Comparison Chart Of All Coupon Eligible Digital TV Converter Boxes

Brand	Model	S-Video	Analog pass Through	Smart antenna	Universal Remote				Other features
Access HD	DTA1010-U	No	No	Yes	Yes				D, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1010-D	No	No	Yes	No				D, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1020-U	No	No	No	Yes				D, E, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1020-D	No	No	No	No				D, E, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1020A-U†	No	Yes	No	Yes				D, E, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1020A-D†	No	Yes	No	No				D, E, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1030-U†	No	Yes	No	Yes				D, E, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1030-D†	No	Yes	No	No				D, E, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1050-U	No	Yes	No	Yes				D, E, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1050-D	No	Yes	No	No				D, E, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1080-U	No	Yes	No	Yes				D, E, L, -N, V
Access HD	DTA1080-D	No	Yes	No	No				D, E, L, -N, V
Airlink 101	ATVC101	No	No	No	No				C
Airlink 101	ATVC102	No	Yes	No	No				C
ALPHA DIGITAL	AT-2016	No	Yes	Yes	No				D, V
AMTC	AT-2016	No	No	Yes	No
Apex	DT250	Yes	Yes	Yes	No				C, D, L, V
Apex	DT502	Yes	Yes	Yes	No				C, D, L, -N, R, V
Apex	DT1001	Yes	No	Yes	No				C, U
Apex	DT250A	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Apex	DT502A	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Apex	DTA250A	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Apex	DT1002	No	No	No	No
Apex	DTA205A	No	Yes	No	No
Apex	DT150	No	No	No	No
Apex	DT500	No	Yes	No	No
Artec	T3A	No	No	No	No				D, E
Artec	T3AP	No	Yes	No	No				C, D, E
Artec	T3Ap Pro	No	Yes	No	No				D, E
AVION	ATB 7707	No	No	No	No
CADENCE	DTVC-9	No	No	Yes	No
CASTi	CAX-02	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown				C, P
CASTi	CAX-01	No	No	No	No				C, D, P, V
CASTi	CAX-03	No	Yes	No	Yes				C, D, L, V
CASTi	CAX-04	No	Yes	No	Yes				C, D, L, V
Channel Master	CM-7000	Yes	No	No	No				D, L, V
Clear Tech	CTDCB100	Unknown	No	Unknown	Unknown
COSHIP	N9900T	No	No	No	No
COSHIP	N9988T	No	No	No	No				D, L, V
Craig	CVD508	No	Yes	Yes	No				D, V
Daewoo	DAC-100	No	No	No	No				D
Daytek	CAX-01	No	No	No	No				C, D, P
Denca	NL8118	Unknown	No	Unknown	No				C, P
Denca	NL8119	Unknown	No	Unknown	No				C, P
Denca	TBX1005A	Unknown	No	No	Unknown
Digital Stream	DX8700	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Unknown				C, P
Digital Stream	DSP6500R	Unknown	No	Unknown	Unknown				C, P
Digital Stream	DSP7700T	No	No	Yes	Unknown				C, P
Digital Stream	DSP7700P	No	Yes	No	Yes				C, P
Digital Stream	DSP7500T	No	No	No	Unknown				C, P
Digital Stream	DTX9900	No	No	No	Yes				C, D, L, P, V
Digital Stream	DTX9950	No	Yes	No	Yes				C, D, L, P, V
DISH Network	DTVPal	No	Yes	No	No				D, E, T, R, V
DISH Network	DTVPal Plus	No	Yes	No	No				D, E, T, R, V
