ATS800 ATSC Digital TV Converter Box w/ Recording PVR Function / HDMI Out / Coaxial Out / Composite Out / USB Input / LED Time Display (New Model)

I have tried many of these, and even have a digital tuner on my Insignia TV, but this little baby gets more stations, keeps them tuned, and plays all of my buddies crazy rick and morty episodes he has on a flash drive through its usb panel. It uses a similar interface that comes with the iView3500stbii models, but it captures and keeps more of the stations without that bothersome dropping the iView used to give me.The iview would detune a station and then make you rescan it to get it back. So frustrating. So far the Sunyo has been beyond expectations, and has gotten stations my iView3500stbii had long forgotten about. I am using this Sunyo to replace my "working" iview, with the same antenna, and so far have seen a complete improvement in reception. The only drawback is that the Sunyo guide doesnt have a transparent mode for viewing it over the stations. Other than that it is Superb! Sunyo is a mysterious company that I can find nothing about online, but as long as its device works this well, I will consider that no news is good news, since as I keep typing, it works sooooo well. It looks a lot like the APTEK, but that one I ordered refused to power on, so I picked this one up instead. I just started the process of setting up a harddrive to record live TV for sports playback and other shows I may want to catch. There is very little information at all on any of these functions. It does seem to be pretty intuitive so far, but I would suggest doing some test rcordings first before you rely on your own blind expertise. The company does email you before the device gets there, but I deleted mine, and now I am sure a link to those instructions was in that email. It does seem that there is an inteface with the EPG and the recording tuner, but I am confused and have used redundancy to cover my recording tracks, so not quite sure which method works. It is easy to at least asign programmes to record in several different ways, so it is easy to overuse, and so far necessary. As an HDTV tuner it is excellent! As a recording device it is fun to play with and so far does the job. As a media player through the USB port it is excellent! The clock funtion is the default for the unit whenit is turned off. Pretty cool, but I hope they include a function for 12 hr time display in the future. My head gets a little fuzzy at nights when I try to determine what time 20:42 is.

Remote is poor, however the tuner works good {tuner is great quality picture, and great reception with a good antenna, and I can scroll thru channels with remote and EPG works thru MENU) and It records good with a 3.0 USB, however freezes up sometimes with fast forward on playback, have to unplug and reboot. I have another unit (a TERK 50 bucks retail) that plays back the said recording and fast forward works with TERK. so I will probably keep it - . . I am pretty sure the fast forward only goofs up on the HD recordings, specifically it failed viewing a show that used almost 7 gigs for a 1 hour broadcast. { (UPDATE) The fast forward locked up on a non HD recording (using a USB 2.0), the show was only about 1 1/4 gigs for a 1 hour show. I had to unplug the unit and then reprogram country time booked recordings. Said recording played and FF fine on the TERK. } Some of the features on the remote do not work, such as sometimes I have to go thru the menu to get to the EPG, to set up a recording date time channel. The date is off 5 days, but It still will record the program as long as I program the date on the EPG program guide.{ (UPDATE) I programed for a show daily and it worked the first time then on the second day it missed the show, then recorded on the third day, then missed on the fourth day (No question it is now going back to Amazon). So far all the shows I set with timer one time have recorded, however it will not record from standby unless you trick it by booking the show before (or last 5 min of show before) t will record the second from standby, Note that the 3.0 flashdrive gets hot when the unit is not in standby (off) so it must be working the flashdrive all the time and I doubt if the constant working is doing the flashdrive much good (does not work it form standby). TERK does the same works the flashdrive when not in standby but the TERK is easy programing and records fine (turns on and off) from standby, I presume this is the industry standard.} 20 bucks I suspect this is a Gen 1 version that is defective in several ways, I would not keep it if I did not have another unit for HD playback. {update --- nope it's going back see foregoing }

This product works as expected. My tv tuner was broken in my old tv so I bought this to receive over the air tv. It hooks up very easy has rca jack ports and also hdmi. You do also need a tv antenna. Easy to program. The main downfall is the remote contoll signal is a bit weak. If you dont have it pointed directly at the receiver box it doesn't work. Other then the remote its been a good item. It has been very usefull as we got rid of our cable tv and only watch broadcast now.

The receiver in this converter works great. It picks up stations that other TVs with similar antennas do not. However, the remote must be within about 5 feet (maybe) of the receiver and lined up directly at the front of the unit in order for it to work. I can think of very few installations where the user is within 5 feet of the receiver. I haven't taken the time to open it up and find out if it's a problem with the positioning of the IR receiver or a part/circuit quality issue. Luckily, it's on a TV which isn't used often and is normally on a single channel with very little "surfing".

I did get what I expected for the price. As noted by others, the date is 5 days in the past. I have no idea why or how that is even possible and of course there is no way to change it. I did send an email to the contact listed on the warranty card but that email address doesn't exist and there is nothing else in the booklet regarding contact information. There is no allowance for daylight savings time but it will get your correct time with a little work. The time is still in 24 hour format (even on the display when powered off) with no way to change that. I don't know if the other similar boxes have ways to change these items or not. On the plus side, the tuner does work well and the picture is very good. I have tried both the hdmi and the component connections and they produce a very good picture. The remote is touchy but does work at about 15 feet if you aim it straight at the box. I have tried both a thumb drive and a usb hard drive for recording they also work just fine. The guide is not very good - usually only about 12 hours will show up. It is difficult to schedule a recording with a 5 day difference but it does work if you can figure it out. Worse problem so far has been a complete lock up when doing a fast forward on a recording. The screen went green and I had to unplug the box to regain control. This has happened twice and if it does it again I will likely return the unit. My original intention was to be able to record the local channels since I have said goodbye to cable and the streaming service I'm using doesn't have local stations. So far this box has been able to do that with the headaches I've mentioned. Not a great box because of the shortcomings but it does what I need it to do - with a little work - so I would rate it about 2 1/2 stars. Update 8/17 - I'm returning unit. Recordings are not completing as schedule (last one recorded 34 minutes instead of 60) and almost every recording locks up the system while playing back - especially if trying to fast forward through commercials - where the unit has to be unplugged to reset. This plus the date being 5 days in the past make it not worthwhile. If you only want to watch TV and don't care about recording or the date/time this would likely be a decent unit.

