Samsung DTBH260F HDTV Terrestrial Receiver Reviews

• Eye Candy

  
  By A1F3VRLGW5NAJB on 2007-03-14
  This item has been hard to find in stores and online. After being waitlisted with Amazon for some time, I finally ordered it from another large electronics vendor that offerred free shipping, but I had to pay sales tax.
  
  Last year I purchased two HDTV's (without built in tuners) thinking I would always get HD from my cable company. When I totaled up the cost of HD on cable with all of the extra boxes and fees, over-the-air HD for the price of a tuner seemed like a much more reasonable alternative.
  
  The tuner was not difficult to hook up. I used an inexpensive HDMI cable (purchased off the web), regular rabbit ears/UHF antenna and plugged the tuner directly into my TV. (Remember to flip the switch on the back of the unit and to set your TV to HDMI input.) According to the manual, audio is supposed to be transmitted to the TV through the HDMI cable, but my TV does not accept dolby 5.1 surround sound. I had to change the audio setting on the unit to PCM to get sound out of the TV. Alternatively, I got stereo sound by running separate audio cables (included with the unit) to my home theater unit.
  
  Being at an age where I grew up with over the air TV and recalling that we continually had to adjust the rabbit ears to improve the picture, I was astounded by the quality of the signal. The transmission towers are about 19 miles away and I was getting all bars on the signal strength. No fidgiting with the rabbit ears was required and the picture has no ghosting. Clearly, this is not the over the air TV of the 60's and 70's.
  
  In addition to the HD shows, I'm also getting a 720 digital signal on most of the non-HD programming, which is a big improvement over the 480 analog. The improvement is so good, I'm thinking of getting another tuner for my other hd-ready TV.
  
  I do have a couple of small complaints. As noted by other reviewers, the channels seem to change very slowly using the remote and you need very good aim. And, don't lose the remote because you cannot change the channel without it. Another reviewer noted that it takes a bit of time for the unit to boot up when first turned on, which I can also confirm. He also noted that the unit gets very hot, which is NOT my experience.
  
  Happy viewing!
  
  

• Decent value, but you need a good map

  
  By A21NPTK4PUVOEI on 2007-01-23
  Many people may consider using this receiver to upgrade their analog (non DTV-ready, non HD-ready) TVs. (Why replace that big old projection TV with plasma at 10 times the price? Wait a couple of more years for the inevitable price/performance improvements.) There are a few things that you need to know, though.
  
  (1) Nearly all of the TV stations in your area simultaneously broadcast analog and digital signals over the air. Many stations broadcast several digital sub-channels, which effectively multiplies the number of programs available to you at any time.
  
  (2) Because of the Samsung's sensitivity, your old TV antenna will pull in all of the digital channels with crystal-clear reception. (Obviously, it won't change the resolution. It will never look like a digital TV, but every broadcast will look as sharp as a DVD played through the same set.)
  
  (3) Some digital broadcasts use the 16:9 aspect ratio, while others use the 4:3 dimensions of your old set. This results -- somewhat unpredicably -- in blank strips at the edges of the screen and/or a slightly compressed horizontal picture, because both the broadcaster and the Samsung are trying to compensate for aspect ratio differences. (When stations broadcast 4:3 content on a 16:9 signal or vice versa, it is they who insert the blank areas. For me, 3 out of 4 stations broadcast signals that come through undistorted at full screen size.) BUT, the Samsung's aspect ratio adjustments DO NOT work through Samsung's analog TV output, so what you see is what you get.
  
  (4) Further, the Samsung will NOT show you any station information on the screen. When you select channels or set up the system using the remote control, you are flying blind unless you can infer your position in the channel sequence or on the menu. (These caveats apply only to analog TVs.) It's not as bad as it sounds, but it does take a little getting used to. You can, if you like, follow the somewhat cryptic advice of an earlier reviewer. Temporarily plug your yellow video composite cable from your TV into the green DTV OUT (component) jack in the Samsung. Slide the rear switch to Y,Pb,Pr. The menus will become visible over a black-and-white TV picture. After you complete your setup, plug the cable into the appropriate yellow jack. (If your TV has multiple video inputs, e.g. Aux1 and Aux2, or Composite plus S-Video, you can leave the B&W menus on one input and watch your shows on the other.)
  
  Hey, all transitional technologies have their limits, but some of Samsung's choices seem a little arbitrary. All in all, I think this is a neat little product and fairly priced at $180 or less.
  
  p.s. Watch for prices to drop in 2008 when federally approved TV converter boxes go on sale. Check out https://www.dtv2009.gov/ and apply for a $40 coupon while you're there. But beware that coupons expire 90 days after they are issued.
  
