for those that have recently come from dish

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Go without the amp first though because #1 you probably won't need it and #2 if you just stick one in there you can actually OVER amp the signal and make your OTA reception worse.

I am just using a cheap simple monoprice DA-5700 (being all my OTA channels are close, and all broadcast from the same mountain.) Would the fact that it is using a power inserter to boost db cause complications? I assume because the inserter would be upstream of the split it shouldn't matter?

Heck, I have the needed equipment on hand (with an OTA PC tuner on the way.) I'm sure I'll figure it out and if I don't I know where to come, heh.
 
I am just using a cheap simple monoprice DA-5700 (being all my OTA channels are close, and all broadcast from the same mountain.) Would the fact that it is using a power inserter to boost db cause complications? I assume because the inserter would be upstream of the split it shouldn't matter?

Heck, I have the needed equipment on hand (with an OTA PC tuner on the way.) I'm sure I'll figure it out and if I don't I know where to come, heh.
Try splitting without amplification. If your stations are close and your wiring is good, you may not need the amplification. Easy enough to just do a channel scan with and without the power amp and check signal level.

I have stations that are only 7 miles away and stations that are 42 miles away. If I amplify to boost signal on the distant stations, I overamp the very close ones. So I know the beam pattern of my antenna and I have it pointed such that the distant stations are centered in the primary beam yet the close stations are in a kind of a null between lobes of the beam pattern. Trial and error plays a part. But don't be too quick to amplify OTA by assuming it's needed. It may not be and it may surprise you. I can spin my antenna around to the north and pull Toronto very well at about 52 to 58 miles (mostly over water) with no amplification. I'm using an Antennas Direct Clearstream 4 mounted on a 15ft mast (15ft from ground to antenna... about 6 feet above the eaves of my roof)
 
I made the switch in Oct myself. When we switched the HD pic was much better then what E* had. The D* SD pic seems a little softer then what E* had, but since about 90% of our viewing is HD it is not a biggie to me or my wife... I really liked my VIP RCVR from Dish, but quickly grew to love my HR24. Both companies have their strong points and their weak points. For me leaving Dish was the result of constant issues with RECVR's not working correctly. They claimed it was grounding so they came and regrounded everything still issues, they said it was software so sent out another replacement RECVR and still the same issue. One night coming home from work my wife was so aggrivated with stuff not working I called D* and have not looked back at E* since. I really love how the MRV works and have actually refered 2 friends so it i nice have a cheaper bill in the process... CC
 
Been with D now since December 1st and we are loving it. The channel numbers will take time getting used to. My only complaint is and I've forgotten the wording, the remote for E didn't have to be pointed at the receiver, Ds has to be. And sometimes it's a little slow bringing the program guide up. HD pic quality is better than Es. And D has the 101 which has programming on it that E didn't (the only one that came close was VOOM).

Jeff
 
Been with D now since December 1st and we are loving it. The channel numbers will take time getting used to. My only complaint is and I've forgotten the wording, the remote for E didn't have to be pointed at the receiver, Ds has to be. And sometimes it's a little slow bringing the program guide up. HD pic quality is better than Es. And D has the 101 which has programming on it that E didn't (the only one that came close was VOOM).

Jeff

it only has to be pointed itf your an IR, if you go UHF you dont have to. my living room is uhf, bedroom ir
 
some can, the tech mentioned it during my install and asked which way i wanted it, for the hr24. he set it to uhf for me
i think its part of the setup screen iirc
 
UHF was the word I was looking for. Can the remote be programmed to do UHF?

Jeff

The word you are looking for is RF (radio frequency.)
If you have an RF capable remote you can go into the setup menu on the box and change the unit with some codes entered into the remote. The remote model number in the upper left corner will have an R at the end if it is RF compatible.
I have an RC64R that is and a RC64 that is not.
One problem with running in RF mode is that the IR only remote wont control the box so I just leave it in IR so both work.
 
