New HD TV - Old 301 receiver

[JeffPgh]

Newbie here - first post... Just took the plunge & bought a Panasonic PT50LC14 LCD RP TV and Denon D-M51DVS home theater system. Me happy. Except for the picture quality on most of my regular SD broadcast. It's now time to get an updated receiver and programming. Cable HD not available in my area yet (my first choice). Don't need DVR (yet!) What are my options with Dish right now? Direct TV any better? Voom content seems subpar and I don't want to get into any committment... Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Thanks

 

[chevyN8]

You can get the 811 from dish. That will give you the option for OTA HDTV and a few HDTV channels. SD picture quality isn't going to improve though and may be worse if you use the 811's DVI or component output on the SD stuff.

 

[rcbridge]

At this time Direct TV has a few more HD channels than Dish, with either service you can get intergrated OTA tuner for local HD. If you don't want any commitments you will pay full price for equipment. Also check www.antennaweb.org for OTA HD availability in your area. If you choose OTA route you can purchase a STB they start about $200 and go up from there.

 

[JeffPgh]

You can get the 811 from dish. That will give you the option for OTA HDTV and a few HDTV channels. SD picture quality isn't going to improve though and may be worse if you use the 811's DVI or component output on the SD stuff.

Since most of the content is SD and the SD PQ isn't going to improve, I wonder if I'm better off going the digital cable route. Do you know if SD PQ via digital cable is any better than via a dish, generally???

 

[BFG]

yes. But Dish's HD pack basically has the same channels as the others, I think it will satisfy you quite nicely.

 

[sprintcarcrazy]

I tested the digitle cable waters last week, 1-100, analog and crappy and contained most of what we watched. SD quality only slightly better than dish. HD quality, cable had a couple more stations, but picture alot softer than dish. I stuck with Dish.

I am now going to try Voom, even know they may not be around long.

As Dish has not made any announcements about increasing HD and seem only interested in adding bingo TV and other garbage, I would probably go with Direct TV.

And as far as picture quality on these new LCD and DLP stuff, it's not grate unless it's in HD or OTA.

 

[Fredinva]

Well, that depends on your TV (brand and model).

MY SD picture is very good, and OTA SD (Letterman) almost looks like HD.

Call Dish, Their Dishinitup promotion may get you an 811 for free.

fred

 

[JimMcC]

Sd

Jeff, have you calibrated your TV with a calibration disc, such as Avia, Digital Video Essentials, or the Sound and Vision disc? If not, you should do that first, then check for improvement.

 

[scottss810]

When I got a 46' Hitachi, I still had my 301 connected to it, with one 811 connected to a Samsung HDTV, and the picture was much worse with the 301 then when I connected another 811 to the 46'. Lots of pixelization. Some channels are pretty darn
good in SD, some just so, so, some sux-especially locals. If I was to get an 811 now I'd lease it, wouldn't buy it with the 4MPEG in the works. I use DVI cable and PQ was about the same has componet, but each TV seems to behave differently with different hook ups, but in my case the 811's much better than the 301 in PQ in SD,and OTA HD's great. But now that they've got alot of the bugs worked out of the software,(811) they're going to switch to 4MPEG so their software techs have some new stuff to fix for another year or so.

 

[JeffPgh]

Jeff, have you calibrated your TV with a calibration disc, such as Avia, Digital Video Essentials, or the Sound and Vision disc? If not, you should do that first, then check for improvement.

No, I haven't. Thanks for the advise. I think I'll do that first and see if I can get an 801 to try out.

 

[chevyN8]

Yes it does depend on the TV. In my case, my TV does a much better job upconverting the 480i signal than the 811 does. Quite a few people watch the SD content using the s-video instead of the HD component/DVI because of the poor upconversion.