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Sony DHG-HDD250/500: Official Thread - Page 2

post #31 of 28625
5/15/05 at 1:31pm
Thread Starter 
Comcast brought me an 8000 DVR; they said the 8300 is not available yet

it does some strange things: you cannot tune to ch 205 Discovery HD unless you switch to an analog channel first: DVI and firewire ports are not active

I got an extra CableCard for the Sony: I can phone in the info to activate it

Comcast techs have to phone in the CableCard data which then has to be faxed to Plainfield to authorize the card
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post #32 of 28625
5/15/05 at 9:54pm
I was talking to a supervisor 10 minutes after they opened on Saturday. He put me on hold to 'get the current status' and came back on and told me the package had already been delivered and they couldn't get it back. He claimed that Sony had not done the re-routing and that the information had been turned over to another department that would investigate why the package had been re-routed.

He said I'd have to reorder. He couldn't tell me when they would have more in stock, but that he would request the info and promised an email to me on Tuesday or Wednesday with an ETA.

I have a coupon code for free shipping. Now I need to decide whether I want to use it or not.
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post #33 of 28625
5/17/05 at 8:09am
FWIW, the shipping date is now OFF the Sony site. I guess they enjoy yanking us around. Hmmm. JR
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post #34 of 28625
5/17/05 at 8:13am
Thread Starter 
mine shows it is on the truck for delivery today
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post #35 of 28625
5/17/05 at 11:02am
Quote:


Originally posted by jerrich
FWIW, the shipping date is now OFF the Sony site. I guess they enjoy yanking us around. Hmmm. JR

Uhmm, my guess would be because THEY ARE ALREADY SHIPPING! Why would you put a shipping date that is in the past on your web site? All you need to do is put the product on the site and let the consumers correctly assume the product is available.

-phil
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post #36 of 28625
5/17/05 at 11:25am
I emailed Sony yesterday to try to cancel my order. I hope it gets cancelled before it ships!

With the price reduction in the DirectTV HDTivo to $699 effective today, this Sony box does not look so attractive any more. Of course I am locked into DirectTV, have to pay the $4.99/month Tivo fee, but the HDTivo box has more features. Plus I can record from DirectTV and OTA at the same time.
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post #37 of 28625
5/17/05 at 11:32am
I rec'd mine on Friday (5/13/05) afternoon...got it set up mostly on Saturday night. CableCARD won't be installed until tonight so I haven't really worked with tweaking the channel guide or anything. Figured I'd wait until I had access to all the channels first.

From the looks of it I think I am going to like it. I will be using it as well as a Comcast Motorola 6200 (6212 I think? Has 2 tuners) series DVR/HDTV Cable box.

Using the Sony in conjunction with the Comcast box affords me luxury of not missing the second tuner in the Sony.

We archive shows for quite awhile and watch them on our time schedule and the Motorola box just didn't have the HDD capacity, ya know?
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post #38 of 28625
5/17/05 at 11:46am
From what I've seen of the guide, it sure looks like it blows away most cable system guides.....certainly mine from Cablevision.
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post #39 of 28625
5/17/05 at 12:26pm
Mark, I would certainly be interested in your observations of the Sony unit. Could you post some pics, or anyone else for that matter, of the guide and maybe expound on how it works.

Thanks...
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post #40 of 28625
5/17/05 at 1:25pm
The guide is kind of nice...I haven't really had a chance to sit down and really USE it but what I have seen I like...Setup was extremely easy and it worked the first time. Detected regular cable channels that don't require decrypting immediately during initial setup, even the local HDTV's...

So far so good.....
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post #41 of 28625
5/17/05 at 1:45pm
Quote:


Originally posted by PhilB
All you need to do is put the product on the site and let the consumers correctly assume the product is available.


The problem is it's back to not available. Sony doesn't have them in stock and nobody there has the slightest clue when they'll have them again.
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post #42 of 28625
5/17/05 at 1:53pm
I wonder how many units Sony manufactured in this first lot. If it was a significant amount, they certainly sold out of them very quickly. I know many people have been waiting quite a long time for these units...some over a year!

[EDIT: The site apparently has the smaller 250 shipping the next day:

"Usually ships next business day. "


and the 500 as shipping date not available (which doesn't necessarily mean they are out of stock as I've seen this message before and taken delivery almost immediately...items shipped straight from Japan on new merchandise):

"Shipping date not available. We will notify you by email when this product has shipped."
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post #43 of 28625
5/17/05 at 1:58pm
Thread Starter 
mine arrived and looks good

it first asks if you want to scan for OTA channels; I chose No but it scanned anyway (I have no decent ATSC reception because of terrain)

then it takes one hour to read the cablecard to obtain Card data, host ID info to have the card authorized: I phoned it in and am waiting for card authorization

