First impressions of the Teac DV-B420

[DRS]

I finally found and bought a Teac DV-B420 SD STB today, at Retravision in
Brighton. They were only released this month and it seems they've been
practically walking out the retailers' doors, whilst there are plenty of
B350s still available even though they were released in May and cost the
same ($199). There were piles of DGTech boxes at Retravision too, but
they're ordering in another 100 B420s. Teac may be on a winner here.

Like other Teac units it's more compact than most, some of which seem to be
the size of small VCRs. This is good for me because it fitted in the space
between the top of my VCR and the shelf above to within a couple of
millimetres. Anything bigger would have resulted in considerable and
annoying rearrangement.

It has antenna in and out jacks but no RF modulation, just pass through, and
one standard 9-pin RS232 port. It has two outputs, one SCART (RGB,
component, S-Video, composite) and one RCA composite, and comes with the
usual sort of two dollar shop 3 RCA to 3 RCA cable. Thus, unlike some other
$199 units which give you S-video+audio or composite+audio, you get one
complete set of connections for the TV and one for the VCR. I am using a
SCART to S-video adapter for my TV (Sony Wega) and the AV to the VCR. A
hint for those people who, like me, like to plug things and and turn them on
before reading the manual, the SCART output defaults to RGB, and any video
output will be a fairly ordinary B&W until you change its setting.

Quibble: the remote control is not identical to the picture and
specification of the remote in the manual. The remote is black with a grey
plate covering about a third of the surface area at the bottom. It has six
buttons in this area, the manual shows eight. The two missing buttons are
"Sleep" and "Favourites". I rarely use either on the TV so I have no reason
to think I'll be in any way disadvantaged by their absence, but the point is
it looks unprofessional.

It's trivial to setup. Basically the only settings I needed to set were the
SCART output, as noted, and the one-touch auto channel finder. The cabling
was only difficult in the standard "how the hell did I get my fingers behind
there before?" kind of way. The STB configuration took about two minutes
and it was away and running. Note: the auto channel finder includes the HD
channels as well as the SD ones; I've subsequently set them to "skip" but
my understanding is that this is a breach of the standard for an SD unit.
Something for Teac to fix.

The picture quality via the S-video on a good TV like mine is scarily good.
It shows all the flaws :-). All the channels are visually better than
analogue via RF though, as is to be expected. It's harder to comment on the
sound quality. Maybe I'll have to watch Rage next weekend.

Quibble: There are supposedly 4 audio settings: stereo, mono, left and
right. When set to either left or right sound still comes out both
speakers. It seems the system treats left and right as some kind of mono
rather than actually suppressing the other so that you only hear sound out
of one speaker as I expected. Since I don't see myself actually using this
I'm sure I can live with it but it seems odd.

Now to the one genuine concern I have, the way it handles aspect ratios.
There are four settings: 4:3 full screen, 4:3 letter-boxed, 16:9 full screen
and a menu-only option to set it completely manually. It defaults to 4:3
full screen. Now, I had it on the Stanley Kubrick documentary on SBS when I
noticed some of the program's subtitles were chopped off on one side. I
checked with the analogue channel, it was being shown in 4:3 letterbox and
was distinctly wider than the STB image. I checked the paper and the show
was listed as WS. Fair enough, I set the TV and STB to 16:9. Wrong. So I
set the TV back to 4:3 and the STB to 4:3 letter-boxed and et voila! It now
matched what was being broadcast on SBS analogue, but this worries me. Is
this going to happen with every WS broadcast? I certainly hope not because
it's not immediately obvious that you're missing any of the image. I know
sometimes broadcasters get confused and broadcast stuff in the wrong aspect
ratio and I'm really hoping this was all down to an SBS error. If this does
happen with every WS broadcast then it's going to become a real irritant,
not because it's hard to switch aspect ratios - it's just a button on the
remote - but because if I don't religiously remember to check then I won't
necessarily know to do it. This sort of thing should be automatic, even on
lower end units. I'll just have to wait and see how this works out.

