Samsung DTBH260F HDTV Terrestrial Receiver

I live in a market with all major networks broadcasting in HDTV - and don't watch much except PBS (ok, and The Simpsons) - so a set-top receiver should be the perfect solution.

I purchased a Samsung SIR-T150 soon after it came on the market, and later a DTB-H260F on the promise that it was much improved over the older model.

Both provide a fantastic signal to my plasma monitor (no built-in tuner).... but only when they actually work.

Both have the same problem: turn it on ... the signal is sharp, the audio fantastic .... and usually within 10 minutes the signal craps out with a 'weak or no signal' legend on the screen for all channels.

Turn off the units ... wait an hour, and you get another 10 minutes of broadcast.

I've tried a variety of antennae, indoors and out (nothing on the roof ... hate ladders)

Some have suggested that these earlier models don't do well at handling multi-path signals (distinguishing between the direct broadcast, and the additional signals bouncing off of anything in the neighborhood)

I'm not really ready to drop another couple hundred on the 'next generation' box ... and accepting the cheap boxes that only convert to 480i seems a waste.

I guess come February, I'll be reading more books ...

This really is a great product. No doubt about it. It was very easy to hook up. My gripe is with the instruction manual. When I called Samsung to get assistance the person helping me told me my product was damaged and needed to be repaired. I sent it back to Amazon and was shipped another one with no problems at all, this went smoothly. When I found the same "problems" with the second unit I called Samsung again and was given a different story and received a lot of nonsense for instructions on how to get the unit to work. I tried doing what I was told with no success.

I called them again and again and again. In the end I called and spoke to seven different tech reps with only rep, number seven, actually taking the time to listen to what problem I was having and take me through all the steps to get my unit working.

The manuel left out a few basic instructions that would have been useful for this tuner to work with my specific television set. I would have given the product a full 5 stars IF the manual did a better job of explaining how to get my TV and the tuner to "talk" to each other.

I was extremely grateful the last tech took the time to help me through everything step by step. When I got to the step that brought me a terrific picture I was sooooo excited.

There are electronics of all sorts throughout my home including stereo; computer;, all-in-one printer; TV's; digital converter boxes; electric guitars, amps, and effects; digital keyboard; etc. I am in no way electronically challanged and was insulted by the way some of the Samsung Techs spoke to me when I was looking for some assistance. It was worse than calling a company IT department and attempting to get one of the IT staff members to speak to you in English and not Computer Geekese.

For the Tech Rep who did take the time to speak to me in plain English and take me through everything step by step I can only sing the highest of the high praises that can be sung. Why the other six couldn't have gotten off their high horses and help me I don't know. Why the first tech wrote me off and told me I had a defective product instead of helping me is nothing short of lazy. The other five Tech Reps were also lazy in not really listening to me and barking out useless, ambiguous instructions that made no sense to me, leaving me more confused and frustrated.

The helpful tech rep was the only one who asked for the make and model of my TV. He also checked to make sure I had an HDTV antenna. This tech was then able to give me step by step instructions for getting the tuner to work with my specific TV. Many of those steps were not in the manual. I couldn't thank this man enough for helping me.

How easy it is to get the tuner working with your TV by using the manual alone may depend on the TV you have. If you can't then good luck in getting the right person to help you at Samsung. But, if one tech doesn't help, keep calling. At least they provide a toll free number so it won't cost anything except your time and your sanity.

It really is a great product and now that it's working I'm extremely happy. I think Samsung could have done a better job in writing its manual to cover all HDTV Ready set types. Samsung needs to train their tech staff to be less assuming and flippant when speaking to customers calling for assistance. It shouldn't take seven calls to get one helpful tech rep to help me.

If the Technical Assistance and the manual had been more helpful had I would have given it 5 stars. Even giving it 4 because of the instructions in the manual and the Tech Assistance was a tough call but given the quality of the product once working correctly I honestly couldn't go any lower.

The Samsung DTBH260F HDTV Terrestrial Receiver performs as adverstised. The connections and setup are very simple for anyone familiar with the basic requirements of hooking up the many components found in today's home theaters. For those who are bewildered by the myraid connections and switches found on the rear end of a modern A/V component, the owner's manual is of little help. While the needed info is all there, there is no "1-2-3"-type quick start guide. Grandma and Grandpa may need to call some tech-savvy neighborhood kid for an assist.

I also wondered why they included two pairs of L/R audio outputs, but only one antenna-in connection. I mean, anyone using the L/R audio outs would typically only be using a TV that accepts such basic inputs, or a stereo receiver. However, since the unit accepts both off-air antenna and cable tv inputs, having only one antenna input makes no sense. I'll need to get a quality splitter so that I'm not constantly having to manually plug/unplug the input cable as I switch between off-air and cable sources.

