REALLY Need Some Advice

[buzaggie]

Hi All:
I am currently a DISH customer with a 522. I just purchased an HD TV. I really want to subscribe to HD programming but am having trouble deciding whether or not to go with Comcast or stick with DISH. I know Comcast has an HD DVR as well as DISH so I figure no advantage there either way. However, I hear that Comcast has many more HD channels in my area (Salt Lake City). Can some one tell me why I shouldn't go with Comcast??? Another draw back is that local ABC HD is not available in my area with DISH. Any thoughts? I really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

 

[navychop]

How many national HD channels does your local Comcast provide? Dish provides 30.

The Dish ViP622 HD DVR is probably the best on the market. AFAIK it is better than any cableco DVR- except some cableco DVRs will allow external storage. My guess is that the ViP622 will get external storage after CES, probably in February. But who knows?

For ABC HD, why not go with an OTA antenna? If you can receive your local stations that way, the quality will likely be higher than thru any other source. And it's free.

Welcome to our little community.

 

[schwing2000]

dont bother with the 522 or dish for that matter

Hi All:
I am currently a DISH customer with a 522. I just purchased an HD TV. I really want to subscribe to HD programming but am having trouble deciding whether or not to go with Comcast or stick with DISH. I know Comcast has an HD DVR as well as DISH so I figure no advantage there either way. However, I hear that Comcast has many more HD channels in my area (Salt Lake City). Can some one tell me why I shouldn't go with Comcast??? Another draw back is that local ABC HD is not available in my area with DISH. Any thoughts? I really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

I just switched to DTV (For reasons I have metioned all over this forum). The 522 cannot produce a true 16:9 aspect ratio so your HD will look stretched. I am also in the SLC area but I don't know much about HD availability since I am a tight wad and don't have it yet but I do know that you can get a local antena and get most local HD channels for free. I do know that both dish and dtv are working on increasing the # of hd channels. I don't know if I would go with comcast either since they are truly a rip off (tight wad speaking again. Anyway, back to the point, if you are going HD, a 522 is NOT going to cut it. There are also all kinds of software issues with this model right now. My brother talked me into DTV and he has a big HD tv. He seems to be happier with it. Good luck

 

[Jim5506]

Wow, sour grapes and bovine scatology in one salad.

It's a 622, by the way, and it does easily do 16:9 (where did that come from?). Mine even does 2.35:1 and 4:3.

The Dish Vip622 is the best HD DVR available with fewer problems than Direct or cable DVr's.

 

[garys]

i think several of these posters think the HD tv is all they need and cannot understand that the 522 (yes, I think they mean 522) does not give a better HD picture.

 

[navychop]

The 522 does not receive HD. It is a 4x3 SD only receiver. Since it cannot receive HD, it cannot make your HD look "stretched."

Bottom line: Dish has 30 national HD channels. DTV has many fewer. Both offer some HD locals- DTV has the edge here. But if you can get your digital stations OTA, that is the better and cheaper route. DTV compresses their HD more than Dish so the PQ is lower.

You really need to read a lot of posts, in order to filter out the "misinformed."

 

[Mr Tony]

I just switched to DTV (For reasons I have metioned all over this forum). The 522 cannot produce a true 16:9 aspect ratio so your HD will look stretched. I am also in the SLC area but I don't know much about HD availability since I am a tight wad and don't have it yet but I do know that you can get a local antena and get most local HD channels for free. I do know that both dish and dtv are working on increasing the # of hd channels. I don't know if I would go with comcast either since they are truly a rip off (tight wad speaking again. Anyway, back to the point, if you are going HD, a 522 is NOT going to cut it. There are also all kinds of software issues with this model right now. My brother talked me into DTV and he has a big HD tv. He seems to be happier with it. Good luck

maybe because the 522 doesn't do HD

 

[Mike_H]

Unless there is content on cable that you can't get on Dish, there is absolutly no reason to switch to cable after you've got Dish. the Dish Network brand DVR's are by far some of the best units out there in functionality. The key being the dual tuner functionality with independant viewing through the agile modulators and RF remotes.

they drive me nuts at times, but dish still is better than any experience I've ever had with a local cable company.

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

I had a 622 and live in the SLC area. I just put up a OTA antenna and I used that more often than anything. The OTA was much better quality than the Sat HD locals. As for the 622 I never had any software errors with it. It locked up a few times but nothing major. It will do 16 x 9. I ended up getting rid of it due to there wasent much on the HD channels I watched and I got tired of the 129 always going away once the weather got bad. I think there are some problems with the Dish HD system but in time they will get fixed.

 

[Jim5506]

i think several of these posters think the HD tv is all they need and cannot understand that the 522 (yes, I think they mean 522) does not give a better HD picture.

Oh, It's worse than I thought.

 

[schwing2000]

hmmm

The 522 does not receive HD. It is a 4x3 SD only receiver. Since it cannot receive HD, it cannot make your HD look "stretched."

Bottom line: Dish has 30 national HD channels. DTV has many fewer. Both offer some HD locals- DTV has the edge here. But if you can get your digital stations OTA, that is the better and cheaper route. DTV compresses their HD more than Dish so the PQ is lower.