To sum up, the B420 has only just been released (I guess this makes me an
early adopter :-) ) and these are first impressions rather than a long term
report, but nevertheless I'm seriously happy. For the first time ever I can
watch SBS without ghosting! That alone makes it good value. :-)

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

[Pepe Duran]

The TEAC 420 is virtually identical to the TEAC 350. (video output being
one small difference) and there is some interesting reading on these boxes
here. http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=5432


"DRS" <drs@remove.this.ihug.com.au> wrote in message
news:cb9n5l$3ej$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
> I finally found and bought a Teac DV-B420 SD STB today, at Retravision in
> Brighton. They were only released this month and it seems they've been
> practically walking out the retailers' doors, whilst there are plenty of
> B350s still available even though they were released in May and cost the
> same ($199). There were piles of DGTech boxes at Retravision too, but
> they're ordering in another 100 B420s. Teac may be on a winner here.
>
> Like other Teac units it's more compact than most, some of which seem to
be
> the size of small VCRs. This is good for me because it fitted in the
space
> between the top of my VCR and the shelf above to within a couple of
> millimetres. Anything bigger would have resulted in considerable and
> annoying rearrangement.
>
> It has antenna in and out jacks but no RF modulation, just pass through,
and
> one standard 9-pin RS232 port. It has two outputs, one SCART (RGB,
> component, S-Video, composite) and one RCA composite, and comes with the
> usual sort of two dollar shop 3 RCA to 3 RCA cable. Thus, unlike some
other
> $199 units which give you S-video+audio or composite+audio, you get one
> complete set of connections for the TV and one for the VCR. I am using a
> SCART to S-video adapter for my TV (Sony Wega) and the AV to the VCR. A
> hint for those people who, like me, like to plug things and and turn them
on
> before reading the manual, the SCART output defaults to RGB, and any video
> output will be a fairly ordinary B&W until you change its setting.
>
> Quibble: the remote control is not identical to the picture and
> specification of the remote in the manual. The remote is black with a
grey
> plate covering about a third of the surface area at the bottom. It has
six
> buttons in this area, the manual shows eight. The two missing buttons are
> "Sleep" and "Favourites". I rarely use either on the TV so I have no
reason
> to think I'll be in any way disadvantaged by their absence, but the point
is
> it looks unprofessional.
>
> It's trivial to setup. Basically the only settings I needed to set were
the
> SCART output, as noted, and the one-touch auto channel finder. The
cabling
> was only difficult in the standard "how the hell did I get my fingers
behind
> there before?" kind of way. The STB configuration took about two minutes
> and it was away and running. Note: the auto channel finder includes the
HD
> channels as well as the SD ones; I've subsequently set them to "skip" but
> my understanding is that this is a breach of the standard for an SD unit.
> Something for Teac to fix.
>
> The picture quality via the S-video on a good TV like mine is scarily
good.
> It shows all the flaws :-). All the channels are visually better than
> analogue via RF though, as is to be expected. It's harder to comment on
the
> sound quality. Maybe I'll have to watch Rage next weekend.
>
> Quibble: There are supposedly 4 audio settings: stereo, mono, left and
> right. When set to either left or right sound still comes out both
> speakers. It seems the system treats left and right as some kind of mono
> rather than actually suppressing the other so that you only hear sound out
> of one speaker as I expected. Since I don't see myself actually using
this
> I'm sure I can live with it but it seems odd.
>
> Now to the one genuine concern I have, the way it handles aspect ratios.
> There are four settings: 4:3 full screen, 4:3 letter-boxed, 16:9 full
screen
> and a menu-only option to set it completely manually. It defaults to 4:3
> full screen. Now, I had it on the Stanley Kubrick documentary on SBS when
I
> noticed some of the program's subtitles were chopped off on one side. I
> checked with the analogue channel, it was being shown in 4:3 letterbox and
> was distinctly wider than the STB image. I checked the paper and the show
> was listed as WS. Fair enough, I set the TV and STB to 16:9. Wrong. So
I
> set the TV back to 4:3 and the STB to 4:3 letter-boxed and et voila! It
now
> matched what was being broadcast on SBS analogue, but this worries me. Is
> this going to happen with every WS broadcast? I certainly hope not
because
> it's not immediately obvious that you're missing any of the image. I know
> sometimes broadcasters get confused and broadcast stuff in the wrong
aspect
> ratio and I'm really hoping this was all down to an SBS error. If this
does
> happen with every WS broadcast then it's going to become a real irritant,
> not because it's hard to switch aspect ratios - it's just a button on the
> remote - but because if I don't religiously remember to check then I won't
> necessarily know to do it. This sort of thing should be automatic, even
on
> lower end units. I'll just have to wait and see how this works out.
>
> To sum up, the B420 has only just been released (I guess this makes me an
> early adopter :-) ) and these are first impressions rather than a long
term
> report, but nevertheless I'm seriously happy. For the first time ever I
can
> watch SBS without ghosting! That alone makes it good value. :-)
>
> --
>
> A: Top-posters.
> Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?
>
>

