Just switched to Dish: First impressions and a few questions

[ONUOsFan]

So after having some problems lately with my HR20's, and just being generally dis-satisfied with a few aspects of D* for a few months, I decided to make the switch. I've been installed less than a day, but I thought I'd share my impressions, and I have a few questions I'm sure you guys can help me with.

Impressions (good):
- I doubled my available tuners for recording. I have OTA, so I have 4 on my 722k and two on the 612 upstairs - it only has one wire to it and I didn't have an SWM, so I only had one tuner on the HR20 up there.
- The box just seems to be more solid in general. Works faster, GUI is more polished (aesthetically speaking), etc.
- A lot of little things that are more user-friendly and intuitive, like showing available recording time instead of percentage.
- I won't keep paying for them, but since I have so many premiums on free trials (HBO/Showtime for 3 mos and Cinemax for 12), it's nice that they're in HD.
- The online DVR interface is pretty cool.
- SD picture quality seems to be better (big deal )

Impressions (bad):
- HD picture quality might be just slightly worse - washed out or something - but if it is, it's extremely marginal. I think it's just because I'm sitting here staring hard at it, trying to figure out if it's worse. I seem to remember thinking the same thing about D* with I first got it (although that was when they only had 9 MPEG2 HD channels, so it probably was worse).
- I think the way you initially record something is a little clunkier - having to set all of the options every time. I liked just hitting record once for a show and twice for a series.

Questions (some of these could fall under the "bad" category if I can't figure out better ways to do them:
- Is there a better way to tune OTA channels than putting in all 5 digits? I've got my favorites set on my Harmony, so it's not that big of a deal, but it would be nice if there was an easier way.
- I miss the "where am I?" feature - hitting play while watching a recording showing you where you're at - is there a way to do this with Dish without pausing?

I'm sure I'll come up with more, but that's what I've got for now...

Oh, one more - I'm sure there's a thread for this already, but are there any current rumors of new HD on Dish?

[space86]

Oh, one more - I'm sure there's a thread for this already, but are there any current rumors of new HD on Dish?

8 HD channels are currently uplinked, may go live this week

[simplexswrhs90]

You can't press play to see where you're at, but if you press "select" or "cancel" it'll bring up the info banner and will tell how much time is left on the right side of the banner.

[juan]

make sure that the box is set 1080I The default is 480p

[ONUOsFan]

Here's another one... what's the deal with the countdown timer in the lower left? I thought that was supposed to be if the current tuner was getting ready to record, but it seems to be coming up when any tuner is getting ready to record... any way to turn that off?

[space86]

Here's another one... what's the deal with the countdown timer in the lower left? I thought that was supposed to be if the current tuner was getting ready to record, but it seems to be coming up when any tuner is getting ready to record... any way to turn that off?

Your receiver may be in single mode, if it is in dual mode it should not do that.

[ONUOsFan]

Your receiver may be in single mode, if it is in dual mode it should not do that.

It is in single mode because it's only hooked up to one TV, but there are four available tuners, right? And it's not changing the tuner I'm on when it comes up, so why does it need to warn me?

One more: is there a screensaver when something is paused? I paused a football game for 40 minutes today and nothing ever came up...

[KKlare]

OTA channels can be uniquely addressed with four digits. For example, 012-04 is 0124, leading zero required but not on the sub-channel. If you want the satellite version just use the first 3 digit or just 1 or 2 digit for LIL channels SD or HD if that exists, 4 for 004-00.
-Ken

[Todd Nicholson]

To get rid of the countdown timer, just press cancel and it will clear it off the screen.

[bebop]

The countdown notifies you in single-mode because you could easily change to that tuner and at least you know ahead of time.

You can do the OTA locals with 1 or 2 buttons if you only have the OTA channels in that range appearing (for instance, if you have locals non-ota displaying only in the higner number range).

No screensaver. I turn off my tv if I'm going to be gone for 40 minutes or more! What kind of HDTV do you have?