Been with D now since December 1st and we are loving it. The channel numbers will take time getting used to. My only complaint is and I've forgotten the wording, the remote for E didn't have to be pointed at the receiver, Ds has to be. And sometimes it's a little slow bringing the program guide up. HD pic quality is better than Es. And D has the 101 which has programming on it that E didn't (the only one that came close was VOOM).

Jeff

With the RF seting you can set it up so that you dont have to point it. Some of the recievers will have an antana the HR 24's do not. You will find this under the system setup.
 
I've been switched for a week now. I echo all of the "likes" above for D*. The main thing I miss is the PIP on my E* VIP722. I could split the screen and watch a ball game on 1 side and whatever my wife was watching on the other and switch back and forth with the sound as commercials allowed. I don't need sound for most sporting events. Or I could watch 2 ball games at the same time. I had my receiver in single mode. Any chance D* will have PIP functions for the HR24 I now have? I can use the "Double Play" but I only get 1 picture at the time - not the same as PIP. If there were a separate output for each tuner I could utilize the PIP on my TV.
Also, I noticed the HR24 was sluggish changing channels (3-5 secs every change with the up / down button), so I went through the menu and all of the "Formats (480i, 1080i, etc) were selected. I selected only 1080i and 1080p and it sped up (1-2 secs). Before, it was jumping from 1 format to another. Sometimes it would be 1080i, sometimes 720p and sometimes 480i depending on the channel. Now everthing shows as 1080i. Just a tip that may help someone.
 
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Switched in October also..

I see better HD with the units, but I think the SD is worse.

The channel guide from the remote switching pushing the channel down button to go up in numbers?? I think it should be customizable for the user.

MRV?? Blows E* away... Love it

Cinemaplus !!! Thumbs up

Directv2PC - awsome

Able to force the newest download instead of waiting for the downloads to come from E*?? Great

Smart Search - Much better and informative than E*

Able to share media from the PC +++++

Unable to choose the equipment from D* that you are paying for to rent??? Thumbs down

SWM technology? thumbs up..

My lowest CONUS reading from ANY of the three satellites other than I believe a bad transponder on 101 #28 94.. Highest 100's.. Normal signals 95+ 103cb 97%.. Since I have had these units late October I never have lost signal due to heavy rain, sleet, the 6" of snow received last night..

Not having to have the unit shut down once a day to receive the latest program guide data?? +++++++

Remote controls that program themselves from the box?? Another great plus.

UI can be better laid out and look better..

Having the ACTIVE channel and TWC giving my local forecast? Great pluses


I'm sure there are more things to go over, but dollar for dollar , and viewing experience I'm going to stay with D*.. I liked E* bur the SD off TV2 was always a big disappointment, and Charlie promising things like the 922 and it actually comes out a year after the CES show debut because it wasn't fully ready nor tested?? Promises that never came about.. And I think when he on his Chat stated he wouldn't do 3D until technology improved and then months later has 3D boxes?? Well I really don't think he kept in touch with what has been going on in his company IMO. Slingbox is sweet and I think he's focused more on that end and accesorries than the actual receiving equipment.

All opinions are of my own and of my experience with both companies.

Comparing signal strengths between DirecTv and Dish is comparing apple to oranges. Thou Dish engineers are to blame IMO for making it appear there is low signal strength (or not a strong signal). For example, Dish tells techs that transponder 19 on the 119 satellite should be at least in the 80s. Well, the tech may get it up to 90 and think "Damn, I nailed it", yet the customer can be standing there and see 90 based on the scale of 125 and think "shouldn't I be getting a much higher signal strength?" and yet the tech is getting about 100% of the signal in reality.

Just saying don't base it on signal strength numbers, base it on number of rain fades you were having, and it sounds like you were having issues with that with Dish, which is likely an indication of dish being misaligned or signal obstruction.
 
