Zenith DTV1080 High Definition Receiver
May 2002
A Cure for High Def Anxiety
By Grant Clauser
Many a grown man or woman has labored painfully over one of the greatest modern dilemmas — to buy or not to buy HDTV. The reason for the distress is a combination of high cost and confusing technology.
The formats, connections and general hassle of going digital has caused many sour stomachs and wrinkled faces. The average customer trying to buy a digital TV may feel like running for the hills when presented with such language as progressive scan, 1080i, and aspect ratio not to mention all the mis-information peppered around Web chat rooms and message boards. But the time when people can hide from HDTV is quickly running out. Better to stand up and face it head on. Zenith has come out with one product that makes the whole process a lot less threatening. The DTV1080 terrestrial/satellite HDTV receiver can take much of the bite out of the digital TV monster.
Once you've made the wise decision to buy yourself an HDTV monitor you'll eventually want to hook something up that can put those high definition programs on your TV. The Zenith DTV1080 can do that, both from a regular antenna and from the DirecTV satellites. And it does this with more ease and panache than any product we've seen so far.
What the DTV1080 offers is full, standard DirecTV programming, DirecTV high-definition programming (which at present entails high-def HBO, one pay-per-view channel and the sports-focused HDNet channel), off-air analog and digital programming (all the major networks are now broadcasting differing amounts of HDTV) as well as basic cable. As a package the product includes everything you can possibly need in terms of cables and instructions. While there's a lot of techno magic going on under the hood of this box, Zenith has tried to make it as invisible and easy as possible.
Getting the receiver all hooked up and running involves installation of the satellite dish, plugging and screwing in the proper cables and running through some simple setup operations via the remote. The receiver outputs a high-def signal either with a set of component cables (Y,Pb,Pr) or a VGA-type RGB connector. Component cables are included. Composite and S-Video cables are also included for good measure in case you want to simultaneously hook it to an analog TV. In order to get the benefits of HD's Dolby Digital soundtracks you can connect either a digital coaxial cable (supplied) or an optical cable to your surround sound receiver. Also on the back is a switch to select the video output standard (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i). This way you can make the output of the receiver match the output of the TV or display. Most HD monitors sold today are 1080i TVs. You make this selection once and then leave it alone. This control also has some effect on the aspect ratio controls. The portions of the manual which discuss the display mode selections and aspect ratio controls are not all that clear, however, and may lead users to believe they need to flip the switch on the back to accommodate the program rather than the TV. You also need to connect a phone jack and of course your antenna.
Once you've got it all plugged in, a series of clear on-screen instructions (which are also fully explained with color pictures in the manual) walk you through the setup, scan your channels and show you how to use the program guide. The whole process takes about 30 minutes. An EZ Help on-screen feature will explain just about anything you need to know about this system and its use, with pictures. Yeah!
To get around the many channel choices Zenith has done the best job at creating a user-friendly on-screen program guide. When you bring up the program guide (by pressing the Guide button) a translucent grid appears on the lower half of the screen displaying the program choices for seven channels at a time for a one hour period. The program you are currently tuned into plays in the background with audio while you surf through the channel guide, so you don't have to miss anything. When you highlight a program title a description shows up along with icons to tell you things like whether the program is in high def or not, Dolby Digital or stereo, etc.
One of the best things about the program guide is that it integrates all your signal options (satellite — HD and standard, antenna — HD and standard, and cable). Other high-definition receivers ask you to switch menus or even inputs to view both satellite and HD antenna channels. The Zenith method puts it all easily in one place. This means that often you may see the same program listed multiple times. For example you may see three CBS listings, one for the DirecTV feed, one for the analog antenna feed and one for the digital antenna.
The Guide also includes some handy search options (by category and keyword) that are far superior to any such features in other DirecTV receivers I've used.
If you don't want DirecTV, you can use the receiver for antenna or cable reception only, but then the advanced program guide won't work. It's only active with a DirecTV subscription.
Another area where this product excels is in its aspect ratio controls. Some TVs offer aspect controls; some don't, but rarely do satellite receivers. The various aspect options make fitting the picture to the TV to your liking an easy process. There's also a Freeze button on the remote which freezes the current frame on the TV but doesn't actually pause the program.
OK, so on to the real reason to have an HDTV receiver. The Olympic Games in Salt Lake City were running during my review period with this product. Both NBC and DirecTV's HDNet channels were showing the games in high definition. I choose to watch the games via the third generation terrestrial broadcast ATSC tuner in the DTV1080 rather than the satellite channel, because I wanted to check out how well Zenith's HD engineers had improved the technology. Streaming through the Terk TV55 antenna mounted in my attic to the Zenith receiver in my basement and a widescreen HDTV, the opening ceremonies took on a life-like character. Even the long rolling shots of the Utah mountains were stunning. A friend who came over while NBC was running one of those long helicopter shots of snowy peaks remarked that it was like looking out of the helicopter window onto the mountains below.
I viewed an extensive assortment of high-definition programming with the Zenith box. Being in the Philadelphia area, I'm lucky to have digital signals from ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. The only channel that gave me any trouble was ABC, which does not transmit a very powerful signal.
I had the receiver hooked up, at different times, to an RCA 38-inch HDTV with the receiver set to output 1080i and a Sim2 HT200DM DLP projector with the output set to 480p. The DTV1080 performed splendidly on both. Being able to switch output display rates makes this especially practical. Though the image on the Sim2 technically wasn't high definition, it was digitally progressive (the same display rate as progressive scan DVD players) and looked especially good on a six-foot screen.
Bringing HDTV into your life can involve a lot of complicated decisions. With the DTV1080, Zenith has made one or two of them a great deal easier.
