR (it didn't even have DVI output that worked!) and about five HD channels. We have another DVR (a ReplayTV model) that's much better than the one I got with HD cable (Scientific Atlanta). I'll save my gripes about that piece of junk for another review. I will say, however, everything you've read about HD is true - it's fantastic and you'll never want to watch anything else again.

Anyway, I looked into what HD offerings I could get with good ol' rabbit ears. There were EIGHT channels in my area. So I looked into a set top HDTV box. I settled on this Samsung SIR-T451 and I couldn't be happier. The interface is very intuitive, and it took me literally 10 minutes to set up. I also love the DVI output (Motorola has no DVI). The picture is great!! It's quiet, the remote isn't too busy, and the unit is relatively small.

(I know I know . . in four years when most broadcasts are HD and TVs come with an integrated tuner, we'll all think - "remember when we paid over two-hundred dollars for a HD tuner?" Well, the fact of the matter is even when that day arrives, tuners like the Samsung SIR-T451 will still be useful. Useful that is as a second tuner for picture in picture or a tuner for older TVs etc.)

About 75% of the TV I watch is on the major networks (with about 33% being PBS which has two HD channels!), so this dovetails perfectly with what I wanted. Why more people aren't looking into what HD they can get for free is beyond me. This unit will pay for itself in less than a year with the savings on my cable bill.


Rating:
Summary: This tuner makes the chore of finding HDTV stations easier
Review: I have had no problems with this Samsung HDTV tuner. It is very easy to use and to hook up. I used the component video cable instead of DVI and I used the coaxial audio output for sound instead of the optical output.

The remote is quite small and basic, but it does have a menu feature that I have found useful when setting up the various channels. Of particular usefulness is the signal strength menu. This helps me to tune in the station using my recently purchased remote control Channel Master rotor. I also like the Guide feature which tells me what's going to be on a particular channel during the next few hours. The Guide will also display program information for all of the channels. That is, if the individual channels are sending this information along with the signal. The Guide is similar to the guide that I am more use to on Dish Network.

The major problems that I have had with HDTV stations are not with this tuner, but with the stations themselves. For instance, the bars displayed during some shows are not the tuners fault, but the stations fault. The bars are an indication that the program is not in HDTV. I watched Law and Order last night on NBC and the program displayed in full screen (16X9). Law and Order was in HD and the tuner displayed it correctly. Immediately after this show was the local news. The bars were displayed along the sides of the picture. This show was not in HD.

Also, all of the HD stations do not have the same channel numbers that we are used to. For instance, NBC here is channel 12, but the HD channel is 31. This can make it difficult to find you local HDTV stations. Luckily I found a website at www.hdtvpub.com to help me out. And one more feature that this tuner has is that it will change the High Def channel from 31 to 12 so in the future when I want to see NBC, I can punch in 12 like I am used to and it will display the HD version of 12 instead of punching in 31.

And finally I discovered that quite a few local stations only broadcast their HD signal at half power. For instance, my local CBS station in Greensboro does this. As a result, I cannot receive my local CBS station. But I can receive the CBS station out of Charlotte because it broadcasts at full power and because I have a huge outdoor antenna. The website www.nchdtv.com helped me to find a lot of information about HDTV stations in North Carolina and what power they used to broadcast their signal.

Receiving free HDTV signals is a learning experience, but the Samsung SIR-T451 made the chore easier. I am giving this item 5 stars. The problems that I had with the stations will be overcome with time. More programs will be in HD eliminating the bars and more stations will begin to send the signal in full power which will add more free HD stations.

Rating:
Summary: The answer for those who like something great for free
Review: I recently purchased the Samsung SIR-T451. Although not advertised on this site, there is a $50 rebate from Samsung that makes this a very affordable unit indeed.

But now for the really good news. About two years ago I purchased a Mitsubishi widescreen "HDTV-Ready" TV. DVDs looked great, but regular TV did not--if you preserved the 4:3 aspect ratio of over the air broadcasting, the vertical bands looked bad; if you expanded to fill the 16:9 format, the faces looked bloated, the legs like stumps, and the overall image looked muddy. My next step was to order cable with HD. The HD channels looked great... but there are really a very limited number of them--just the basic networks, plus Discovery, a couple of cable-only channels that repeat a limited amount of content and a few (very few) HD things on ESPN. At $45/month, not a good value.

And now: the answer. For the price of less than five months of cable, this unit works unbelievably well with almost no setup, straight out of the box. Set up equals connecting your standard antenna (I have way substandard coax running for miles an old rooftop antenna) into the box, plug a set of component cables to your HDTV ready TV, and an audio cable to whatever you are using for audio (I am using a "home theater in a box"). The Samsung seeks out channels effortlessly, and an awful lot of them, and sets them. Presto allegro, in less than five minutes, you are watching some of the clearest, sharpest television you can imagine, much of it perfectly suited to your 16:9 format TV.

But the best thing is this. Oddly--amazingly-you will receive, for free, over the air, a lot of stations broadcasting HD content. In my case, more content that I actually watch than what is carried by cable! Imagine: on cable: no Super Bowl in HD (Fox is not one of the HD stations), but of course Fox is there for this happy owner of the Samsung! And then there are the 6 channels of PBS content, much in true HD, all very child friendly... truly the family friendly answer.

And --best of all--it's all "free". Why this isn't all the rage is beyond me.

PS: the competition is a Motorola decoder that has a serious liability: not only does it cost $100 more, but it has a very noisy, whining fan. You do NOT want the Motorola if you are watching TV in a reasonably quiet room.

Rating:
Summary: good but with problems
Review: This is my first HDTV tuner, so I cannot compare this with other tuners. I use Gemini ZHDTV1 (a good indoor UHF antenna) to receive over-the-air DTV broadcasting. This tuner has three output formats (1080i/720p/480p through a manual switch) for component/RGB/DVI outputs. Its S-video and composite outputs always output 480i so that you can always use this tuner with your analog TV. But if you want to see the screen menu through S-video or composite on an analog TV, you need to move the manual switch to 480i. This tuner can search/add/delete channels, and it takes about 2-3 seconds to change channel.

There are some problems with the tuner. When watching programs on a 4:3 TV, you may want to use the zoom function to remove the bars on all four sides. The zoom function of this tuner tends to widen the picture such that people become fatter. When displaying 4:3 source on a 16:9 TV or 16:9 source on a 4:3 TV, the tuner will add light grey bars. Some people may feel it annoying to see them instead of dark bars, and there is no way to change that. When changing to a channel that does not have signal, you have to wait for 2-3 seconds to be able to change to the next channel.

Also note that the remote is NOT programmable as stated on this site, except that it has volumn buttons that is supposed to be programmed to control the volumn of your TV. But it does not work on my one-year-old Toshiba TV even though the manual provides codes for Toshiba.

Update: The problem of the zoom function is quite annoying because I found I often need it for most of the current network programs. I went to Circuit City to get another SIR-T451 and it had the same problem. A reviewer at Circuit City's own web site also reported this problem. If you need the zoom function, do not buy this tuner.