  

• What More Can You Ask?

  
  By A1WBZA4OM02MXU on 2007-05-31
  After much soul searching, I decided to get rid of cable, satellite, etc. because I was spending too much time watching the same programs over and over again. I decided to free up my time. However, I knew there would still be times when I would want to watch some TV. Limited basic cable in my area only covers the major networks and independent stations, which I knew I could get with a TV antenna. So why pay? However, reception was bad, so I wondered if I would get better reception if I had an HDTV tuner. My Sony Trinitron Wega is only three years old. There was no way I was going to upgrade to a newer model, so I did some research and found that if I bought an HD receiver that could be set to analog (480i), I could watch TV in digital format. The Samsung works wonderfully. It is an especially useful receiver for those of us who do not have HD TVs. This tuner, plus a Radio Shack "Indoor VHF/UHF/HDTV Antenna with RF Remote Control" (model: 15-1892) will save me hundreds each year.
  
  I need to add that I have two analog TVs. I am able to get the onscreen menus. You have to hook the S-composite video cable to a VCR or DVD player. I'm also using a splitter. So this one box serves two TVs. Also, HD is broadcast in 16:9 aspect ratio--not 4:3, so the aspect ratio on an analog (4:3) TV might have to be adjusted. You can adjust the aspect ratio via the tuner's remote. There is a delay of 2-3 seconds when changing channels. That's because the tuner has to take the analog signals from the antenna and convert them to digital signals. Like another reviewer said, I intend to spend part of my savings on Netflix. I live in San Francisco, surrounded by high buildings and hills, and with this combination, I'm able to get HDTV stations from as far away as Sacramento--80 miles.
  
  To get onscreen menus (analog TV)
  
  This is the arrangement I'm using. Perhaps others will work as well.
  
  Main cord w/splitter: TV to antenna to tuner
  Sound Cord: TV to tuner
  RWY: TV to VCR
  RWY: DVD to tuner
  GBR: TV to tuner
  
  RWY=red, white, yellow cord
  GBR=green, blue, red cord
  
  Hope that helps!
  
  Update: I now live in Chicago. Picking up HD channels is even easier than it was in San Francisco. I live toward the back of a 16 story building and I get every last channel.
  
  

• Not for watching digital TV on older televisions!

  
  By A3RGB5FTU5GWF6 on 2006-12-29
  This product should work fine for anyone who hooks it up using Component or HDMI connections. Unfortunately, the on-screen display does not work over Composite or S-Video! That means it isn't even possible to set up the unit on a legacy TV unless you connect a Composite video cable to the green (luminance) Component video jack -- and even then, you'll only get black & white output. After setting it up, it is possible to use the tuner with Composite or S-Video, but you'll get no indication of what channel you're watching, no electronic program guide, etc. Find another tuner if you want to view digital broadcasts on your older television.
  
  

• Nice, unless you watch standard-def digital channels

  
  By ABMZDLI3EXMUQ on 2007-11-05
  Pros:
  
  - Good tuner performance, awesome HD picture quality
  - Relatively fast channel switching performance
  - Nice station info and display (station ID, 480i/720p/1080i, etc)
  - Nice responsive graphical interface
  - Favorite channel setting
  - Small profile. No fan, quiet.
  
  Cons:
  
  - annoying picture shift and overscan on 480i SD material.
  
  This can be easily seen when comparing the output with an analog VCR tuned to the same station as the digital one.
  
  Toggle the output switch (480i/p/720/1080), and the shift/overscan is gone. BUT, as soon as you switch the channel, it happens again. This happens on all of the outputs, even HDMI.
  
  - No option to output HD material at native resolution (as is, not either 720p or 1080i).
  
  - Rescanning channel loses favorites
  
  - QAM tuner includes encrypted/blank channel. You have to delete them manually afterwards, horrible!
  
  - No program guide for QAM channels
  
  - Cannot output both hdmi component at the same time.
  
  - No menu/GUI on s-video/composite output
  
  
  
• Samsung Hasn't a Clue
  By A3Q9UI14P5QIJ9 on 2007-09-26
  Got my tuner, read hookup/setup directions, noted the no OSD menus for Composite or S-Video. The no OSD menus thing concerned me as I bought this to use with my analog TV. A perused the manual some more to find out what OSD menus are but it's not defined, so I went on.
  
  I powered the unit up and noted a gray raster and nothing else, checked connections with no change, hooked up another source to the TV and it's fine. Switched from Compositie cables to S-Video and again gray raster only. Called tech support, was impressed with speed of call, they said the unit was bad.
  