EchoStar	TR-40 CRA	No	Yes	No	No				D, E, T, R, V
Falcon	FT-200†	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No				C, P
Fuyai	ATSC 630	Unknown	No	No	Unknown
GE	22729	No	No	Yes	No				C, D, L, R, V
GE	22730	No	No	No	No				C, R, V
GE	23333	No	Yes	Yes	No				C, D, L, R, V
GE	23334	No	Yes	No	No				C, D, L, R, V
Goodmind	DTA980	Unknown	No	Unknown	No				C
Goodmind	DTA900	No	No	No	No				C
Goodmind	DTA1000	No	No	Yes	No				C
Gridlink	GLT-200 GLT-200	No	No	No	No
Gridlink	GLT-300	No	No	No	No
iNET Access	SSR1921	No	Yes	Yes	No				D, L
Insignia	NS-DXA1	No	No	No	No				C, D, L, P, -S, V
Insignia	NS-DXA1-APT	No	Yes	No	No				C, D, L, P, V
Jiuzhou	DTT6000	Unknown	No	Unknown	No
Jiuzhou	DTT9001	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	No
jWIN Electronic Corp	JD-TV1000	Unknown	No	Unknown	No
Kingbox	K8V1	No	No	No	No
Kingbox	K8V8	No	No	No	No
Lasonic	LTA-260	No	No	No	No
Magnavox	TB100MG9	No	Yes	No	No				D, L
Magnavox	TB100MW9	No	No	No	No				C, D, L, P
Magnavox	TB100MW9A	No	Yes	No	No				C, D, L, P
MaxMedia	MMDTVB03	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
MaxMedia	MMDTVB02	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No
MaxMedia	LuTRO	No	Yes	No	No				T
MicroGEM	MG2000	No	No	No	No				D, E, L, V
Microprose	MPI-500	No	No	No	No				E, V
Microprose	MPI-500PT	No	Yes	No	No				E, V
Mustek	MAT-K50	No	No	Yes	No
Olevia	DTA100	Unknown	No	Unknown	No
Philco	TB150HH9	No	Yes	Yes	No				D
Philco	TB100HH9	No	Yes	No	No				C, D, L
RCA	DTA800A	No	No	No	No				C, -N, P
RCA	DTA800B	No	No	Yes	Yes				C, D, L, -N, P
RCA	DTA800B1	No	Yes	Yes	Yes				C, D, L, -N, P
RCA	DTA809	No	Yes	Yes	Yes				C, D, L, P
RCA	DTA809L	No	Yes	Yes	Yes				C, D, L, P
RCA	STB7766G1	No	Yes	No	Yes				C, D, L, P
Sansonic	FT300RT	No	No	No	No				C, E, P
Sansonic	FT300A	No	No	No	No				C, E, P
Skardin	DTR-0727L	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	No				C, P
Sunkey	SK-801ATSC	No	Yes	No	No				D, E, C, L, V
SVA	DAC100	Unknown	No	Unknown	No
Synergy Global Supply	SYN2009	Unknown	No	Unknown	No
TATUNG	TDB3000	No	No	Yes	No				E
TATUNG	TDB3001	No	Yes	Yes	No
Tivax	STB-T9	No	No	Yes	No				D, E, L, V
Tivax	STB-T8	No	Yes	Yes	No				C, D, L, V
Tunbow	E60010	No	No	No	No
Venturer	STB7766G	No	No	No	Yes				E, L
Venturer	STB7766G1	No	Yes	No	No				E, L, V
Winegard	RC-DT09	No	No	No	No				C, D, E, L, -S, V
Winegard	RC-DT09A	No	Yes	No	No				C, D, E, L, -S, V
Zenith	DTT900	No	No	No	No				C, D, L, P, -S, V
Zenith	DTT901	No	Yes	No	Yes				C, D, L, P, V
Zentech	DF2000	No	No	No	No				C, D, E, L, V
Zentech	DF2000L	No	Yes	No	No				C, D, E, L, V
Zinwell	ZAT-756A	Unknown	No	Unknown	No
Zinwell	ZAT-736	No	No	No	No
Zinwell	ZAT-856	No	No	No	No
Zinwell	ZAT-950	No	No	No	No				C, D, E, L, T
Zinwell	ZAT-857	No	No	No	No
Zinwell	ZAT-950A	No	Yes	No	No				C, D, E, L, T
Zinwell	ZAT-970	No	No	No	No				C, D, E, L, T
Zinwell	ZAT-970A	No	Yes	No	No				C, D, E, L, T

