# NewbiE* happy 'bout D*itching



## RobR7 (Jan 23, 2006)

I've had E* for a little less than a week and so far I'm quite happy about the switch. I know some others were considering a switch so I figured I'd slap this together.

E* SD PQ looks softer. It's probably done to soften edges or hide pixelation. With D* the SD image is sharper though the pixelation and blockiness really showed at times because of it. 

In my case I like to stretch 4x3 SD to 16x9. The softer E* image somehow works a little better with this (except with text) and I compensate with some edge enhancement done by my TV.

HD on E* is quite better. I know a lot of E* folks aren't happy with the HD quantity over quality issues but I just want to say its still better than D*'s. To be fair, not by a whole lot with channels that you can directly compare... but the Vooms like Rave are just great - sharp image, good solid blacks, fades, etc...

With the hardware, the 622 is certainly faster than the HR-10. It also seems better at up converting SD to 1080i. I kept my HR-10 at 720p just because of this. I couldn't take watching BSG on SciFi SD at 1080i it was just terrible. Of course, my final verdict here will have to wait until I get to watch it on E*.  I have to say I'm happy with the E* DVR software, I just got to get used to the different quirks of switching platforms. 

HD quantity + better than D* HD quality is what switchers really want to consider here. (Especially considering SDs are just getting worse on both sides). In my case, I'm just happy I'm finally taking more advantage of my HD TV that I bought two years ago. No regrets here!


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## grooves12 (Oct 27, 2005)

Based on your post I think you had the HR-10... the HR-20 is the new NDS HD DVR that is just now being released... you may want to edit your post, so as not to confuse others.


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## RobR7 (Jan 23, 2006)

grooves12 said:



> Based on your post I think you had the HR-10... the HR-20 is the new NDS HD DVR that is just now being released... you may want to edit your post, so as not to confuse others.


Oooops, sorry... you are correct Sir.


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## mchaney (Aug 17, 2006)

Same here (we switched about the same time) and same comments. One thing that interests me though: HD quality. I know D* used "HD Lite" but I thought E* passed the full HD (1920x1080i) for 1080i programs. While I agree E* looks better in the HD department, is there some quantitative analysis somewhere? I saw a bit rate page for D* on a web page but it is now outdated and there is no comparison between D* and E* bit rates for HD content. I'd be interested in that if someone has a link?

Thanks
Mike


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## RobR7 (Jan 23, 2006)

Just called D* to cancel... they offered to suspend my account for four months and $50 one-time credit + $10 credit off of each bill for the next 12 months. It's basically their HD for free for a year. 

Lady was so pleasant she made me kinda sad. I have been known to pay more for better service cause it means alot to me... but in this case HD meant more. 

Figured I'd pass that along to possible switchers. I have till late December to change my mind.


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## M5Guy (Jun 24, 2006)

RobR7 said:


> I've had E* for a little less than a week and so far I'm quite happy about the switch. I know some others were considering a switch so I figured I'd slap this together.
> 
> E* SD PQ looks softer. It's probably done to soften edges or hide pixelation. With D* the SD image is sharper though the pixelation and blockiness really showed at times because of it.
> 
> ...


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

RobR7 said:


> I couldn't take watching BSG on SciFi SD at 1080i it was just terrible. Of course, my final verdict here will have to wait until I get to watch it on E*.


Have you seen BSG on Universal HD yet?? Tonight at 8:00pm if you haven't . . . nothing is better than BSG in 1080i and full 16:9 AR!!!

I'm REALLY looking forward to the new BSG season. Not sure how many weeks behind Universal HD will be from when the episodes air on SciFi, but it will be worth the wait.

I've also heard over at the Xbox360 forums that XBOX LIVE is going to have the BSG Special that airs on SciFi this month. LIVE is supposed to have it available in 720p for download. In that thread I saw that it's scheduled to air on Universal HD in September (I think September 19th) as well.


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## RobR7 (Jan 23, 2006)

M5Guy said:


> Try using S-video connection for Dish SD channels. My Dish SD is actually sharper than my Direct SD (connected by S-video or component) this way. However, on HDMI or component, Dish is no better on SD than Direct, as you stated.


Cool... will try. Thanks.