Insofar as picking up broadcast HDTV signals, it's no problema for me using the very basic RCA ANT121 Indoor Antenna. There are only a few stations within range of me, and the unit quickly found them. With a larger outdoor antenna I would undoubtedly also be able to grab the signals from the two stations whose towers are on the other side of the island from me, NBC and PBS. So, I get a total of 6 broadcast stations. The HDTV quality is outstanding. The David Letterman Show on CBS, for example, was flawless.

But, what was I to do to satisfy my need for NBC and PBS? Enter my uber-basic cable connection (no box, just the naked cable running into my house).

I plugged it into the unit and scanned for channels. As the manual notes on pg. 13:

"The Set-Top Box can receive DTV signals in the event that a local cable provider is passing 8VSB and QAM through on their system. (8VSB is the RF modulation format utilized to transmit digital bits over the airwaves to the home consumer. QAM conveys data by modulating the amplitude of two carrier waves.)"

Bottom line: Yours truly was able to watch the Olympics on NBC in gorgeous HD with my Panasonic PT-AE900U Home Theater Projector on my 106 16X9 Model B High Contrast Manual Pull Down Screen. I also grabbed PBS-HD. Of course, as the unit scanned my cable, it also picked up several hundred other channels, only about 30 of which had viewable signals. So, I had to go through each channel individually to determine which ones had actual viewable content (the others indicating "Scrambled or Weak Signal"). While this was a pain and took me a couple hours to compile a list of what each channel was, in the end I was able to get about thirty channels of non-scrambled content. Of these, there are only a few that will make their way to my "Favorite Channels" list. The hundreds of channels that it picked up that are not actually useable will need to be deleted -- one by one. Ugh.

In the end, between the channels that I could pick up over the air and those that hide within my cable, I was able to cover all of the network (FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS) HD programming, plus a number of basic cable channels (TBS, ESPN, Disney, etc.) -- all for F-R-E-E (minus the cost of the box and antenna). Given that my cable company would charge me around $100/mo to get the same programming using their cable box, the upfront costs will quickly be offset.

Now that's entertainment!

I purchased the samsung HDTV receiver to provide HDTV input to my JVC projection monitor, which is capable of 1080p, but doesn't have an HD tuner.

First thing you need to know; your only interface is through the remote and on-screen menus, and the on-screen menus only appear if you use HD inputs. That's either HDMI, or Y/Yb/Yr. The on-screen menus don't appear if you connect using conventional video or s-video, so if you don't have HDMI or Y/Yb/Yr inputs, this device will be a paperweight. The only control is an on/off switch, and the only readout is a power LED.

Second thing you need to know is this device has ONLY an ATSC HD tuner. I have an LCD tv with both NTSC and HD tuners. It's very nice on my cable network. It shows me the old NTSC picture for NBC (for instance) on channel 5, and the HD versions on subchannel 5-1, 5-2, etc. With the Samsung box, my HD channels are on input 1, and my NTSC channels are on the regular TV mode. I already had a maddening array of remote controls, and this added to the pile. If I had it to do over again, I'd pick a device that had both HD and NTSC tuners (if there even is such a device). A couple years from now, the lack of an NTSC tuner probably won't matter, but it is a hassle right now.

Third thing to know, it's a dinky little box. Not exactly flimsy, but not really robust either. When you look at the pictures, it seems to be the size of a slim dvd player or VCR, but it's smaller than that.

It took me literally hours, on two different days to get the thing working with my TV and home-theater amplifier. Lots of switch combinations, lots of cables, all in the back of things where they're hard to reach and hard to read the labels. Lots of looking back at the manuals for tv, amp, and hd box to figure out what I could put where. I've got a masters degree in computer science. I'm not an idiot. But this was still challenging. It took a lot of patience, and a lot of trial-and-error before I got a working setup.

On the good side, the HD picture is stable and clear and dramatically nicer than the NTSC picture. The sound is richer and far more engaging, even though I have just plain old stereo speakers, and not a fancy surround sound setup.

This is the second unit I have owned as I can't find an alternative product. The first unit I had lasted about a year and a half.

Produces an excellent picture from over the air broadcasts (I have a large amplified roof mounted antenna), but has some annoying problems.

When channel guide is selected or scrolled the display often blanks for about 30 seconds. The unit forgets channels that have been previously programmed, this means that programming has to be repeated and channel customizations (skip channel, favorite channels etc.) are lost.
I would guess that Samsung are no longer developing this product as the bugs that were present in my old unit are present in the latest unit.