811 @ Ces2005

[keith]

I went to the Dish floor area at CES. I think the 811's were only showing satellite channels, and no OTA. Gave them a piece of my mind about the horrid 811 and failure to meet expectations across the whole product line, then left.

Watched the Saturday NFL playoff games over in the directtv booth. They had GREAT PQ - makes me wonder if they were showing satellite or OTA. If it was satellite, they have outstanding HD quality. TI had the playoff games on a big screen / front projector - but it was 4:3 (presumably upsampled OTA analog SD) and it looked really bad.

 

[genglish]

I watched the Saturday playoff games on my 811 (OTA) with no problems, and later watched an movie on my 811 on HBO HD (Sat) with no problems. Glad I have an 811 because my cable company still does not offer all locals in HD, and no OTA-capable HD box (and I refuse to buy a separate HD tuner for my HD-ready TV which I will soon throw-away when everyone is in HD on cable/sat.

811 is a little buggy, I would agree, but is bearable in my opinion, and is still the cheapest option for me and most.

Having said that, I will probably consider switching back to my cable company (Brighthouse) when they do have all the locals in HD, because I'm starting to get annoyed at my indoor HD antenna setup, and don't want to erect something ugly outside. When you really do the math, the pricing for the higher end packages is not really that different (at least for Brighthouse), assuming you want HD, at least one DVR, and want to support 3 or more TVs.

As far as my (rented) 811 goes, it's serves its purpose for me. I don't think I will ever go back to purchased equipment, because technology just changes too fast. I really expect to want hardware upgrades to newer technology and features every 2 years or so, so I see my 811 as just something I will eventually get rid of in another year anyway (along with my 522).

Gary