Known defects in Digital Television Set Top Boxes sold in North America & Australasia

Known defects or problems in Digital Terrestrial Television Decoders

available in

North America / Australia / New Zealand

As part of the conversion process away from analog television, Set Top Boxes (STBs) had to be created that could decode DTV signals and render them to NTSC, PAL or SECAM. Some early DTV STB models were naturally flawed, but as of 2009 -- 2nd and 3rd generation STB decoder boxes are hitting the market. However, the time has passed for flawed and imperfect designs to be acceptable in the marketplace. [...]

North America: Canada / Mexico / Unites States (NTSC-M)

Manufacturer (Manual)	Model	Known hardware flaws	Known software flaws	Known user interface flaws
Access HD	DTA1020AD	Substandard AGC buffer circuits for NTSC RF output. Poor response time to remote activation due to single LED emitter and non 9v power supply.	Fails to save state for automatic "Power Off" in menu. The Power Off function simply does not work at all.	Channel 3/4 switch on the remote should be an interactive menu option. Failure to indicate language of audio channel when alternate audio activated or channel information display is activated. Channel transmission mode disclosure is non-standard to DVB nomenclature
Insignia	-	Tinny audio unless audio is set to mono.	No visual tuning option, only audio tone. Tinny audio unless audio is set to mono output.	Fails to disclose transmission mode for the channel you are viewing
Philco	TB100HH9	Poor sensitivity, only one infrared emitter on remote	Signal meter takes at least 15 seconds to work when it should work instantly	Fails to disclose transmission mode for the channel you are viewing

Universal problems

poor sensitivity and only adequate rejection of strong signals, an across the board improvement of 6 db is needed
lack of USB support for internal Flash Memory software upgrades -- HD transmission technology will change and most STBs will not be able to cope (even marginally) with the upcoming changes in the transmission technology
lack of USB support for diagnostics
lack of 2 infrared emitters in remote, coupled with storage capacitors in remotes that are on average 10% - 20% {farads} "too small" for their intended application
lack of support for 9 v batteries in remotes, Insignia is the worst by only using a 1.5 v battery
most units (with the exception of Access HD units) fail to disclose DVB transmission mode
non-disclosure of Audio / Video bandwidth or internal decoder state in a separate signal debugging screen, a universal problem for all STBs
problems with saving state in the interactive menu system coupled with a lack of EPG garbage collection every 10 minutes (Access HD is the worst, but all units have some problems)
problems with program guide memory, mainly it is too small -- 5 days of EPG memory is recommended
manuals: lack of universal support for English / French / Spanish for NAFTA zone sales of these units

Australasia: Australia / New Zealand -- [NICAM (NZ) or ZWEITON (Australia)] (PAL-I and PAL-B)

Manufacturer (Manual)	Model	Known hardware flaws	Known software flaws	Known user interface flaws

Review of products in Australia

http://www.dansdata.com/hdtv.htm
http://www.factoryoutlet.net.au/ (a source of cheap DTV decoders, mostly Grundig)