811 HD/SD Picture

[CCMoor]

I have an Hitachi 57S500, I had Adelphia Cable till the begaining of June. We watched most of the channels in what Hitachi has 4:3 Expaned and SD Video feed was ok. Now that I have Dish and an 811 for the HD channel I have to watch all SD channel in HD Strech and the Picture is very bad. Is there anything I can do to get a better picture for SD?

HD Pictures are great..

 

[BigShowJoe]

I have the Hitachi 57S715 and I know what you mean about the cable SD being good b/c thats what I have now. I am scheduled to have Dish Network installed on Friday and I have heard some of the same things you are asking about but I cannot get a clear answer either. Will your tv not change aspect to 4:3 when viewing SD channels?? If not, is there something in the Dish 811's menu to allow it? I am unfamilliar with that receiver but I will have it on Friday. It may be a quick change back to cable if I can't solve that issue.

 

[CCMoor]

I have the Hitachi 57S715 and I know what you mean about the cable SD being good b/c thats what I have now. I am scheduled to have Dish Network installed on Friday and I have heard some of the same things you are asking about but I cannot get a clear answer either. Will your tv not change aspect to 4:3 when viewing SD channels?? If not, is there something in the Dish 811's menu to allow it? I am unfamilliar with that receiver but I will have it on Friday. It may be a quick change back to cable if I can't solve that issue.

Will your tv not change aspect to 4:3 when viewing SD channels?? No will only do HD 4:3 with back bars but will not do SD 4:3 expanded. The Aspect are very different than Hitachi set. Like Hitachi's much better.

 

[Marty43]

I have the Hitachi 57S715 and I know what you mean about the cable SD being good b/c thats what I have now. I am scheduled to have Dish Network installed on Friday and I have heard some of the same things you are asking about but I cannot get a clear answer either. Will your tv not change aspect to 4:3 when viewing SD channels?? If not, is there something in the Dish 811's menu to allow it? I am unfamilliar with that receiver but I will have it on Friday. It may be a quick change back to cable if I can't solve that issue.

I have an 811, in upper right corner of the remote are two page buttons, they will scrowl you thru the picture modes, left one for HD right one for SD.

 

[CCMoor]

I have an 811, in upper right corner of the remote are two page buttons, they will scrowl you thru the picture modes, left one for HD right one for SD.

I have tried that will only let me change my HD modes not my SD modes. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Carl B]

The SD modes only work with an SD input signal from the 811 (i.e., composite or s-video) and they don't do much. I don't know what expanded SD mode is in Hitachi-ese, but I've found the 811's "partial zoom" to be one of the best full screen compromises. Personally, I prefer to watch 4:3 in its OAR, but the wife, well...

 

[CCMoor]

The SD modes only work with an SD input signal from the 811 (i.e., composite or s-video) and they don't do much. I don't know what expanded SD mode is in Hitachi-ese, but I've found the 811's "partial zoom" to be one of the best full screen compromises. Personally, I prefer to watch 4:3 in its OAR, but the wife, well...

Can you run S-Video and DVI at the sametime?

 

[Carl B]

Yes.

 

[MikeF]

CCMoor, as already answered, yes you can run both outputs at the same time. And then you can use the Hitachi's 4:3 Expanded on the S-video imput and the DVI for HD. I do this very thing with my Hitachi. I agree that the 4:3 is the only way to watch on a W/S tv

 

[grb]

Can you run S-Video and DVI at the sametime?

Yes. I have DVI/HDMI and S-video in different videos in my TV set. I watch SD with S-video and it improves the PQ dramatically. Even an RCA jack is an improvement over the DVI/DMI SD picture.

 

[CCMoor]

I will have to try this tonight. I hope it works for me too.

