No access card is needed for OTa reception. and there is discrete commands for everything on the DTC-100.

The only thing nobody mentioned is without DTV you can't get upgrades. If you were to find a unit with older firmware there wouldn't be discretes as that was one of the upgrades DTV did.

Echosolob,
let's get a little more precise here: I assume you mean DirecTV when you write DTV. DTV means Digital TV, as in "HDTV."

I don't like being a curmudgeon about this, but I really want to be sure people know what is being talked about.... I have recently realized that most of the world, my staff and I included, use "DTV" indisciminately for both "DirecTV" and "Digital TV," and almost always say "HD" or "high def" when we mean "DTV" (Digital TV, NOT DirecTV), even though 95% of the available OTA DTV is SD, not HD. The bad thing about this is that consumers can get the impression that everything available in digital television is high def because most of the video world out there is delivering DTV with a tiny amount of HD programming but calling it all HDTV.

Okay... well, it turns out that my tv, a Marantz PV6480W, actually has the VGA connector that the DTC100 uses. Yahoo! So now, who's got the best price? Anybody trying to sell one? Where should I shop?

Dale

Ebay is about your only choice now since they are out of production.

Theres one for sale in the Marketplace forum, but RS drop the price to $349.

Re: VGA adapters. I made my own to connect my DTC100 to my Mitsubishi 55's RGBHV inputs. The VGA plug pinout is standard computer industry VGA. I did add 33 ohm resistors in series with the H and V sync lines because RCA outputs 5V peak to peak sync and Mitsubishi specs 3 volts +/- 1 volt. The picture came up shifted to the right about 3 inches but one of the Mitsu's setup screens allow one to correct that kind of offset.

halsmith, FYI the transcoders previously talked about convert RGBHV to high scan component and the DTC 100 has a raster centering adjustment. For the last year or so you needed Direct TV software upgrad to get to the menu that allows you to access this adjustment. Kabsters comment about using the VGA HD15 input deserves carefull consideration. Some TV's assume the VGA input is for PC use and locks into a 4x3 aspect

Mitsubishi is one of the TV's I have found this to be true with. I don't remember what model it was, but it needed a transcoder as the VGA input was for computer use.

JJP

I tried to buy one at RS, but they required a DirecTV account number. Although the salesman said otherwise, I suspect the account will be charged if the the unit isn't activated within 14 days.

Dale

Dale, the guy at Rat shack is clueless.

The DTC-100 is the only RCA receiver I know of that does not have a "buy down", that's why it so expensive. Meaning there is no commitment required to buy it because of the off-air tuner. With normal RCA receivers, if you don't activate it, you end up paying the full price for the receiver.

I know this because we are an authorized DirecTV dealer.

Dale, if I had a DTC-100, I would certainly help you out here. Sorry

JJP