811 HD Receiver Technology

[Kryspy]

Hi,

As a Bell ExpressVU user in Canada we are awaiting the arival of the ExpressVU 6100 which is the Dishnetwork 811.

I previously owned the 6000 and unloaded it on ebay with the intent to buy the newer 811 when it became available.

My question is, is the 811 technology wise the identical chip and decoder as used in the 6000 just dressed up with nicer guides and onboard 8PSK and 8VSB? Or is is newer technology altogether?

Kryspy

 

[JimMcC]

Kryspy

The 811 is a piece of crap, avoid it and stay happy.

 

[Pb ft.]

The 811 is a piece of crap, avoid it and stay happy.

I agree...

 

[keith]

I don't know how the guts of the 811 compares to the 6000.

Do yourself a favor and wait for the 811 P266 code to be released before buying one. Then read the forums to see if the 811 is magically transformed into a silk purse. You have ben warned

Keith.

 

[WeeJavaDude]

LIke I have said before... Take a look around the forums and read all the posts. You will find some people really happy with the 811. Some are satisfied and some are really pissed. You will find a wide range of opinions and this is mainly due to each persons personally experience and tollerance levels. The 811 does have warts for sure, there is concern about the dark video issue being hardware related, there is still some really annoying bugs in it and with each release they fix some things and break a few things along the way.

As for me, fomer 6000 user myself, I was happy I made the change. I have ran into the warts, but compared to the 6000 in my opinion it is a step up. For me, there are 2 major bugs left. EPG Guide download is not reliable and is flacky and the dark video bug that 266 is suppose to fix.

As for the guts, My understanding is that it was a total rework. That is why there is no fan on the 811. However, it does still have the acquiring signal bug that was in the 6000 so I am sure some code was ported from the 811 to the 6000. My understanding the OTA tuner is different and there is definitely a lot more horse power in the 811. The Guide is extremely fast compared to the 6000 and the themes are actually useful on the 811. With the 6000 they just took way to long.

 

[GaryPen]

There are definitely third and fourth major bugs, as well. Third is OTA reception, and the 811's inability to lock onto stations that are received fine on other brands/models of OTA receivers. Fourth is the EPG problem, when viewing OTA. (I suppose you could add it as a subset of your previously mentioned EPG issue. )

Another thing that is not a bug, but more of a serious lack of a basic feature available on DirecTV HD boxes, is not having local guide info mapped to the OTA channls in the EPG. They really need to add that feature.

 

[WeeJavaDude]

There are definitely third and fourth major bugs, as well. Third is OTA reception, and the 811's inability to lock onto stations that are received fine on other brands/models of OTA receivers. Fourth is the EPG problem, when viewing OTA. (I suppose you could add it as a subset of your previously mentioned EPG issue. )

Another thing that is not a bug, but more of a serious lack of a basic feature available on DirecTV HD boxes, is not having local guide info mapped to the OTA channls in the EPG. They really need to add that feature.

I agree with the last feature as being a nice to have. It would me night to integrate the two. I would have to disagree that the definition of a basic feature is one that exists on a DirecTV box. I would call it a distinguishing feature.

As for the inability to lock issue, Hmm that is a tough one. For me I got better signal lock than the 6000. I know people have posted configurations where other receivers did a better job. I know for me my signal lock has been excellent and a huge step above the 6000. I do think the 811 is more picky than the 6000 and maybe be more picky than other receivers on deciding when to lock. There may also be a bug in there, but it is really hard to tell and given tweakness of OTA this one is hard quantify.

I would group the 4th into my second one. The EPG update mechanism needs a lot of work.

The rest I put into the lower priority bugs that are not effecting my life personally. I am sure other people have a different list given there circumstance.

 

[jerryez]

I live 30 miles from the antenna farm and all transmitters of local channels are within 3% of each other. I had the 6000 and it did a far better job of recieving OTA signals than the 811. It is the one thing that I would like to see fixed most. I have adjusted my tv to fix the darker picture. I do not love it, but can live with it.