I almost gave up trying to get my D* upgrade to HD. Here's the rundown:
2/13: Tech arrives, says can't install new dish on my roof cuz it's flat, they need spl. mount base. He cks w/dispatcher; resched. for 2/15. D* gives me a $20. credit for not installing. I take a 2nd day off work, no show, when I call they said I was sched. for Sun. 2/19- a day I had planned to be out of town. We agree on install for Sat. 2/25. He's late, but best part is scheduling didn't specify bring the spl. mount! Fortunately, he had one left in his truck.
To make a point here: I have waited getting this install until D* had MPEG4 in ops, so I wouldn't need to update either the receiver, or HD DVR/rcvr, whichever I got. At time of order, I was told by the agent (her name was Franklin, but the Indian accent tells me likely where she was located) that definitely I was going to be receiving MPEG 4 signals. She did inform me that the MPEG4 HD DVRs were not released yet, and that I would get an "upgade path" to it when they were released.
Install goes fine, but when he's setting up the H20 rcvr, I see one of the satellite selections is not being seen by the rcvr. This produces an error code, which he clicks past. When asked, he said that was for the MPEG4 satellite, which is not in service yet. Due maybe April or May. I also noted that he installed inline before the H20 input a B Band Converter, for Ka-Lo band upconversion, so the H20 is MPEG4, but it appears the signal is not. I am located in Los Angeles, one of the major roll-out markets. I'm about to contact D* about the agent either being misinformed, or just wanting my business. Further, the installer co. failed to let me know that the spl. mount would cost an additional $32.80- not a problem, but again I was never told there would be a charge for it. I believe this installer co. is doing D* a disservice, and have told them so. It certainly raised my blood pressure, and I'm sure I've made no friends at the installer co.
Finally a comment about the HD picture- it's very good, however I have a Sharp Aquos 37" LCD TV; while viewing SD on it for the past 8 months, I have two inputs in ops. Input # "TV" is from the RF output, and #3 gets S-Video from the SD rcvr. This is so my wife can easily view TV without input switching complications. However, when viewing via S-Video, the video proc. delay causes a slight sync issue. Not bad, but if fed to my speaker system too, the delay is obvious. Now on HD, there are substantial sync issues, using the component out of the H20 to the TV, with audio connected to it directly. I knew this may be an problem, and will likely get a pro audio digital delay used for this purpose from the business where I work. I might also try an HDMI conn from H20 to TV; perhaps the H20 is doing dig/analog component conversion, then the TV is doing analog/dig component conversion. Possibly why the sync is worse. I still have an SD rcvr connected (for wife setup), and SD signals on the H20 compared to the SD rcvr still have a slightly worse sync issue.
If you're still with me, thanks for letting me vent. Mostly I felt cheated by D* about MPEG4, though at least I didn't invest in a costly MPEG2 HD DVR, only to have it inops later on. Any comments about this are greatly appreciated, and I'll plan to keep future rantings brief.
2/13: Tech arrives, says can't install new dish on my roof cuz it's flat, they need spl. mount base. He cks w/dispatcher; resched. for 2/15. D* gives me a $20. credit for not installing. I take a 2nd day off work, no show, when I call they said I was sched. for Sun. 2/19- a day I had planned to be out of town. We agree on install for Sat. 2/25. He's late, but best part is scheduling didn't specify bring the spl. mount! Fortunately, he had one left in his truck.
To make a point here: I have waited getting this install until D* had MPEG4 in ops, so I wouldn't need to update either the receiver, or HD DVR/rcvr, whichever I got. At time of order, I was told by the agent (her name was Franklin, but the Indian accent tells me likely where she was located) that definitely I was going to be receiving MPEG 4 signals. She did inform me that the MPEG4 HD DVRs were not released yet, and that I would get an "upgade path" to it when they were released.
Install goes fine, but when he's setting up the H20 rcvr, I see one of the satellite selections is not being seen by the rcvr. This produces an error code, which he clicks past. When asked, he said that was for the MPEG4 satellite, which is not in service yet. Due maybe April or May. I also noted that he installed inline before the H20 input a B Band Converter, for Ka-Lo band upconversion, so the H20 is MPEG4, but it appears the signal is not. I am located in Los Angeles, one of the major roll-out markets. I'm about to contact D* about the agent either being misinformed, or just wanting my business. Further, the installer co. failed to let me know that the spl. mount would cost an additional $32.80- not a problem, but again I was never told there would be a charge for it. I believe this installer co. is doing D* a disservice, and have told them so. It certainly raised my blood pressure, and I'm sure I've made no friends at the installer co.
Finally a comment about the HD picture- it's very good, however I have a Sharp Aquos 37" LCD TV; while viewing SD on it for the past 8 months, I have two inputs in ops. Input # "TV" is from the RF output, and #3 gets S-Video from the SD rcvr. This is so my wife can easily view TV without input switching complications. However, when viewing via S-Video, the video proc. delay causes a slight sync issue. Not bad, but if fed to my speaker system too, the delay is obvious. Now on HD, there are substantial sync issues, using the component out of the H20 to the TV, with audio connected to it directly. I knew this may be an problem, and will likely get a pro audio digital delay used for this purpose from the business where I work. I might also try an HDMI conn from H20 to TV; perhaps the H20 is doing dig/analog component conversion, then the TV is doing analog/dig component conversion. Possibly why the sync is worse. I still have an SD rcvr connected (for wife setup), and SD signals on the H20 compared to the SD rcvr still have a slightly worse sync issue.
If you're still with me, thanks for letting me vent. Mostly I felt cheated by D* about MPEG4, though at least I didn't invest in a costly MPEG2 HD DVR, only to have it inops later on. Any comments about this are greatly appreciated, and I'll plan to keep future rantings brief.