[flyinyereye]

"DRS" <drs@remove.this.ihug.com.au> wrote in message
news:cb9n5l$3ej$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
> I finally found and bought a Teac DV-B420 SD STB today, at Retravision in
> Brighton. They were only released this month and it seems they've been
> practically walking out the retailers' doors, whilst there are plenty of
> B350s still available even though they were released in May and cost the
> same ($199). There were piles of DGTech boxes at Retravision too, but
> they're ordering in another 100 B420s. Teac may be on a winner here.


<snip>

great review, DRS!

I take it your TV is 4:3... if/when you upgrade to a WS set you'll never
have to touch the aspect ratio again as it just needs to be on 16:9 all the
time.

[mddawson]

The L R audio settings are supposed to come out of both speakers. What you are hearing is either L out of both speakers or R out of both. This is for multi-lingual channels. I watched one of these in Europe last year. Set to R you got German out of both speakers, set to L it was French. Stereo was freaky as you got both French and German at the same time.

[DRS]

"Pepe Duran" <pepeduran533@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:S96Cc.50428$sj4.45373@news-server.bigpond.net.au

> The TEAC 420 is virtually identical to the TEAC 350. (video output
> being one small difference) and there is some interesting reading on
> these boxes here. http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=5432

They're all talking about the 350, I don't recall seeing a single user
report on the 420. Thus far mine has not crashed (a common complaint about
the 350 on that forum). The one complaint I do share with the 350 is that
the EPG is not automatically updated in the background. That is irritating
and hopefully something Teac can fix in the software.

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

[DRS]

"flyinyereye" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:40d8f195$0$9444$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au

[...]

> I take it your TV is 4:3... if/when you upgrade to a WS set you'll
> never have to touch the aspect ratio again as it just needs to be on
> 16:9 all the time.

My Sony Wega is most certainly 4:3 and is no danger of being replaced any
time soon. It has too many good years left in it. I looked at the aspect
ratio issue again tonight using Ten News as the testbed and the problem
remained. There was nothing to indicate that it was being broadcast in WS
and the STB remained in 4:3 full screen mode instead of automatically
changing to 4:3 letterbox as I expect it should. I don't know whose at
fault but the system is broken here. TV is all about convenience and this
is highly inconvenient. Worse, since it only takes one bit to indicate
whether a program is being broadcast as fullscreen or WS, it's unforgiveable
on somebody's part.

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

[DRS]

"mddawson" <mddawson.18aajm@no-mx.forums.eyo.com.au> wrote in message
news:mddawson.18aajm@no-mx.forums.eyo.com.au
> The L R audio settings are supposed to come out of both speakers.
> What you are hearing is either L out of both speakers or R out of
> both. This is for multi-lingual channels. I watched one of these in
> Europe last year. Set to R you got German out of both speakers, set
> to L it was French. Stereo was freaky as you got both French and
> German at the same time.

You're right. I worked it out last night after I'd posted. I remembered
than when I lived in Holland I got a channel called EuroSport on cable that
broadcast in Dutch on one audio channel and English on the other, and I also
remember being constantly annoyed with my Nokia TV because there was no way
I could program it to remember which mode I wanted.

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

[Jay-Pee]

I just got mine on Friday at Radio Rentals Adelaide - they had just bought
an armful from the receiving dock and I got the first one.

My observations about the installation - it wasn't just a case of
Plug-n-Play, I had to try a number of configurations before I got what I
wanted:

* The STB appears to put RFI on the line thus degrading the Analog signal -
solved by branching the signal at the wall, locating the STB away from the
VCR, and using better quality Coax (cable TV stuff).
* If the signal level is really poor it is possible for the STB to lock-up
and require a power cycle to reset it.
* Setup and interconnection was easy once you have a strong enough signal,
otherwise it tends to find one channel but drop another. My signal strength
meter shows 2-3 green bars.
* I'm using composite out of the SCART to the AV receiver with Analog and
Digital audio connected. The RCA outputs go directly to the AV3 inputs of
my Panasonic 4:3 TV to enable viewing without having to have the AV unit on.

