811 Info Request and other questions

[Harry]

Am new to this board and have been reading some of the comments concerning the 811. I am in the process of "negociating" with a local retailer on getting the 811 for $149.

Question. Is there really that much of problem with the 811 that I should not get one? The 921 looks to be out of my price range. I was pretty excited on hearing about the 811 but am getting somewhat cautious. What's the recommendation, get it or not?

Comment. I've been a Dish customer for a couple of years now. I have been very satisified with them. I do all of my own setups and I take a box with me up to the lake and use an extra D-500 I have up there. Works like a champ.

I recently bought a Hitachi 46f500 and am very pleased with it and want to get into HD. I've checked out Voom and am really not impressed with the $700+ charge or programming. DirectTV is another option I guess but prefer to stay with Dish.

Question: Does anyone know if there is an FTA, HD receiver out there? FTA looks to be ok but lacks HD receivers from what I've seen so far. Apparently, HDNet and others transmit un-encrypted.

 

[Harry]

ok....

Due to a lack of response, I will assume nobody wants to go out on a limb as far as a recommendation, sooooooooo, I'll go ahead with the 811.

Still wonder about an FTA HD receiver if anyone knows of one.

 

[ROLLTIDE]

Did you use the search button ? There are also threads with stickys on them

 

[Harry]

Search for what?

I was looking for someone to say definately buy or don't buy based on their experiance.

As far as FTA, I've searched all over the place and have yet to find an FTA HD receiver, even though there is plenty of free HD on satellite. Was hoping somebody here had experiance with FTA.

 

[ROLLTIDE]

was looking for someone to say definately buy or don't buy based on their experiance.

This has been covered 10 million times this past week


FTA ? Are you talking about a HD decoder like the samsung Sirt 151 ?

 

[Harry]

FTA is Free-to-air satellite broadcast. A lot of what you get with Dish or anyone else is broadcast unencrypted. Trouble is, all of the HD receivers I've found are for either Dish or DirectTV.

The samsung Sirt 151 is a terrestrial, OTA receiver.

I've read the complaints people have but haven't seen any real recomendations. I've not had a problem with Dish like many others here have stated so I can't really determine if it is from inexperiance on their part or there is a real problem with Dish products. (People tend to post the negative when they have trouble but don't post the good when they have no trouble!)

What is your take on the 811?

 

[ROLLTIDE]

For $149 I think that you must get one. I'm waiting untill they fix the aspect mode issue before I order one .
The main reason that I will get a 811 is the fact that it doesn't make any noise. I can't take a nap in my living room cause my 6000 U is so loud.

Anouther reason is the menu system and guide have been improved. It can't get much worst than the 6000. Also i'm about to buy a tv with Dvi for Xmas and want a receiver that has dvi .

If you have any HD tv buying advice I sure would apreciate it in this thread

http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4282

 

[Harry]

Great! I assume what problems there are with the 811 will be fixed via s/w upgrades.

I like the idea of hooking up with component and s-video. I've given up on DVI. Cables are expensive and it is my understanding you only get 1080i. Progressive is so much better, no matter which resolution you use.

Like I stated, I have the Hitachi RPTV and love it. It has a built in upconverter that works really good with satellite, sucks with SDTV via cable as the crap in the cable signal is up converted also. Am to far away for OTA signals but will try it anyway if and when I get the 811. Upconversion for DVD via component is outstanding.

I'm guessing that the 811 upconversion will be better as it is done inside the box before the signal gets to the tv.

 

[volfan615]

Question. Is there really that much of problem with the 811 that I should not get one? The 921 looks to be out of my price range. I was pretty excited on hearing about the 811 but am getting somewhat cautious. What's the recommendation, get it or not?

Harry, mine was installed yesterday morning to replace a model 6000. I am throughly satisfied and have not experienced many of the problems thgat have been reported here other that the lack of aspect modes which should be coming very soon and the guide only going out about 6 hours insteas of the 48 promised. I think that many of the prolems reported are from uses that aren't familiar with how the 6000 worked.

