Philco vs. Zenith...and Zenith wins! (Digital TV converters)

[Bill Hutchinson]

As long as we're sort-of on the subject of converter boxes pros & cons...

I've got a couple of the Apex boxes, and I'm not impressed. The signal sensitivity seems to be inconsistent (will start jumping around even with a good solid antenna, resulting in pixelizing), but the thing I don't like the most is the lousy graphics for the setup menus, and the program guide is absolutely useless - it'll display barely one page of data in really small font you can barely read, and a poor remote. At least it gives a good picture.

The Insignia box (from Best Buy) is essentially the same as the Zenith (or so I'm told), and isn't too bad. It has a nice remote, decent menus, and good functionality. I've seen a few of them break down with extended use, so that's the main knock against them.

Bill