Rating: 
Summary: Could be lots better
Review: A consequence of Samsung's policy of speeding products to market. This box has a mind of its own in deciding and remembering which channels are NTSC and which are DTV -- an opaque process that is hard for the consumer to override or reset. The worst problem is that there is a programming bug in the ASTC mode that Fox used *last year* for "Widescreen." (Fortunately, Fox uses real HDTV this year.) The top and bottom of the image were cut off so you lost things like the score on football games. (This is in a mode where, showing a 16:9 image on a 4:3 monitor, there are intentional black bars at the top and bottom of the screen to make the image fit.) The worst part was, after repeated contacts with Samsung North America, it developed that not only was there no firmware update (even though there is a connector on the back for firmware updates), they had no way of even reporting the problem to the engineers in Korea to request a firmware update. Lame. Really, really lame.
Rating: 
Summary: Read the review by Bowen Simmons - dead on
Review: I also live in bay area. I bought the 165 and have been very happy. Followed his recommendations and also hooked up my cable and TIVO to work thru it. I was surprised by how many channels there are here. At first I bought a regular antenna and had it in my apt patio. Almost bigger than the patio. Don't remember which magazine recommended the Zenith Gemini indoor UHF antenna. Small, unpowered. That thing is great, you can aim it, get 20-50% better reception than the monster in my patio which is stationary. Both highly recommended. Local PBS station is also running HDTV demos which really highlight the picture and dolby sound.
Rating: 
Summary: DTV is so cool
Review: I just purchased Samsung 165 and Sony 46" projection TV. They are perfectly matched for the digital picture displace. Using an old roof top antenna, I can get most of channels except channel 5 (analog is still OK).
Rating:
Summary: Way cool and easy to use
Review: I just received the Digital HDTV Tuner and it works great. Currently I only have a standard TV but the digital channels come in crystal clear.
I live in San Jose, CA, and I am using a standard on-the-roof antena to pick up the signals and I get more channels now (digital and standard) then I did with the antena alone.
I currently get FOX, CBS, ABC, UPN, WB, and KQED (I think I missed couple in this list) in digital.
I can't wait to hook this thing up to a HDTV and see what I am missing at 1080 resolution!
Rating: 
Summary: Solution to lock up problem
Review: I too have been plagued by the HELLO display lock up issue.
I called Samsung and they recommened:
Unplug the unit from AC
Remove the Antenna connection from the back of the unit.
Plug back into AC
power on
then plug the antenna back in
Rating:
Summary: This box ought to come with CTL-ALT-DEL on its remote!
Review: If you can't tolerate a set top box that hangs on you, don't touch this stupid machine. With a PC, at least you can reboot and expect the box to restart from square one. This idiotic Samsung, when stuck at a channel, stays stuck and keeps on hanging. This is item #2 that previous reviewer Juan Pierre (?) talked about. Now I really know what he meant. Never thought that my TV could crash. And it takes several seconds to change channels, when it worked.
Rating:
Summary: This product could be good if it worked as advertised
Review: On the positive side, this product does a very good job of picking HDTV broadcasts off the air. It also has a great set of digital interfaces to your other equipment, including DVI and Firewire.However, this product has really disappointed me by overlooking some critical features that make it less attractive than lower-tech, more conventional alternatives. For instance, there is an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) which would be great if there was actually any information from broadcasters . However, where I live in Florida there is absolutely zero information on the cable channels and pretty close to zero on the over-the-air channels. The product lets you receive both over-the-air and cable channels through two RF inputs, yet, there is no one button / easy way to swutch between the two sources. You have to go through an onscreen menu and a very misnamed screen called 'memorize channels' to switch between them. It's time consuming and, my guess is that some users will never figure it out because it looks like a set-up menu. Lastly, although you can control Firewire devices, like a Digital VHS recorder, I found the fact that you could not use the electronic program guide to program recording just another reason why the EPG on this product is totally useless. I'm hoping that Samsung will fix these major deficits in an upgrade of this product - at which point it would be worth buying. If you haven't bought this product yet, wait for the fixes or go a more conventional approach.
Rating:
Summary: The ONLY HD set top box w/Firewire output!!
Review: Samsung already has a couple other HD set top boxes out on the market, and if this one didn't have the Firewire (aka i-Link or IEEEE1394) output I'd say go for one of them or the Zenith HDV420 (if you're not decoding a satellite signal). However, the Firewire output means one crucial thing: linked to the JVC HM-DH30000L DVHS VCR, you can record High Def programs from off the air. Really. Now, there is still not a huge amount of over the air High Def programming out there, but most of the scripted dramas on the big three networks and much PBS content is broadcast in HD. Stick a $... Firewire cable between this and the JVC, and off you go. As a set top box this is a good unit, though not without its imperfections. The picture quality is excellent and the DVI output means that if your HD set has a DVI input you never have to corrupt your signal with an analog conversion--the pure digital signal goes all the way from the broadcast tower to your set without having to be prematurely converted to analog for travel via component output. But the menu/remote is only okay to use, my main gripe being that you have to scroll down to get to a signal strength function (the Zenith gives this function its own button on the remote). One reviewer faulted this unit for not displaying guide information on the channels when the information is still not available from the broadcasters. I hardly see how you can blame a set top box for not displaying information that the broadcasters haven't gotten around to sending out. Again, the biggest plus with this unit is the Firewire output. The Firewire link also allows you to control your DVHS VCR from this unit. This set top box has an onscreen menu that allows you to play, pause, and stop DVHS tapes on your DVHS VCR. The Samsung even allows you to schedule up to six (at least) programs to be taped. You enter the channel, date, and start and end time, and the Samsung will turn on your DVHS VCR to tape the scheduled HD program. No, it's not quite "VCR +Plus," but it's a start. So, if you have an HD monitor and want to watch--and tape--HD programs from off the air, this is the only unit for you. Given that the big kids still can't decide on a single format for HD DVD (and recordable HD DVD is even farther out), why wait? My advice: get it before someone pressures makers like Samsung to quit putting Firewire outputs on their equipment.
Rating:
Summary: Piece of Hi-Tech Junk
Review: Straight out of the box this unit kept on crashing and hanging up. Very poor design. Gives false reception information. It is hard to imagine that a company would actually sell a hi-tech component that is so defective at such a high price. Don't waste your money and time on this.
Rating:
Summary: Piece of Hi-Tech Junk
Review: The promise of this device is never quite met. When it does work, it switches channels slowly, and the machine easily freezes while compiling the electronic programming guide (they mention this "feature" in the manual). But the real deal breaker is the fact the the machine freezes any time it gets a signal it can't handle. My first unit simply halted with the annoying "HELLO" message on the front panel. It did not respond to any remote or front panel buttons. Power cycling did no good. The second unit, when it encounted a bad signal would go into a reboot cycle, taking 10-15 seconds to recover. I guess that was suppose to be an improvement. When it finally locked up, I was able to coax it out by flipping the resolution on the back of the box. This definitely would not make for an enjoyable evening of channel surfing in my house! I sent back the second unit as well and am shopping for something better.
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