Surround Sound

[Ed_Roch]

Hi Am seriously considering getting Dish Network with the 522. Reading posts here have made me decide to wait a little bit longer till things settle out better regarding the software.

Two questions I did have though, I've read alot about software issues. Am wondering how well the S video cable connection and the optical cable connection work on 522?? Since I haven't read anything, I assume OK?? Any issues there? Does it give 5.1 output when connected to surround sound?

Also wondering about the $5 per month saving as long as phone line is connected. Does it have to be connected every minute of the month? What happens if for example a storm takes your phone line down for a day or two? Will you be charged the $5 then, or do they just check that it's connected most of the time?

 

[Hall]

People have actually mentioned issues with "Dolby Digital" sound but I don't recall the specifics.

I have mine connected via S-Video and have no problems.

Who knows how the $5 charge works in regards to keeping the receiver plugged in. Is it just random ?? I think my bigger concern would be lack of phone service for two days vs Dish charging me $5... If you have it plugged in, as far as they can tell, for many, many months and then all of a sudden they think it's disconnected, I'm sure a phone call and some insistence on your part that it's really connected will get that fee reversed.

 

[charper1]

Souround doesn't always mean 5.1
Some souround is simulated or is Pro Logic (not true 5.1)
True 5.1 (and better) only works when:

Your satellite & A/V receiver support it AND the original source material is encoded AND the provider (ESPN, HBO, etc) sends along that encoding in their uplink signal AND DISH sends it to you in their downlink signal. Just because you may see the 5.1 logo on your show, doesn't mean 100% that you are getting it or that it's really available to you.

 

[cheezwiz]

Also wondering about the $5 per month saving as long as phone line is connected. Does it have to be connected every minute of the month? What happens if for example a storm takes your phone line down for a day or two? Will you be charged the $5 then, or do they just check that it's connected most of the time?

There is no "Saving" $5 for keeping the phone line in.. The $5 charge is punishment for not having it plugged in to prove you are not stealing from them...

 

[ShadowEKU]

about 98% of the programming is not in 5.1DD there is a good deal on HBO and PPV but thats really about it on that. the sound is slightly better when connected to the optical input and if a program is in DD and Dish sends it in DD then your reciever switches to the DD stream and you get the nice digital sound...

All of my recievers are hooked in to their respective TV's via the S-Video and I have to say its is exceptional VS the Coax and better than the Composite

 

[TuxCoder]

Your satellite & A/V receiver support it AND the original source material is encoded AND the provider (ESPN, HBO, etc) sends along that encoding in their uplink signal AND DISH sends it to you in their downlink signal.

You should probably mention also that DD requires the optical "toslink" connection. The L/R "RCA" connections can only carry Dolby Pro Logic at best. To confuse matters even more, there's also digital coax via a single (not L/R) "RCA" connector but the 522 doesn't have that. I've used both digital coax and toslink and haven't had issues with either. Of course the sound is the same for both since it's digital. I prefer optical though because it isolates (electrically) the 522 from the stereo receiver. Plus it's .

cheezwiz, I was about to make the phone line $5 clarification until I saw you post it. People call it a "discount" but I disagree also. It's not that "you save $5", it's that "you avoid the extra $5 they want to charge you". It's not included in the programming package price or anything.

 

[haertig]

Two questions I did have though, I've read alot about software issues. Am wondering how well the S video cable connection and the optical cable connection work on 522?? Since I haven't read anything, I assume OK?? Any issues there? Does it give 5.1 output when connected to surround sound?

Audio: I have optical hooked up to my my receiver and the receiver set to "auto detect". I have never seen a DD or DTS signal being detected from Dish. Only ProLogic. I do not use PPV or the premium channels. Just the standard America's 120, or whatever they call that. Auto-detect on my receiver works just fine, it successfully (and correctly) detects ProLogic/DD/DTS from the DVD player. BTW, the 522 only supports optical, not coax for digital audio.

Video: I have not tried S-video. My TV is pretty stupid and only has one S-video input (excluding the extra input on front panel - but who want's to use that?!) So my one S-video input is used for the DVD player. There are enough digital artifacts in the Dish picture that I can't imagine S-video would gain you anything in picture quality. Probably just slightly sharper artifacts! What I see most, artifact-wise, is pixellation in the darker areas. Occasional video dropouts, and rarely a slightly "jerky" picture, similar to what you'd see with too low of a frame rate. The COMB filter in my TV is a good one, so there's little difference between S-Video and standard RCA video anyway. My TV doesn't do component video, otherwise I'd give such an input to the DVD player and take S-video for Dish.

 

[maximum]

Also wondering about the $5 per month saving as long as phone line is connected. Does it have to be connected every minute of the month? What happens if for example a storm takes your phone line down for a day or two? Will you be charged the $5 then, or do they just check that it's connected most of the time?

Last month when we were on vacation something happened to our phone line that made it act like the phone was off the hook (only got a busy signal when we called home to check messages on the answering machine). It was like that for over a week. When we got home the 522 had a message saying it could not make a phone connection an warned that a $5 fee would be charged etc... I had to reset our phone by unplugging everything connected to the phone line and re-connecting before we could to get a dial tone again. For all I know it could have been the 522 that caused the problem in the first place. Anyway, we didn't get charged a fee so I guess it has to be unplugged longer than a week before they charge the fee.