811 Installed! Couple of questions.....

[KyDave]

Yes!



After 2 rescedules, my 811 was finally installed yesterday. I was replacing a 7 year old 4000 and will be using it on a 35inch analog direct view Mitsubitshi via svideo.

:?: * First question - I noticed I have the HD PACK, but I didn't order it. Is this a free preview? Did anyone else get this? If it is a free preview, how long does it last?

:?: * Second question - I know all about the * button and aspect ration issues that 262 fixed. My question is can you ZOOM a HD feed from svideo? I'm getting the dreaded letterboxing AND left right matting when a 4x3 program is transmitted on a HD feed. I used a friends SIRT151 a few months ago and it allowed the SVIDEO feed to zoom like this. Did the 6000 allow this?


Other than that, I'm like a kid in a candy store. The INFO button (unlike my 4000!) is lightning fast. Guide acess is smokin, too. I was also impressed to find out that my 4000 remote will work the 811 (via IR, not UHF). The INSTANT WEATHER was interesting, but keeping it in a FAVORITES LIST didn't work to well. When surfing, it just stopped there and the screen would go blank for a few seconds. Then you have to press GUIDE to exit it (kind of clutzy for a favorites list).

Even on my analog 35" tv, DISCHD looked incredible. The SNAKE special had so many vivid colors. Can't wait to upgrade to a HD set down the road!

Fixes/enhancements I look forward too:

* channel 100
* full 2 day guide info (the pause for GETTING INFO FROM SATELLITE when going in the future on the guide was remarkably about as slow as my 7 year old 4000!)
* local channel guide info
* favorites list expansion (no limit or greater limit)
* I did notice the BLACK LEVEL issues from HD sources via svideo. CSI looked a lot darker than the regular analog channel.

 

[KyDave]

:?: * First question - I noticed I have the HD PACK, but I didn't order it. Is this a free preview?

Ok, when I called to make sure my 4000 was deactivated, they mentioned that I had the HD PACK even though I never ordered it. (I was on the $149 exclusive plan). So no free preview!

 

[hemway]

When people were first offered offered the $149 at the beginning of the month, it didn't require to any commitment like the $199 deal did. There was no CC auto-pay, not minimum of AT50 for 1 year, no commitment to HD Pack, nothing.

It wasn't until recently that the HD Pack became a requirement.

 

[Mr Tony]

KyDave
Off the subject of the 811, but, did you ever get your "whole house distribution" issue taken care of?

berg

 

[KyDave]

KyDave
Off the subject of the 811, but, did you ever get your "whole house distribution" issue taken care of?

berg

Hey, berg - thanks for asking.

Well, not the final solution. Since the 811 does not have coax out, I am just routing one of the COMPOSITE OUTS from it into the vcr and using the vcr as my modulator. Now no more AB switch (A=DISH, B=VCR) as whatever is on the VCR now is the channel 4 for the whole house.

Unfortunatly, 'the mrs.' says 'well thats just dumb' as now she can't watch the satellite in another room if one of the kids is watching that vcr. Quite true! So I'd be happy just to get where I was before. I plan on getting the modulator you mentioned in the other thread. But now I need 3 composite outs from the 811 (the svideo one for tv, one for VCR, and one for the new modulator) and the 811 only has 2. I think I might just get 3 RCA SPLITTER adaptors to make 2 composite sets of out 1 (from the 811) and route 1 to the VCR and one to the new modulator. Hopefully that won't weaken the video signal too bad.