What is the difference in the 301 and the 311?

[DWS44]

I was looking on ebay for an inexpensive receiver to use in my bedroom. Currently is is using the second output of my 322, but I would like to have stereo sound. I have seen several 311's, but Dish website had no info on them(that I could find). What is the difference in the 301 and the 311?

 

[DishSatUser]

Originally it was thought that the 311 had the internal sercurity card instead of a seperate card and not much else.

With the advent of the Dish Pro Plus technology, you'll find that the 311 can be used in a configuration that the 301 supposedly can't be used where the DPP seperator is used to feed two 311's instead of a dual tunner setup on a 522 or similar DVRs.

I may be wrong. But it looks like the 311 is all that a 301 is with the potential to be a tiny bit more.

 

[boba]

Originally it was thought that the 311 had the internal sercurity card instead of a seperate card and not much else.

With the advent of the Dish Pro Plus technology, you'll find that the 311 can be used in a configuration that the 301 supposedly can't be used where the DPP seperator is used to feed two 311's instead of a dual tunner setup on a 522 or similar DVRs.

I may be wrong. But it looks like the 311 is all that a 301 is with the potential to be a tiny bit more.

ONLY DUAL TUNER receivers will work with DP+splitter the 311 is not a dual tuner receiver. It is newer than the 301 and it does have the smart card on the board. It also has more memory and possibly a faster processor.

 

[DishSatUser]

Boba,

Check out the thread http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=15391. On the second page there's the comment about how a two 311's could be connected to a separator.

If that threads wrong, then of course I'm incorrect as well.

 

[Stargazer]

DP+splitters will only work with dual tuner receivers. If you try to use them with two single tuner receiveres you may actually mess up the hardware.

 

[DishSatUser]

Is it just me, or is everyone inserting "splitter" (pn 120341) instead of the "Separator" (pn 123254) that I had originally stated? As I understand, the splitter and the separator are two seperate products.

Since it needs the DPP44 switch (the use of a "separator"), I guess it doens't really matter. So other than my gripe about the "changing" of the two product names, this topic is not really going anywhere and my information from the thread I had posted and the comment from bcshields must have been incorrect.

Thanks

 

[RBBrittain]

A DishPro "splitter" (the first PN) is used ONLY to split the output of ONE DishPro LNB, usually on a Dish300 aimed at a wing satellite, to two different places (switches and/or receivers).

A DishPro Plus "separator" (the second PN) is used ONLY to distribute a DishPro Plus feed from a DPP44 (or from a DishPro Plus LNB when available) to the two satellite inputs of ONE dual-tuner receiver--a 322, 522, 721, or 921. All but the 721 have DishPro Plus logos on the front; I understand the 721 was upgraded to DishPro Plus by a firmware update. NO single-tuner receivers have DishPro Plus logos.

The "separator" WILL NOT WORK with single-tuner receivers because only ONE of the two outputs will accept switch (DiSEqC) commands back to the DPP44; that's OK for one dual-tuner, but NOT for two single-tuners. Though a "splitter" can be used in systems with single-tuner receivers, it's almost exclusively for sending a wing-bird signal to two different switch inputs (either two DP21s, or two cascaded banks of DP34s and/or DPP44s); it can't be used on a DishPro Plus output for the same reasons as the separator.

You can't do it now, but the ONLY way you could EVER hook two single-tuner receivers to a single DishPro Plus drop would be if someone built the "super-separator" I discussed in the other thread; it would have a DishPro Plus input and two LEGACY outputs, with circuitry more like a switch than a splitter or the official E* separator. (I doubt E* would ever build it, but I suspect MicroRoyal might make it someday if there's enough demand.) Such a device would accept legacy switch commands from each receiver and translate them to DiSEqC commands for the DPP44. (Indeed, it would have to emulate legacy switches, much like the DPP44 does with legacy receivers.) But that device wouldn't be limited to 311's; it would work with almost every single-tuner unit, including the 301.

The original statement is probably correct; the 311 is virtually the same as the 301 except for the built-in smart card. The only other difference posted at http://ekb.dbstalk.com/101 is that the 311 can receive 8PSK channels with higher compression; but since the only non-HD models that can do that are the 311, 322 and 522, that's not significant right now. Also, since they use different firmware, the 311 may not yet have the revised user interface now being downloaded to 301's.

 

[texasdiver]

I hate the 301

I was looking on ebay for an inexpensive receiver to use in my bedroom. Currently is is using the second output of my 322, but I would like to have stereo sound. I have seen several 311's, but Dish website had no info on them(that I could find). What is the difference in the 301 and the 311?

I happen to have a 301 in my bedroom that rarely gets viewed. We'll perhaps one or two times a week. I hate it for several reasons and will be swapping it out for an 811 as soon as my new HD set arrives. What do I not like?

1. The memory seems tiny and the program guide never seems to download automatically as is the case on the 508 PVR in my living room. That makes the guide all but useless because every single time I ever hit the guide button I get the "downloading program guide" message and spend 5 minutes watching the progress bar S L O W L Y scroll across the screen. It doesn't make any difference whether I leave the receiver on or off, when I come back to it in a few days the program guide is never downloaded and so pretty useless.

2. The remote doesn't have a separate power button for the TV and receiver like the remote on the 508 so I am always turning the wrong thing on or off because I always seem to have the TV button pressed when I want to control the SAT or vice versa. OK, that's not a very big deal but it's irritating.

I have no idea whether the 311 fixed any of these things, but if it did, it will be worth the extra money. I'm pretty much done with these no-HD non-PVR receivers so I'm not going to bother to upgrade for now but will go straight to HD instead.

 

[Mickdog]

My Expereince with the 311...

I can say that my experience with the 311 is that, yea, it has features, however it does not hold signal well. I put a 111 in my sons room and it holds signal very well, even during rain. I even tried my 311 in his room, and it did not hold well during rain. I'd take the 111, however, I like the features, so I guess I will just have to put up with rain issues. I recently replaced the cable, and even tried an inline amp, which I pulled because it got hot. So, I never had a 301, and I wonder if the extra features are degrading the reciever part.