Recording with an 811

[DarrellP]

I am very displeased with the recording PQ I am getting via S-Video from the 811, I get all kinds of what looks like vertical scan lines and jaggies plus the image is very, very soft. I've used my 6000 & Voom stb for recording in the past and always had an excellent picture. Is there something inherently defective about the S-Video output on the 811? Has anyone tried Composite to compare?

Thanks.

 

[DWS44]

I record from mine using composite, and the results are less than spectacular as well.

 

[MichaelG]

I record from mine using composite, and the results are less than spectacular as well.

Very very soft picture. The Voom STB was much better in this aspect.
I think the 811 is an overrated box ....and E* wants $399 for it?

And that program guide.....geez.....they say 2 days but I have never seem to have more than 40 hours of guide listed.

 

[mdonnelly]

...I think the 811 is an overrated box ....

What reviews have YOU been reading?

 

[bobhaze]

I agree, the Voom box was much better. I've tried both composite ans S-video. I have a couple of recordings on the PC I made before Voom died, and made some recent recordings of the same programs from the 811 for comparison. The Motorola box output is far superior in clarity and color. The Voom box also had the handy squeeze mode that let you fit the full 16:9 picture in a 4:3 frame that could be played back in stretch mode.

Bob.

 

[DucTape]

Damn shame and I was actually considering upgrading to this box.

 

[MichaelG]

What reviews have YOU been reading?

None......don't need to at this point.......I have an 811 (2 in fact and a 942) and in my comparison, the 811s are not as capable as the Voom STB or my three D* Samsung SIR-TS360s.

As far as reviews go ........ does it matter? ... E* doesn't give much choice if you want their HD programming......

 

[mdonnelly]

None......don't need to at this point.......I have an 811 (2 in fact and a 942) and in my comparison, the 811s are not as capable as the Voom STB or my three D* Samsung SIR-TS360s.

As far as reviews go ........ does it matter? ... E* doesn't give much choice if you want their HD programming......

My point was, no one rates the 811 highly in ANYTHING, so how can it be "overrated".

 

[StevenD]

It took Dish over half a year just to get the brightness to a decent level on the 811. When I first got it, it was completely unwatchable via anything but component.

 

[waltinvt]

I am very displeased with the recording PQ I am getting via S-Video from the 811, I get all kinds of what looks like vertical scan lines and jaggies plus the image is very, very soft. I've used my 6000 & Voom stb for recording in the past and always had an excellent picture. Is there something inherently defective about the S-Video output on the 811? Has anyone tried Composite to compare?

Thanks.

I used to burn dvds from an 811 and a 508 to a Panasonic E85 via S-Video. I found that most of the HD programs came out real well at the SP speed - some even as good as commerical dvds (there are some settings involved with the E85 that really make a difference too).

SD from the 811 to dvd was not an option - it looked terrible. Some SD from the 508 to dvd came out pretty good but a lot of it was not much better than a vhs tape.

One thing I did notice is that the PQ I'd see while recording was usually not as good as what I'd see on the finished dvd when played back on a stand alone player thru component. In other words, in my case, signals that come thru my dvd recorder back to my tv do not look as good as they really are. My dvd recorder is not a great player and does not pass a signal on well.

I ran a S-Vid direct from the 811 to my TV once and it looked pretty decent - better than when looped thru the dvd recorder.

Hope some of this helped.

 

[waltinvt]

None......don't need to at this point.......I have an 811 (2 in fact and a 942) and in my comparison, the 811s are not as capable as the Voom STB or my three D* Samsung SIR-TS360s.

As far as reviews go ........ does it matter? ... E* doesn't give much choice if you want their HD programming......

How would you rate your 942 and have you tried burning dvds from it? I just got mine and since there is no S-Vid output, I'm not sure what will give the best results for dvds, RF or composite. Right now I'm still trying to figure out how to get the picture to frame properly. HD looks great but is off center (low & left by at least an inch). SD looks good too but I can't get it to stretch / zoom properly from the composite outputs. With my 811 and 508, I could use my TV's "Cinerama" zoom setting and get a good picture that filled my 16:9 screen with very little distortion and loss of PQ. With the 942 thru composite, I'm getting black bars that don't go away when I use the tv's zoom settings.

It's kind of hard to discribe but the 942 is definitly doing something different to the signal through the composite than either the 508 or 811 did through S-Video.

 

[MichaelG]

How would you rate your 942 and have you tried burning dvds from it? I just got mine and since there is no S-Vid output, I'm not sure what will give the best results for dvds, RF or composite. Right now I'm still trying to figure out how to get the picture to frame properly. HD looks great but is off center (low & left by at least an inch). SD looks good too but I can't get it to stretch / zoom properly from the composite outputs. With my 811 and 508, I could use my TV's "Cinerama" zoom setting and get a good picture that filled my 16:9 screen with very little distortion and loss of PQ. With the 942 thru composite, I'm getting black bars that don't go away when I use the tv's zoom settings.

It's kind of hard to discribe but the 942 is definitly doing something different to the signal through the composite than either the 508 or 811 did through S-Video.