 

[BigShowJoe]

CCMoor, as already answered, yes you can run both outputs at the same time. And then you can use the Hitachi's 4:3 Expanded on the S-video imput and the DVI for HD. I do this very thing with my Hitachi. I agree that the 4:3 is the only way to watch on a W/S tv

Do you have to switch between the s-video and the dvi inputs on the tv just to change channels? I don't think my tv will allow two input sources on one video mode. ie.-- I would have to have s-video on VIDEO 1 for SD channels and dvi on VIDEO 2 for HD channels. Am I understanding that correctly? If so.....then how come you don't have to do that with cable receivers?? That takes me back to my original question.....Does the 811 (or Dish Network in general) overcompress SD channels???

 

[CCMoor]

Do you have to switch between the s-video and the dvi inputs on the tv just to change channels? I don't think my tv will allow two input sources on one video mode. ie.-- I would have to have s-video on VIDEO 1 for SD channels and dvi on VIDEO 2 for HD channels. Am I understanding that correctly? If so.....then how come you don't have to do that with cable receivers?? That takes me back to my original question.....Does the 811 (or Dish Network in general) overcompress SD channels???

Good Question. Can I hook up both DVI and/or S-Video Component to Video 1 or do I have to have DVI on Video 1 and S-Video on Video 3?

 

[BigShowJoe]

After thinking about it, im sure that you have to use two of your inputs on the tv. That is a hassle considering they will both be used for sat feed. After all, the tv is smart enough to switch between 420i, 420p, 720p, and 1080i on each video input. How about component input?? Is that maybe a happy medium between s-video and hdmi? Give me all the input you guys have.

 

[ww2154]

use s-video for the sd channels and use dvi or component for hd channels

 

[oldtimer]

I have a Hitachi s715 and just upgraded to the 811, dvi-hdmi cable gives
poor picture so I use component, I set the 811 in set up on 4.3 and use
my tv aspect control, while watching sd I use 4.3 expanded and on HD
I use 16.9 standard. This works for me give an excellent picture on HD
and average on sd, overall I rate the 811 receiver as poor.

 

[Carl B]

I view my 811's outputs on a Sammy DLP. As I noted earlier, I prefer to watch everything in OAR. Expanding SD, no matter what the system, always causes a loss of content and resolution. However, the 811's partial zoom is the least objectionable a compromise as I've seen, so that's what we use when the wife gets the remote.

I watch everything via DVI as that gives me the best resolution/clarity and overall PQ. The 811's DVI output provides a somewhat washed-out coloring (most noticeable w/ SD programs) compared to component, but is a hair sharper. The color problem on DVI is a known software problem w/ the 811. It was the unintended consequense of a software fix for too dark video on the s-video output in spring of 2004. Dish has been so advised, but have yet to fix the DVI back to where it was.

I run the 811's s-video output through an amplified splitter to my Sammy and to my DVDR. I've found little need to use the s-video input to the Sammy as the DVI and component inputs provide me equal or better PQ on SD material. It wasn't that way out-of-box. My SD PQ improved as I replaced various coax w/ new and added an HTS-3600 power center. Some say that power conditioners don't do anything, but I saw the difference.

Dish SD varies by the source. The best will be the premium channels. The worst will be your locals. If you want to see the reference PQ for SD, hook up an antenna and view one of your local's digital SD outputs. That's as good as SD gets. Some of Dish's SD channels are close, some are way off.

 

[BigShowJoe]

I have a Hitachi s715 and just upgraded to the 811, dvi-hdmi cable gives
poor picture so I use component, I set the 811 in set up on 4.3 and use
my tv aspect control, while watching sd I use 4.3 expanded and on HD
I use 16.9 standard. This works for me give an excellent picture on HD
and average on sd, overall I rate the 811 receiver as poor.

You say overall the 811 is poor but is it good enough to switch from cable?

 

[CCMoor]

How long has the 811 been out? When dish moves to mpg4 (spelling) our they coming out with a new box? I just got mine the 1st of June will I have to buy a new one?

 

[hraner]

I found that S-Video output of my 811 produces better PQ than Component out on my Panasonic LCD RPTV. It's really a pain to switch video input when you watch HD/SD stuff. It looks like 811's upconversion(to 1080i) for SD is quite poor, if I feed 480i signal directly to my TV and it produces a better picture.