  After receiving my replacement from Amazon I had the same issue. Again called tech support and this time was told the unit does not work with S-Video or Component even though it is advertised as such and has connections for them. I was told to return the product for a refund.
  
  I then called 1 800-Samsung to escalate this issue and find out if it works as advertised or not. Got to talk to a person that only said I can try tech support for you. The lady called tech support herself and said it will work with S/Composite video but the picture will be distorted.
  
  I next visited a buddy with an HD monitor. Hooked it up, programmed it and it worked fine. Took it back home and plugged it up and can now use it BLINDLY with S/Composite, I can only channel up/down or enter numbers directly/blindly. I now know that OSD menus are any menus, no menus/channel# anything, you just get a picture.
  
  The sad part of the whole story is that the Samsung manual was about worthless and their tech support was as well. Not a one had any idea what was going on.
  
  I will be keeping the tuner as it does fill a need I have but I can say that Samsung is on the bottom of my list now. I refuse to do any further business with a company with such poor manuals and support.
  
  
  
  
• Good and bad points
  By A2P4190TC2N01Y on 2007-01-20
  I've been using this receiver since mid-December. I have an indoor antenna, and an RCA 27V530T standard def tv. I've connected this receiver to my tv using both the s-video and the component cable (not at the same time). I don't have Cable so I was using rabbit ears to get locals. There has been a huge difference b/n tv before the receiver and after. Using the s-video connection, the picture looked great; 100x better than before. Not only the picture, but I was also getting several more channels than before. When I connected the receiver using the component cables, the difference was amazing. It's literally like I have DVDs of these channels (again I don't have a HDTV). There was also richer color using the component connections instead of the s-video connections. I'm getting FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, 5 different channels of PBS (including PBS HD), a couple of weather channels, and the two WB channels. I'm missing one local channel, but the channel is not worth trying to readjust my antenna, as it took a while to place the antenna in the perfect spot.
  
  The problems w/ this receiver are minor, and more annoying than anything else. For one this receiver does not have channel changing buttons on the front of the receiver. If I can't find the remote, I better hope the last channel I watched wasn't the weather channel, otherwise I'm out of luck. Another complaint I have is that I can't access the channel's signal strength directly; I have to go through the menus to view the signal. It doesn't seem like much of an issue, but hitting a button once is a lot easier than hitting "menu - right - right - enter - up - right" (and you have to do that everytime if you change the channel). There's also no sound to indicate whether your strengh is high or low (like the strengh meter on a Dish Network or DirecTV DBS receiver). The problem w/ these "little" issues is that I believe these are the same complaints that users of the previous generation of Samsung HD receivers had, yet Samsung hasn't addressed the issues. I believe these issues are the difference b/n this being a good receiver and a great receiver.
  
  All in all, I still think this receiver is a great buy. The receiver is not perfect, but the pros far outweigh the cons. Again, I don't have a HD tv, but I still used the component connections (not composite!!!) and get an EXCELLENT PICTURE.
  
  
• Almost perfect
  By A1B1B5TQKGGMI2 on 2007-01-09
  I've had the tuner almost two month now and love it. I've used both an amplified and unamplified antenna and am about 10 miles from the closest signal and pull stations in very well. It has an excellent signal strength meter that makes tuning easy. The tuners feature set is good and it is very easy to set up and modify. The only thing that keeps this tuner from being perfect is that there are a couple of minor issues with the software that will probably be cleaned up as the product matures. Channel change speed and guide load times could be better. That said, I like this tuner enough to have bought a second one for use on a different TV.
  
  
• One Small Flaw
  By A3VRI5XNZGBP0O on 2007-03-08
  The tuner works perfectly at delivering DTV pictures to my HD-ready TV. However, there is one annoyance. There is a switch on the back of the unit to determine the format (1080i, 720p, etc.) that is sent to the component video inputs of your TV. To get an HD picture this switch has to be in teh 1080i position. However, my 4:3 aspect ratio Sony TV automatically scrunches down to a letterbox 16:9 picture when receivieng a 1080i signal. To fill the screen on a 4:3 broadcast signal, I have to move the switch to 480i or 480p. It would be much better if this switching function were on the remote control. This will not be a problem if you have a 16:9 TV.
  
