Dish HD OTA w/811

[buffd]

Hello all,
This is my first post after some serious perusing of past posts. Dish has notified me that I WILL be able to receive HD feeds from my local stations through the 811 w/o an OTA. We do have locals available here (52233), but I was under the impression I would still need an OTA antenna. Or would I be better off just running locals through an OTA and saving a few bucks? Could someone please clarify. Your insight is very much appreciated.

Jeff

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

It depends where you live and how good the signals are you get from your local channels to decide if you need an OTA antenna or not. You might be able to get by with old fashioned rabbit ears if you get good enough signals.

Check out http://www.antenaweb.org to see what kind of antenna they recommend.

BTW in my testing so far, it appears the OTA tuner in the 811 is better then the 6000 OTA tuner, I have 2 stations I can not get in which I could not get at all or had trouble pulling in!

 

[Forward]

No local HD stations are carried by Dish

One way or another, you MUST have an OTA antenna if you want the 811 (or the 6000, for that matter) to display your local digital stations. The locals retransmitted by satellite by Dish are STRICTLY in SD. Due to bandwidth limitation, the day when the sat services retransmit local HD stations is likely very far away.

As to what kind of OTA antenna you will need -- rabbit ears, attic or rooftop -- it all depends where you are in relation to the signal towers.

 

[MikeF]

I have 2 stations I can not get in which I could not get at all or had trouble pulling in!

Scott you did mean that you have 2 stattions which you can NOW pull in which before you could not, didn't you.
If so that will be great news[/quote]

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yes 1 station before I could not pick up at all, the second station I could barely pick up.

Now I get them both.

Again the OTA tuner seems better on the 811 then the 6000

 

[buffd]

That is exactly the response I was looking for. Thank you all. I will not subscribe to the locals through Dish and feed them through the 811 via an antenna. Happy Holidays

 

[DarrellP]

buffd, you may want to subscribe to your locals just so you can see what's on. Very few digital stations are including the guide in the PSIP data stream and until Dish gets around to implementing the locals guide to match your local digital channels, you will be clueless as to what's on and what it's about.

Anyone have any info on the 811 and if it loses it's brains when parked on an OTA channel like the 6000?

Thanks.

 

[Bobby]

buffd, you may want to subscribe to your locals just so you can see what's on. Very few digital stations are including the guide in the PSIP data stream and until Dish gets around to implementing the locals guide to match your local digital channels, you will be clueless as to what's on and what it's about.

Anyone have any info on the 811 and if it loses it's brains when parked on an OTA channel like the 6000?

Thanks.

But $5.99 a month for a TV guide seems awfully steep..... But then again it's only $1.50 a week ...

 

[AndyMon]

Anyone have any info on the 811 and if it loses it's brains when parked on an OTA channel like the 6000?

I'm pleased to report that it remains conscious and lucid, unlike the 6000.

 

[oktane]

Dish 811 component outputs?

What is the output resolution of the component outputs on the 811 receiver? Is it true that they are only 540p?

Or do they only show 540p starting in 2005 when the HDCP flag compatibility becomes a requirement?

My plasma display does not support DVI currently.

Thanks.

 

[JoeSp]

Oktane, The outputs on componet are the same as the outputs on the DVI--480p, 720p or 1080i. Of course you must set the output to match your HDTV.

 

[oktane]

But I thought the whole point of having a DVI port was so full-resolution could pass through them with copy protection, and the component outputs could be "watered-down" in resolution...

 

[Larry]

Anyone have any info on the 811 and if it loses it's brains when parked on an OTA channel like the 6000?

I'm pleased to report that it remains conscious and lucid, unlike the 6000.

My experience with the 811 was somewhat different. I purposely left it on an OTA channel overnight Friday. Saturday morning, accessing the guide from the OTA channel took me directly to "Acquiring Satellite Signal". I also noticed that after reacquiring signal, the two day guide was more like 4 hours or less. I hope these things will be corrected by E*. "Business as usual" with the 811? I certainly hope not.

What with weekend sports and all, I've done more watching TV than checking out the 811. But for sure, I'm not sorry about the $149 investment. Ironically, the DVI cable I ordered from Best Buy cost as much as the receiver. No wonder a cable wasn't included.


edit: After more reading, which I suppose I should have done yesterday, I guess I should have ordered my 5 meter cable elsewhere. Like P.T. Barnum said, there's one born every minute. One good thing about BestBuy though is their return policy.