SAMSUNG SIR-TS360 HDTV Receiver

This is one FANTASTIC HDTV off Air Receiver!!! I read other reviews and have not had the experience of any problems related to this unit whatsoever!!

I am not currently running any DirecTV Satellite links through it, nor am I running anything from a Cable TV Provider. I am using this SOLELY as an OFF-AIR HDTV Receiver, connected to a roof top 36 Element Yagi Antenna. I bought my Samsung SIR-TS360 USED from a seller IN CA and shipped to my home near Seattle. It has a date of Manufacture of July 2005. It operates perfectly out of the box. *NO* problems whatsoever. The picture is perfect, tuning is reliable. It picks up nearly 30 Digital stations and ALL 13 Analog stations broadcasting the Seattle - Tacoma Puget Sound metropolitan area. It produces crystal clear digital quality video with as little as 25% signal strength from the source, as measured by the onboard signal meter. I was amazed to find digital stations to exist without ANY Analog or major network affiliation that are NOT rebroadcast on any cable providers! Some are useful and entertaining and others not so much. Discovering that made unpacking it kind of like Christmas!

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround works VERY well and creates for me a whole NEW experience in just watching the news in full Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound! However the Dolby Digital Audio must be set in the Audio Preferences as DEFAULT to play any audio transmissions that are Dolby Digital Encoded. NOT having this set, the Dolby Digital 5.1 Decoder is not enabled for some reason and all audio will only come through as 2.1 surround sound or stereo. Changing Default Audio setting to Dolby Digital also creates a noticeable difference in the length of time after channel changing for the audio to come in by as much as three full clock seconds, but is not otherwise terribly annoying in delay. The picture and sound quality by FAR make up what the delay creates in relation to anything lacking.

I believe the Samsung SIR-TS360 was primarily designed to be a DirecTV Decoder, with the "added" ability to receive OFF-AIR Broadcast signals. The unit will Boot Fail if you are not going to attach a DirecTV Dish. To avoid this without the dish connected, the DSS Dish must be disabled in the ANT/Satellite Settings. The setup menus are laid out in such a way that getting through them is a snap. So setting the DSS Dish to inactive was nothing. I read somewhere on another board another user did this first off after experiencing the Boot Fail problem and theirs worked flawlessly after that. So it also is with mine. The System went through its POST process first time out of box and displayed BOOT FAIL on the LCD Front Dot Matrix display, having read that on the other board previous to setting this up, I immediately went for the dish setting. A quick reboot after changing the setting to NO SATELLITE DISH ATTACHED and voila! Scanning of all OFF-AIR and Cable sources took about 20 minutes as it scans Airwave, as well as Cable; ALL Digital and Analog sources, which can take a while. I wasn't terribly bothered by that though as this gave me time to browse through the owner's manual a bit more to discover all of its secrets. The unit will display both Analog TV channels alongside their Digital Counterparts, which I think is a fantastic feature as I can demonstrate to my buddies the difference of antenna Analog vs. Digital signal OFF-AIR. (WHY does the industry refer to it as OFF air anyway?? IMHO Off AIR refers to a dark signal, ON Air would be much more accurate to describe broadcast airwave signals received through an antenna, but I don't set the standards) The manual is approximately 120 Pages English and 120 Pages Spanish. Very clear, well written and easy to follow. I have *HEARD* this model has Upscaler technology that disappeared in the SIR-TS451 for analog inputs from VCR or Camera to HD Quality, I have not tried that yet so have no opinion, but do understand the RUMOR to be out there, so I will be checking that out. The front face LCD Dot Matrix display is a little bright, but for me makes it easier to see. It is the brightest component of my A/V deck.

The backside has enough connectors and output options to be able to run with probably anything! I'm using this in 480P/I mode with my old NTSC 4:3 Hitachi 19" TV and am ready for February 17, 2009 without having to make the spendy purchase of a new HDTV monitor until the "old tube" finally dies of natural causes. The resolution & functionality with this is quite good. Even in 4:3 mode the image and color is quite sharp and crystal clear. BETTER even, than having digital cable, which I got rid of just earlier this month! The mode settings flip quite easily with a button on the remote. The Samsung SIR-TS360 also remembers the different video modes for each channel that I prefer. This is very a very nice feature as I don't have to constantly be flipping the video mode from Zoom 1, Zoom 2, Full, or Letterbox.

The IR remote that comes with the SIR-TS360 is well featured and fully functional. It has remote operating capabilities for ALL of my deck components, including my Sherwood 5.1 receiver! The only items not covered in the operation of the remote are My CD changer and tape deck. Neither of which get used often enough for me to care. The only drawback to the remote is that the keypad is not backlit, nor is it phosphorescent to glow in dim light situations.

Overall, the Samsung SIR-TS360 is VERY impressive and I am MOST happy with the purchase. I have yet to determine the DirecTV capabilities and that may come in time as my personal finances allow purchasing a package from them. But for now it's the best money I have spent in a long time. I won't be paying for cable perhaps ever again with this unit around!! :-) Sayonara Comcast!!