Does swapping the 811 out make A difference?

[WeeJavaDude]

There have been some threads about changing out the 811 making improvements in PQ, OTA locking, etc. It would be nice to get a better feel for the results that people have gotten when swapping out in one place.

Please post your experience if you went through this process is terms of improvment. I know that this is subjective, but it would be nice to see. There was rumors at one point that it is a hardware issue and there was a silent hardware change. I have seen all sorts of experiences from not helping to a magical fix. Would be great to get a better feel and if there is a hardware change that would improve PQ or OTA ability. I personally am happy about OTA and PQ but I always welcome improvement.

Also, if people that have done this could post the before and after software revs it would be helpful. Does anyone know if there has been a hardware fix that addressed some issues people are having?

 

[GaryPen]

Excellent poll/thread WJD!

 

[WeeJavaDude]

Well I will be very interested at seeing people opinions who have gone through this excercise. If anyone as any actually knowledge other then speculation as to a hardware change, that would be extremely interesting. I know there was a thread Scott hopped into a while back dealing with this issue and mentioned a silent change.

So the quesiton is was there one? Hmmmmm....

 

[hzhao]

I received two 811s for replacement, one is worse than the one replaced out, the other is about same. I am going to wait for one more SW update before I will completely give up on 811. Not sure where I am going for from that point.......

 

[Spankle]

No better, perhaps worse. Sure notice more dark images after the swap.
Hate myself for buying such a piece of garbage. BASURA I say!

 

[MikeD-C05]

I got rid of my 811 last week and now I have the 921 and My picture quality issues with the 921 are reduced down to the red/blue/green line down the middle of my screen during sd shows over the component or dvi cable. Hopefully this can be fixed with a software update. The 811 had so many problems with the crushed blacks in the picture over all three outputs; sd/dvi/component. I don't know why they didn't just start over with the 6000 with new updated software and all the trimmings rather than a completely new setup with all these bugs.

Dish should recall these boxes and rework the hardware problems instead of unleashing these monsters on an unsuspecting public.

 

[GaryPen]

No better, perhaps worse. Sure notice more dark images after the swap.
Hate myself for buying such a piece of garbage. BASURA I say!

Mucho basura, mon ami.

 

[WeeJavaDude]

I don't know why they didn't just start over with the 6000 with new updated software and all the trimmings rather than a completely new setup with all these bugs.

The 6000 is maxed out on computing resources. It could not handle the additional software features the 811 has. Picture in Guide, OpenTV, 2 day guide etc.

 

[WeeJavaDude]

Boy I am baffled at the results so far. I really expected a more positive response to the 811 swap. Maybe with time the numbers will change. Got the impression a lot of people got good results with a swap.

 

[bnaivar]

My out of the box 811 had lines at the top and bottom of the picture. Once the unit was swapped out I have had no problems.

 

[styxfix]

Boy I am baffled at the results so far. I really expected a more positive response to the 811 swap. Maybe with time the numbers will change. Got the impression a lot of people got good results with a swap.

Could the DISH NETWORK 811 Tech support be skewing your poll?

 

[Kevinw]

I swapped mine and had no differences.

 

[WeeJavaDude]

Could the DISH NETWORK 811 Tech support be skewing your poll?

As much as I am into conspiracy theories, I doubt it.

 

[GaryPen]

I'm not sure what he means "skewing". Deliberately voting falsely, or the low quality of CS causing subs to vote negatively? Either one sounds unlikely.

It appears to me that the majotiy of this small number of replacement eceivers is no better than the crap we have now, unfortuntely.

OTOH, some do report big improvemts. Perhaps there are differences in components in those particular units? I'm still convinced they found a design flaw in one or more of the chips, and waiting for the corrected chip was the reason for the manufacturing slowdown a few months ago.

 

[hancox]

Boy I am baffled at the results so far. I really expected a more positive response to the 811 swap. Maybe with time the numbers will change. Got the impression a lot of people got good results with a swap.

I'm really not - I think it's the case of an ultra-vocal super small minority (anti-DISHers or just plain whiners) of an ultra-vocal minority super small (HD users in general) thinking a hardware swap will fix things.

This mirrors dark issue / non-dark issue, etc etc

 

[GaryPen]

I'm not sure I grasp your logic? Wouldn't Dish supporters think things would improve?

 

[WeeJavaDude]

Well with the small sample size the poll is indicating the following:

Most people that swapped, either did not see improvment or thought things got worse.

Since there was some response and even certain individuals very vocal that it is a hardware issue, I am rather perplexed. I have always felt that since our experiences with the 811 are all over the map that there must be a number of that contribute to the diverse opinions regarding the 811. Based on the polls i have posted, I am even more confused. I fall into the happy with my 811, but always welcome improvment.

It is obvious from the poll so far that an 811 swap will most likely not improve your conditions. I know currently the response is relatively small, but based on the response so far an 811 swap is not the magic bullet.

Well 268 is around the corner, so lets see what that has instore for us and take poll after it gets released. At this point, I am rather confused buy the wide range of experiences with the 811. Not surprised at the OTA because the nature of it, but the PQ opinions I find interesting. Guess with all the different combinations of hardware that does not surprise me at all.

 

[WeeJavaDude]

I'm not sure I grasp your logic? Wouldn't Dish supporters think things would improve?

Yes.. But I think the point is that Tech support was stuffing the poll to make it look like an 811 swap would not fix the issue. I have read personally about 6 incidents where the 811 swap helped. Maybe those folks have not chimed in. Seeing KevinW posting no improvement was an interesting data point for me.

 

[GaryPen]

It does not mean that hardware is not an issue. Some of these replacements may have different chips. Some have reported that the motherboard ID numbers are no longer on the back of the unit. I believe those people also reported an improvement. I could be wrong.

 

[WeeJavaDude]

Then again.. Maybe we are looking a bit too hard for the smoking gun from the grassy noll.