I just got off the phone with Michael at ZeeVee.

My client's using the ZVBox 170 to distribute an HD DirecTV receiver's output, using component, to the TVs in his house. I've added that signal to his OTA signals and all the TVs can tune in the OTA plus this QAM channel.

However, the image is markedly darker than all of his OTA channels. Michael tells me the ZeeVee software allows some limited adjustments to contrast and brightness and this might fix it; he also says it's been ten months or so since anyone called about this.

Have you run into this and found a solution? Would an HDMI connection work better (for the first time in history)?

ZeeVee doesn't have an HDMI input. Or are you, maybe, planning to remove the ZeeVee altogether and switch over to HDMI distribution?

Have you tried another channel?
Remove the OTA and see if there was any difference?
We did a small project with both directv and Bell Sats using the Zeevee 180's and I was very impressed with the quality of picture we were getting. We did not have OTA signal mixed in though, and we kept channels apart (old school thinking).

Duh. No, my fault. I installed it almost two years ago and haven't been back. Didn't remember there's no HDMI.

Understandable mistake. I've been to the website several times over the last 4-5 years to check if they have HDMI capability and if it will work with a current project; the answer is always no and it rarely fits into what we need unfortunately (not a lot of commercial installs). That's the only reason I'm aware they don't, because they never have and I'm not sure they will; although if they plan to survive they might have to come up with a way to change that. I'm not sure why other local-casting a/v distribution systems are allowed to play in the HDMI playground but ZeeVee isn't...JAP comes to mind. Maybe they, ZeeVee, just don't feel like dealing with the headaches.