New software downloading on my 811 now!

[GaryPen]

"The more things change" Department:

Well...in addition to the "acquiring signal" OTA/EPG bug still being there, the "Downloading guide info" bug is still firmly in place like a tick on a dog.

When selecting guide this morning from a Dish channel, it stops to download guide info. Same old same old.

Why does it do this? Why not only download when you've scrolled to the end of its current saved memory? If they must DL before then, why not just do it in the backgraound with no stupid progress box, and no interuption?

I'm going to the guide to see what's on NOW. If I scroll ahead to where there is no info, then download at that point!

 

[NightRyder]

Well...in addition to the "acquiring signal" OTA/EPG bug still being there, the "Downloading guide info" bug is still firmly in place like a tick on a dog.

When selecting guide this morning from a Dish channel, it stops to download guide info. Same old same old.

Why does it do this? Why not only download when you've scrolled to the end of its current saved memory? If they must DL before then, why not just do it in the backgraound with no stupid progress box, and no interuption?

I'm going to the guide to see what's on NOW. If I scroll ahead to where there is no info, then download at that point!

Mine did the guide DL this morning for the first time since the 266 upgrade. This makes sense if you figure the guide is good for approx. 40+ hours. Still wish the thing would DL the guide when in standby though. There must be a set number of hours remaining parameter at which point the guide refreshes.

On the positive side I haven't seen the guide loop or the lost signal bugs since the update. Keeping fingers crossed and burning incense

NightRyder

 

[gpflepsen]

My guide works now, with way fewer interuptions than before. I've had probably two download pauses since Thursday. My 811 gets a pretty good workout too in terms of hours used.

 

[stlouisrod]

If anyone needs a template for the "reasons for returning the 811" device to dish, you can use mine below :

I am returning my recently purchased 811 satellite decoder box and would like my $200.00 refunded, and my High-Def services package discontinued.

The device has too many hardware and software glitches to be useful. Some of the problems are:

1) Picture brightness on component, composite, and S-Video is extremely dark, which requires me to increase the brightness on all of my television sets, so much so that the picture colors are de-saturated and the picture quality is therefore poor.
2) The OTA receiver of the 811 typically reports strong (80% and higher) signal strength, yet rarely locks on to several of my local digital channels. Meanwhile, my year old Zenith HDV420 picks up all the stations perfectly.
3) The device constantly “forgets” my favorites selection of “Show Subscribed Channels Only” and defaults to “Show all channels”. This is very annoying.
4) The device will jump to the “re-acquiring satellite” screen if you hit the guide button after watching OTA channels for 30 minutes or more. This results in 2-3 minutes of waiting before the channel finally comes back up. As long as I’m watching a satellite channel, this does not occur.
5) The device also does not display program guide information on any of my local digital channels. This is unacceptable for a $400.00 unit.
6) The instant weather channel (9500?) is a major nuisance, which I accidentally hit when cycling through channels. It takes forever to load the page and display useful information, and doesn’t let you cancel out to move on to the next channel.
7) The aspect ratios stretch feature chops too much of the sides of the picture. And I have my set calibrated to only 1% overscan, so you can’t blame my set. The partial zoom is nice, but I’d like several zoom levels so sports events don’t chop the score line, etc.
8) The version 266 software upgrade was promised since February to fix all the ailments of this device. It finally arrived around mid-May, and the only issue fixed pertained to the guide so that it now shows programs a full 4 days or so into the future! This tells me the engineering department is either incompetent, or they have no intentions on fixing the other issues with the device in a timely manner.
9) Wish List: It would be nice if the unit could IR blast VCR’s and other devices to do something BESIDES just record at a pre-programmed time. That way I could play a tape, stop, rewind, etc. on my VCR using the UHF remote. If the IR blaster can tell a VCR or DVD recorder to RECORD, why not the other 3 or 4 useful functions? And why not dynamically, instead of only at pre-programmed times? If this feature was added, then the one UHF remote could be used anywhere in the house to control nearly every device in your audio rack, instead of just the 811.

 

[ride525]

You can get out of the Weather channel by hitting "Guide".

Add to your list: The recall button will not work if you are viewing a OTA channel.

 

[GaryPen]

Let's face it folks. P266 did not fix much at all.
They did not fix:
1. Dark area loss of detail. They did tweak the brightness, which helps. But, in some cases made the loss of detail more noticable.
2. VCR Timer doesn't work when the 811 is powered off.
3. "Acquiring Signal" bug when choosing Guide from OTA.
4. Downloading guide info when choosing Guide after the unit has been on for a while.
5. OTA channel locking.
6. It has reverted to the old bug of losing PSIP channel info, if station not locked immediately.
7. Does not show last channel added to Favorites.
8. Channel recall still doesn't work correctly.
9. Analog OTA PQ still sucks.
10. A/V input PQ still sucks.

I'll say it again: The main reason for this update was Sirius channel support. I have no doubt. They just threw in the brighter output to humor folks until June.

There are also some missing features:
1. Dish Home (Not that important, but advertised to be there.)
2. Hide locked channels. (This is available on other current receivers, and is advertised as a Dish Network feature on postcards mailed to subs.)
3. OTA Program Info. (On the recent Geek Chat, it specifically said the the EPG seemlessly integrated OTA Program Info, not just channels numbers. Sorry, but "Local Digital Programming" is not program info.)

 

[Carl B]

I should have known it was too good to be true. This morning on my 3rd foray from an OTA channel to the EPG I got the old "acquiring signal" countdown. It stalled on 3 of 5 and I had to do a soft re-boot of the 811 to get control back. Wife just glared at me. The 811 just went back into her "useless toys for hubby" doghouse. Oh well, maybe it just won't happen as often as it used to. I hope, I hope, I hope!