My Birthday on Christina Nile Boat - something all should do!

Well I am 66 now but feel 29. To celebrate had German Mike (Mr Mike Dahmen), arrange all including the Christina Boat rental, taxis, food, and drink etc, etc. We all met at ACE Club at 12 o'clock and took 4 Peugeot 7 seater taxis ( there and back) What a wonderful day. Weather in January can sometimes be bit offy, but his day was absolutely wonderful. Many others have done this boat charter, but I was a virgin for this one.

Pictures speak better than words, with some text below on how you can do same:::

The Christina is moored opposite Cairo Sheraton, Dokki


Fits 20 easily and that is all Captian George would allow-think max is 24 actually for legal reasons.

We had beer, wine, all kinds of soft drinks, hot dogs, hamburgers, cole slaw, patato salad, all fit for a queen or king- Mike arranged all. And as we had 20, with children, it was wonderful. The boat itself costs 350 LE per hour and we went for 3 hour cruise, and I felt from experience is was so good. Mikes food, with the fresh air and drinks, was fabulous. If you want, I highly recommend Mike and contact him at michaeldahmen@hotmail.com, mobile 0105154317.

Few pics of people on board enjoying





And views of Cairo from the Christina


more photos

Sharm el Sheikh - finally a good trip

Two previous posts described a week long vacation failures of my family and a friends family. You can read theses at this link1 and also this link2.

But I am pleased to announce we had a wonderful vacation this time Jan 2009. The main reason is we booked a flat at gated Community called Delta Sharm. My daughter, living in Sterling Scotland book the flat through Holiday Lettings UK. This was second time we used this site and where very satisfied both times. You deal directly with owner. Go to web site and chose egypt, redsea/sinai/ Sharm and add dates your interested in and number in our party. To shorten your serach for Delta Sharm simply use your ctrl f and enter delta to find properties in this commumity. If you book this way be sure to collect the owners card and towel cards from their local agent. Owner's card allows you 25% discount at main swimming pool resturant - not sure about others at the community.

This is a large community with 12 or 13 swimming pools. Being winter time the temperatures were low of about 15 and high of 22C when we were there. However sun temperature is really nice and comforable for sun bathing. Kids loved the warm pool and swam to their hearts content. But being young they also swam in the water fall slide pool which was bloody cold but did have a jacuzzi at 35C to warm up in. I had sweater and jacket on. During this time of year it is very nice with sun out but get some clothes on soon as cloud goes over.

The 2 bedroom we rented was comfortable for 4 (kids went down 4 days before us) but was a stretch with 6. Grocery stores for basics are up near main gate but for more elaborate food stocks a taxi trip to the Metro store would be required.

There was one resturant open with outdoor and indoor seating at the main pool. We had one lunch there and is was nice for 200 LE for pizza's, hot dogs and hamburgers an drinks. I noticed some people were on a full board basis with all food free as well as drinks. Local beer on draft and cocktails from local spirits (these drinks you best use lots of mixers to drown taste of spirits). We paid cash and a bottle of local beer Sakara was 20 LE including tax is service which is a decent price for hotel like establishment.

Naama center is a 20 LE taxi ride and taxi's can enter Delta Sharm and drive you close to your flat. But you need to walk up the main gate to get a taxi unless you arrange before hand with a taxi driver who knows your location and you use your mobile to book with him. PS taxi fares are generally about 4 times those of Cairo but all cars a pretty new with AC's/

Found it strange there is no wireless for this community but there are net cafe's up near main gate and I did see one small coffee shop that had wireless to connect your lap top. To the left side of gate looking in. Also pork shop in same direction as last shop on the walk way.

The highlight of the trip was terrazina beach as before. It is located downtown area near old market next to Oberio Hotel, but is independent of any hotel. You pay 50 LE each for adults during week and 100 LE on Fridays. They give you towels. The area is long a bit narrow but not so much to be bothersome. DJ house music starts about 12 noon and sure gets the bikini's off the sunbeds. Food for a beach is wonderful and not terribly expensive. I like the way they can make you comforable by setting up a living room atmosphere, or sun beds, of bean bags, as you wish.


The big rip off was New years Eve party oldest daughters went to the famous Pasha night club in Naama Center. Ticket price was 300 LE each which is normal and they got one drink but later found out drinks were 200 LE each which is a complete rip off. Of course the rich locals paid 1000 LE each for VIP table and purchased bottles of booze from bar. Also the place was crowded be beyond belief - but young ones seem to like this atmosphere.

Delta Sharm had a New Years party as well for 300 LE each including buffet supper, dance shows and music but with the 2 young ones we opted to just visit Naama Center for ringing in the new year.

We flew down this time as I was not in mood to drive 6 or 7 hours. Very comfortable way to go. For info you depart from Terminal 1 Hall 4, and you will arrive Terminal 1 Hall 2.Taxi from Sharm airport is 80LE to Delta Sharm. BTW bus trip from Cairo to Sharm is also 80 LE so obviously taxi rates in Sharm are on teh high side. On return I went to main gate and asked security guy to arrange 2 taxi's for next morning at 7 am for flight at 8:30. Was a bit nervous about arrangement but the taxis did show up. When flying back maybe leave a bit earlier than we did becasue they have 3 flights leaving about same time and of course only one security scanner working so was quite a long line up. You can get drinks and eats in airport and have a smoke in smoking room. When landing in Cairo Hall 2 and need transport book the Airport Shuttle at red desk on way out. to Maadi it was 95 LE in new van that got all 6 of us, plus luggage home in nice way.