Also, I noticed the HR24 was sluggish changing channels (3-5 secs every change with the up / down button), so I went through the menu and all of the "Formats (480i, 1080i, etc) were selected. I selected only 1080i and 1080p and it sped up (1-2 secs). Before, it was jumping from 1 format to another. Sometimes it would be 1080i, sometimes 720p and sometimes 480i depending on the channel. Now everthing shows as 1080i. Just a tip that may help someone.

Great tip. That really sped things up.
 
yep I agree joefloyd. My TV is only 720p so thats all I set it for
also turn native off...

oh and if you're on a sports channel and the red button "scoreguide" pops up in the corner, hit exit right away and that turns it off until you switch to another sports channel. Again little things can speed it up
 
Just saying don't base it on signal strength numbers, base it on number of rain fades you were having,


They call it "peaking." The tech runs one parameter through the highest signal back and forth until the highest level is obtained both horizontally and vertically. Customers shouldn't watch this. It makes them nuts when they see the 101 sat peaked and then the tech would move it slightly to get an acceptable level on the 103.

As you correctly state: no channels missing, rain fade acceptable...ain't the beer cold!

Joe
 
After spending more time with the system, I'm liking the HD PQ compared to Dish.

That said:

I absolutely HATE the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] guide. It sucks moose testicles.

So much wasted space, yet at the same time cluttered and unreadable. This is one area where Dish got it right and DirecTV got it wrong. Seriously wrong.

P.S. What is up with the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] banner ads throughout the guide? Man, I hate that [EXPLETIVE DELETED]!
 
Switched from Absolute with Dish and had a 722 previously. With Direct, I have two HR24s and a H24.

What I like:

First, I got to say I am shocked at how much better the picture is with DirecTV than what I had with DishNetwork. SHOCKED!!! I've heard others say it was a little better and I just thought maybe I'd see less compression artifacts or something... and I could only see those with DishNetwork if I stood up and got closer to the TV than I would actually watch a program. But there's a greater depth to the picture from DirecTV. Much more clear and three dimensional. DishNetwork is flat in comparison. Of course I'm talking about HD. Since I had Absolute with DishNetwork, the few SD channels were either duplicates or worthless so I didn't watch them and can't give a comparison there. DirecTV's SD doesn't look very good to me but I don't think low resolution signals on a high resolution TV ever looks good.

I was concerned about going from the vip722 to the HR24. I read review after review of the HR24 looking to see if there was a comparison to use of the vip722. Everyone always talked about the sluggishness of the HR series DVRs with terms of hitting a button on the remote and waiting 5-10 seconds for the DVR to respond... that would drive me crazy. The reviews on teh HR24 weren't all that helpful. They pretty much said the HR24 was better but didn't go much farther than that in their description. After using the HR24, I've very pleased. If anything it's zippier than my old vip722.

MRV is a real treat. It's what I've been waiting on for years. I really thought Dish would be the first to do this since they had the Dual DVR thing going so early on and that they had the sling tech built into the vip922 so I thought multi-room DVR in HD was coming on the vip922 but that never materialized. I really think Dish dropped the ball on this one by not realizing what made the Dual DVR idea so attractive to someone like me. I think Dish put too much weight on the idea of only needing one receiver and not enough wait on the idea of being able to manage your DVR throughout the house while watching HD. I have three HDTVs and for the first time ever, I have HD hooked up to all three at the same time.

I like all the extra info regarding programs in the guide (after highlighting a program and hitting 'info'). Much more comprehensive.

I really like Cinemaplus. It's so much better than Dish's On Demand that it's not worth comparing. Not even close. I've been using it to repopulate my DVR with a good selection of movies and also loading up the queue with movies that are at the theaters now for when they become available. I've also been using the DirecTV website to do this. Really cool.

Smart Search is more comprehensive than the search function on the vip722. I like how it looks up VOD stuff as well as future broadcasts. I've noticed a lot of recent network shows available for download via VOD so this will be the first place I look if I miss a recording.