The signal from the composite output is clean but very very soft. Not as sharp as the SVideo port on the Voom Moto box. I haven't had much time to do extensive testing as I am on my 2nd 942 and I still have a pending service call for tomorrow. For some reason the 942 cannot receive a signal from the 110 bird on TP18. All the other sats and TPs come in and this problem only applies to the 942....not to the 811s....they receive the 110 TP18 just fine.

So far since my install on May 6th, I have spent about 8 hours on the phone with E* support and had 2 additional on-site troubleshooters. Tomorrow will make the 3rd visit. I am going to insist that they change out the 110 LNB, the DPP44 switch and run a second line to the 942 to eliminate the separator.....just to be safe.

 

[waltinvt]

The signal from the composite output is clean but very very soft. Not as sharp as the SVideo port on the Voom Moto box. I haven't had much time to do extensive testing as I am on my 2nd 942 and I still have a pending service call for tomorrow. For some reason the 942 cannot receive a signal from the 110 bird on TP18. All the other sats and TPs come in and this problem only applies to the 942....not to the 811s....they receive the 110 TP18 just fine.

So far since my install on May 6th, I have spent about 8 hours on the phone with E* support and had 2 additional on-site troubleshooters. Tomorrow will make the 3rd visit. I am going to insist that they change out the 110 LNB, the DPP44 switch and run a second line to the 942 to eliminate the separator.....just to be safe.

Sorry to hear about your signal problems. Hope they get them straightened out soon.

Maybe the "softness" is something you can fix with settings on the TV.

I wonder what kind of results can be had with the 942's RF output - maybe I'll get a chance to check that out this weekend.

This is probably a stupid question but is there a way to convert / adapt the 942's component output to S-Video and if so, I wonder how well it would work.

 

[caam1]

The 6000 picture quality on the s-video/composite outputs is much better than the 811, especially on the HD channels. I tried the s-video output on the 811 and the results were horrible compared to the 6000 when recording to DVD. The 811 has a lot more motion and scaling artifacts on the SD outputs than the 6000. They seem especially bad on 720p channels such as ESPN. I am glad that I kept my 6000 when I got the 811s. I use the 6000 or my Samsung OTA box for recording to DVD and the results are quite good.

 

[MichaelG]

Sorry to hear about your signal problems. Hope they get them straightened out soon.

Maybe the "softness" is something you can fix with settings on the TV.

I wonder what kind of results can be had with the 942's RF output - maybe I'll get a chance to check that out this weekend.

This is probably a stupid question but is there a way to convert / adapt the 942's component output to S-Video and if so, I wonder how well it would work.

Someone else could probably give you a better technical answer about the Y channel (black), but I know there are commerically available S-Video to RCA/composite cables. I think they are used to connect computer video cards to TV composite inputs. I can't see why they wouldn't work the other way......composite to SVideo. Anyone?

It is a limitation on the 942's part....I wonder what the motive was on E*'s part to leave it off.......I find it hard to believe it was just cost.

 

[Carl B]

The output PQ of any of the inexpensive composite to s-video conversion devices will leave something to be desired. The s-video PQ won't be as good as s-video out of a STB.

I have and 811 and I do my DVD recording off the s-video output. The composite output is definitely softer and lacks the resolution clarity of the s-video output. The s-video out produces adequate DVD recordings. Garbage in, garbage out. Recordings of E* HD and OTA HD & DTV broadcasts produce excellent video, less the widescreen capability. Recordings of E* SD produce the same level of crap PQ as is provided by E* going in. No worse, sometimes a little better.

The lack of an s-video output on the 942 is a technological step backward and another of several fatal flaws with that unit. Coupled with having only one OTA tuner and no path forward to MPEG-4, it would only be deal as a monthly charge rental, nothing down/

 

[DarrellP]

Thanks guys for confirming my findings that the 811's S-Video port sucks. I put my 6000 in the family room as I wanted to be able to record while watching HD. I'll have to start using my Voom box to record all of my OTA now and it looks like I am SOL for recording anything off Dish until they upgrade to MPEG-4.

 

[Carl B]

The 811's composite video port sucks, the s-video port is average.

 

[scottabs]

I used to burn dvds from an 811 and a 508 to a Panasonic E85 via S-Video. I found that most of the HD programs came out real well at the SP speed - some even as good as commerical dvds (there are some settings involved with the E85 that really make a difference too).

Waltinvt,

I have the E85 also. What settings did you change that make a difference?

 

[waltinvt]

Waltinvt,

I have the E85 also. What settings did you change that make a difference?

There's a thread somewhere (maybe AVS) where a guy really got into the settings for the E85 - I'll try and find the link.

One thing is setting the VBR to fixed. That way you can effectivly use SP mode for a lot more than the normal 2 hrs & 6 minutes. I think at least 2 1/2 hrs, maybe more. Using SP with VBR fixed provides a higher bitrate for burns over 2:06 than than FP does.

When you start to get closer to 3 hrs, then go to 2 disks instead of dropping to the LP setting.

Basically you're using SP with VBR fixed for everything. Forget LP and EP unless it's just audio. XP maybe if you've got a special, less than 1 hour show but really, SP will cover most of your needs.