Does dishnetwork 501 able to pass on dolby digital? (1 Viewer)

[TraciC]

Right now I just have an older DirecTV receiver. I am interested in getting a receiver which will transmit Dolby Digital since I have recently purchased a HT system with a Denon receiver which decodes DD. I am looking for the best way to do this--either upgrade DirecTV or get a new customer Dishnetwork plan. Any suggestions on which way to go? I have also read somewhere that the Dish 501 PVR receiver (which can be had as part of new subscriber plan) has capability to transmit DD, but have also heard that it can't. Would appreciate if anyone knows for sure. Oh yeah, also interested in getting combo receiver with some form of PVR--such as Tivo etc..
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[Jay H]

Yes, the 501 has a toslink digital output in the back. It also has a PVR feature but only for the DBS feed, i.e. if you do not subscribe to the broadcast channels, you can use the digital recorder for regular OTA feed, that you'd need a Tivo, et al. for..
Jay

 

[TraciC]

This is confusing then because on dishnetwork.com they do not list the 501 as one of the receivers able to give you DD sound from a DD broadcast. Is there somewhere to look up this info for sure before I were to get one? Are you also saying you would only be able to record on the 501 any dish channels & just not any channels you get via antenna? Thanks for the info
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[Robert_J]

The Dishnetwork site is the last place you should go for information. I don't have 501 receiver but EVERYONE at DBSforums.com has said that it passed/records DD. Only select HBO, Showtime, Starz! and PPV channels have DD.
-Robert

 

[SteveK]

Traci- I own a PVR501, and I can assure you that it DOES transmit a DD signal for those few channels that use it. As of now, only a few channels are broadcast (by Dish) in DD5.1. They include HBO E and W, Showtime E and W, and Starz E and W, as well as selected PPV channels. Although Showtime also broadcasts its other channels in DD, Dish Network only transmits Showtime E and Showtime W, and does not transmit Showtime Too, Showcase, The Movie Channel, etc in DD. Since I currently subscribe to Showtime, I've asked that they add the other Showtime channels in DD. They say they intend to add more DD channels, but it "may take some time". Even for those channels that are not transmitted in DD, you can still use the Toslink connection and get a 48 kHz signal, so you do not need to have the analog audio connected in addition to the Toslink.
I've had the 501 for about a month now, and I am very pleased with its performance. I see no difference between the audio and video quality of a recorded program compared to one that is live, and it is quite easy to use.
If you are a current Dish subscriber, you can purchase the PVR501 for only $199, provided you agree to the AT150 package for 12 months. It's a great deal, especially since you don't have to pay extra for the listings as you do with Tivo, as it just uses the normal Dish on-air program listings.
So I'm very pleased with my 501, and I'm sure you will be too.
Enjoy.
Steve K.

 

[RyanMM]

I too, am very pleased with my 501. It is a wonderful thing. My only complaint is you can not record external sources (ie. antenna) & b/c of that I added local networks to my programming
Steve,
I did not realize that it still passed a signal if it is a non-DD source.
Thanks,
Ryan
New users: You can get a 501 for $138 at http://www.allsat.com/501.shtml
[Edited last by RyanMM on October 01, 2001 at 12:10 AM]
[Edited last by RyanMM on October 01, 2001 at 12:11 AM]

 

[Jay H]

yeah, I too didn't realize that it passes a digital audio even with non-DD stations...
For even more info, you can sometimes see which PPV movies or which stations are broadcast in DD by looking at the guide where it will sometimes say DD in the info.
I'm fairly happy so far with the 501, I haven't tried anything terribly complicated and I've heard from dbsforums.com about alot of people with buggy 501s but so far, I've been OK. I did have the receiver go haywire twice within 2 days, but a simple "reset" fixed it. I've had the receiver since early July and I've tried many things like watching a PTV program while recording another which worked for me. There's a lot of places I'd like to see improved like being able to edit PTV programs to delete say the last 30 minutes because you didn't want to get cut off but I'm still satisfied with it. The guide needs alot of work though, 2 days is not long enough, they need a search function, and I wish it was better described (anything bike is labelled "bicycle racing" and anything cars is labelled "auto racing") and actually matched the times it was broadcast, including things like delayed starts and stuff.
Jay
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