Thread: FIRST LOOK: 622 Review!

Originally Posted by Tedo

Have my 622 setup
TV2 Works fine but the remote won't turn it on.
When I signed up I told the CSR that I was going to use one tv.
Do I have to activate it with Dish.
If so I will not.
Don't want the extra fee.
Thanks anyone.

I had the same problem. Both remotes were set to TV1. It couldn't control TV2. The tech. must have misunderstood my set up. TV2 was not going to TV2 but to my DVD recorder next to the television. It would be connected to the same TV but to a second input. At any rate, you can go into the information setting in the menu and change the remote number. Press the TV button until all the device lights go on. Then choose another number for the TV2 remote anything but number one or the number assigned to any other UHF Dish remote. Then press the search key at the bottom. I couldn't find these directions in the manual but they are in the 921 and 811 menu.

By the way if you leave the 622 on single mode rather than dual, it will output the same channel but TV2 will be anamorphic. If you leave it in dual mode it will output standard television or letterbox (and you can watch different channels). I really love the anamorphic because I can make anamorphic DVD recordings (much easier to do than the 921).

Originally Posted by Ray S

By the way if you leave the 622 on single mode rather than dual, it will output the same channel but TV2 will be anamorphic. If you leave it in dual mode it will output standard television or letterbox (and you can watch different channels). I really love the anamorphic because I can make anamorphic DVD recordings (much easier to do than the 921).

That's very interesting, however, TV2 out is composite only, right? What does the s-video connection output when on HD channels? Anamorphic by any chance?

Originally Posted by epsilon

That's very interesting, however, TV2 out is composite only, right? What does the s-video connection output when on HD channels? Anamorphic by any chance?

TV2 is only composite. I haven't tried S video and don't want to pull it out again to put a line to it. But see if you can do a search on anamorphic and find a thread that was devoted to this issue about two or three weeks ago. One of the moderators clued me into the above set up when I asked about the 622 and anamorphic. He didn't mention anything about S video at that point. I have a feeling it will only output standard or letterbox.

Not trying to hijack the thread but could you explain (in simple terms) exactly what anamorphic is and why it's prefered for burning dvds. I think I sort of understand it but want to be sure and there are probably others here that would like to know too.
Thanks

Originally Posted by waltinvt

Not trying to hijack the thread but could you explain (in simple terms) exactly what anamorphic is and why it's prefered for burning dvds. I think I sort of understand it but want to be sure and there are probably others here that would like to know too.
Thanks

Here's one of many explanations:
http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_...anamorphic.htm

The bottom line is anamorphic makes the most use of every pixel available in the DVD format, wheras letterboxed wastes pixels on actually drawing the black "over and under" bars you would normally see watching 16:9 material on a 4:3 screen.

So if you watch a lettrboxed movie on a widescreen set, you have to zoom in to get rid of the black bars, so you loose those lines of resolution. If you watch an anamorphic movie, your playback device and set work together and automatically make the movie fit on the screen while maintaining all the scan lines.

Originally Posted by jrfuda

Here's one of many explanations:
http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_...anamorphic.htm

The bottom line is anamorphic makes the most use of every pixel available in the DVD format, wheras letterboxed wastes pixels on actually drawing the black "over and under" bars you would normally see watching 16:9 material on a 4:3 screen.

So if you watch a lettrboxed movie on a widescreen set, you have to zoom in to get rid of the black bars, so you loose those lines of resolution. If you watch an anamorphic movie, your playback device and set work together and automatically make the movie fit on the screen while maintaining all the scan lines.

Thanks, that was very informative. I've got more questions but I don't want to carry this thread away again, so will do a a search for that thread that Ray mentioned.

Hey all, I have been enjoying my 622 for just over a week now. I'm located in Benton, AR (just southwest of Little Rock), so had my 500 changed out for a 1000 and my 511 for a 622. Unfortunately I was not here the Saturday the new system was installed (my wife was here and doesn't know enough to care about these things, just as long as they work).

At any rate, I wish I would have been here so I could have taught some HD connection basics to the installer. I had an OTA tuner hooked up via HDMI to my Toshiba 34" HDTV, so I'll cut the guy a little slack for not hooking it up. He did manage to get my optical audio cable attached, but that was a simple swap-out from the previous DISH tuner. The real kicker was when I realized that he had used a standard RCA cable set (1 video, red & white audio) to hook up the component video connections on the tuner to the HDTV. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or be pissed. I sorted everything out pretty quickly though, only to realize that the 622 was still set to output a 4:3 signal, which is quite funny to look at on an HD set.

Picking up the locals was quick and much less painless than it was with my Pro Brand HD3150Plus OTA tuner. Signals lock in quickly and stay locked in, even at lower signal strengths. I am very pleased with how well the OTA tuner performs; also, the channels were immediately mapped to the familiar channel numbers.

SD programming looks far superior than it did on my previous DISH 511, and I imagine that has something to do with the HDMI connection (I tested the component video as well and it is comparable to HDMI, but doesn't allow my TV to autoformat the picture like the HDMI connection does). HD programming looks great, for the most part. Exceptions to "great" include the World Sport station, for which some of the games are obviously downrezzed, while some look better, and the Kung Fu VOOM station, which is probably an unfair assessment seeing that all of those films are relatively old and the processing that goes into making them HD-compatible can result in some lackluster images.

My only complaint so far is that one of the tuners (I have the 622 set up in Single Mode) has some noticeable issues: SD content on some of the local channels pulled off the satellite contains some rather unpleasant popping noises and HD content can have (not always, but more often than not) herky-jerky images with a periodic skip in the sound. If I hit the swap button in either scenario and tune it into the same channel I experience none of this; I immediately hit swap to go back to the other tuner, and there it is again. Any ideas? This is going to drive me crazy!

Thanks for reading this far.

Hopefully a future software update SOON will take care of the video and audio issues.

THe 942 had similar problems with no dolby digital sound on one of the tuners when I first got it last April. Within a few months they fixed it via software update. I first indentified this problem myself a few days ago. I've had my 622 less than a week hooked up. I knew that within a day that it had to be the same tuner problem similiar to what the 942 had with the dolby digital problem.

I think it is funny that the 622 is having any problems since it should be based on the 942 software. I can't really tell any differences between the way the 622 operates. The menus, guide interactive apps all are the same as the 942.

I bet that within the next month you will see this problem fixed. I sure hope so because I am tired of swapping the pip to get the sound to come out without popping.

Originally Posted by MikeD-C05

I think it is funny that the 622 is having any problems since it should be based on the 942 software. I can't really tell any differences between the way the 622 operates. The menus, guide interactive apps all are the same as the 942.

It's probably different HARDWARE, and they need to learn IT"S quirks.

So far, even with the minor issues, I love this receiver. (It's my first HD experience, though, so there is still the WOW factor).