The third of my Digital to Analog Converter reviews for the digital television conversion is the Channel Master D2A Digital Analog Converter Model CM-7000.
Ease of Use, Performance: 18/25, Look & Feel: 20/25,
Features 18/25, How much I enjoy 15/25
Total: 71/100
The Channel Master D2A Digital Analog Converter is the third converter box I have received for reviewing for the DTV conversion in the United States. This converter box is also certified for your $40 government coupon but seems like it does not do the job that would be promised by this government certification.
Although it does do the Digital to Analog conversion and receives the channels I receive just like the other converter boxes or even my digital television I am a bit troubled by a few things with this converter. The mislabeling on the package and the front of the converter is one point against it but the converter does perform well for the most part and even has one major feature other converters did not have, the S-Video out.
I am a bit disappointed at some of the features and even the advertising and packaging of the CM-7000 as they are using terms on the front of the converter box that may be misleading. The front of the CM-7000 digital to analog converter has two labels on it that may have buyers thinking they are purchasing a high definition device but it only gives you standard definition television out to your analog TV.
The two labels are the HDTV label and the HD label which are usually found on devices that output in high definition or above 480 resolution. High definition is usually thought of as an image resolution above the standard 480 or 480i, this is the screens actual pixel size that we receive on our TV screen as termed 480 or 480i.
A standard screen resolution is around 720×480 pixels while a high definition will be from 1024×768 to 1920×1080 pixels, the second number of the image size or resolution is this 480 and 1080 that you often hear about . Most of our analog televisions are only capable of showing us a standard definition or 480/480i resolution unless labeled specifically as an enhanced or high definition.
While this is not a big deal it can be misleading to people who do not understand that this device does not output high definition but they are talking about the input. The Channel Master converter does output standard 480i television for viewing your high definition input and scales it down so your analog television can display it properly.
Now that I have gotten the HDTV and HD labeling out of the way I will give the main points of the review, the Channel Master converter is a real mixed bag of features. The CM-7000 has some features that work great and are a definite bonus but others are a bit of a disappointment. The Channel Master does a great job of converting and receiving the signals but the signal strength bar is a waste.
On the menu of each channel you have the channel information and things like the time and date, rating and current program but the signal strength bar is about an inch long on my TV screen. The signal strength only changes when the channel is not watchable, kind of useless for actual signal strength and adjusting the antenna.
Installation is easy and the Channel Master does offer an additional connection with the S-Video out that other converter boxes may not offer. The usual RCA and RF coax connections are on the back of the box as well as the channel switch for choosing either the channel 3 or 4 for input on your television. The S-Video does give a slightly better quality video but it may not be very noticeable when you are going from the what I now term terrible analog signal to the much better digital signals.
The Channel Master CM-7000 has a grey plastic and metal exterior with a clear plastic cover over the front and a front power button and channel up and down buttons. But the front channel buttons don’t work all the time for changing the channel correctly for me. On my model it will sometimes skip a channel or two when trying to go up and down, I did look inside and the switches seem to be working okay by the looks of them.
The features for channels and basic television all work well and I had no problems when checking out the program guide and parental locks. The electronic program guide is per channel so if you want to see what is on other channels you need to change the channel to that particular one to see the programs but it does have a whole day of programming on the guide. Other converter boxes only had what was currently on or the next show on regardless of time.
The Electronic Program Guide is so far the best of the three converter boxes I have reviewed in terms of information and length the guide goes for. The other guides only went to the next show on or for the current hour of time, this adds a lot to some people but for me it is not that big a deal as I usually go to the internet for my viewing choices of television.
On the remote there are features like the screen size going from standard or cropped image to letterbox with the top and bottom black so you have the whole widescreen image on your analog TV. You go from one screen size to the next, if available from the television station, with each push of the Wide button which is not the only oddly named button.
The Electronic Program Guide is available from the Guide button and the Info button is your channel information. The rest of the buttons work for what they are labeled for and these other buttons the labels are pretty close if not just a part of the name. A couple of buttons like the Option, Text, UP and Down buttons are unused which I found kind of odd like they used a remote from another device for this converter box.
The parental locks all worked fine and the closed captioning was fully featured with plenty of choices in the channels and allowing you to change the font, color and backgrounds of the letters and words coming up on the screen. The setup went fine with a fairly quick scanning of channels but the Zenith converter box I previously reviewed had a slightly faster channel scan.
You can scan and update channels so you do not have to rescan channels, just check for new channels or ones you did not pick up at the last scan. This feature is nice for not having to go through the whole setup again but not one that is a major feature in my opinion. Changing channels is nice and you can even quickly go to sub channels like 13-2 by using the remote and the unlabeled enter button.
While searching for information on the Channel Master Digital Analog Converter I found a widely talked about forum entry at AV Science Forum that discusses the many features and many members are asking people about their Channel Master purchase. The remote works well but the enter button is not labeled at all, I found out about what the button does by reading the AV Science forum.
The other remote functions work well and I had no problem just picking up and using the remote as well as most of the features of the Channel Master Converter without use of the manual. Which was kind of a blessing as the manual is very sparse on detailed information and seems a bit like they had the converter still in development while printing the manual. There is not very many detailed step by step procedures in the manual for things like closed captioning features or parental locks.
The manual reads like a feature listing that tells you what each feature of the converter does instead of telling you how to use the feature. This is one major shortcoming in my mind as the manual is not really much of a help to tell you how to do things, more like that the features are there and you should use the remote to change them.
The Channel Master Converter works well in picking up channels and does a great job at the channels I can get in my area with an outdoor antenna. The converter box does pick up about half the channels I receive in my area with an indoor simple antenna and does about the same job as the other converters I have tried with a simple TV top antenna.
The one thing that would be nice is the signal strength meter to tell the better antenna signal strength as the bar that does show on the menu page. This bar meter does absolutely nothing for getting the signal better, it just shows it’s there but you can tell that from the show being on the screen instead of a black screen or the major pixilated images. A one inch bar does not give you enough information and it jumps around too much to be able to use it as a decent antenna strength indicator to be able to adjust your antenna for a better signal reception.
The Channel Master CM-7000 D2A Digital to Analog Converter is a simple to use but very odd converter box, this is not up to the usual Channel Master quality standards which I found a bit confusing. It seems like they rushed this through their manufacturing and quality control to get it out on the market and through certification with the government for the coupon program.
While I found the problems with the Channel Master CM-7000 not a very major deal I would check out other converter boxes and try to get the Zenith model over this one. The Channel Master does work but there are just some issues with how well they made the complete package that has me wondering about the quality of this product.
The Channel Master CM-7000 does offer the additional S-Video out that other converter boxes do not if you need this option as well as a better electronic program guide. If you are interested in purchasing this model of converter box I would really decide about the additional features and which are most important that are particular to this model.
