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.
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.
