You Can Take It As Gospel...
txfeinbergs;1292633 Guys, I know you have seen a lot of people switching from E to D lately because of the BSG premier coming up on the Sci-Fi Channel (well, that and Dish's satellite launch didn't go particularly well compared to DirecTVs). I am possibly another defector, but I have three (or I guess this is actully four) questions.
1. I have seen several people state in this forum that D's picture quality is better. Is this just subjective, or is there some hard proof that D is not compressing as much? That would be a major selling point to me.
D* picture quality is better. I was a E* sub for almost 10 years and have now been with D* for 3 mos and there is a big difference. I have a 70" 1080p have always used HDMI since my first HDTV and there is a very noticeable difference on the SD and HD channels. Some of D* channels in SD look as good as a lot of E* HD channels. On a smaler TV it may not be as noticeable but the bigger you go the easier it is to see artifacts and whatnot. I know some people have done a digital capture of the feed and compared the packet sizes and D* is larger, this would mean that D* is not compressing as much...D* has a lot more capacity and is changing more channels to MPEG 4 in a quicker time fashion than E*.
2. My Dish receiver only requires one coax feed to supply both onboard tuners. I have a second run that provides my OTA feed. Does DirecTV offer something similar or are they still requiring one run for each tuner?
D* does have a SWM (single wire module) although it is not available to most markets yet. It has been fully tested and is working just as well as E* built in switching with the LNB. You may be able to contact your installer and request it but since it is not standard equipment I have read that there is additionl charges for it. On a side note, most installers will not use the same cable that you have your E* service running through, even though it may be just fine if you call D* after the install and it's determined that your problems are coming from your cabling then the install may get charged back to the original tech and they would have to replace the cable. Its really not a big deal to have 2 pieces of coax coming from the dish. If you have in wall cabling like me, just do what I did and have the tech duct tape the end of the new cable to the old before he cuts it...pull the old cable through the wall and voila...no fishing you just pull the 2 line cable to the receiver.
3. I have seen something about an AM21 external tuner box mentioned here for the HR21 for the OTA. Is there any ETA on that? Have there been any pictures posted of what it looks like or how it connects to the HR21?
It is fully functional working without any problems, how do I know....I have one..... the chipset that D* is using and the actual rest of the tuner is a much better quality build that the internal tuner in E* boxes. My local HD when recorded is much better than what I received using E* OTA.... as good of a quality as having my antenna hooked directly to TV. I also had issues with E* dropping the signals sometimes and never with the TV, the AM21 has not dropped the signal once. Arrival time to general public is yet TBD we are still in what they call a "RTM C" release to market candidate....they have updated the software of the AM21 a couple of times and have improved it's reliability...until it reaches a point where they are sure it will work well for the masses then it wont be sold. As far a pics....I hate to send you here but...take a look HERE there is an entire thread devoted to it.
Hope this helps you in your decision...
Thanks.