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## RobR7 (Jan 23, 2006)

sNEIRBO said:


> Have you seen BSG on Universal HD yet?? Tonight at 8:00pm if you haven't . . . nothing is better than BSG in 1080i and full 16:9 AR!!!
> 
> I'm REALLY looking forward to the new BSG season. Not sure how many weeks behind Universal HD will be from when the episodes air on SciFi, but it will be worth the wait.
> 
> I've also heard over at the Xbox360 forums that XBOX LIVE is going to have the BSG Special that airs on SciFi this month. LIVE is supposed to have it available in 720p for download. In that thread I saw that it's scheduled to air on Universal HD in September (I think September 19th) as well.


BSG HD is great... my problem is that I can't wait. Makes no sense to me that SciFi doesn't go HD, would seem both have the same "geek" customer base and it would be a great marriage. Oh, well... I'll have to be happy with recapping in HD before catching the new season in SD.


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

RobR7 said:


> BSG HD is great... my problem is that I can't wait. Makes no sense to me that SciFi doesn't go HD, would seem both have the same "geek" customer base and it would be a great marriage. Oh, well... I'll have to be happy with recapping in HD before catching the new season in SD.


I just did some digging around on universalhd.com, and on SciFi.com. It's kind of odd to me that they're showing the BSG Special - "The Story So Far" - on just about every NBC/Universal channel before it's on SciFi. It will air on SciFi right before the new season starts on Oct 6. I'm hopeful that Universal HD will air Season 3 realitvely close to the time the episodes air on SciFi - sort of like Discovery does with American Chopper. American Chopper SD airs on Mondays on Discovery Channel, then the same episode airs on Discovery HD Theatre on Friday. It would be nice to have the BSG SD episode air Friday on SciFi then the same episode in HD air on Universal HD on Sunday . . .

http://www.universalhd.com/Schedule/search.bravo?month=2006-12&keyword=Battlestar&start=today

http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/updates/


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## Rogueone (Jan 29, 2004)

sNEIRBO said:


> I just did some digging around on universalhd.com, and on SciFi.com. It's kind of odd to me that they're showing the BSG Special - "The Story So Far" - on just about every NBC/Universal channel before it's on SciFi. It will air on SciFi right before the new season starts on Oct 6. I'm hopeful that Universal HD will air Season 3 realitvely close to the time the episodes air on SciFi - sort of like Discovery does with American Chopper. American Chopper SD airs on Mondays on Discovery Channel, then the same episode airs on Discovery HD Theatre on Friday. It would be nice to have the BSG SD episode air Friday on SciFi then the same episode in HD air on Universal HD on Sunday . . .
> 
> http://www.universalhd.com/Schedule/search.bravo?month=2006-12&keyword=Battlestar&start=today
> 
> http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/updates/


I'm with you!! I'f they put BSG on Sunday night the week it aired on sciFi, I'd wait till Sunday. But I don't think they will do that because of the loss of viewership then on SciFi. I'm actually a little suprised NBC hasn't decided to pull it onto the network on maybe Saturday nights. I noticed they've aired a few of the movie length shows, like the pilot, and makes me wonder if they haven't considered that with their so so ratings last year 

and I'd love to see sciFi in HD, but if not, at least rebroadcast the SG's on UniHD as well  Why should only BSG get the red carpet treatment  haha


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

Rogueone said:


> I'm with you!! I'f they put BSG on Sunday night the week it aired on sciFi, I'd wait till Sunday. But I don't think they will do that because of the loss of viewership then on SciFi. I'm actually a little suprised NBC hasn't decided to pull it onto the network on maybe Saturday nights. I noticed they've aired a few of the movie length shows, like the pilot, and makes me wonder if they haven't considered that with their so so ratings last year
> 
> and I'd love to see sciFi in HD, but if not, at least rebroadcast the SG's on UniHD as well  Why should only BSG get the red carpet treatment  haha


SciFi-HD would be AWESOME!

Are the SGs produced by Universal? Or a different studio? Are they even recorded in HD? If they are recorded in HD, I'm surprised they've never showed up on HDNet.

I'm really looking forward to Star Trek: Enterprise (and Arrested Development) on HDNet this Fall!


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## mchaney (Aug 17, 2006)

So far, I'm happy that I switched from D* to E*. I only have a few nit picks, mostly things that the HR10-250 did that the 622 and/or Dish can't do or do poorly:

(1) The fact that Dish strips PSIP EPG data from every digital OTA channel except the first (-01) subchannel is appalling! And you can't even get the first subchannel unless you subscribe to locals, so Dish is obviously just trying to make a buck! This was never a problem with DirecTV.

