AcuraCL said:I heartily second this.
When I sit there watching "Over America" or "Arctic Mission" or "Odyssey 5" I can forgive my OTA channels falling out of the guide .... When I hear the gasp from my neighbors seeing a HD set in someone's home I can forgive an occasional "acquiring satellite signal 1 of 5" ....
You think the 811 has problems? Well yeah, it does. But go over and read the forums at AVS re: the Sony Grand VVega. Even Sony can release a product before it is fully tested/ready.
The 811 is buggier than any Dish receiver I've ever had, but then it does about 10 times more than any other Dish receiver I've had.
I am over the Gee Whiz factor of HD. I have been watching HD for over 3 years. My first HD tuner was a Pioneer SH-D505 Listed at 2500 dollars -paid 250 from a refurbished electronics house. It had issues but nothing like the 811.
This technology is not new anymore. There are enough tuners on the market to get this right upon release or at least nearly right.
The biggest annoyance is the "Acquiring Satellite" 3-5 times a day is not occasional. It is really a pain when looking for transponder 4, then it locks up. If this is typical of satellite based Hd tuners then I guess we have to live with it.
No way is the 811 ready for primetime at full price. 99-150 is all it is worth untill the issues are resolved. The positive is that as an HD tuner it has very good PQ and has the added benefit of being a satellite tuner also.
If one wanted OTA only and not the rest there are better tuners out there. For now when I want to watch the Hd package I use the 811 otherwise for OTA it's my Samsung Sir-t351 for OTA and the 311 for Dish Sd programming