All in all I'm very happy with the purchase, the picture looks great, the
features are cool, and I'm OK about the cost when compaired to the e-bay
prices for the Yess, Wintel and Omni units. I'm sure they work fine but I
felt that supportability was an issue, particularly with a unit that has
version 1.0 Software and Hardware. I presume that's what everyone else has
got?

Finally, does anyone know if there is a magic number to input into my Yamaha
RAV242 remote control (for the RX-V430) that will enable it to control the
STB? Its a long shot but you never know.

Cheers
J-P

"DRS" <drs@remove.this.ihug.com.au> wrote in message
news:cb9n5l$3ej$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
I finally found and bought a Teac DV-B420 SD STB today, at Retravision in
Brighton. They were only released this month and it seems they've been
practically walking out the retailers' doors, whilst there are plenty of
B350s still available even though they were released in May and cost the
same ($199). There were piles of DGTech boxes at Retravision too, but
they're ordering in another 100 B420s. Teac may be on a winner here.

Like other Teac units it's more compact than most, some of which seem to be
the size of small VCRs. This is good for me because it fitted in the space
between the top of my VCR and the shelf above to within a couple of
millimetres. Anything bigger would have resulted in considerable and
annoying rearrangement.

It has antenna in and out jacks but no RF modulation, just pass through, and
one standard 9-pin RS232 port. It has two outputs, one SCART (RGB,
component, S-Video, composite) and one RCA composite, and comes with the
usual sort of two dollar shop 3 RCA to 3 RCA cable. Thus, unlike some other
$199 units which give you S-video+audio or composite+audio, you get one
complete set of connections for the TV and one for the VCR. I am using a
SCART to S-video adapter for my TV (Sony Wega) and the AV to the VCR. A
hint for those people who, like me, like to plug things and and turn them on
before reading the manual, the SCART output defaults to RGB, and any video
output will be a fairly ordinary B&W until you change its setting.

Quibble: the remote control is not identical to the picture and
specification of the remote in the manual. The remote is black with a grey
plate covering about a third of the surface area at the bottom. It has six
buttons in this area, the manual shows eight. The two missing buttons are
"Sleep" and "Favourites". I rarely use either on the TV so I have no reason
to think I'll be in any way disadvantaged by their absence, but the point is
it looks unprofessional.

It's trivial to setup. Basically the only settings I needed to set were the
SCART output, as noted, and the one-touch auto channel finder. The cabling
was only difficult in the standard "how the hell did I get my fingers behind
there before?" kind of way. The STB configuration took about two minutes
and it was away and running. Note: the auto channel finder includes the HD
channels as well as the SD ones; I've subsequently set them to "skip" but
my understanding is that this is a breach of the standard for an SD unit.
Something for Teac to fix.

The picture quality via the S-video on a good TV like mine is scarily good.
It shows all the flaws :-). All the channels are visually better than
analogue via RF though, as is to be expected. It's harder to comment on the
sound quality. Maybe I'll have to watch Rage next weekend.

Quibble: There are supposedly 4 audio settings: stereo, mono, left and
right. When set to either left or right sound still comes out both
speakers. It seems the system treats left and right as some kind of mono
rather than actually suppressing the other so that you only hear sound out
of one speaker as I expected. Since I don't see myself actually using this
I'm sure I can live with it but it seems odd.

