U-003 Converter Box

ORIGINAL REVIEW: Had an old analog Sony TV that I couldn't throw away because it still had such a great picture. Wanted to get those digital broadcasts on its screen. This unit did the job! Remote works fine. Shipping was fast, too. You will still need an antenna to receive the digital broadcasts. Some antennas are better than others, so you might want to look into that as far as getting more channels or better reception. UPDATE: Less than one year later, this thing stopped working. And it's not like I used it every day, either....just once in a while, especially since I got a digital TV and I use that far more often than my old analog set. This unit is just a simple circuit board, and it still didn't even last one year of infrequent use. Doesn't anybody sell quality stuff anymore?

This can either be a lot of fun or a confounding product--depending on your experience and savvy with overseas inexpensive tech. To the "average user", there will be a ton of frustrations since there is really no documentation and you have to guess your way through the menus. If you are not geeky, do not buy. That being said, this black box has a very powerful and selective tuner so I can not only pick up my locals flawlessly, I can pick up signals from Canada about 100 miles north. The EPG is the biggest frustration, retaining only one day of programming. There are rumors of software upgrades, but the company keeps a very low profile. Understandable because the PVR (supplied) records to an external USB--which can then be plugged into a Windows 10 machine to copy, edit or share. This box eliminates the DRM from over the air broadcasts! That is certainly a big selling point. One important tip--the box ships with a deceptive plastic skin covering the top vents. You MUST peel it off completely before use or the box will overheat. It would be very easy to skip this step.

I needed a converter to connect to DVR that I have that won't pick up digital broadcasts at all. The DVR will work with cable tv if I have a cable box. If I connect the cable directly to the DVR it won't pick up the stations. The DVR will not pick up stations I get on an over the air antenna. I dropped cable TV but they haven't completely disconnected to my house. I still get internet from the cable company. I hooked my cable to this converter box and then the converter box is connected to the DVR. It brings in the cable channels very well. I don't know that it would work with all cable companies. I think some are more protective of their service. I can record the programs I want on my DVR using the DVR controls. Some other misc. comments. A lot of comments mention there is no user's manual. On this Amazon page, if you look hard enough, there is a link to the manual. The manual is lacking a bit but is better than nothing. The user guide that comes with the box is misleading a bit. It indicates the setup will automatically come up when first turned on. I had my box set on the channel 3 option that's on the back of the converter. When it started up I think it came up with settings like language and time zone. You have to go the menu button the remote and scroll over to channel search in order for it to search channels either on cable or over the air. The remote has a favorite channels button. I have found absolutely no way to to add favorite channels. If you are using the converter for cable channels there will be a lot channels that you will not use that show up as saved channels. Cable also doesn't use numbers like 10, 12, 64, etc. for channel numbers. They are all numbers like 22-10, 22-12, 27-64, etc. I learned in the user's manual i got on line that the remote can be used for these type of station numbers. There is a white dot button next to the numbers that puts in the dash. It's the first remote I've had that can do this. I write my own favorite list with the station numbers and can easily get to them now. I don't think you want to buy this as a programmable DVR using along with a USB drive. I haven't tried it but after reading a lot of other reviews it doesn't sound very good or easy to use and even times many not be accurate. Again, I haven't tried it, but I think you can easily record to the USB drive if you just hit the record button on the remote and hit stop when done recording. You would have to play with it to find where the box needs to be set for this function. There is a USB button on the remote. Don't expect any elaborate TV guides. Maybe if you live in a big city. To sum it up, if you just want to watch TV stations with no recording this is a good device. If you have a dvr that you want to record programs this is a good device. Over the air programming should be good with this device if you live in a big city. Other than that you might want to Google TV programming available in your area. Using cable will only get you what the cable company has left you. If you pay for cable you can probably use this converter box without paying extra for a cable converter box. Depends on the cable company. If you don't pay for cable but have the cable, there might be channels available. If you have a newer model HDTV besides the analog device you want this box for you can hook up the cable company cable directly to the tv and scan for channels. Whatever you get is what you should get with this converter box. I may be forgetting a little item or two that I have learned but this review hopefully will be helpful to some.