HDMI works well and audio is fed via the HDMI connector (yes it cuts off the component video analog out )

however during channel changes I hear lots of static popping in the audio: this is a problem

more: looking at system info, it appears the DHG-HDD500 has two hard drives; software Version 1.2.05: it gives signal strength for both antenna and cable inputs

more OK now I have card authorization: the encrypted channels such as 205 Discovery, INHD 206, 207 look excellent: I have the output set to 1080i using HDMI

The guide is the TV Guide system: no guide data yet
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post #44 of 28625
5/17/05 at 2:28pm
Nobody at SonyStyle knows anything about stock, but my second order has shipped today according the email I just received. I may have to sit out on the porch all day and be ready to tackle the FedEx guy. Hopefully I'll have better luck this time...
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post #45 of 28625
5/17/05 at 3:19pm
Thread Starter 
the analog audio output is clean: no popping sound during channel change
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post #46 of 28625
5/17/05 at 3:35pm
Mark, what are you feeding with the signals coming from the unit?

Did you try optical or coax audio out to see if noise during channel changes is present?
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post #47 of 28625
5/17/05 at 3:47pm
Thread Starter 
signal source is Comcast HD

audio:

analog: OK
optical: not checked yet
SPDIF: no coax digital audio out
HDMI audio: noticeable popping while switching channels
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post #48 of 28625
5/17/05 at 4:11pm
What is receiving the hdmi audio signal as it may be the culprit, particularly if that device cannot accept full 5.1 audio and the hdd500 isn't downmixing the audio?

As I understand it, during the initial handshake the devices normally communicate their abilities but I suppose if this isn't implemented properly there could be problems.
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post #49 of 28625
5/17/05 at 4:15pm
Thread Starter 
display is Sharp LC45GX6U

the HDMI audio works clean from an HD Tivo to this display
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post #50 of 28625
5/17/05 at 4:37pm
Mark, is the PQ on the Sony better than your previous cable HD box?
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post #51 of 28625
5/17/05 at 6:15pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:


Originally posted by Ken Ross
Mark, is the PQ on the Sony better than your previous cable HD box?

still looking at that Ken: the PQ from the Sony looks as good as the direct cablecard on the LC45

interesting: the Sony introduces a delay of 3-4 seconds over any other Comcast source including SA8000, SA3250, and Cablecard in the display

Sony channel changing is also slower than the SA8000
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post #52 of 28625
5/17/05 at 6:27pm
Hmm, shades of the HD Tivo? Could it somehow be related to the HDMI?

I wonder how the Sony would look on the 63" Fujitsu....I know you'll give that a shot!
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post #53 of 28625
5/17/05 at 6:30pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:


Originally posted by Ken Ross
Hmm, shades of the HD Tivo? Could it somehow be related to the HDMI?

I wonder how the Sony would look on the 63" Fujitsu....I know you'll give that a shot!

yes Ken: when I went back to Sony component video the delay is gone: the delay(and audio noise) are through the HDMI output: the HDMI output is how I intended to install it

I will try it on the P63 in the next few days: that would be HDMI for video and toslink for audio
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post #54 of 28625
5/17/05 at 6:34pm
Mark, can't you just break out the audio via the optical audio output of the Sony? This way you'll get the HDMI video connection and avoid the crackling audio.
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post #55 of 28625
5/17/05 at 6:37pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:


Originally posted by Ken Ross
Mark, can't you just break out the audio via the optical audio output of the Sony? This way you'll get the HDMI video connection and avoid the crackling audio.

the Sharp LC-45 HDMI input does not offer a separate audio in of any type: audio in is only through the HDMI connector

and I wonder if the 4 second delay would show up between audio and video that way: I will check it
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post #56 of 28625
5/17/05 at 6:44pm
I didn't realize that about the Sharp. Strange decision on Sharp's part to omit separate audio inputs.
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post #57 of 28625
5/17/05 at 7:14pm
Can someone post some pics of the TV guide interface?
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post #58 of 28625
5/18/05 at 10:56am
Interactive demo of TV Guide OnScreen
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post #59 of 28625
5/18/05 at 2:34pm
Can one or more of those of you lucky enough to have received one give us a mini-review or two?

Some questions: Can you use the remote to change the display format? Can you use the remote to change the aspect ratio? How about switching between OTA and cable? Any quirks for analog versus digital OTA? Does analog OTA or cable look any worse? Can you pause & rewind a program during scheduled recording (my Zenith does not let you do this)?

There are no reviews out there from someone who actual has one, so please share some knowledge!

Thanks
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post #60 of 28625
5/18/05 at 3:45pm
Got mine today. Thus far the guide hasn't downloaded (expected) and the PQ appears excellent.

You can use the remote to change both resolution and aspect ratios. I don't have mine hooked up to OTA, but my guess is it would be integrated into the guide....maybe Mark Rubin knows at this point? PQ appears better than on my 8300 DVR. I'm not sure about pausing & rewinding during a recording, I'll check that out later.
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