Now to the one genuine concern I have, the way it handles aspect ratios.
There are four settings: 4:3 full screen, 4:3 letter-boxed, 16:9 full screen
and a menu-only option to set it completely manually. It defaults to 4:3
full screen. Now, I had it on the Stanley Kubrick documentary on SBS when I
noticed some of the program's subtitles were chopped off on one side. I
checked with the analogue channel, it was being shown in 4:3 letterbox and
was distinctly wider than the STB image. I checked the paper and the show
was listed as WS. Fair enough, I set the TV and STB to 16:9. Wrong. So I
set the TV back to 4:3 and the STB to 4:3 letter-boxed and et voila! It now
matched what was being broadcast on SBS analogue, but this worries me. Is
this going to happen with every WS broadcast? I certainly hope not because
it's not immediately obvious that you're missing any of the image. I know
sometimes broadcasters get confused and broadcast stuff in the wrong aspect
ratio and I'm really hoping this was all down to an SBS error. If this does
happen with every WS broadcast then it's going to become a real irritant,
not because it's hard to switch aspect ratios - it's just a button on the
remote - but because if I don't religiously remember to check then I won't
necessarily know to do it. This sort of thing should be automatic, even on
lower end units. I'll just have to wait and see how this works out.

To sum up, the B420 has only just been released (I guess this makes me an
early adopter :-) ) and these are first impressions rather than a long term
report, but nevertheless I'm seriously happy. For the first time ever I can
watch SBS without ghosting! That alone makes it good value. :-)

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

[flyinyereye]

"DRS" <drs@remove.this.ihug.com.au> wrote in message
news:cbbrug$jmc$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...

> My Sony Wega is most certainly 4:3 and is no danger of being replaced any
> time soon. It has too many good years left in it. I looked at the aspect
> ratio issue again tonight using Ten News as the testbed and the problem
> remained. There was nothing to indicate that it was being broadcast in WS
> and the STB remained in 4:3 full screen mode instead of automatically
> changing to 4:3 letterbox as I expect it should. I don't know whose at
> fault but the system is broken here. TV is all about convenience and this
> is highly inconvenient. Worse, since it only takes one bit to indicate
> whether a program is being broadcast as fullscreen or WS, it's
unforgiveable
> on somebody's part.

The commercial channels usually notate whether a programme is WS... but
perhaps not always, I guess I don't notice all the time because it's not
relevant to me. If it's WS it'll suddenly fill my screen, so it'll be
immediately obvious.

> A: Top-posters.
> Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

The most annoying thing on Usenet is spammers. Top-posters don't even come
close.

[flyinyereye]

"DRS" <drs@remove.this.ihug.com.au> wrote in message
news:cbbrqc$jl4$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
> The one complaint I do share with the 350 is that
> the EPG is not automatically updated in the background. That is
irritating
> and hopefully something Teac can fix in the software.

Now-and-Next EPG info is sent by each channel on their own frequency, so to
update it for each one, you have to tune to each channel.

[DRS]

"flyinyereye" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:40d988c0$0$9448$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au
> "DRS" <drs@remove.this.ihug.com.au> wrote in message
> news:cbbrqc$jl4$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
>> The one complaint I do share with the 350 is that
>> the EPG is not automatically updated in the background. That is
>> irritating and hopefully something Teac can fix in the software.
>
> Now-and-Next EPG info is sent by each channel on their own frequency,
> so to update it for each one, you have to tune to each channel.

That's really silly. What's the point of an EPG that's out of date 99% of
the time? I expect the EPG to tell me what's on *before* I switch channels.
That's the whole point of a program guide!

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

[flyinyereye]

"DRS" <drs@remove.this.ihug.com.au> wrote in message
news:cbc2va$nar$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
> "flyinyereye" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
> news:40d988c0$0$9448$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au
> > Now-and-Next EPG info is sent by each channel on their own frequency,
> > so to update it for each one, you have to tune to each channel.
>
> That's really silly. What's the point of an EPG that's out of date 99% of
> the time? I expect the EPG to tell me what's on *before* I switch
channels.
> That's the whole point of a program guide!

I think better will come with interactive features in the future, such as a
full interactive seven day EPG. Even the BBC has only just introduced one,
and digital uptake has reached 53% there.

I believe ABC Sydney is currently trialling some interactivity using MHP but
I don't think any STBs in Australia currently support it (not even the Teac
iDTV one). For any boxes to be compatible with MHP, manufacturers have to
buy licencing rights, and then I'm not even sure whether this functionality
would be made available as a software upgrade to existing boxes or only
provided in new ones.

In the meantime, Sydney has a datacasting trial which has a five-channel TV
Guide on channel 4. Datacasting without interactivity is nothing more than a
slide show (with the exception of the Expo channel), i.e. a complete waste
of space.