Managing recordings and series is easier to do with more options with the HR24. Took me a bit to figure out the terms though. Everything uses a different word for the things that the vip also does (or does similarly) so at first I thought it didn't do a lot of the things I was expecting to do but I figured it all out, or most of it anyway.

I LOVE Media Share. I had no idea the HR24 would network to my computers. When I saw that it would in the manual, it was just a matter of turning on the media server from my laptop and there was the option on the HR24. Selected it and all my computer media was there for to to use from my DVR. I was expecting to go through and selecting this and that and waiting for things to load and such... just overall expecting to put some effort into it. Nope, clicked on videos and there was our home videos that I'd saved on my computer, selected the first one and started watching the kids playing from 4 years ago. It was all pretty much automatic.

The 'Active' feature is quite cool. I think Dish had something similar but wasn't quite as convenient so we never used it.

I really like how the sports score thing works. I only wish it worked on all channels and not just 'sports' channels. Not that I wasn't cover up part of "Desperate Housewives" to keep track of the NFL game but because most of the sports I watch are on non-sports network channels such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox.

Direct2PC is really cool. I often work in the back yard with a football game being carried to my computer via Slingbox but my Slingbox is a legacy unit without HD. Direct2PC will give me HD access where ever I am within reach of my router.

I like that I can set it to Native output. I know others complain about how long it takes to change the channel but I don't find it all that much slower than what I'm used to with the vip722 if it's slower at all. I guess my TVs do the handshake quickly enough. Also, I didn't think that would be a big issue for me. I'm not a big channel surfer. I find what I want to watch with the guide or playlist, select that, and leave it there.

Now, for what I'm not pleased with:

I'm not crazy about the guide overall. It may be that I just need to get used to it and I'll like it more. My wife is not a 'techie' kind of a person and will often make a quick negative judgment on things and never be able to change her mind. As such, I was very worried she get into that guide and tell me she hated the whole thing. After all, the guide and media list is pretty much all she's ever going to use/see. But to my surprise, she really likes our new system. So the guide can't be that bad. Honestly though, I think it would be MUCH better if when I blocked a channel, it wouldn't show up in the guide, or better yet, I could set it so that the guide didn't show channels I don't subscribe to like on the vip. If it does do that and I'm not seeing how to do it, someone please point me in the right direction. I know I'll get used to the reverse ordering of the channels but there's so much junk it's hard to see what's there, making it almost worthless to simply scroll through to find what's on.

Perhaps my biggest disappointment is the lack of custom folders in the playlist. I used to put all the kids recording in a folder called "Kid's Stuff". Then the stuff that the wife and I would watch would be sorted into categories that I set. Now the categories that I set are pretty similar to the categories that can be sorted from the playlist but I wish I could weed out all that Kid's Stuff. Makes for a much easier to sort through playlist.

Another thing that's bothersome, and it may be that I just haven't figured it out yet, is getting recording to work from the 'keyword' autorecord option the way I'd want to. When setting up a new vip DVR, it was easy to set a series recording for something that didn't happen in the immediate future by using DishPass to record an 'exact' title from a particular channel. I can't seem to figure out how to do that on the HR24. For instance, I want it to record new Hung episodes on the main HBO channel when they start showing them this summer. With DishPass, I'd just set it to record only titles that exactly match "Hung" on channel 300. With the HR24, I can only see how to set it up for an exact channel if there's an episode on that particular channel in the next two weeks which right now is only on 502 and I want it to be on 501 so we get the first showing on HBO East. If I use the keyword autorecord option, I get all kinds of recordings... like Harold and Kumar's White Castle (WTF???).

I wish Direct2PC did live TV. I know all I have to do is set what I want to watch to record and then I can watch it from there but it's less convenient. Small issue really.