  
• Better than I expected
  By A1B703AVJR5JU on 2007-02-01
  I decided to get this tuner when my cable company refused to provide most of the local stations in HD. I live 6 miles from the transmitter, so the signal is at full strength with only rabbit ears for an antenna. The picture is perfect for the 1080i broadcasts, with no digital artifacts or loss of signal. The only drawback is if you want to view content at the correct aspect ratio, you have to manually change the aspect ratio when switching between broadcasts in standard definition (4:3) and high definition (16:9). Otherwise, the HD channels are squashed down to 4:3 (everyone looks skinny) and the standard definition channels are stretched out to 16:9 (everyone looks fat). The remote has a button that allows you to manually change the aspect ratio without going through the on-screen menus.
  
  
• Good picture, but Samsung customer support is pathetic
  By A1PXSQP3EYY2PE on 2007-02-10
  I bought this box as a birthday present for myself in Oct. '07. It gave me a great HD picture and was easy to set up and operate. It worked great until the end of December, just past the return period at Best Buy. Then it just froze up one day and would do nothing. But it was still "under warranty". So, I decided to call Samsung Support...
  
  It was then that I sunk into the abyss that is Samsung customer service...woe be unto any of you if you have to deal with them.
  
  To make a long story short - I still don't have the box back and it's mid-February. I've made numerous phone calls to both Samsung and their out-sourced contract service company (CVE, Inc. in NJ) and have spent hours - literally - on the phone on hold, talking to people who say they'll return calls and don't, having the service order lost, and eventually being "escalated" to their ECR - "executive customer relations" which sorta sounds important and all, but is a joke...just another level of incompetents who you reach after listening to canned music for 20-30 minutes on hold, AFTER already waiting about the same length of time to even be 'escalated'!
  
  CVE claims that they "just" received the box on Feb. 8 (in fact they they received it weeks before as verified by UPS). The ECR person who said she 'definitely' would call me back 'today or certainly tomorrow' about the problem, didn't.
  
  It's even more convoluted than I've explained. By their own admission, even Samsung was having problems contacting CVE - being put on hold and being disconnected themselves!
  
  Bottom line - if I have the choice in the future, I will not buy Samsung electronics, based entirely on their truly pathetic customer support. Their products may be okay but, in my experience, their customer service sucks.
  
  As a matter of contrast, if you want to experience truly great, world-class customer support, try Fidelity Investments. I am always overwhelmed by their service and tout their customer service as the best I've ever experienced. It's just too bad they don't sell consumer electronics!
  
  (I don't work there or even know anyone personally who does, but I've had my retirement accounts with them for several years...truly top notch service)
  
  
  
  
• Limited usefulness with analog TVs
  By A1I3XYDAA4DLO0 on 2008-02-20
  If you're planning to use this product to receive digital TV broadcasts on your old standard definition (SD) analog TV, this unit has serious limitations.
  
  For many such TVs, you would have to use either the composite or s-video output from the Samsung, but they did not implement the on-screen menus, signal strength meter, etc. on those outputs, which means that many of the features that justify this unit's price will not be available to you.
  
  One of the missing features is the manual aspect ratio correction, which allows you to correct the stretching of the picture that makes people look either too thin or too fat, depending on the direction of the stretching. This appears to only be a problem when viewing a high definition (HD) broadcast on an SD TV. SD broadcasts viewed on an SD TV are OK. Still, for people like me who can't stand the stretching, it's a serious drawback.
  
  These features are available on the component video output if your TV has that type of input, and the component video output of the Samsung can be set to 480i, which an SD TV can display, but the picture has an overall magenta tint that makes the colors look lousy. Adjustment of the color controls on the TV can't correct for this well enough to get a decent looking picture.
  
  Digital TV should make the picture quality equal to or better than what it was, not degrade it.
  
  I tried exchanging the unit at the store, but the replacement has the same problem.
  
  There's no technical reason why these problems should exist. Apparently it's just a poorly executed design, at least with regard to these features.
  
  For equipping an old TV to receive digital broadcasts, you would probably be better off waiting for the Zenith digital TV converter box to become available, for a lot less money.
  
