625 vs 510 - New guy question

[coasterguy]

Forgive me if this has been discussed to death, but I must plead the New Guy Defense. We recently took advantage of the $49 upgrade offer and replaced our Dish 510 with a 625. Not being of the technical sort (I think I'm slowly getting there, though, reading these threads), I was just wondering what the fundamental differences are between the 510 and 625?

I am happy with the 625 - it's been about a month now - but I find it to be more unstable than the 510, mostly on playback. The 625's audio drops are not that frequent, but compared to having none with the 510 I find this very annoying. Also the picture glitches - "artifacts" I think they're called - are also very irritating given that the 510 on playback had none. These are just two of the more prominent examples of what I believe are software problems and not hardware problems. But why would a newer, "more advanced" machine not be at least as stable as an older one? Does the 625 run on a whole different platform or architecture?

That said, I'll be keeping the 625 given I'm a TV addict and I want the dual-tuner capabilities the 510 did not have. I'm also not interested in switching to HD anytime soon even though the E* SD picture quality ranges anywhere between horrific and okay on my JVC 32" CRT (Maybe I've just gotten so used to looking for the bad in the PQ that I now fixate on it). I was just wondering if anyone could explain in simple terms why the 625 just feels a little bit to me like a step down from the 510?

Thanks for reading.

 

[navychop]

IIRC, the 510 was not 8PSK compliant, and the 625 is. Plus, the 625 gives you the opportunity to rent a movie that's already pre-loaded on the HD for your convenience.

OH- you wanted to know something about why it was a good idea from YOUR point of view, not Dish's.

Well, actually, the 625 is a bit more complicated and is likely to have a few more bugs than the 510. The 5xx series is very simple- and very limited. So you have a trade off. You get the greater storage capacity and the dual tuners. I wonder if others are having the same problems as you with PQ/audio. What are your signal strengths?

 

[sigmtr]

I made a major jump this year from an old 4900 to a 625 and have been pretty happy with it. The few times I've noticed audio/video dropouts or freezes have been on Starz movies with Dolby Digital audio. I guess this adds quite a bit of data to the stream, and the recording function just can't keep up perfectly. Even when watching live, I will see some artifacting during clear weather, and my signal strengths are all in the high 90's and low 100's with a SuperDish. Regular programs with PCM audio seem to have no problems either way.

I still worry a little about disk life, however, given that it runs so often to grab the on-demand stuff. The hard disk is the weakest point in a computer, and I see no difference here.

 

[coasterguy]

Thank you. My signal strengths are decent. On the 625, sats 110 and 119, signal is 90's to lower 100's. I also have a 311 and the signal often times maxes out at 125. I understand lower readings are common on the 625 so I'm not too concerned. Like I said, the audio glitches and artifacts only appear while playing back a recording - never have had it happen during a live broadcast as of yet - just thought that was odd but judging by other threads here, it does not appear to be uncommon. Still find it a tad annoying though.

I've had Directv in the past and noticed the lower PQ with them as well as with the 510. Overcompression and a larger standard tv are probably to blame. Again, once I started noticing it, it's all I noticed. Just have to try and train myself to look past it. My girlfriend has never said whether she is bothered by it or not and I don't want to "plant the seed" by mentioning it to her. She did however make mention of a scene in the movie "Ladder 49" on a premium movie channel where it was a dark, smoke-filled room and we could make out nothing through the pixelations. Fog, smoke, flames and fast sports action are the worst, but it's livable.

Hopefully Dish will be able to fix any software bugs that remain and take care of what few complaints I have. Thanks again.

 

[navychop]

Hmmmm- only on playback? I wonder if your HD is not up to snuff.

 

[kb7oeb]

Plus, the 625 gives you the opportunity to rent a movie that's already pre-loaded on the HD for your convenience.

508 and 510 now have this "feature"