In Cairo, noted the new airport road is open just down the Suez road from the ring road exit. It may look as if not working with 2 red pylons on road and police hut but just drive thorugh the pylons. this new road is great as bypasses the horrible traffic on the Suez road.

Artec T3A Digital TV Converter Box Reviews (DTV)

The Artec T3A has now been upgrade several times, the upgrade version in order from earliest latest models are the Artec T3A Pro, Artec T3AP, Artec T3AP Pro, Artec T3AP-LL, and Artec T3AP-LS.

Product Details: The picture quality of this digital TV converter box is significantly better than that average analog broadcast quality. It is not quite as good as some other converter boxes on the market but is pretty good regardless. When using this digital TV converter box you get crystal clear sound. This digital TV converter box rates near the top in regards to its sound quality

With this converter box you get a program guide that is slightly above average. The guide displays the current and next shows program title and run time. The aspect ratio function can only be accessed from the setup menu with this digital TV converter box but it does have an auto aspect ratio function so this shouldn't be necessary very often. With this box you can manually set channels or use the auto set function. Finally, this converter box comes with the ability to adjust the closed captioning font. This digital TV converter box does not come with analog pass-through or a universal remote control.

This digital TV converter box was one of the first ones that came out and it is lacking several features that you can get in its upgraded version. Currently you can get the upgraded version for the same price so it would be best not to purchase this older model.

Artec T3A Features & Specs

Displays All 18 ATSC Formats
Composite Video Jack
Stereo Audio Jacks
75 ohm RF Video/Audio Jack (Coaxial Cable)
Sleep Timer
V-Chip Lock Parental Control Setting
Configurable Closed Captioning
Electronic Program Guide
On Screen Signal Strength Meter
Energy Star Compliant
English, French, and Spanish Language Support
Compact Size

What Is Included With Your Purchase?

Artec T3AP Pro Converter Box
Remote Control
Remote Control Batteries

Artec T3A Digital TV Converter Box Reviews (DTV)

The Artec T3A has now been upgrade several times, the upgrade version in order from earliest latest models are the Artec T3A Pro, Artec T3AP, Artec T3AP Pro, Artec T3AP-LL, and Artec T3AP-LS.

Product Details: The picture quality of this digital TV converter box is significantly better than that average analog broadcast quality. It is not quite as good as some other converter boxes on the market but is pretty good regardless. When using this digital TV converter box you get crystal clear sound. This digital TV converter box rates near the top in regards to its sound quality

With this converter box you get a program guide that is slightly above average. The guide displays the current and next shows program title and run time. The aspect ratio function can only be accessed from the setup menu with this digital TV converter box but it does have an auto aspect ratio function so this shouldn't be necessary very often. With this box you can manually set channels or use the auto set function. Finally, this converter box comes with the ability to adjust the closed captioning font. This digital TV converter box does not come with analog pass-through or a universal remote control.

This digital TV converter box was one of the first ones that came out and it is lacking several features that you can get in its upgraded version. Currently you can get the upgraded version for the same price so it would be best not to purchase this older model.

Artec T3A Features & Specs

Displays All 18 ATSC Formats
Composite Video Jack
Stereo Audio Jacks
75 ohm RF Video/Audio Jack (Coaxial Cable)
Sleep Timer
V-Chip Lock Parental Control Setting
Configurable Closed Captioning
Electronic Program Guide
On Screen Signal Strength Meter
Energy Star Compliant
English, French, and Spanish Language Support
Compact Size

What Is Included With Your Purchase?

Artec T3AP Pro Converter Box
Remote Control
Remote Control Batteries

Z News - On a small screen near you?

Watching the pilot of a potential television program by cartoonist Zapiro (Jonathan Shapiro), it seems a shame the SABC has taken around nine months not to make a decision whether to commission a series called Z News.
Fashioned on the UK institution Spitting Image, the show proposes to take the (in)famous Zapiro critical look on the South Africa's politicians and current affairs to a much broader audience. The producers, Zapiro and Thierry Cassuto, were hoping to have the program aired before this year's elections with the aim to help educate the voting public to critically analyse candidates, parties and issues. However nine months after the pilot was handed to the SABC nothing was come to fruition.

So we can currently view offerings here and at this Facebook group.

You can also click here and add you voice to get this show on to South African television.