New software downloading on my 811 now!

[Ripper]

To clarify my tests - I was on Discovery HD for both the 6000 and the 811. However, I was using the optical audio output from the 6000 and the analog audio output from the 811. My apologies on this - I didn't realize my setup mistake until I was asked about the digital audio. I'm feeling a little stupid So I will re-check this over the weekend.
I agree on the fan noise of the 6000. But oddly enough, I purchased the 811 to eliminate the 4-second delay between OTA and satellite. It was disconcerting for my guests during the Super Bowl when the main room (OTA channel) audio was not in sync with the family room (satellite channel) audio. I had to turn the family TV audio down - it was similar to being in a really bad reverb experiment. So I was going to use the 811 to pipe video to both rooms, since the component and composite video outputs are on simultaneously. Or the backup plan was my old DTC-100 for the family room.
But as I stated before - I agree. The lack of fan on the 811 was a huge selling point.

 

[gpflepsen]

I checked out Stewart Little on HBO, a DD movie. Low and behold the audio signal level seems to be the same from the 811 and the 510.

 

[John Kotches]

Wouldn't part of the digital information be signal gain? As such, it should be possible to get two different audio levels from two different receivers tuned to the same channel.

I guess Ripper could confirm this by stating whether or not he is using optical audio out of both receivers, and whether both were tuned to Disc-HD.

No. Signal gain is applied after the decode of the bitstream, and does not travel as part of the bitstream.

Dialnorm, which helps define average dialogue level for dynamic range compression is another story altogether.

Regardless, that isn't gain either

Cheers,

 

[John Kotches]

Ripper,

THere's no reason to feel stupid at all -- it's an easy mistake to make, and I wanted to be sure of what was going on

Cheers,

 

[GaryPen]

No. Signal gain is applied after the decode of the bitstream, and does not travel as part of the bitstream.

Dialnorm, which helps define average dialogue level for dynamic range compression is another story altogether.

Regardless, that isn't gain either

Cheers,

Hmm. Dot splains it Lucy.

 

[Foxbat]

Well, I ran across an interesting "feature" of P266: I was watching an SD channel, with the stretch mode set to "Gray Bar", and after the program was over, I switched to one of the CD channels. The screen went gray, then cleared a black box in the center. When the channel banner went away, the music information showed up, but with gray bars on both sides, top, and bottom.

It's easy to recreate; tune to a CD channel and use the "*" key to move through the modes. When you get to Gray, stop and watch the weirdness. As the text gets to the bottom, the block starts to blink and change size. 30 years after Atari, Dish has created HD Pong!

 

[snathanb]

Not so sure. Like Gerry, my 811 is lower than my 510. Also, OTA audio is lower on the 811 than the Dish channels. Does anyone else notice that?

Very much so. By quite a bit on my setup.

 

[GaryPen]

Here's another thing I never had before, new to P266:

After sitting patiently through my daily "downloading guide info" screen, I attempted to scroll down in the EPG. When I did that, it started the download again! After the 2nd download finished, I tried to scroll down, and it downloaded the guide again!

After the 3rd download, I decided to scroll up, instead of down, and it was OK. I was then able to scroll down after that, without incident.

 

[Kevinw]

Here's another thing I never had before, new to P266:

After sitting patiently through my daily "downloading guide info" screen, I attempted to scroll down in the EPG. When I did that, it started the download again! After the 2nd download finished, I tried to scroll down, and it downloaded the guide again!

After the 3rd download, I decided to scroll up, instead of down, and it was OK. I was then able to scroll down after that, without incident.

I have had this problem previous to 266...I may have to start up next time to see what happens.

 

[GaryPen]

Plus, when the "downloading guide" box pops up, the guide has garbage characters.

Also, has anyone noticed that after making changes to locals, if you go straight to the EPG, or immediately after downloading guide info while the guide is open, it will show multiple instances of your digital OTA channels?

Personally, I wish it would do that normally, instead of showing only one channel, and then giving you the sub-channels AFTER you click on it.

 

[Foxbat]

Plus, when the "downloading guide" box pops up, the guide has garbage characters.

GaryPen, I noticed this in P265, which was the first version I ever saw, since I got my 811 right after P265 spooled. I've attached a picture of my Guide in Confused Mode.

Also, has anyone noticed that after making changes to locals, if you go straight to the EPG, or immediately after downloading guide info while the guide is open, it will show multiple instances of your digital OTA channels?

Personally, I wish it would do that normally, instead of showing only one channel, and then giving you the sub-channels AFTER you click on it.

This also would/does happen on the 6000 from time to time. And I agree, it would be nice to one-button select an OTA ATSC channel.

I've also noticed that if you trigger the Guide Download while watching an ATSC channel (in my example, 22-01) that has multiple sub-channels (22-01 through 22-03), after the Guide redisplays, the ATSC tuner is now tuned to the highest sub-channel (22-03). Fastest way to trigger the Guide Download is watch OTA for an hour, press "guide", punch in "4", "8", and ">" to go 48 hours forward in the Guide.

 

[GaryPen]

Fastest way to trigger the Guide Download is watch OTA for an hour, press "guide", punch in "4", "8", and ">" to go 48 hours forward in the Guide.

Why would I want to trigger a download? I want it to go away, and not happen anymore. (More accurately, I want it to happen in the background, or only when I request info for a time beyond what is already in memory.)

 

[Foxbat]

Why would I want to trigger a download?

Strictly to reproduce the problem. If Dish reads these Forums, it would be nice to be able to tell them how we break their software.

Of course, this "Downloading Guide Data" issue may never be resolved without adding a second tuner to the boxes. Isn't the EPG data on its own Xponder? If the 811 would tune to that Xponder while the power was "off" or the ATSC tuner was in use (freeing up the 8PSK tuner), we should never see an incomplete guide. The fact that we're not getting this now probably means some section of the receiver needed to decode the Guide stream isn't duplicated between satellite and OTA use, due to memory, power, or other co$t-cutting measure in the design.

 

[bnaivar]

TNTHD Finally!

As of Friday afternoon I still didn't have TNTHD. I was away from my 811 all weekend, but this morning I could see it.