The government is forcing broadcasters to shut off all analog television signals at midnight on February 17, 2009. Those who still have analog televisions will need to switch over to digital broadcasts, and the Zenith DTT900 Digital TV Tuner is a no-hassle, inexpensive way to do so for those who want to stick with analog sets. You don't have any choice, but you won't regret the upgrade, either: All the converter boxes I've seen deliver an excellent picture. It won't be HD quality, of course, but it will look better than the analog signal you've been used to: Think DVD quality. At a $60 (list), the DTT900 may seem expensive, especially since it doesn't come with the HDTV indoor antenna you'll also need (Radio Shack sells those for $11). The government offers $40 rebates on digital tuners, so that takes some of the bite out of the price, and Zenith really makes setup a snap by having the device do most of the work for you.

The slim, black DTT900 blends into most home theater setups easily, and comes with a useful remote control and the cabling necessary to connect it to your television. The unit measures 1.8 by 8.5 by 6.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.7 pounds. Aside from the familiar Z logo on its face, the box is nondescript. Blue and red lights tell you whether it's on or in standby mode, and that's about it. There are two coaxial connections on the rear panel: one for antenna input and one for sending signal to the TV. There are also connections for stereo RCA audio outputs and a composite video output. There is, however, no smart antenna input—a feature the Apex DT250 offers. Once everything is connected and you've put the supplied AAA battery into the remote, you're ready to go through the guided on-screen automatic setup process.

If you've shaken your fist at video hardware manuals in the past, not to worry: Zenith has made the setup process painless. Using the Next button on the remote, you'll move easily through different phases of setup, the most important of which is auto-scanning for channels. Once the box has found all the digital signals, you'll never have to surf through dead channels to find stations with a usable signal.

Once that's done, the remote allows for manual entry of channel numbers, or navigation via up and down arrows. There are also volume controls, and buttons for mute, sleep, power, TV power (which won't work for all televisions), enabling SAP, zooming to fill the screen, signal, display, menu, guide, CCD, exit, and "fav." The Signal button displays an on-screen rating of the signal strength for the station you're monitoring. The Display button offers a detailed description of the program you're watching, including its rating, aspect ratio, and scheduled time, as well as the current time. Guide offers an on-screen schedule of what's on and coming up next on all the stations you receive. Unfortunately, you can't use this for long-term planning, as it offers nothing beyond the next program. The CCD button toggles closed-caption mode, and Exit removes any menu text from the screen and returns to a normal viewing mode.

You can designate favorite, or "fav," channels using the menu button, which accesses several other options as well. In Setup, for instance, you can use auto-tuning or EZ Add to find stations, edit out stations you don't want, and change the output channel of the box (it's either channel 3 or 4). Under Option, you can adjust everything from the time zone to aspect ratio, language, audio output (stereo or mono), and even block programs or TV channels with a password-locked menu.

If you want more connectivity, or you'd like to use a smart antenna, go with a controller like the Apex DT250, which gets a slightly higher score for that reason. But I enjoyed using the Zenith box, found setup to be a cakewalk, and thought the options on the menu were useful and easy to navigate. Will technophobes have a hard time setting this up? I doubt it—and anyone who wants to keep that 1982 Goldstar TV is going to have to learn how to navigate digitally, regardless.