GE 22730 Digital Converter Box For Analog Televisions

The GE 22730 Digital Converter Box receives and converts DTV/HDTV signals so they can be viewed on an analog TV set. The Converter operates like a Cable TV box, except that you connect an antenna (either indoor or outdoor) to the RF input of the GE box. You then connect the converter box to your TV by either an RF connection, set to channel 3/4, or Composite video and stereo audio connections if your TV has that connection option. The video quality was average on the TV sets used. The GE 22730 is adequate it for its intended use, but could be improved. After reading this review, check out my GE 22730 Photo Profile.

If you own an analog Television, VCR, or DVD recorder, and receive and/or record television programs using an antenna, you need a DTV converter, such as the GE 22730, now that the DTV Transition has taken effect.

The GE 22730 is a compact unit that comes with an easy-to-use remote control. Features, such as an onscreen menu, auto channel search, aspect ratio control, and built-in program guide provide some flexibility to tailor viewing preferences.

Another feature that I did thought was very useful was the signal strength and quality meter display, which can help when adjusting an antenna.

Using a Terk HDTVaamplified indoor antenna, I pulled in five main HDTV stations and two sub-channels, which was two channels less than the Samsung DTB-H260F over-the-air HDTV tuner I used for reception comparison, but I live in a typically bad reception area. Two local network-affiliated HDTV stations were not receivable by either unit.

I tested the GE 22730 using two analog CRT Televisions, a Sony 13FS100 (13-inches) and a Sony KV-20TS21 (TVs no longer in Sony database). On these older CRT sets, the video quality was adequate, and better than from analog-only over-the-air reception without the box.

Menu navigation was a mixed bag. Getting into the menu to make adjustments using the cursor controls was easy, but instead of making an adjustment, hitting an "OK" type button, and then using the cursor control to get back to the main menu, you have to hit an "Exit" button, then use the cursor, which is not as intuitive. The menu was also displayed some jaggedness on the TV screen.

Also, I was hoping to use the converter for timer recording. There is an onboard clock and sleep timer, but there is no way to set the 22730 to automatically change to a specific channel at a specific time to allow video recording in conjunction with a VCR or DVD recorder.