Digital TV Converter Box, ATSC Cabal Box - ZJBOX for Analog HDTV Live1080P with TV Recording&Playback,HDMI Output, Timer Setting TV Tuner Function Set Top Box Digital Channel Free

I am using the ZJBOX Digital TV converter box with my ancient (23 y/o) 50” 1080i NEC plasma screen monitor to pull in OTA channels utilizing a roof mounted VHF/UHF Yagi antenna as my monitor still works like new and is also sometimes still used as a large screen monitor for my laptop (laptop is connected via VGA and the ZJBOX is connected with component to the plasma monitor since the old style HDMI input on the monitor would need an additional dongle to hook up to the converter box which has the newer smaller style HDMI output jack). As a side note, it is absolutely amazing how much technology has advanced and how much prices have come down (my 50” NEC 1080i, not even 1080p, plasma monitor was $12,000 23 years ago with no tuner, and I just bought a 4k 75” microLED smart TV for under $1000 😮!).Audio goes to a 7.1 channel home theater Denon A/V receiver via L/R coax RCA on the converter box. Picture quality (even at 1080i) on the plasma is excellent although some of the settings on the plasma were adjusted (brightness, contrast, gray/white level curves, etc) for the best possible image. Audio output is also very good with the Denon doing the surround processing. Out of the box, the image was clear but somewhat “muted” in impact on the major HD OTA channels grabbed by the converter box. Even though I live in a hilly canyon area, since my outdoor antenna is mounted on a second floor roof, the converter box was actually able to pull in OTA channels just as well as my new large screen smart TVs (about 125 channels!) so the converter box gets 5 stars for its ability to scan and pull in channels, although I only keep about 9-10 of the digital HD channels on my favorites list. Speaking of the “Favorites” list, the UI, although fully functional, is somewhat “clunky” and outdated in appearance. The provided printed manual is not particularly well detailed in how to navigate the converter box, although anyone with just a rudimentary amount of experience with various UI’s can easily figure out the menus with some trial and error exploration.Compared to some of the slightly even lower priced converter boxes available, I liked that this one has a metal housing (there are a number of reviews of other boxes that state that overheating is one suspected mode of failure of those other boxes, many of which are housed in plastic boxes). This one seems to be well made (for a relatively low priced converter box) and comes in a metal case which appears to have reasonable air circulation vents. Because cooling is passive and not active cooling, there is no fan noise which is a plus as due to the IR sensor being located on the front panel with no plug-in provision for a wired extended IR sensor, this converter box will likely be placed within line of sight next to your TV or monitor. To get around this, I placed my converter box into a my enclosed A/V closet for a nice neat, hidden install, and utilize a RF transmitter in the converter box remote control (the rechargeable type that replaces one of the AAA batteries in the remote) so that I do not have to have line of sight for remote control. I use a RF to IR remote control extender made by Next Generation for this. The converter box is quite responsive to the remote control and I like the convenience of not having to point the remote towards the converter box and not having to have a box sitting next to the monitor with exposed cables (good for the WAF 😂).I assume that all the internal electronic tuner/converter chips are pretty much the same between all these low priced Chinese converter boxes as the pictures of the UI on all these low priced boxes are the same so I went with this one specifically due to it having a metal housing (I set up a small DC computer fan next to the unit to prevent any overheating, although I did not notice any excess heat coming off the the box even before setting up the fan. Another reason impacting my choice of this unit over the others was that it also had component outputs in addition tot he HDMI and composite outputs (some of the lesser priced ones had only HDMI and composite outputs). For those of you connecting this to an older analogue TV with an analogue tuner and no composite, HDMI nor component inputs, there is also a coax antenna pass through on the back of the unit.So, overall, I am very pleased with this unit and give it 5 stars, especially considering its very low price. Only time will tell if the unit holds up but in the meantime it has allowed me to continue to use my plasma screen for a very low price as an OTA TV in addition as a large computer monitor (only about a $40 investment to keep a $12,000 screen working 😝)!

I bought two of these a year ago. I use them to watch TV on computer monitors and old analog TVs. I have an HDTV modulator so I can send my living room signal all over the house, usually from a satellite receiver.I have a 3-TV "man cave" setup for watching basketball, or for watching the news. I can patch one of the Z-JBox receivers into one of the TVs to get a game from a broadcast station. Sometimes the only way to get a WNBA game with Caitlin Clark is to use this receiver with my rotating TV antenna to pick up the signal from a station 100 miles away from us. The Z-JBox is more sensitive than most of the TVs in the house, and is equal to the best TVs in the house.One other thing I like about it is I can manually find a station after it has auto-scanned. That way, I can auto-scan to get most of the stations, then rotate the antenna to a different location, and manually add a new station without erasing all the other stations.These receivers are easy to use, have a good picture, and you can even record programs on a thumb drive and play the files back on a PC.My dog chewed up one of the remotes when we were gone too long. It was OK because I had the other remote, and I was able to save the IR codes into my universal remote in the living room.Then, a week ago, we had a horrible thunderstorm. Lots of lightning and thunder. The power went down for 3 hours and came back on for short glitches 3 different times. One of the Z-JBoxes quit working. I'm not sure if it was the lightning or the power surges. Nothing else was damaged, including the video monitor it was plugged into. They are so inexpensive, so I ordered a third one, and it came from Amazon in less than 24 hours. Now I have two remotes and two working Z-JBoxes again!

I purchased 2 Mediasonic HomeWorx DVRs and have been happy with them except for one thing: They want to reboot a lot. So I bought this unit to see if it would be better. So let me review: First, the remote control is smaller than the HomeWorx, and the buttons are in a weird place. One button was almost popped out and I had to push it back in. Also, nowhere in the manual does it tell you how to delete shows from your hard drive. When I brought up the screen that shows everything I had recorded this week, I placed a check mark in the very first show to try to delete it. I pushed a button that I "thought" should delete it and the screen went black. When it reappeared, all of my shows had disappeared. So then I decided to try to record a show that was an hour into the future. I then got the message that said something like "No Disk". I tried this several times and the same thing. But here's the thing: if there was no disk, how did it read all the shows I had recorded? Anyway, this was too much of a hassle compared to my HomeWorx so I returned it.

Works well with some issues. Sometimes drops channels requiring a rescan. there is no last channel/back button. For the most part clear picture but does get pixilated at times.