You really need to read a lot of posts, in order to filter out the "misinformed."

I am really glad to have some enlightened folks out there who know the facts but are full of crap. You're right about the misinformed (IE me). FYI, start the filter here. I am not informed at all, in fact, I am pretty new to this whole thing but I know this: I have a 522 and when I change my aspect ratio on my tv or projector to 16:9, the image is stretched.

 

[schwing2000]

nice

Wow, sour grapes and bovine scatology in one salad.

It's a 622, by the way, and it does easily do 16:9 (where did that come from?). Mine even does 2.35:1 and 4:3.

The Dish Vip622 is the best HD DVR available with fewer problems than Direct or cable DVr's.

Someone's been reading the thesaurus again though scatology is, technically speaking, the study of excrement, not the excrement itself so you're Yale humor doesn't even make sense. You should spend more time reading what you are going to critisize instead. I was talking about a 522, not a 622 and exactly what Direct dvr models are you referring to? I keep hearing these general statements about direct having more issues. I don't claim any expertise at all. In fact, I am really new at this, but I just switched to Direct and have an R15 that has no issues at all. From us uneducated hicks, enjoy yer dishes yall, i got me a direct:

 

[webbydude]

I am really glad to have some enlightened folks out there who know the facts but are full of crap. You're right about the misinformed (IE me). FYI, start the filter here. I am not informed at all, in fact, I am pretty new to this whole thing but I know this: I have a 522 and when I change my aspect ratio on my tv or projector to 16:9, the image is stretched.

And rightly so...it SHOULD be stretched. Think about it....you're adding more width than there should be to a 4:3 signal. Example: multiply 3 X's the 4:3 ratio....you'll get 12:9. In order to fill the remaining "4", you're having to distort your width to accommodate the 16:9. You're best bet is to leave your HD television in 4:3 format and live with the so-called blackbands on the left and right side of your screen if don't want to see any stretch/distortion.

The only other option would be to upgrade the 522 to a 622 receiver. The latter actually does HD, versus the SD in the former.

 

[sprintcarcrazy]

Still amazed that the amount of people buying HDTV's taking them home, hooking them up to analog cable and thinking that they now have HD ! I bet it's 50 percent or higher.

 

[Tampa8]

Still amazed that the amount of people buying HDTV's taking them home, hooking them up to analog cable and thinking that they now have HD ! I bet it's 50 percent or higher.

Soooo true. The orignal poster is clearly talking about getting HD. What in the world does a 522 model have to do with that? My neighbor has the VIP622. It really is a nice receiver. While I have always liked Dish overall, I could not defend some of their receivers in the past. (I.E. the Dishplayer and the 942, among others - very buggy) but the tables have turned. From my experience even the 508 is a very solid model after many years of service.

Also great advice about OTA - If you can get HD OTA that's the way to go. Because I can get all the networks OTA (I use an old RCA HD receiver) I do not subscribe to any HD from Dish. When/if more channels are broadcast in HD - AND have enough HD programming I will look into going to a Dish HD receiver.

 

[navychop]

I am really glad to have some enlightened folks out there who know the facts but are full of crap. You're right about the misinformed (IE me). FYI, start the filter here. I am not informed at all, in fact, I am pretty new to this whole thing but I know this: I have a 522 and when I change my aspect ratio on my tv or projector to 16:9, the image is stretched.

Check your projector/TV settings. You may be able to adjust. You might adjust your attitude also. It's not difficult to be polite.

Note my comment was "it can't make your HD look stretched." That's because the 522 does not get HD, does not display HD, and therefore cannot make HD look "stretched."

 

[wayne231]

I hate it but I'm probably going to switch to Direct. I've been with dish since the begining but it's not working out at the moment and the moment is all I have. The Direct HD receiver has two OTA tuners and Direct carries 3 of the four Local stations in HD here. Wednesday night was a fiasco here. Couldn't record but one show in HD out of the three I wanted (Lost, CSI NY and Medium). That's getting old with $10,000 worth of Dish equiptment and a $150.00 a month bill.

 

[BuddyBoy]

Still amazed that the amount of people buying HDTV's taking them home, hooking them up to analog cable and thinking that they now have HD ! I bet it's 50 percent or higher.

Oh man. I gave my sister a 56" JVC 1080p LCoS set for Xmas, and told her husband to hook up a UHF antenna to it. I called them a few days later and they weren't sure they were watching HD, but said they were happy with the picture because "it's really big". I finally checked a few weeks later, and no, they hadn't figured out how to tune the digital channels, and were pretty shocked at the difference when they first saw "Crossing Jordan" in HD.

There ought to be an HD police.

 

[navychop]

Ain't it the truth.

 

[schwing2000]

You are right

Check your projector/TV settings. You may be able to adjust. You might adjust your attitude also. It's not difficult to be polite.

Note my comment was "it can't make your HD look stretched." That's because the 522 does not get HD, does not display HD, and therefore cannot make HD look "stretched."

You are right, sorry about the last couple of posts. I was in true weenie mode. Anyway, I switched to Direct so the issue doesn't really matter anymore. The 522's still have that audio noise issue and I couldn't take it anymore.