(2) No ability to tell the "timers" how many episodes to save. I wish there was a way to tell the 622 to save at most 2 episodes for example.

(3) If you have the modulator set up so that a remote TV (TV2) can be used and there is only one thing recording on TV1, you can't even watch a live show on TV1 while TV1 is recording something even if TV2 is off! Pretty silly, as the tuners should be "assignable" to either TV. Not that the HR10-250 could even do two TV's: just a poorly implemented feature IMO.

(4) Can't record two OTA channels at once like I could on the HR10-250. This is an issue when I want to record two HD programs on OTA channels.

(5) Although I hope there is a way to do this, I haven't yet found a way to scroll foward in the guide quickly. On the HR10-250, I could press FF on the guide and it would jump a page at a time forward. It's a lot slower going on the 622.

(6) Every once in a while, my 622 gets the stutters. It'll start flickering and missing frames and the video looks like a flicker book. It'll do that until I stop the recording and start it again or stop LiveTV and then catch up. From reading 622 bug threads, this is a known bug. As much as I hated the HR10-250 for its slowness, it was pretty solid in the stability department: very few bugs.

Other than these things, which are kinda just nit picks, I like Dish and the 622 a lot better! The fact that the HR10-250 would take 20 minutes to just add or change a season pass was absolutely ridiculous and made that machine almost unusable for me. There is just no excuse for anything to be that slow! I missed a lot of shows just because I delayed setting up new recordings due to the slowness and then forgot to do it later. I'd refuse to add anything while we were watching anything because it would lock up the HR10-250 for 10-20 minutes and you couldn't watch anything while it was playing with itself!

Anyway, that's my take on my D* to E* switchover so far.

Mike


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

mchaney said:


> (2) No ability to tell the "timers" how many episodes to save. I wish there was a way to tell the 622 to save at most 2 episodes for example.


Sure you can. The number of episodes to keep is one of the options when setting a timer.



mchaney said:


> (3) If you have the modulator set up so that a remote TV (TV2) can be used and there is only one thing recording on TV1, you can't even watch a live show on TV1 while TV1 is recording something even if TV2 is off! Pretty silly, as the tuners should be "assignable" to either TV. Not that the HR10-250 could even do two TV's: just a poorly implemented feature IMO.


Just hit the mode switch to change to Single mode. Also, you can set up the default record tuner as well as "assign" a recording to either TV when you hit the record button.



mchaney said:


> (5) Although I hope there is a way to do this, I haven't yet found a way to scroll foward in the guide quickly. On the HR10-250, I could press FF on the guide and it would jump a page at a time forward. It's a lot slower going on the 622.


The skip forward button jumps the guide ahead 24 hours. Read somewhere that you can hit a number + FF to jump the guide ahead that many hours...have not tried that one.


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

mchaney said:


> (3) If you have the modulator set up so that a remote TV (TV2) can be used and there is only one thing recording on TV1, you can't even watch a live show on TV1 while TV1 is recording something even if TV2 is off! Pretty silly, as the tuners should be "assignable" to either TV. Not that the HR10-250 could even do two TV's: just a poorly implemented feature IMO.


In the preferences area of the menu there is a place to select which tuner is the default recorder. Just set yours to default to TV2. The only time you would have an issue then would be when you have two timers firing at the same time. And even in that case, you could have timers firing on both TV1 and TV2 and watch live off of your OTA.

DISH added the option to keep a certain number of episodes of a timer about 18 months ago. That was a major feature I missed from my TiVo. I was VERY thankful when that functionality became a reality for DISH DVRs.


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## mchaney (Aug 17, 2006)

LtMunst said:


> Sure you can. The number of episodes to keep is one of the options when setting a timer.
> 
> Just hit the mode switch to change to Single mode. Also, you can set up the default record tuner as well as "assign" a recording to either TV when you hit the record button.
> 
> The skip forward button jumps the guide ahead 24 hours. Read somewhere that you can hit a number + FF to jump the guide ahead that many hours...have not tried that one.


Thanks! I'll try these out. Just haven't spent enough time with it I guess.

Mike


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

LtMunst said:


> Read somewhere that you can hit a number + FF to jump the guide ahead that many hours...


Almost. Enter a number then press the blue RightArrow button to jump ahead that many hours. Once ahead, you can enter a number followed by LeftArrow to jump back. FF is not used for guide navigation, it will FF your playback in the picture on guide.


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