IVIEW3500STB III, ATSC Digital Converter Box with Recording and Media Player, Analog to Digital, QAM Tuner, Channel 3/4, HDMI, A/V, USB, Learning Remote

When I first plugged this in and turned on my Samsung monitor that I can now use as a TV, I was totally mesmerized. The quality of the picture is nothing short of amazing. I was literally sitting in front of the setup in a trance - I was so captivated by the lifelike qualities of the picture, the details, etc. On the other hand, the "TV guide" leaves much to be desired. It's archaic but serves the purpose if you have the patience to navigate through the steps. The menu is fleeting and you have to keep pressing to see the schedule or show program details. There is also a meter to display the show's progress (how much time is left) that is similar to the volume meter. Haven't tried the DVR functions yet but if the remote function's feedback is any indication, you just need to give it some time to respond - as if it's buffering. Pushing a button on the remote may take 5 seconds plus at times to respond. This IVIEW-3500STB III, ATSC Digital Converter Box is great but there is a leaning curve. Be patient.

This is my third one of this brand since we needed converter boxes. They last about 3-4 years. The dad thing, though, it's that when you switch them out, everything you've saved is no longer accessible. I email the mfr when I switched out the first one and they said that's part of the design. So everything I saved but hadn't watched yet was gone. Now I just expect that. You can pull things off onto your computer with a program designed to convert it, but it's not worth the hassle. Something that's longer is broken into sections and you have to find all the sections... Unless they've changed that, that's what I expect.But as a tuner, it was straight forward to set up. It took longer for it to scan my channels than to plug everything in! The images are clear. Oh, of it doesn't pick up all your stations, just rescan at another time. Even though I love in a major city, O know my CBS station can have interference in the evenings and is iffy during bad weather. It was windy and snowing the day I got this one and it didn't pick up our CBS station. The next morning I rescanned and it was fine. Just be aware of that.

This is the 5th set top recorder (PVR) I buy which uses the same chip set / operating system but made by different companies. The iView 3500STB III is by far the best I have ever bought for the following reasons: 1) The remote is amazing compared to the remotes shipped with other PVRs. There is no comparison. 2) This PVR has fewer software bugs. For example, every prior PVR I bought had a problem with the rewind function, where you had to rewind far enough back to empty the video cache in order for rewind to work. For example you could not rewind 3 seconds on a low rate video. You were forced to rewind 15 seconds. Rewind works correctly on this unit.The negatives are: 1) "Info" does not work during play back, you have to press the red "REC" button to see where you are. 2) Attaching an external hard drive made the recording noisy due to USB noise. To fix the noise I shielded the internal USB ribbon cable with foil and a wire. Do at your own risk, I was an electrical engineer in a prior life so I took the risk.

Cutting cable and picked up the 3500STBiii (3) since it supposedly had an improved remote. Basic function of being a tuner is pretty solid if you give it a decent (70%+) signal. The new remote with more programable buttons for doing some TV functions is such is a joke. The instructions provided are just plain wrong. Called their support number and they were clueless, trying to tell me follow the instructions for 3500STBii (2) instead. That won’t work either. Support said they would call me back on Monday because they were taking a half day vacation! Yeah, right, no call on Monday. Played with the remote for an hour to figure out how to get it to remember all the functions…. You have to chain all of the commands right after you set the very first power function. Once you see the red light on the new remote flash 3 times, that it accepted the code from your Old remote, you then need to press the Next function button on the New remote that you want to program, then hold your Old remote up and press whatever function you want until the red light on the New remote flashes 3 times….repeat this for all the Function buttons in the white box, and when finished, press the Setup button to End the learning process.I found it best to do the Power function first, then Vol+, then Vol-, then Opt 2, Opt 3, and Opt 1 last. If you don’t see the New remote flash red 3 times after each step, chances are it won’t work. Start over and try again… took several times to get the functions to work like I wanted. All of that, and then when your watching TV from bed, no back light in the remote to see what key is where. Sorry, but too much work, too little function.Of course it only shows channel lineups one channel at a time, you have to change channels to see the next stations lineup.. Coming from a cable remote/box, and being able to just scroll up/down to see all channels is a real downer. Sometimes, the audio is out of sync with the picture. Didn’t realize how good cable & their remotes work, channel lineups, perfect resolution, single remote.. sigh, I keep telling myself that I am saving $70 a month.

The box works well,however,my assumption only,is the remote.When trying to enter a program to record,any portion ,just one digit!It kicks out of the record menu,and goes to regular Tv channels. It's ? 2B nice ,Very time consuming!Waiting on a reply from vendor ?