  
• Not perfect, but there's no other way for analog fans.
  By AKKSHEGRQVQRK on 2007-10-24
  There's no chance I'm ditching my Toshiba and Sony analog CRT tv's. The pictures on both are gorgeous, better than any HDTV playing classic 4:3 movie DVD's, and infintely better than the visual damage inflicted by LCD's with their narrow brightness range and their habit of showing only 1/3 the colors and half the detail you see on a CRT. Folks, your eyes and ears are not digital: they're analog. So no matter how much "digital" stuff you have in your home, it all gets converted to analog before your analog brain can use it. Kapeesh? Samsung ostensibly created this monster so you could use it on analog equipment, then did all they could to make it unusable in that capacity. There's no way to setup this guy or program it thru its analog outputs -- you can't even see which channel you're on! So because you're dealing with engineers from Larry Curly & Mo Tech, you've got to have some way to get either HDMI or component video to run Samsung's setup. I did that by feeding one component output line (it doesn't matter which, blue seems to work best) to a composite input on my analog tv. The menus are monochrome that way, but they work. From there, I use the s-video, composite, or component outputs set to 480i for my tv. If anyone with a 32" or smaller tv (HDTV or not) can tell the difference between a digital image and a good, capable analog image, that person is from the planet Krypton. When HDTV, typical HDTV components, and typical digital cable boxes can reproduce an image without a stream of digital artifacts, mosquito noise, motion smearing, color blocking, etc., etc., I'll spend time and money on HDTV. But digital video and LCD's have a long way to go. I hooked up this Samsung via a cable splitter: one end goes to my Cablevision digital cable box, where I can see all the godawful video distortion with that box's cruddy DAC and slow-poke DNR circuits. The other end goes to the Samsung's RF input and picks up all the unscrambled stations thru my cable wire (thank you, Samsung, for including QAM circuitry in this toy). The Samsung picture is a vast improvement over that cable box. I also tried some indoor antennas in my coop apartment; the one that worked best was a $7 two-eared RCA VHF/UHF I picked up at Goodwill. Gets about 25 OTA stations with fine results. The Samsung costs $$$ and is really klutzy to use. But when it comes to results they have no competition under $500. One other big negative: you can't set a recording session manually by entering your own data. You have to use the Guide menu, which doesn't always pick up program data for every station. So you just leave the Samsung tuned to the station you want and set up your recorder for the day and time. As I said, digital has a long way to go. And when you get right down to it, everything gets converted to analog anyway.
  
  
• Useless as a Digital to Analog Converter
  By A1WZP5IZ51C9U5 on 2007-04-28
  I ordered this to try and get a better picture using the TV I've got now (read non-HDTV, non-digital). What they don't mention in the description is that the on screen display which is needed to set up the box to work is not viewable on the composite outputs - only the digital ones. Needless to say the box is on it's way back to Amazon's Returns Dept.
  
  
• Gets better reception than TivoHD
  By AMT7YLM9R38A3 on 2008-01-07
  I've been using two of these beauties for a year now connected to my Comcast
  basic-basic $13/mo cable. The first one was to provide HD to my older "HD ready"
  wide screen TV. Later, I bought a smaller Sharp Aquos LCD TV for another room and
  was disappointed by its HD picture quality. I moved the Samsung box from the other
  TV to this one to try (via HDMI) cable and, voila, awesome picture quality. So, I
  bought a 2nd Samsung DTB-H260F and am foregoing the inferior HD tuner in my new
  Sharp TV (I've since learned that the best thing to buy is a TV monitor [no tuner inside]
  and attach it to one of these Samsung set-top-boxes).
  
  Reception is exceptional. I get all the HD channels I'm supposed to get plus the analog
  ones. Only a couple of times has the box not responded to up or down arrow channel
  changes. Powering off/on the set-top-box resolved this.
  
  I recently bought a TivoHD thinking it was time to move in the recording, time delayed
  mode mode of watching TV. I have been disappointed that the reception of the Tivo is
  worse than the Samsung that I have become used to. In fact, 3 HD channels and 3 PBS
  analog channels come in choppy cutting in/out (or not at all) on my Tivo, but have
  been rock solid beautiful on my Samsung. I'm close to returning my Tivo and living
  with commercials and beautful picture quality with the Samsung.
  
  The only concern I'll tell you is not a problem with the box, but a problem I have with
  my cable provider. Since this is not a Comcast set-top-box, it doesn't have Comcast
  specific filtering in it. It will receive/broadcast whatever Comcast (my cable provider)
  sends unencrypted over the wire. I've been disappointed to learn that pay-per-view or
  on-demand (I"m not sure of the difference since I don't use them) selections come
  across as unencrypted channels. When channel surfing, if some neighbor is watching
  one of these options, Samsung sees them. I've been aghast to see porn scenes come
  across my TV while channel surfing. These are usually in the channel 80-nn range.
  Even manually removing them from the channel selection within the Samsung box
  doesn't keep them "off". I don't know how to block this so kids don't accidentally
  stumble over these channels when they surf with the up and down channel buttons.
  And worse, they might think that this programming must be acceptable since it's on
  "mommy and daddy's TV". I didn't ding Samsung a star for this because I think it is the
  cable company's fault. But I wanted everyone to be aware of this.
  