 

[Carl B]

OTOH, I haven't had the OTA problems others have cited above since 264. With 265, if I can get 70% or better for more than a second, the 811 locks and usually stays locked. Also since 265, the 811 has scanned channels that it never even saw before. Albeit, they don't lock and sit at 49%, but that is consistent w/ other OTA users of all STBs in my area per the AVS Forum.

With 266, the one channel that had lost its PSIP info w/ 265, corrected itself and now all the channels I can lock are appropriately labeled on my menus. My only OTA gripes are the OTA/EPG glitch (which returned per my prior post) and the inability to use RECALL from an OTA channel.

 

[styxfix]

6. It has reverted to the old bug of losing PSIP channel info, if station not locked immediately.

This as always been a problem and it didn't reoccur w/ this update. I live in the same DMA as you and I have always had problems getting NBC-DT 11. It will go to channel it PISP channel 12. It also happens to me on NBC-DT other channel on 48-2 and on ABC-DT 7, but on ABC-DT 7 if it can't lock on to the digital signal, it will drop the station from the guide all together. I have to go back to the menu to add DTV 24 back to the guide. This happens quite often and I even have a rotor on my antenna. I think it's been worse since all the nearby trees have new growth on them.

 

[GaryPen]

This as always been a problem and it didn't reoccur w/ this update.

Not for me.

Yes, NBC11's signal was always somewhat problematic for me, compared to the others. However, the issue of channels reverting to actual frequency numbers, and/or disappearing from the guide altogether, was fixed in one of the recent updates. (264 or 265, I don't remember which.)

I believe a number of other forum members also mentioned that at the time of the fix.

BTW, that same update fixed the problem I had locking onto to ABC 7, as well.

 

[JimMcC]

How do you know if the software is loading on your receiver? If I turn it on before realizing it's loading, will it stop or be cancelled? Thanks.

 

[jerryez]

I have the 811 and a 311. I feed the SD signal thru s video to a Yamaha rx620 a/v receiver and to a 65in Toshiba HDTV thru s video. I can switch back and forth betwen the 311 and 811 on the Yamaha and the video signal is exactly the same. Both pictures are perfect. When I first bought the 811, I had to set the video brightness up 10 points. But after 266, I set the brightness back down to 72 and the picture is good. It is the same on the 811 as the 311. The component input on the 811 is not too dark any longer either.

 

[Ripper]

After the 266 download, I checked on the dark picture problem I was experiencing. The 266 made some improvement in the picture, however it is still sub-standard. My comparison between my 6000 and my 811 shows a significant difference when they are both tuned to the same channel. The dark scenes show little detail on the 811, while on the 6000 I can make out objects in the background. Also, the audio level is lower on the 811. These comparisons were performed using the DiscoveryHD channel. The daylight scenes showed little difference, but the darkened interior scenes showed the greatest differences. Therefore this problem is not resolved, as my 6000 still performs better.

 

[John Kotches]

Ripper,

If you are using the optical audio out on the 811, then there will be no audio level differences between the two on Discovery HD unless you've changed the volume level.

Cheers,

 

[gpflepsen]

Ripper,

If you are using the optical audio out on the 811, then there will be no audio level differences between the two on Discovery HD unless you've changed the volume level.

Cheers,

I don't think so. I have about 9 dB difference between my 811 and 510, with the 510 being louder.

 

[GaryPen]

Ripper,

If you are using the optical audio out on the 811, then there will be no audio level differences between the two on Discovery HD unless you've changed the volume level.

Cheers,

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?

 

[John Kotches]

If you're talking about a Dolby Digital stream (which is exactly what Discovery HD uses) regardless of the source, you will get the same bitstream out.

That bitstream is decoded with the same decoder, and as long as volume control is at the same level, you will get the same output SPL.

OTOH, if you want to talk about non DD originating channel (there are plenty that aren't Discovery HD to chose from) all bets are off.

The discussion in front of us, was Discovery HD.

Cheers,

 

[Ripper]

Thanks for the tip on the optical audio - I will check it out. Since the 811 is not "ready for prime-time" I have it's audio and video routing through the VCR2 inputs on the receiver. The component video is being switched by a Zektor. Therefore the only output I didn't use was the optical out.
As for the OTA, the 6000 and 811 have low audio on digital channels when compared to the satellite channels. This seems normal. I did not compare the audio between the 6000 and the 811 on an OTA channel yet.
But seriously - if you had an 811 and a 6000, which would you keep? Since I'm burning $5 a month on the 811, I'm inclined to mothball it. The 6000 is still a superior machine at this stage, which is rather sad. My bet is that the software fixes will continue past June.

 

[GaryPen]

If you're talking about a Dolby Digital stream (which is exactly what Discovery HD uses) regardless of the source, you will get the same bitstream out.

That bitstream is decoded with the same decoder, and as long as volume control is at the same level, you will get the same output SPL.

OTOH, if you want to talk about non DD originating channel (there are plenty that aren't Discovery HD to chose from) all bets are off.

The discussion in front of us, was Discovery HD.

Cheers,

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.

 

[gpflepsen]

The problems with the 6000 are the noise of the 8vsb fan and the lack of DVI. I definitely wouldn't have bought the 811 at MSRP. The major problem with the 811 is the dark video. As an "in use" receiver, the 6000 performs better. Hopefully in short time the 811 will put this debate to rest.

I'll have to wait until HBO has a DD program on to check the dB levels of the 811 vs. 510 optical audio.