Settop DTV Conversion Boxes - Which has the best remote?

mitten58 · Post by **mitten58** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 6:19 pm

Has anyone found a DTV conversion box comes with a "cable" type remote?

That is, a remote with a "master power" button that would power up both the box & TV with one keypress. Also a remote that 'punched through' to the TV volume, with channel selection going to the convertor.

With the help of this site's experts (thanks again), I've been able to reprogram my OFA remote to do this, for the Zenith DTT 900 convertor, but I need to purchase another convertor box for someone else.

*********************************************************

P.S. Of course, the ideal would be a convertor that came with a JP1x remote!

kupakai · Post by **kupakai** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:09 pm

I just bought AccessHD DTA-1080U and it comes with a JP1.3 remote. There is no RDF file for the remote currently, but I'm in the process of making it right now. Hopefully, I'll have that and the image & map file done soon.

mitten58 · Post by **mitten58** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:30 pm

I see that the local big box computer store sells the AccessHD convertor with or without a remote.

Thanks again.

tennessee titan · Post by **tennessee titan** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:07 pm

Remote doesn't look too bad from what I can see. The box is another story. No component out, no S-video out....

MaskedMan · Post by **MaskedMan** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:46 pm

mitten58 wrote:I see that the local big box computer store sells the AccessHD convertor with or without a remote.

Thanks again.

The locally sold accessHD model, is probably the DTA1080D, with a dedicated remote, which only controls the DTV convertor.

Kupakai linked to the DTA1080U, which comes with pretty good Universal remote.

MaskedMan · Post by **MaskedMan** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:05 am

You can pick up the DTA-1080U from amazon for $50.99 with free shipping. With a coupon thats $10.99 delivered.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E2I906?tag=j0df-20

underquark · Post by **underquark** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:42 am

In the UK I have seen a box (DTT receiver/PVR with 250Gb disk, from Argos and made by Thomson, I think) which has a remote that allows you to program basic TV functions from a list of setup codes.

Inside the battery compartment of the remote is a sticker saying URC-60231. There are 6 holes in a JP1 configuration and - printed next to this - you can just make out "JP" (the rest of the characters, if there are any, are obscured by the casing).

I don't have the device or the remote to hand to check further as we gave gave it to my wife's parents for Christmas but I wasn't allowed to play with it first

. The remote looks a bit like a Sky one in shape. Significantly the device costs about £80 or so which isn't bad as the remote is better than average for this price bracket.

[Edit]
I have looked again and found out that the box in question is a Luxor TUTV 2500 with the remote labelled URC60231-00R01 3RC32B-1167 if that's of any use to someone. Worth any UK buyers looking for a cheap PVR to check out the remote if possible.

Post by **vickyg2003** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:02 am

I don't think any of the "coupon elidgible" remote has a universal remote, although I'm not sure on that. I decided to buy the Echostar remotes, because the guide/timer features. I only have antenna tv. When I was in Chicago this was not a problem, because you have a lot of choices. I had 22 different digital channels there with lots of variety. I since moved to Detroit where we are getting 7 channels and some of them are duplicates! So its really important to me that I am able to time shift programming since all the good stuff is on at the same time. Being able to have the unit tune in the correct channel is crucial to being able to do unattended recordings, since my analog VCR and DVR can't tune digital. Any universal remote that can control an Echostar cable box, can control this OTA Settop box.

I'd recomment the
Echostar TR40 or the DTV-pAL if you can find a decent source that's not price gouging. The DTVPal is supposed to have a better tuner, but I have both and haven't seen any difference whatsoever.

classicsat · Post by **classicsat** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 12:36 pm

tennessee titan wrote:Remote doesn't look too bad from what I can see. The box is another story. No component out, no S-video out....

Component and HDMI out is prohibited to be eligible for the coupon program.

S-video and Universal remote are permitted, and I am sure one or two models have OneForAll sourced universal remotes.

MaskedMan · Post by **MaskedMan** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:22 pm

Only the access hd dta-1080U as the UEI remote, photo here:

urc-60260-00R1

urc-60260-00R1

mitten58 · Post by **mitten58** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:08 pm

Thanks to all for your recommendations and responses.

classicsat · Post by **classicsat** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 11:25 am

I have read elsewhere, that only the Apex 260/502 models and Channel Master are the only coupon Eligible DTV convertor boxes that have S-video.