I am very happy with mine!

 

[Sparkman]

I have had mine since last Friday & have a couple of issues with the OTA module. But I do like the receiver. Just got my dvi cable today, so will hook that up tonite & see if I notice a difference. I still have my 6000 hooked yp to my other hdtv and it is working great. It's hooke up to a Tivo, so the guide is not as issue. Only problem with that set up is having to switch HD/SD output & remembering to do so with a show is scheduled to record.

 

[Harry]

Thanks for the feedback. It sure looks like it would be a decent box, especially for the price.

Did you hook it up yourself or did an installer do it? Am curious, do you use component or DVI?

 

[Harry]

Sparkman, I live about 45-50 miles from the OTA source so I don't hold much hope of getting any decent OTA signal. I guess if I put up a 50', humongous antenna it would work, but no....!

Let me know how your DVI works out and looks. I'm not sold on DVI yet.

 

[volfan615]

Thanks for the feedback. It sure looks like it would be a decent box, especially for the price.

Did you hook it up yourself or did an installer do it? Am curious, do you use component or DVI?

I let the Dish tech install it with my help. I hooked everything up... he worked the remote and called dish to authorize.

I am using the component outputs going to a 55" Mits RPT.

 

[ROLLTIDE]

harry I think it's worth the huge atenna to get all the Network HD stuff

 

[Harry]

I kind of balked at having a tech do the install when I spoke with Dish. Had a cable guy program a tv one time and he wasn't very good with it. Bad experiance on my part.

I may try the DVI but am sold on component so far. Of course, I've nothing to compare it to yet! Hopefully that will change this weekend.

 

[Stacy A]

Sparkman, I live about 45-50 miles from the OTA source so I don't hold much hope of getting any decent OTA signal. I guess if I put up a 50', humongous antenna it would work, but no....!

Man, you should be able to get your locals easy at 45 to 50 miles from the towers, unless of course your terrain won't allow it, like a mountain in the way or something or they are broadcasting at such low power that only people 6 blocks from the towers get it. I live 70 miles from my towers and pull in my local digitals with a deep fringe UHF antenna with signal strength in the 80%-90% range. Belive it or not, I live 120 miles from the Dallas, Tx towers and on good nights, I can pull in their higher power stations with good signal strength (65-75%). And no, I don't have a 50 foot tower in my yard. I have the antenna mounted on my roof.

Stacy

 

[Harry]

Stacy;

That sounds interesting. I live in southern New Mexico and there are mountains where I live and I am just outside the shadow. You give me hope! I'll try it.

 

[ROLLTIDE]

harry try a preamp and rotator and get the wineguard 8200

 

[Harry]

I'll check into it once I get the 811. Am getting the 'ol "it's back ordered" response now......arrggghhhhh......

 

[Forward]

My initial 811 reaction

I got my 811 shipped from a dealer Monday. I just disconnected my 6000 and put the 811 in its place. I had it up and running (including programming local OTA channels) within a half hour, without looking at the manual too closely. If you have done prior installs yourself as I have, it's all quite intuitive. I had it connected both by composite to a small TV monitor and by component to an HDTV capable projector. I went into the menu to set the HDTV output to 1080i (a nice tip learned from reading the posts here) before feeding the projector.

I didn't have too much time to play with the 811 (I was travelling Tues and Wed) but my overall impression was very favorable. Yes, there are some features which need software revisions to be activated. But I love the menu/guide system (good looking and fast!), the quality of the images and the general operation of the unit. I have had a 6000 for better than three years, and this is clearly a much nicer unit.

I'll finally get a chance to play more with it tonight but for the price I paid I have no complaints. I don't even have another HD monitor yet, and I haven't subscribed to the HD pack and doubt I will (although I do have HBO-HD). I'll use this to display all the local digital channels on my SD set until I get a new TV.