With the digital transition coming soon, I thought it was time to go ahead and pick a digital converter box.  After receiving my coupon while home for lunch today, after work I took my daughters up to the local Target and picked a $49.99 box.  Now under normal circumstances, I would have researched like crazy and picked the best of the best for the price.  This purchase, however, I opted not to bother...figuring all boxes are probably about the same and heck, it's not for my TV, it's for my daughter's room for picking up over the air PBS kids shows.  I should have known better...

After a rather hectic checkout with a lady whose first language was not English, my 1-year-old trying desperately to escape the cart repeatedly, multiple swipes of the coupon card, and my 4-year-old doing her best to attempt to shoplift a princess lipgloss cleverly placed kid-high in the checkout isle, we managed to leave the Target with a GE Digital Converter Box, everyone in tact, no items heisted (to my knowledge).

 Upon getting it home, I plugged the thing into the power strip, put the coax cable into the back of the TV, and tried to turn it on.  Nothing happened.  I tried a different power strip.  Nothing happened.  I took the box to 3 different rooms and tried a total of 5 different outlets.  Nothing happened.  Now I know nothing happened because the menu that was supposed to appear when it was hooked to the TV never came up.  And the two lights on the front of the device never lit up (even after I covered the thing with my hands peering at the LEDs like a kid window shopping for a Red Rider BB gun).  I even tried the remote instead of the power button on the front.  Nothing happened.  I swapped the packaged batteries for brand new ones.  Nothing happened.  I, to be quite honest, got a dud.

So needless to say, this stinker of a device is going back to Target at my earliest convenience.  Too bad, too.  I didn't even get the chance to use it and write a review on the setup, the menu system, and the quality of signal it received.

Word to the wise...avoid this box and do your research!