As cool as Media Share is, it only supports a limited amount of media file types. I understand why that is and I don't expect it to expand what it supports BUT, it would be cool if there was a little FREE app that could jun in the background of my computers that would re-encode or make shadow copies of my media files so that files that aren't to HR24 standards would still be available. Again, I wasn't expecting Media Share at all so this is a small issue. Another Media Share issue is that it seems to be bit rate sensitive which I find odd. I have two recordings on my computer that were recorded from an OTA ABC broadcast. It would start playing them and then simply state the video bitrate was too and high and stop playing it. Seemed kinda strange that the HR24 can send HD video via Direct2PC but can't receive it via the same network but maybe that's an issue that will be worked out in the future, I did notice that it's being called 'beta' right now.


All in all, very happy with the transition. It's hard to argue against the better picture and MRV.
 
What I like:

First, I got to say I am shocked at how much better the picture is with DirecTV than what I had with DishNetwork. SHOCKED!!! I've heard others say it was a little better and I just thought maybe I'd see less compression artifacts or something... and I could only see those with DishNetwork if I stood up and got closer to the TV than I would actually watch a program. But there's a greater depth to the picture from DirecTV. Much more clear and three dimensional. DishNetwork is flat in comparison. Of course I'm talking about HD. Since I had Absolute with DishNetwork, the few SD channels were either duplicates or worthless so I didn't watch them and can't give a comparison there. DirecTV's SD doesn't look very good to me but I don't think low resolution signals on a high resolution TV ever looks good.

I was concerned about going from the vip722 to the HR24. I read review after review of the HR24 looking to see if there was a comparison to use of the vip722. Everyone always talked about the sluggishness of the HR series DVRs with terms of hitting a button on the remote and waiting 5-10 seconds for the DVR to respond... that would drive me crazy. The reviews on teh HR24 weren't all that helpful. They pretty much said the HR24 was better but didn't go much farther than that in their description. After using the HR24, I've very pleased. If anything it's zippier than my old vip722.

MRV is a real treat. It's what I've been waiting on for years. I really thought Dish would be the first to do this since they had the Dual DVR thing going so early on and that they had the sling tech built into the vip922 so I thought multi-room DVR in HD was coming on the vip922 but that never materialized. I really think Dish dropped the ball on this one by not realizing what made the Dual DVR idea so attractive to someone like me. I think Dish put too much weight on the idea of only needing one receiver and not enough wait on the idea of being able to manage your DVR throughout the house while watching HD. I have three HDTVs and for the first time ever, I have HD hooked up to all three at the same time.

I like all the extra info regarding programs in the guide (after highlighting a program and hitting 'info'). Much more comprehensive.

I really like Cinemaplus. It's so much better than Dish's On Demand that it's not worth comparing. Not even close. I've been using it to repopulate my DVR with a good selection of movies and also loading up the queue with movies that are at the theaters now for when they become available. I've also been using the DirecTV website to do this. Really cool.

Smart Search is more comprehensive than the search function on the vip722. I like how it looks up VOD stuff as well as future broadcasts. I've noticed a lot of recent network shows available for download via VOD so this will be the first place I look if I miss a recording.

Managing recordings and series is easier to do with more options with the HR24. Took me a bit to figure out the terms though. Everything uses a different word for the things that the vip also does (or does similarly) so at first I thought it didn't do a lot of the things I was expecting to do but I figured it all out, or most of it anyway.

I LOVE Media Share. I had no idea the HR24 would network to my computers. When I saw that it would in the manual, it was just a matter of turning on the media server from my laptop and there was the option on the HR24. Selected it and all my computer media was there for to to use from my DVR. I was expecting to go through and selecting this and that and waiting for things to load and such... just overall expecting to put some effort into it. Nope, clicked on videos and there was our home videos that I'd saved on my computer, selected the first one and started watching the kids playing from 4 years ago. It was all pretty much automatic.

The 'Active' feature is quite cool. I think Dish had something similar but wasn't quite as convenient so we never used it.

I really like how the sports score thing works. I only wish it worked on all channels and not just 'sports' channels. Not that I wasn't cover up part of "Desperate Housewives" to keep track of the NFL game but because most of the sports I watch are on non-sports network channels such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox.

