My HT Site now includes a section on my Dish Installation (1 Viewer)

[RAF]

For those of you who follow these things:

I've revamped my extensive HT web site to include an entire section documenting the installation of my Dish Network, including pictures. All the original material is still there, but there are a lot of new areas.

Enjoy!

 

[Mike I]

I have been to your Home Theater Web site many times and am still truely impressed everytime I still see it...

Looks fantastic...

 

[Tony Cicirello]

Robert,

You're an inspiration for HT excellence!

By the way, what was the skew setting for your Dish 500?

Thanks,

Tony

 

[RAF]

By the way, what was the skew setting for your Dish 500?

Thanks for the kind words, Tony. On the skew setting, I honestly don't remember. A friend of mine much more knowledgeable that me did the actual alignment so I didn't take notes. However, I do remember that at first when he was installing the 500 he was having a hard time capturing signals from both 119 and 110 until he remembered to adjust the skew. As soon as he did this both signals popped in way above 100 (I think 119 clocks in at 123-125, and 110 reads about 112-115 on the meter).

Racking my brain, would 27 degrees ring a bell? Could that have been the skew angle?

Sorry I can't be more specific. I'm just trying to recall something that happened 5 months ago.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Robert: spouses all over the HTF will hate you again as those pictures start to give us ideas..
One thing I noticed: your picture of the PVR501 looks like it is shoved in with very little vent room. As this thing is basically a PC with a always-on hard drive, it really needs some vent space. Since the picture is at an angle, it's hard to see.
The next question: what about programming? The Dish site or the PVR guides dont let the HD programming jump out at you. Some of our favorite shows like CSI, Will & Grace, ER all claim that they are available in HD, but I cannot tell if I would get them with the Dish. (Crappy Dish marketing & web site is one reason they are not selling so well).
Ignoring the things like HBO-HD, what regular shows can you get via the HD feeds?

 

[RAF]

Quote:

The current Dish HDTV offerings here on the east coast are HBO-HD, Showtime-HD, CBS-HD, a HD-Demo Channel and a PPV-HD channel. The HBO and Showtime channels run most of the day in HD mode (although the aspect ratios and the DD5.1 can vary). CBS-HD has most of the evening lineup and some weekend stuff in HD. I never watch the PPV-HD (why would I? ) and the HD-Demo Channel is always good as a constant source of material when I want to show what HDTV is capable of. Up until a few weeks ago, DISH was showing a continuous ~15 minute loop on Demo-HD all day. More recently they have switched to a Newport Jazz Festival offering and within the past few days have varied that program a bit with more and different musical numbers. I would hope that the day comes soon where they rotate the demo programming a little more, but at least I know I'll always have some HDTV content 24/7.
As to additional HDTV programming - that will come. If I really wanted to I could add an antenna and an OTA module to the 6000 and pick up some of the PBS, NBC, Fox (I think) and ABC stuff that way. However, there are just so many hours in the day and I fully expect that "the merger" will happen by late summer so that E* will be offering additional network HDTV content. The one thing I really would like to see (and the one "plum" that DirecTV now has in this area) is Marc Cuban's HD-Net.
But that, too, shall come to pass.
HDTV on my projector is an experience that I wouldn't have expected until I saw it with my own eyes. It extracts every last bit of performance out of the VW10HT. And as much as I hate to admit it, when HD-DVD's start hitting the market in about 5 years I'll be upgrading a lot of my catalog once more.