Samsung SIR-T351 ATSC (HD) Tuner
Decent STB, but be careful purchasing
I recently puchased this STB despite the mixed reviews. I only use this box to decode over-the-air broadcasts for my area (philly), so my review is centered around using this box as a terrestrial receiver only. I have not tried to use this for cable tuning, and from what I hear this is not a smooth process since that is not what this box is primarily designed for.  <br /> <br />That said, my review is rated relatively high because I live in the philadelphia area and have a rooftop antenna. I already received pretty clear reception using an old school antenna, so I expected to pickup a good number of channels. And I did, the t351 picked up all the channels I get over-the-air plus an extra 7 channels I didn't get before (they're mostly Spanish channels, but I did a couple more pbs). But don't expect to get the same results if you don't live in philly, nyc, san fran, la, or chicago. Even if you do live in these areas where most channels are broadcast digitally, you'll still need an antenna that can pick up the channels well. So, if you only want to pickup over-the-air DTV channels assuming that these are available in your area and you already have decent reception using an antenna, then this box is a good bet considering the low price. Many reviewers have been complaining about this unit being defective from the start, so why not pick up the much cheaper refurbished units that have already been tested? That's what I did, it works fine. Of course this only has a limited warranty, but after talking with Samsung they're not very stringent on this issue.  <br /> <br />So here are some bugs I've noticed with this unit. First, there is an issue with the digital audio out. If you use the standard rca for audio output, there is no problem. Similarly, if you set your digital out (coax or optical) to PCM then there is no problem again. BUT, if you set the t351 to output to Dolby Digital using the coax or optical out, then you will experience audio dropouts. I've contacted Samsung about this issue and they are mailing me a cable and updated firmware to resolve this problem (free of charge). However, I've read in other forums that the updated firmware still does not resolve the Dolby Digital issue. Point being that this problem is pretty minor if you use this box solely for over-the-air reception. That's because hardly any channels broadcast in 5.1 to begin with, I mean we're talking at best about 2-8 hours per week. Another issue I've noticed with my box is that using the DVI output is a bit more unstable than the component. This could very well be an isolated problem, but I've noticed that DVI is more sensitive when it comes to channel reception. Not that it doesn't work, but I did have to do some adjusting to pickup channels consistently whereas using the component it was automatic. One other point worth mentioning--if you have a 16:9 TV, you can normally choose your view as full, panorama, zoom, or standard. Well, if you connect to this t351 then this ability to change viewing formats is taken over by the t351. To begin with, the t351 obviously picks up channels that are broadcast digitally, but these channels do not always broadcast in HDTV. In fact, very few shows are broadcast in HD, most of them are limited to prime time shows and movies. But the number of shows broadcast in HD will only go up, so this is promising (including the Olympics). Point being that if the show is not broadcast in HD, then the picture on a 16:9 screen will not fill the screen, it will look like the 4:3 format, and you cannot change this setting. Of course, if the show is broadcast in HD, then it is natively broadcast in 16:9 and it fills the entire 16:9 screen without distorting or stretching.  <br /> <br />One last issue: choosing this t351 or samsung's other t165. They both use the same generation tuner, but the t165 has been discontinued. The t165 has been known to have many bugs and even defective units, but the more likely reason it has been discontinuedis because it has the infamous firewire port that allows you to connect it to a jvc vhs recorder that can copy HD quality onto tape. But i wouldn't advise purchasing the t165 because there seems to be a large number of defective units out there and they all need required firmware upgrades to fix random rebooting problems and overheating. If you want the HD recording option, I would wait until a new format like blue ray becomes adopted or just get a pvr unit. So, for the price, I think the t351 is great provided your only need is terrestrial broadcasts and you already have or plan to get good reception.