By Grant Clauser
Many a grown man or woman has labored painfully over one of the greatest modern dilemmas — to buy or not to buy HDTV. The reason for the distress is a combination of high cost and confusing technology.
The formats, connections and general hassle of going digital has caused many sour stomachs and wrinkled faces. The average customer trying to buy a digital TV may feel like running for the hills when presented with such language as progressive scan, 1080i, and aspect ratio not to mention all the mis-information peppered around Web chat rooms and message boards. But the time when people can hide from HDTV is quickly running out. Better to stand up and face it head on. Zenith has come out with one product that makes the whole process a lot less threatening. The DTV1080 terrestrial/satellite HDTV receiver can take much of the bite out of the digital TV monster.
Once you've made the wise decision to buy yourself an HDTV monitor you'll eventually want to hook something up that can put those high definition programs on your TV. The Zenith DTV1080 can do that, both from a regular antenna and from the DirecTV satellites. And it does this with more ease and panache than any product we've seen so far.
What the DTV1080 offers is full, standard DirecTV programming, DirecTV high-definition programming (which at present entails high-def HBO, one pay-per-view channel and the sports-focused HDNet channel), off-air analog and digital programming (all the major networks are now broadcasting differing amounts of HDTV) as well as basic cable. As a package the product includes everything you can possibly need in terms of cables and instructions. While there's a lot of techno magic going on under the hood of this box, Zenith has tried to make it as invisible and easy as possible.
Getting the receiver all hooked up and running involves installation of the satellite dish, plugging and screwing in the proper cables and running through some simple setup operations via the remote. The receiver outputs a high-def signal either with a set of component cables (Y,Pb,Pr) or a VGA-type RGB connector. Component cables are included. Composite and S-Video cables are also included for good measure in case you want to simultaneously hook it to an analog TV. In order to get the benefits of HD's Dolby Digital soundtracks you can connect either a digital coaxial cable (supplied) or an optical cable to your surround sound receiver. Also on the back is a switch to select the video output standard (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i). This way you can make the output of the receiver match the output of the TV or display. Most HD monitors sold today are 1080i TVs. You make this selection once and then leave it alone. This control also has some effect on the aspect ratio controls. The portions of the manual which discuss the display mode selections and aspect ratio controls are not all that clear, however, and may lead users to believe they need to flip the switch on the back to accommodate the program rather than the TV. You also need to connect a phone jack and of course your antenna.
Once you've got it all plugged in, a series of clear on-screen instructions (which are also fully explained with color pictures in the manual) walk you through the setup, scan your channels and show you how to use the program guide. The whole process takes about 30 minutes. An EZ Help on-screen feature will explain just about anything you need to know about this system and its use, with pictures. Yeah!
To get around the many channel choices Zenith has done the best job at creating a user-friendly on-screen program guide. When you bring up the program guide (by pressing the Guide button) a translucent grid appears on the lower half of the screen displaying the program choices for seven channels at a time for a one hour period. The program you are currently tuned into plays in the background with audio while you surf through the channel guide, so you don't have to miss anything. When you highlight a program title a description shows up along with icons to tell you things like whether the program is in high def or not, Dolby Digital or stereo, etc.
One of the best things about the program guide is that it integrates all your signal options (satellite — HD and standard, antenna — HD and standard, and cable). Other high-definition receivers ask you to switch menus or even inputs to view both satellite and HD antenna channels. The Zenith method puts it all easily in one place. This means that often you may see the same program listed multiple times. For example you may see three CBS listings, one for the DirecTV feed, one for the analog antenna feed and one for the digital antenna.
The Guide also includes some handy search options (by category and keyword) that are far superior to any such features in other DirecTV receivers I've used.
If you don't want DirecTV, you can use the receiver for antenna or cable reception only, but then the advanced program guide won't work. It's only active with a DirecTV subscription.
Another area where this product excels is in its aspect ratio controls. Some TVs offer aspect controls; some don't, but rarely do satellite receivers. The various aspect options make fitting the picture to the TV to your liking an easy process. There's also a Freeze button on the remote which freezes the current frame on the TV but doesn't actually pause the program.
OK, so on to the real reason to have an HDTV receiver. The Olympic Games in Salt Lake City were running during my review period with this product. Both NBC and DirecTV's HDNet channels were showing the games in high definition. I choose to watch the games via the third generation terrestrial broadcast ATSC tuner in the DTV1080 rather than the satellite channel, because I wanted to check out how well Zenith's HD engineers had improved the technology. Streaming through the Terk TV55 antenna mounted in my attic to the Zenith receiver in my basement and a widescreen HDTV, the opening ceremonies took on a life-like character. Even the long rolling shots of the Utah mountains were stunning. A friend who came over while NBC was running one of those long helicopter shots of snowy peaks remarked that it was like looking out of the helicopter window onto the mountains below.
I viewed an extensive assortment of high-definition programming with the Zenith box. Being in the Philadelphia area, I'm lucky to have digital signals from ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. The only channel that gave me any trouble was ABC, which does not transmit a very powerful signal.
I had the receiver hooked up, at different times, to an RCA 38-inch HDTV with the receiver set to output 1080i and a Sim2 HT200DM DLP projector with the output set to 480p. The DTV1080 performed splendidly on both. Being able to switch output display rates makes this especially practical. Though the image on the Sim2 technically wasn't high definition, it was digitally progressive (the same display rate as progressive scan DVD players) and looked especially good on a six-foot screen.
Bringing HDTV into your life can involve a lot of complicated decisions. With the DTV1080, Zenith has made one or two of them a great deal easier.
