Dish Network DTVPAL for $60 or EchoStar TR-40 for $40                   Print Preview

The good: Excellent electronic program guide, with several days worth of data; can search for programs by title; solid video quality and reception; good aspect ratio controls for handling wide-screen programs on standard TVs; analog pass-through; can work with TV Guide On Screen devices.

The bad: Overcomplicated remote can’t control TV volume and power; no front panel buttons means you’re out of luck if the remote goes missing; composite audiovisual cable not included.

The bottom line: The Dish Network DTVPal is a great DTV converter box with a best-in-class electronic program guide and should be your top choice, unless you value the simplicity and superior remote of the RCA DTA800.

Guide Menu:

The Dish Network DTVPal is one of the boxes that shoppers can buy with the coupon, and we’ve been heavily anticipating its release since it was announced at CES 2008. Since then, however, there’s been a lot of confusion. The converter box was first announced as the EchoStar TR-40 with a $40 price tag, then it was renamed to the Dish Network DTVPal, and now the latest news is that the Dish Network DTVPal and the EchoStar TR-40 are actually different products–yikes. The final story is that the Dish Network DTVPal is slated to be available at DTVPal.com on June 19, with an MSRP between $40 and $60. The TR-40 will come out at a later date at a price to be determined. If we had to guess, based on Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen’s “Charlie Chat,” the DTVPal will cost about $60 and the TR-40 will cost $40.

Getting to the actual device, there’s a lot to like about the DTVPal. To us, the main draw is that the DTVPal’s EPG is much better than any other box’s we’ve reviewed. It gives several days of data in a familiar grid layout, with responsive controls and even the capability to search for a program. The rest of the features of the DTVPal are basically average; its reception and video quality are solid, but not standout. Our biggest concern is that the somewhat overcomplicated (and underfeatured) remote control just can’t compete with the RCA DTA800’s excellent clicker, and if you’re picking a box for a senior citizen or certified nontechie, we’d lean heavily toward the DTA800. However, for everyone else, the DTVPal’s excellent EPG make it our go-to pick for DTV converter boxes.

User interface
The real gem of the DTVPal is its full electronic programming guide. Its layout and the amount of data it can display are superior to the other boxes we’ve reviewed. You can see four channels at a time, and it displays an hour and a half at a time, which we found reasonable given the limitations of a standard-definition display. How much guide data you actually get, and how good that guide data actually is, depends on the program data provided by the stations. Some stations provide only about a day’s worth of data, while other go out several days. There’s also a big disparity with the descriptions of the programs, with many programs showing only “No information available” and others giving a brief summary. We’re expecting broadcasters to continually improve guide data as the digital transition gets closer, but don’t expect complete information like what’s available on a TiVo or cable DVR.

Source: CNET review