Zinwell ZAT-970A Digital to Analog TV Converter Box

I purchased the two major timer event schedulable/programmable converter boxes available as of this date: the Zinwell and the DTVPal Plus (enhanced version of the DTVPal or TR-40 CRA). These are some of the major problems and advantages of each.

The biggest problem I have with the Zinwell is that the remote control is the flimsiest and cheapest control I have ever seen with any product. The down arrow button is already having problems responding to pressing after only a few days. It usually takes several years before buttons on a remote control begin to go bad, and I am concerned that this one will not even be working a year from now. The text labels on the buttons are rubbing off and becoming harder to read.

The biggest problem with the DTVPal Plus is the reception. The Plus is supposed to have enhanced reception over the prior models which were famous for bad reception, but in my area it gets a couple less UHF channels than the Zinwell and often has severe breakup on the ABC affiliate and two other channels (even with an amplified antenna). Perhaps this will be less of an issue if digital signals get boosted in February.

Both devices get the clock time automatically from the digital signal but both devices keep erratic time occasionally. After a few days, the Zinwell became stuck at 62 minutes behind the correct time and the DTVPal Plus became stuck at 53 minutes ahead. This problem has lessened as stations correct their time signals. If you are buying this to schedule timed events, this can be a problem. The Zinwell has no daylight savings on/off, while the DTVPal Plus does allow you to control daylight savings. The Zinwell has the advantage that you can manually set the time, while the DTVPal Plus does not allow you to. Even after manually setting the time in the Zinwell, I found it loses 1-2 minutes per week and also loses the clock time completely if power goes out even for a second (most devices will hold the time for 2-3 minutes in a power outage). I have mine on a UPS (backup battery) to keep it from losing time in a brief power outage. At least the Zinwell allows you to control the time.

As someone else has noted, the Zinwell has 8 timer events to 5 for the DTVPal Plus. The Zinwell lacks a recurring M-F weekday scheduling option. Both devices make you go through several menus to get to the timer scheduling. The DTVPal Plus has an awkward event scheduling process that takes you through two screens. The Zinwell has its own awkwardness-it makes you choose a channel from a list of station call letters rather than channel numbers! The Zinwell also requires confirmation at the end of the timer scheduling process, and defaults to Cancel making it easy to accidentally cancel your timer event, so watch out.

If you like on-screen program guides, the DTVPal Plus has a fuller one than the Zinwell, and you can even schedule timer events direct from the program guide with the DTVPal Plus. However, it takes awhile to download each time you turn on the converter box.

If you get a Zinwell, do not throw out the manual. Zinwell has unfortunately set a password on some of the channel functions, so you will need to look up the default password in the manual if you try to access these functions.

Do not expect much support. Both companies took several days to respond to an inquiry and gave canned answers that did not address my question. After supplying follow-up information, neither company got back to me. There are several other issues and quirks with both devices.

(--some updated notes 9/16/2009 after a few months of using--)

The Zinwell picture quality has been nice. In rare cases, I have had a small issue with the Zinwell audio and video getting slightly out of synch (as also reported by a couple of other reviewers)-but doesn't bother me and turning off and on puts them back in synch.

The biggest problem I have had with regular use of the Zinwell is that scheduled recurring events (weekly, etc.) get messed up periodically so I have to constantly monitor them. The Zinwell loses the channel on the recurring events and resets the channel to the highest station number. (This problem is not unique to me-I believe it is the most commonly reported major problem with this device.) About every 4-6 weeks it loses the recurring events completely and they need to be reentered. One-time events get messed up less often.

Using manual clock time (rather than automatic time from the TV signal), the Zinwell has changed the clock year on me a few times - even though it did not alter the clock time (hour/min)! This means that timer events did not activate, because the clock year had changed to 2044, 1989, or some other date. If the clock time also got messed up I would see that something was wrong by the incorrect time and realize that I should fix the date. But the clock time looked fine, leaving me unaware that the year had been messed up. (This has happened a few times, even though there was no loss of power and I did not go into the date/time settings. On manual time setting, there should never be any spontaneous year changes.) I now regularly monitor the date on the device. I was more excited about this box when first purchased, but the clock and timer bugs become apparent over time. I purchased mine in Oct 2008 and perhaps they have fixed some of the clock glitches in more recent releases. (But see Sept 10 2009 review by Maynard for another description of the same problem.)

The DTVPal Plus tends to run hot, so I have propped it up at an angle to give it some cooling space. I have had a disturbing problem a couple of times where the DTVPal Plus would not power on-had to unplug it from the power source and plug it back in again, and then it resumed working. Since they boosted the digital signals after the transition, the weaker reception has not been a problem and it now gets all the channels that my other converter boxes get. (However, I live in an urban area and have an amplified antenna, so the weaker reception may still be a problem for many people.)

The DTVPal Plus regularly loses timer events and is very unreliable. I have found two specific sequences of timer events that cause it to consistently drop events. The DTVPal Plus timer issues have been even more problematic than those with the Zinwell. I used several VCRs over two decades and never had a device malfunction on its timer events or spontaneously change the selected channel. Not sure why it is so difficult for these digital boxes.

Although the on-screen station program guide for the DTVPal Plus is robust, I have not found it very convenient. The normal program guide access turns off audio and video while you are browsing the guide, so you cannot hear or watch television as you peruse it. To view television as you browse the guide, you cannot use the Guide button on the remote but must use the directional buttons to access the guide-but the guide overlays much of the screen (semi-transparent).

The DTVPal Plus has one bright spot: it handles poor signal quality well. The two aspects of reception are signal strength and signal quality. While the DTVPal Plus does not pick up low strength well, it does handle poor signal quality very well. There are a couple of stations with poor quality (but adequate strength) that my Zenith and Zinwell cannot receive but that the DTVPal Plus picks up. In my experience, it also has less dropout from other things that reduce signal quality, such as splitting the antenna feed or electrical interference.

One other small plus I have found with the DTVPal Plus: it operates from my old universal remote (as a SAT box), which allows me to control all my devices-very, very handy. None of the other converter boxes that I have will work with this old universal remote, although I have heard that some of the newer universal remotes can control converter boxes. This somewhat makes up for the fact that the DTVPal Plus has no buttons on the box and can only be operated by remote control. (However, it may be too sensitive-it also turns on when I press the fast forward button on one brand of VCR remote!)