  To help me workaround the problem, I've used the Samsung "favorites" feature to
  mark all the channels that I want to surf and then use its "favorites" button on the
  remote to move through my favorites (only goes up, unfortunately), instead of using
  the up and down channel buttons.
  
  
• Set Top HD Tuner
  By AB6YF5BDBZMPF on 2007-01-29
  Very small and sleek. Easy to set up and operate. Delivers a great picture. Now I just wish the antenna would work as well. The remote took a few uses to get familar but things are working out.
  
  
• EXCELLENT PRODUCT
  By A2UGBJYUCN7AUL on 2007-02-10
  The receiver works just as described. It receives HD signals over the air and allows the user to use his HD ready T.V. as it was supposed to be used. Many HD T.V.'s do not have a built in HD tuner, this solves the problem.
  
  
• Defective out of the box
  By A24T7D8K3S8S1X on 2007-05-12
  It did not work out of the box. I called Samsung customer service and their rep ran me through all of the diagnostics that I had already performed to determine that the component video connections were malfunctioning. After going over this for close to an hour --with primary and secondary support-- Samsung provided a ticket number and said the unit needed to be shipped out at my expense for warranty repair. I decided instead that I was done with Samsung and shipped it back to the vendor at my expense for refund on the purchase price. I lost shipping expenses, but Samsung lost a customer for what I consider to be buyer-beware treatment.
  
  
• Useful Product w/ Limited Applicability
  By A2VMI4LZDQGSOG on 2008-06-03
  The Samsung DTB-H260F is a high definition digital receiver that I researched for a long time before purchasing it. Pros: 1) the tuner is quite sensitive and will pick up many more digital tv stations than the government-approved converter boxes; 2) with a strong enough digital broadcast signal and the right equipment, you'll be able to receive gorgeous hi-def video with hi-fi 5.1 surround sound for free; 3) digital broadcasts are a definite improvement over analog ones. Cons: 1) you cannot add stations manually--all you can do to add a new channel is perform an auto scan after moving your antenna and hope that you pick up additional channels (but you may also lose some channels); some of the menu items (e.g., signal strength meter) are buried deep in the menu and require the user to go through several layers of choices to access them. Please note that in order to get the full benefits of this receiver, you must have a tv that has either HDMI and/or component video inputs. If you have only RCA composite inputs on your tv, you will not get the best video quality and you will not be able to view the complete viewing guide. Your tv should also have a flat screen with the capability of showing hi-def resolution (e.g., an "HDTV-Ready Monitor"). It also helps to get the best sound if you have a home theater receiver with a dolby digital 5.1 surround sound decoder and a digital optical audio input in close proximity to the tv. Using a digital optical audio cable to connect the Samsung receiver to the home theater receiver, you can get crystal clear surround sound on many of the tv shows. I would also recommend having a digital antenna rotator with a remote control to make finding the "sweet spot(s)" for your antenna easier than with the old style of rotator. Finally, get a decent programmable remote control that can "learn" the functions of the remote for this receiver and all of your other remotes (e.g., Sony RM-VL600 8-Device Universal Learning Remote). Having had this receiver now for several weeks, I find that I'm watching more tv than I have watched in years, simply because of the gorgeous hi-def video and the beautiful hi-fi surround sound. I'm still disappointed in much of the content of tv broadcasts, but at least it's wonderful to view and hear!
  
  
  
  
• Great tuner
  By A3RHIRJQ2TT3HW on 2007-02-15
  Agree with everyone else here. Sure beats paying the cable co's. I was blown away with the picture I got. Just a word of advise, Use a HDMI cable, it you use the component (even the monster cables)your going to perhaps get ghost images. As soon as I used the HDMI cables bingo. I agave it a 4 star only because you have to reach behind to change the resolution settings but thats small.
  
  
• Great Product!
  By A2RJ4RN57Y83TJ on 2007-03-08
  I just got this tuner and overall I think it's a good thing. One issue I do have with it, and it's in the fine print of the manual, is that the component(PB, PR, Y) video output is not supported in 480i. I have an older TV with a 480i component input and the picture was visible but washed pink. I was able to navigate the menus to get it set up, then swapped over to S-video for daily viewing. Although I would love to have the on-screen menus and channel guides, I don't miss them since I don't have cable. Just write down the channel numbers once it's set up then you can enter the number if you don't want to surf.
  
  Samsung tech support was pretty good overall, except the rep I talked to was arrogant. When I called about the above issue, instead of telling me to read the instruction book again they suggested that I buy a new TV, and denied any wrong on their part. Also, without having examined the box they were certain that it could not possibly be defective.
  
