Sonicview 8000HD or Viewsonic 9000HD

[username]

I want to buy a HD receiver but I am having a hard time deciding from these two.

Sonicview 8000HD
Viewsonic 9000HD

They seem similar and I was wondering if anyone who owns any of these give their personal opinion or review on them. Thanks in advance.

 

[techno935]

It's funny you mention the 2 receivers. I live down the road from a local store that only has those 2 HD boxes. The rest of the IRDs are SD (standard definition). The owner claimed that they're identical but I doubt it.

The Viewsat claims to do DVB-S2, the Sonicview doesn't. If I had to choose between the two, it would be the Viewsat. Just my opinion.

DVB-S2 is a new generation of modulation that is starting to show up more often that not.

 

[cracklincrotch]

I've got a VS9000. I have a some beefs with it:

1. Optical audio cuts in and out from time to time. Changing the channel will fix it. HDMI output is decoded digital and is not affected. Regular stereo outputs are also not affected.
2. Claims to have blind scan. The menu is there for it, and it scans. But it's a software scan, and it isn't too good. In fact I found it so unreliable it may as well not be there. If you don't have a reliable source for wild feeds, get a good hardware scan box.
3. DVR capability is useless without EPG data. So, no DVR with FTA unless you hit the record button manually. You also have to watch whatever it is you're recording, like you would with a VCR because the second tuner doesn't work yet.
4. Claims diseqc 1.1. Like any other Viewsat box, Viewsat claims it does it, but it doesn't. Works well with a diseqc 1.2 switch though.
5. The channel editor software for Windows SUCKS.

I DO like that you can specify a DVB-S2 transponder in the channel menu with the remote control, and don't need any special software to do it.

The VS9000 v2 comes with a cooling fan built in, dual DVB-S2 tuners, OTA ATSC tuner that claims to work with the DVR. Any USB hard disk will work with this box so long as it's formatted with a FAT32 format utility. But since I don't get any guide info, I haven't bothered to record anything yet outside of testing it.

I find the picture quality on HD feeds and PBS quite satisfactory on my Toshiba 42HL167 42" LCD.

I haven't used any other FTA HD box. The reason I purchased the VS9000 is that I have a local distributor I can return it to for warranty if necessary, and no other box had everything I wanted. So, if I can't get what I wanted, but wanted a HD box, may as well be one I can get replaced same-day.

 

[username]

I've asked alot of people of which one is better and everyone has said the sonicview 8000 is better