[Phil Sweeney]

DRS wrote:
> time soon. It has too many good years left in it. I looked at the aspect
> ratio issue again tonight using Ten News as the testbed and the problem
> remained. There was nothing to indicate that it was being broadcast in WS
> and the STB remained in 4:3 full screen mode instead of automatically
> changing to 4:3 letterbox as I expect it should. I don't know whose at
> fault but the system is broken here. TV is all about convenience and this
> is highly inconvenient. Worse, since it only takes one bit to indicate
> whether a program is being broadcast as fullscreen or WS, it's unforgiveable
> on somebody's part.

The stations are always broadcasting a 16:9 picture. However, if the
source material is 4:3, they will just put blank bars on the left and right.

If you have a SCART capable TV (remember this converssation? :), there
is a pin specifically on the SCART to signal widescreen.. which I
believe the Teacs can use. Otherwise, you could leave your TV in 4:3
all the time, and simply cycle through the modes on the STB remote.

Phil

[DRS]

"Phil Sweeney" <phil@NOSPAM_whirlpool.net.au> wrote in message
news:40da9e60$0$11971$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au
> DRS wrote:
>> time soon. It has too many good years left in it. I looked at the
>> aspect ratio issue again tonight using Ten News as the testbed and
>> the problem remained. There was nothing to indicate that it was
>> being broadcast in WS and the STB remained in 4:3 full screen mode
>> instead of automatically changing to 4:3 letterbox as I expect it
>> should. I don't know whose at fault but the system is broken here.
>> TV is all about convenience and this is highly inconvenient. Worse,
>> since it only takes one bit to indicate whether a program is being
>> broadcast as fullscreen or WS, it's unforgiveable on somebody's part.
>
> The stations are always broadcasting a 16:9 picture. However, if the
> source material is 4:3, they will just put blank bars on the left and
> right.
>
> If you have a SCART capable TV (remember this converssation? :), there

For the third time, I have a Sony Wega. No SCART.

> is a pin specifically on the SCART to signal widescreen.. which I
> believe the Teacs can use. Otherwise, you could leave your TV in 4:3
> all the time, and simply cycle through the modes on the STB remote.

Which is my complaint. I shouldn't have to even if I knew I needed to,
which I don't unless I religiously check the hardcopy program guide. The
STB should switch modes automatically.

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

[figjam]

The picture quality via the S-video on a good TV like mine is scarily good.


Are sure its a dv-b420? I have tried 3 of these units from 2 separate retailers and none of them give even a half decent picture through s-video. TEAC themselves have admitted that there is a problem with the SCART pin-outs on this unit, and a modified adapter is required to fix the problem

[Bruce Graham]

In article <figjam.1a928b@no-mx.forums.eyo.com.au>, figjam.1a928b@no-
mx.forums.eyo.com.au says...
>
> DRS Wrote:
> >
> > The picture quality via the S-video on a good TV like mine is scarily
> > good.
> >
>
> Are sure its a dv-b420? I have tried 3 of these units from 2 separate
> retailers and none of them give even a half decent picture through
> s-video. TEAC themselves have admitted that there is a problem with the
> SCART pin-outs on this unit, and a modified adapter is required to fix
> the problem
>
not the OP.... My TV only has SCART RGB and composite, but the quality
from the DVB420 RGB is excellent to my inexpert eyes. I do have one
weird problem that I have just figured out today. I can't auto switch
from AV to TV by going to standby unless I pull the power plug on the
420, nor could I get all channels going at once from from my antennas,
but I had each channel working in isolation at one time or another
perfectly which encouraged me to keep screwing around. Today I noticed a
tingle from the antenna socket on the 420 when connecting the antenna. A
high impedance DVM shows 120 VAC on the socket. That leakage was turning
off the mast head amps. I put together a ground isolator of two female F
connectors taped together with one layer of tape separating and the mast
head amps worked fine, although the TV/AV auto switch still does not of
course. Anybody else had a similar weird problem? I plan on asking TEAC
Monday. I don't know if it just a faulty unit or a design problem.

BTW the 120 VAC is on the antenna socket when the DVB420 is disconnected
from everything and with the power removed from the TV and VCR, so I it
isn't live chassis TV problems.

[figjam]

Yeah apparently the problem is only with the s-video output. Everything else works fine.