  Overall, great product. Here in New York Metro we get 3 times the number of channels than with analog over-the-air TV, all DVD clear, lots of PBS sideband stations, and a music station that actually plays music videos.
  
  
• Just like Kelly I can't properly review this item
  By A2ZKUAPDDK2PVF on 2007-03-13
  My wait has been 17 weeks and I received my monthly email today pushing out the delivery date another 30 days. ONE BIG DIFFERENCE!!!! THE ITEM IS NOW LISTED AS AVAILABLE BUT FOR MORE MONEY THAN I AGREED TO PAY BACK IN NOVEMBER. IF THIS IS AMAZON'S WAY OF MAKING ME TAKE A WALK AND GIVE CIRCUIT CITY MY $$$, IT WORKED.
  
  
• Brilliant and easy to set up
  By A2YI3M156D90BT on 2007-03-28
  I had this running within a few minutes of opening the box. The hidef picture is every bit as good as cable tv, the digital stddef is much better than analog tv, as good as digital cable, and for some channels is better than digial cable provides in our area. I am between 30 and 70 miles from various broadcast stations and still have enough signal to give a perfect picture. The picture is either on or off - there is no inbetween. This is one good way to avoid the monthly payments of the cable and satellite tv companies for network tv and for a good fraction of hdtv.
  
  
• very happy
  By AH7UAQ3OTAR5J on 2007-05-22
  I just plugged this box into my home theater setup.
  
  Pros:
  
  - analog component output is pretty clean.
  - why pay the cable company all that money when not enough content is shot in HD yet?
  - box lets me stick it to the cable company, which would charge way more for better-than-lo-def signal loaded with extra fluff channels that I don't even watch. I also don't want a satellite.
  - on screen display tells aspect ratio and HD signal type on each channel change.
  - aspect ratio adjust right on the remote.
  - bought it for less than $200 out the door at Circuit City.
  - great for middle-ground TV watchers, low ground being old-school and high-ground being videophiles.
  - no display or controls on the box itself. looks clean.
  
  Cons:
  
  - S-Video output is noisy (but I was also using too long of a cable)
  - yes, the on screen display only works on the component out and the HDMI (but I can understand this, since anything less than component may make the on screen display difficult to read, so they removed it from those ports)
  - does take a long time to boot up. mine was 13 seconds.
  - IR receiver does have a small receive cone. in my living room, it works great as long as the box is 3 feet off the floor and the remote is about 4 feet away.
  - I don't get Discovery HD this way. that's the only channel I miss :(
  - buttons on remote are pretty similar, so you have to look down every time you want to push something. remote doesn't glow.
  - no display or controls on the box itself. don't lose the remote; use component out or better for on screen display.
  
  Other:
  
  - I noticed some people want to just set it up and use the composite or S-Video only. you can still set it up, the sync is on the green port of the component outs. just plug the green into the composite port of your TV. you'll have a B/W picture for a while when setting it up.
  - does not come with S/PDIF optical cable. does come with component cable. all other cables you have to get yourself. I put this as 'other' b/c who knows what cables the customer needs?
  - the colored keys on the bottom row of the remote are hot keys that you can set up I think? I'll have to mess with them and find out.
  
  5 stars based on value
  
  
• limited appeal
  By A3VFWGN05YF3RY on 2007-08-09
  In terms of the type of product this is, the performance in reception is quite good. I installed it in a low signal strength area where most of the analog signals showed quite a bit of snow. I used a Philips amplified outdoor UHF antenna and the DTBH260F delivered a good digital output to my widescreen HDTV monitor (a Toshiba). Note that I only used the component connection and did not try HDMI.
  
  However, there are several problems which should never have made it to market.
  
  Unusable with SDTV.
  
  Very slow changing channels and drops commands from the remote.
  
  View angle of remote is too narrow. (you have to aim the remote very precisely at the DTBH260F)
  
  Remote is required to use it.
  
  Status information (channel #, signal strength) should be accessible with one button instead of being buried deep in menus.
  
  Seems impossible to delete a single channel. It's delete all or nothing. This is a problem because the channel scan pulls in a dead channel and I don't like having to skip over it when I channel surf.
  
  ----
  The big question is, do you want a tuner only product? There are quite a few products on the market which combine a digital tuner with either a VHS recorder, DVD recorder, a hard disk recorder, or some combination for prices that are well worth the value you get.
  
