Review of Smallear 815ST (by Integra) HDTV Receiver

Most recent review by Steve

by B.M. of Chicago, Illinois

It's very exciting to actually use HDTV equipment, and to see your first image of HDTV is a truly great experience, kind of like someone seeing their first color TV image after only watching black and white. The HDTV image is stunningly different than a normal television picture. Not only the obvious differences like no noise, shadows or interference. The picture actually looks 3D. Items on the screen stand out from others, and some are razor sharp. I was watching a scene with a man and a woman. I could actually see fine wrinkles on the man's face, and even saw freckles on the woman's shoulders. I would not have seen that detail on a normal TV. Period.

People look different. You just haven't seen actors and actresses the way that they actually look in person until you've seen them in High Definition.

Setup is easy. I even used a small "rabbit-ears" antenna to get my first signal. Simply connect your computer monitor's cable to the "RGB" 15-pin jack on the receiver, connect the rabbit ears or roof antenna to the coaxial antenna-in jack, then turn everything on. The menu is very easy to figure out and make changes. I went to the "scan satellite" option, and clicked on "search all". The receiver scanned all 69 terrestrial (local) frequencies for HDTV signals, and automatically added them to memory, using channels 1, 2 and 3. If I would have had my satellite dish connected, and it found any HDTV signals from the satellite, it would have added them to memory as well.

When scanning was complete (about 3 minutes), I exited the menu and clicked channels 1, 2, and 3. I wasn't able to lock in on channels 1 and 2 because I didn't have enough signal (using a small antenna I wasn't surprised). But on channel 3 was Fox Chicago, our local Fox station. My first image of HDTV? "Third Rock from the Sun". I immediately noticed the vast difference from normal TV. It was even better than DBS video in my opinion. Much clearer. DBS video is great, but very dull due to big-time compression.

After watching that show, without even knowing it I also watched "Frasier", but I have no idea what the episode was about, I was too busy studying the pictures and the image quality, even during commercials. 45 minutes passed in a flash, that's how engrossed I was with the HDTV signal.

I would strongly recommend this Intregra receiver for anyone that wants to take an inexpensive next step (giant leap) into the world of High Definition Television.

Thank you for reading.