SatelliteAV has provided me with an HDVR3500 for evaluation. My approach is, and has been, to evaluate this box as a new unit with no pre-conceived ideas or opinions based on a long running thread here on the forum. I have read all 140 pages of that thread so I'm familiar with the issues presented but I have put them aside to take a fresh look.
Be aware this is an evaluation of this box strictly as an FTA receiver – not Internet, Wi-Fi, Linux apps, dish moving, or recording (at this time, maybe later). The box is piggybacked onto my 4DTV which moves the dish and controls polarity.
In my opinion this is a well put together box, unlike many (most?) of the inexpensive (usually plastic) Chinese imports. Although not perfect, I also like the remote. People could nit-pick the remote to death, primarily based on personal preferences but the only really annoying thing, for me, is the use of the blue button in combination with the menu button to access setup, but more on that later.
Pros:
Great picture
Fast blindscan
The ability to scan a single polarity at a time (this is a big deal when piggybacking)
No audio breakup on Grit, Escape, Bounce, Justice or any others
Cons:
Funky signal quality display
Occassional errors in the transponder lists
Less than user friendly menu system
Let me expand a bit on the menus. First, it would be nice if, when first started, it would have a basic menu offering two options, FTA or Apps. It annoyed me that I kept having to hit Menu followed by the blue button to get back into FTA setup.
There are some inconsistencies in the way the menu functions. On some selections just continually hitting the Enter button rotates you through the choices, on others you need to use the arrows to scroll left or right and on at least one dropdown you need to arrow up or down to make a choice. Having them all work the same would have been nice and more user friendly.
As for the transponder lists, I came across several preprogammed transponders with the wrong polarity. Unless you're scanning by individual polarity you might never notice that.
I noticed an odd anomaly with the signal quality graphic bar. Blindscans locked in, and the box displayed perfectly, a handful of channels that only showed 5% signal quality while a couple of channels showed better than 80% quality but the picture was loaded with digital artifacts. An FEC display bar would be helpful.
I do have it connected via Wi-Fi to my system in order to keep the clock accurate. Normally I wouldn't care but since the clock displays on the front panel when the box is in standby I decided it would be better if it showed correctly. I do not like that it's a 24 hr clock however.
Bottom line, for my application this is a great box; great picture, individual polarity scanning, and no audio breakup on the problem channels gets it done for me. YMMV.
Be aware this is an evaluation of this box strictly as an FTA receiver – not Internet, Wi-Fi, Linux apps, dish moving, or recording (at this time, maybe later). The box is piggybacked onto my 4DTV which moves the dish and controls polarity.
In my opinion this is a well put together box, unlike many (most?) of the inexpensive (usually plastic) Chinese imports. Although not perfect, I also like the remote. People could nit-pick the remote to death, primarily based on personal preferences but the only really annoying thing, for me, is the use of the blue button in combination with the menu button to access setup, but more on that later.
Pros:
Great picture
Fast blindscan
The ability to scan a single polarity at a time (this is a big deal when piggybacking)
No audio breakup on Grit, Escape, Bounce, Justice or any others
Cons:
Funky signal quality display
Occassional errors in the transponder lists
Less than user friendly menu system
Let me expand a bit on the menus. First, it would be nice if, when first started, it would have a basic menu offering two options, FTA or Apps. It annoyed me that I kept having to hit Menu followed by the blue button to get back into FTA setup.
There are some inconsistencies in the way the menu functions. On some selections just continually hitting the Enter button rotates you through the choices, on others you need to use the arrows to scroll left or right and on at least one dropdown you need to arrow up or down to make a choice. Having them all work the same would have been nice and more user friendly.
As for the transponder lists, I came across several preprogammed transponders with the wrong polarity. Unless you're scanning by individual polarity you might never notice that.
I noticed an odd anomaly with the signal quality graphic bar. Blindscans locked in, and the box displayed perfectly, a handful of channels that only showed 5% signal quality while a couple of channels showed better than 80% quality but the picture was loaded with digital artifacts. An FEC display bar would be helpful.
I do have it connected via Wi-Fi to my system in order to keep the clock accurate. Normally I wouldn't care but since the clock displays on the front panel when the box is in standby I decided it would be better if it showed correctly. I do not like that it's a 24 hr clock however.
Bottom line, for my application this is a great box; great picture, individual polarity scanning, and no audio breakup on the problem channels gets it done for me. YMMV.