  
  
• excellent alternative for HDTV with no internal tuner
  By A1HBLNE8QYSG3Z on 2007-09-11
  Although this product says its a terrestrial tuner, anyone who has an HDTV with a built-in QAM knows that it will also tune digital cable channels that are not encrypted or blocked by the cable provider.
  
  I think the tuner setup can be improved on, as it seemed time consuming when auto programming from cable input. My two HDTVs with QAM tuners did a much better job of finding and displaying channels with live programming. However, once the setup process was complete, the tuner performs as advertised. I still need to get a directional antenna and setup the OTA functionality, but expect this will be simpler than what I experienced with the cable auto program set-up (less channels for tuner to lock with OTA). I also anticipate excellent quality with OTA reception based on the numerous reviews on this aspect of the tuner. I will update this review at a later date with OTA results.
  
  
  
• Does what it should, just costs too much, HDMI didn't work
  By A27ENPJU1E64K3 on 2007-03-10
  I've been hearing for years now how TV was going to go digital and all of us who bought HD-ready sets would be able to go the last step with an affordable set-top box. Even now, when I see these stories, the industry always insists the boxes will cost "around $100." I have never - NEVER - seen one for less than $200, if I can find one at all. This seems to be the only model that's widely available, commercially. And it costs more than twice as much as everyone said it should.
  
  That said, this thing generally works as it is supposed to. I couldn't get the HDMI output to work, though it's unclear to me if that's an antenna failure, a TV failure, or a problem with this box. The next step down, the component output, looked as amazing and crystal as any display of HD I've ever seen. Nature programs and sports programs are particularly surreal.
  
  
• Yet another "one small problem"
  By A1CHKAWX7FAOM4 on 2007-03-22
  The box is much smaller than I expected. That's not *exactly* the problem.
  
  The problem is if your tv has DVI, you have to go with a new DVI/HDMI cable. The jacks on the rear panel of this unit are so close together, if you try to use a DVI-HDMI adapter with a plain DVI cable, the adapter blocks the antenna input. This made me curse since it renders a DVI cable I already had useless, makes me have to return the adapter I bought, and forces me to buy the much more expensive cable I didn't want.
  
  Other than that, this is an EXCELLENT tuner. Locks weak signals very well. Nice user interface.
  
  
• DTB-H260F Zoom flaw problem
  By AVNTSI11JUEVY on 2007-04-29
  Hello all!
  Amazon shipped very fast = A+ for amazon, BUT I am looking for anyone that shares this problem or if anyone has ever gotten help via samsung support about it - please review my email to samsung support below:
  ------------------------
  The DTB-H260F zoom function does not work correctly. When tuning a 16:9 signal on a 4:3 TV or vice versa (4:3 signal on a 16:9 TV) The zoom function zooms the wrong picture - it does a straight digial zoom of the *distorted* picture and cuts off top, bottom, left and right, and the pic is STILL distorted. In the instruction booklet manual you have it explained correctly. The device does not zoom according to the manual diagram --it should crop sides(on 4:3 tv) or top/bottom(on 16:9) - with no distortion. Is there a fix for this? Can you make a firmware update to fix this? I do not want to have to return the product since the other features work.
  -------------------------------------------
  I give the product 3 stars since the reception is good - I am using a radio shack 15-1880 indoor antenna and can tune all available signals, which is great for an indoor ant...but having a distorted picture really hurts this product since correct zoom is a needed feature especially with variable HD viewing formats/broadcasts.
  --Any fix info is greatly appreciated!! I am sure it is not user error, as the instruction manual is very clear and correct in displaying how it SHOULD work!
  Thanks
  
  
• Samsung DTBH260F HDTV Terrestrial Tuner Review
  By A2PJFMOYQW2PLI on 2007-05-30
  Our wireless television provider decided to sell out to a local satellite television provider. Our satellite television bill would have zoomed to four times what we paid for wireless to get the same channels provided by the wireless provider. Outragous!!!
  
  We watch primarily the local stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and PBS). Our solution was to purchase a ChannelMaster 4221 Antennae, signal booster, and the Samsung DTBH250F OTA receiver for our HDTV. The combination worked much better than ever expected. An incredible Digital picture on the HDTV and all our analog TV's work extremely well using the outside mounted antennae.
  
  The Samsung is slow to change channels; so not for the channel surfing addicted. On screen Menu guide on the Samsung is very clear and easy to navigate. I will pay for all the OTA components in two months of not subscribing to my local satellite provider. Our monthly savings will be spent at NetFlix's. OTA will be our standard television reception until a satellite, a cable, or a wireless microwave provider again charges reasonable prices for their entertainment product.
  
  

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