This would be an impressive product if it cost a lot more. Since it is incredibly cheap, I am really impressed. It replaces an old converter box obtained with one of those government coupons way back when that had been used for years as a TV tuner with a small LCD monitor. Not only does this one receive more channels, all of them perfect, but it provides a clearer picture on the monitor and good audio. It has a lot of features, including a USB input and HDMI output. Combine one of these with a good HD monitor with HDMI input, and you would have a great little TV for a garage or guest room. Update: Since writing this I have had a chance to test the HDMI output at 1080p. Seems very good, video is sharp and clear. Also played some HD video on the USB port. Now even more impressed.

Issue with the RCA jacks (bottom row: yellow, red, white). Connected cables referencing the jack color, not the silk-screen, and had audio issues. Noticed the red and white jacks were in the wrong locations. The white jack should be "L" and "R" for the red jack. Therefore, the "L" and "R" are correct, not the jack color. Be sure to take some time changing channels. The device has some trouble catching up. Wish this converter had an "ADD SCAN" feature (add channels to an existing scan). My previous box (different brand) had this feature and it came in handy using a rotational antenna. Update: Converter died. It worked for approximately 2 years and 4 months. Do not purchase this device.

Ruined my flash drive on the first day I got this Sunyo. I was not even recording, just playing back video files I had downloaded. The flash drive was only two weeks old and I had used it in other converters without a problem. If this dtv converter destroys your usb device, the low price will not seem like such a bargain. You will lose whatever was on it, so make sure you have a backup copy. The menus and screens are like those in several other brands - mediasonic, viewtv, iview, etc. The Sunyo derives from the same original design, but unlike those devices it has not corrected basic firmware problems. First issue is the date is wrong by 5 days and never corrects. So on August 5, the device has the date July 31. Unlike other boxes this has no daylight saving on/off option, so the time is off by 1 hour for half the year. I set the device one time zone to the east of my actual zone so I can at least see the time I expect. Like similar boxes, the front LED does not display the actual channel number but C001, C002, etc. (Some devices try to avoid the problem by just eliminating the front LED display.) On the timer programming screen, this device also uses C001, C002, rather than the actual channel number. Scheduling a tv show from the EPG program guide does not work. In the EPG, if you click OK on a program it should schedule that tv show like every other programmable device does. But the Sunyo just dumps you into the timer screen with nothing - no event scheduled or prepared to schedule. This box sometimes completely freezes or hangs when trying to play back certain video files. It will then refuse to respond to the remote and you have to turn it off and on. The remote transmission is highly directional, so you must be on a very straight line to get a response. I have to get up from my seat to aim the remote every time I need to operate the device, so it is not good for channel browsing. (And no, I don't want to cut a hole in the front panel for better response.) There are times that the sunyo will not respond to the remote at all even after trying repeatedly from different angles and distances, changing batteries, pressing different buttons. Wait a few seconds and then it starts responding. Like the viewtv, on rare occasions with a channel it does not like, the device can spontaneously reboot and even reboot multiple times. The back of the device looks like a mediasonic hw-150pvr with the same protruding coax connectors in the same positions. And page 21 of the manual even refers to the mediasonic website. Is there a manufacturing relationship with mediasonic or did someone plagiarize a manual and forget to fix the web address? The remote control looks just like the 1byone remote, although functions are assigned to completely different buttons. In spite of my bad usb drive experience, I tested recording with various flash drives. Interactive/live recording with the sunyo does not usually have problems. However, timer recordings from an off state failed more than half the time with some flash drives. Even high-write-speed flash drives had many timer recordings fail. I had the most success with the Transcend 820 32gb flash drive. Other Transcend models did not fare well. The Transcend 820 is not the fastest at writes but it loads very quickly and provides rapid response response to device requests. It seems that the sunyo wants a usb device that gives it rapid feedback and if it does not receive responses quickly, especially at start, it will not record. The sunyo still failed occasionally with the Transcend 820, so get a fast-response usb device for better results, but still expect failures. Playback also improves with a fast-response usb device but can still hang at times. Another timer quirk I have seen at times is with certain daily recurring recordings. For example, if I schedule a timer event to begin tomorrow at 9am and recur daily, it initially looks fine on the timer event list. However, if I check the timer list a few hours later, it has changed the start date from tomorrow to two days from now. If I had not re-checked the timer list, I would have just thought the recording failed, but the sunyo actually changed the start date one day ahead. This does not occur generally and only happens to me in a very specific sequence/context too long to describe here. I have six different brands of dtv converters and this is the worst. This is definitely not a good first device for those who just cut off their cable. You might think the low price makes it a good entry device, but it will frustrate you so much you will want to go back to cable. Not good for timer recording or casual browsing, what is it good for? Maybe if you don't do much timer recording and playback it is okay. It is good for those who like to tinker with technology and try to get a device to work right. As long as it is $20, get one and put it in the closet as a cheap emergency replacement in case a device dies. Now I have to spend time figuring out what files I lost on the flash drive and trying to recreate them from backups.