U-003 Converter Box

ORIGINAL REVIEW: Had an old analog Sony TV that I couldn't throw away because it still had such a great picture. Wanted to get those digital broadcasts on its screen. This unit did the job! Remote works fine. Shipping was fast, too. You will still need an antenna to receive the digital broadcasts. Some antennas are better than others, so you might want to look into that as far as getting more channels or better reception. UPDATE: Less than one year later, this thing stopped working. And it's not like I used it every day, either....just once in a while, especially since I got a digital TV and I use that far more often than my old analog set. This unit is just a simple circuit board, and it still didn't even last one year of infrequent use. Doesn't anybody sell quality stuff anymore?

Amazing! Digital converter.. Works so well and a clear picture.. I bought one for my living room for my local channels with of course cable being so expensive, I just had to buy another one for my bedroom.. So easy to install.. Recommend purchase! 👍👍

I needed a converter to connect to DVR that I have that won't pick up digital broadcasts at all. The DVR will work with cable tv if I have a cable box. If I connect the cable directly to the DVR it won't pick up the stations. The DVR will not pick up stations I get on an over the air antenna. I dropped cable TV but they haven't completely disconnected to my house. I still get internet from the cable company. I hooked my cable to this converter box and then the converter box is connected to the DVR. It brings in the cable channels very well. I don't know that it would work with all cable companies. I think some are more protective of their service. I can record the programs I want on my DVR using the DVR controls. Some other misc. comments. A lot of comments mention there is no user's manual. On this Amazon page, if you look hard enough, there is a link to the manual. The manual is lacking a bit but is better than nothing. The user guide that comes with the box is misleading a bit. It indicates the setup will automatically come up when first turned on. I had my box set on the channel 3 option that's on the back of the converter. When it started up I think it came up with settings like language and time zone. You have to go the menu button the remote and scroll over to channel search in order for it to search channels either on cable or over the air. The remote has a favorite channels button. I have found absolutely no way to to add favorite channels. If you are using the converter for cable channels there will be a lot channels that you will not use that show up as saved channels. Cable also doesn't use numbers like 10, 12, 64, etc. for channel numbers. They are all numbers like 22-10, 22-12, 27-64, etc. I learned in the user's manual i got on line that the remote can be used for these type of station numbers. There is a white dot button next to the numbers that puts in the dash. It's the first remote I've had that can do this. I write my own favorite list with the station numbers and can easily get to them now. I don't think you want to buy this as a programmable DVR using along with a USB drive. I haven't tried it but after reading a lot of other reviews it doesn't sound very good or easy to use and even times many not be accurate. Again, I haven't tried it, but I think you can easily record to the USB drive if you just hit the record button on the remote and hit stop when done recording. You would have to play with it to find where the box needs to be set for this function. There is a USB button on the remote. Don't expect any elaborate TV guides. Maybe if you live in a big city. To sum it up, if you just want to watch TV stations with no recording this is a good device. If you have a dvr that you want to record programs this is a good device. Over the air programming should be good with this device if you live in a big city. Other than that you might want to Google TV programming available in your area. Using cable will only get you what the cable company has left you. If you pay for cable you can probably use this converter box without paying extra for a cable converter box. Depends on the cable company. If you don't pay for cable but have the cable, there might be channels available. If you have a newer model HDTV besides the analog device you want this box for you can hook up the cable company cable directly to the tv and scan for channels. Whatever you get is what you should get with this converter box. I may be forgetting a little item or two that I have learned but this review hopefully will be helpful to some.

Update 8/1/2022: It hasn't quit yet, but it is already getting flakier. I had several entries to be recorded on Saturday 8/6/2022, but for no apparent reason those have been jettisoned. I was adding two recording selections today, that typically get a golden ball next to it's entry in the EPG list if entered that way. The first of these were entered and displayed the ball. The second was entered, but no ball was displayed. I tried to enter it again, but was informed it was in conflict with another entry. I went to the screen that displays all pending recordings and found it listed there, but when I returned to the EPG for that channel it was still not marked. It has failed to record at least one program that it was set to record. It has also been given a couple of programs to record separately, but then simply put itself into record mode. I discovered this after it had been recording everything on the channel for 6+ hours in one large file. At this point I am just waiting for it to fail power-on, after only owning it for about two months. I've only been using it regularly for half of that time. None of the others that I've owned acted strange before dying out, they just stopped powering up. Unless a seller reads my review and offers a replacement, my recommendation would be to avoid this one. I originally thought that I would like this, but I was wrong. I've had several of this type of device because none last long, but recording shows is convenient. Most of them work the same way and have interchangeable remotes. This one is not like the others though, and it has some very annoying differences. With the other boxes, shows can be scheduled for recording and then you turn off the device and the display will show only a small red standby light. This one shows both a bright red light and the entire display is lit up with the time. Not good for a backup box in the bedroom. When using the EPG, simply selecting a program is not enough because the default is to "view" rather than "record", so you have to get to the bottom of the entry and change that or there won't be anything to watch later. In spite of any information to the contrary, you will be lucky to get more than 8 hours of future program info to select from. This is unchanged from the other boxes that I've tried. Don't mix up remotes because the one from your other box won't work with this one at all. The buttons on this remote are mostly different from the other boxes of this kind, so realize that you will need to find them again. The names have been changed as well as the positions, so you will need to discover that you press a button in a different place that is named unlike the one you previously used to do things. The onscreen menu may tell you to choose a button of a certain color. If it does, ignore the name that button was given. I do hope that this box lasts longer or does something that is overall better. It does have a "zoom", but that doesn't work great. On one TV it works very poorly, on another it may be a little better.