I had success with a Calrad modulator, but for some reason it would work properly with a DirecTV H24, but not with the wireless client (C41W, I think). Calrad has, to my mind, never been on top of the most advanced products, but they have done their modulator right. AND there's someone at the company to talk to.

On the other hand:

PVI is the single worst company I have ever dealt with. About anything. Ever.

First, let me say that I've done many TV antenna systems. I once did four systems for a retail chain in the Los Angeles area that had a TV antenna; a modulator on channel 3 that included a vestigial sideband filter so the modulator's lower sideband wouldn't take out channel 2; and a modulator on channel 6. This did not need the vestigial sideband filter because the frequency spacing between channels 5 and 6 is large enough that the lower sideband of 6 doesn't splash over onto 5. These antenna systems delivered +10 dBm to each of more than 400 TVs. Another 60 outputs were FM only. I know my way around TV antenna systems.

I bought a VeCoax HDMI To Coax HD Modulator, tthe MINIMOD-2 from them for ATSC modulation of a DirecTV receiver's output, mixing into an OTA antenna system that is run throughout the house.

The "instructions" were nothing more than a list of channel frequencies for all the different modulating styles around the world. There were buttons for setting audio and resolution (IIRC, it's been a while) and zero explanation what they did or how to set them. IIRC, each button had three possible settings. To find the right combination of those settings, the buttons had to be set to nine different button combinations, each time running around the house to check on a half dozen TVs.

None of the nine combinations worked.

A quick phone call to the company got me put on hold, then gave me the sole option of leaving my phone number for a callback. After several phone calls, I contacted a salesperson to set up an appointment for me to talk to a tech while I was on site. I got to the site a few minutes late and called PVI. Nobody answered. All I could do was leave a message. Several calls later I got through to the sales guy I had originally talked to. I told him I was ready; he put me on hold and told me the tech guy would call me in 45 minutes. An hour and a half later I called him back... and he was surprised that the tech had not called me. That is, he knew I had a problem with his product; he knew it had been very difficult to contact anyone at his company; and when he promised me a phone call, he did not follow up with the tech to see if it had happened.

That was the last phone call to them where I was able to talk with someone. That was the end of me trying to make it work. I simply did not have the time to sit on site (forty miles away and around three hours of waiting on one trip) waiting for someone to call me back so we could review the modulator's setup.

I contacted the sales guy again regarding returning the unit and he said he'd send out RMA paperwork, which would turn me over to another group, who would "take care of it" ad arrange a return.

I got the paperwork, filled it out, submitted it, and have tried contacting them a few times over the months in between.

Oh, yeah, I just remembered: their return terms say you can't return anything to them that has been opened. You can't return product that you've had for more than ten days unless their tech team has not been able to get it to work. Their tech team never responded to me.  Exclusions from their return policy include "Multiple Units Orders." I take this to mean that if you order two or more of anything, there is no return policy.

Their last communication to me told me they'd take care of getting me an RMA. Though the unit was five hundred dollars, they have been successful in pounding me into the ground on this unit and I'm earning money with other product instead of continuing to hurt myself over this.

I know of one other PVI story: an installer in San Diego who put in a multi-channel QAM system. He had similar difficulties with setup, but at the end of a couple of days, that included a five hour phone call with a tech person at PVI, he was able to make the system work. So... they got it to work, but it took hours and hours on the phone with PVI.

With my original setup, I was able to get it to work using Calrad's modulator, and along the way we (the Calrad guy, Wes) and I worked out that several models of Sony TV have problems with, apparently, ATSC modulators in general. Also, the Calrad modulator would work with the HDMI signal from an H24, but not from a wireless client! Thank you HDMI, but if I had been able to talk with someone at PVI, I would have discovered that a month earlier


And by the way, the PVI in the same town as them, the Video Rental place... is not the same company.