Direct2PC is really cool. I often work in the back yard with a football game being carried to my computer via Slingbox but my Slingbox is a legacy unit without HD. Direct2PC will give me HD access where ever I am within reach of my router.

I like that I can set it to Native output. I know others complain about how long it takes to change the channel but I don't find it all that much slower than what I'm used to with the vip722 if it's slower at all. I guess my TVs do the handshake quickly enough. Also, I didn't think that would be a big issue for me. I'm not a big channel surfer. I find what I want to watch with the guide or playlist, select that, and leave it there.

Now, for what I'm not pleased with:

I'm not crazy about the guide overall. It may be that I just need to get used to it and I'll like it more. My wife is not a 'techie' kind of a person and will often make a quick negative judgment on things and never be able to change her mind. As such, I was very worried she get into that guide and tell me she hated the whole thing. After all, the guide and media list is pretty much all she's ever going to use/see. But to my surprise, she really likes our new system. So the guide can't be that bad. Honestly though, I think it would be MUCH better if when I blocked a channel, it wouldn't show up in the guide, or better yet, I could set it so that the guide didn't show channels I don't subscribe to like on the vip. If it does do that and I'm not seeing how to do it, someone please point me in the right direction. I know I'll get used to the reverse ordering of the channels but there's so much junk it's hard to see what's there, making it almost worthless to simply scroll through to find what's on.

Perhaps my biggest disappointment is the lack of custom folders in the playlist. I used to put all the kids recording in a folder called "Kid's Stuff". Then the stuff that the wife and I would watch would be sorted into categories that I set. Now the categories that I set are pretty similar to the categories that can be sorted from the playlist but I wish I could weed out all that Kid's Stuff. Makes for a much easier to sort through playlist.

Another thing that's bothersome, and it may be that I just haven't figured it out yet, is getting recording to work from the 'keyword' autorecord option the way I'd want to. When setting up a new vip DVR, it was easy to set a series recording for something that didn't happen in the immediate future by using DishPass to record an 'exact' title from a particular channel. I can't seem to figure out how to do that on the HR24. For instance, I want it to record new Hung episodes on the main HBO channel when they start showing them this summer. With DishPass, I'd just set it to record only titles that exactly match "Hung" on channel 300. With the HR24, I can only see how to set it up for an exact channel if there's an episode on that particular channel in the next two weeks which right now is only on 502 and I want it to be on 501 so we get the first showing on HBO East. If I use the keyword autorecord option, I get all kinds of recordings... like Harold and Kumar's White Castle (WTF???).

I wish Direct2PC did live TV. I know all I have to do is set what I want to watch to record and then I can watch it from there but it's less convenient. Small issue really.

As cool as Media Share is, it only supports a limited amount of media file types. I understand why that is and I don't expect it to expand what it supports BUT, it would be cool if there was a little FREE app that could jun in the background of my computers that would re-encode or make shadow copies of my media files so that files that aren't to HR24 standards would still be available. Again, I wasn't expecting Media Share at all so this is a small issue. Another Media Share issue is that it seems to be bit rate sensitive which I find odd. I have two recordings on my computer that were recorded from an OTA ABC broadcast. It would start playing them and then simply state the video bitrate was too and high and stop playing it. Seemed kinda strange that the HR24 can send HD video via Direct2PC but can't receive it via the same network but maybe that's an issue that will be worked out in the future, I did notice that it's being called 'beta' right now.


All in all, very happy with the transition. It's hard to argue against the better picture and MRV.

Mr. Zulu, I couldn't agree more. Your what I like and what I don't like lists pretty much mimic what I would have stated, so I won't repeat.

In addition, I would like to add though: I made the switch a month ago, since they no longer had Comcast Sport California on DISH. Now with Direct, I do again, including the Plus channel and all in HD as long as the event is in HD. None of this JIP crap. I now get MLBTV HD too, so that's another added bonus. Very happy to be on board with Direct TV, and this is coming from former long term (14 years) DISH Network customer.
 
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