[montynyc]

I am what i consider a "casual" home entertainment user. Watching good quality tv is important to me but I really never go overboard (cept for my tosh 65" widescreen). example is my dvd player is a ps2 atm and i dont even know the model # of my av reciever only that it does everything i want.


I have decided (and negotiated with my wife :} the purchase of a hd reciever) I plan on only using it with direct tv since i get no other OTA recption here (carmel,ny if anyone knows something i dont)


Ok enough babble. I have decided on getting the panasonic TU-HDS20 for 2 reasons


1) Price looks like i can find one for about 475

2) The connections available I would be lieing if i said I knew what they are called but its the 3 colored connections that give me the best pic atm


The 1 negative i have been reading about this reciever is that its slow. my question is how slow is slow? Alot of people complain about it but i am assuming that these people are hi def fiends and not casual users


will i really see a noticable delay? and is the deay also for non hd channels?



thanks for any info

 

[TWilly]

monty,


I would strongly suggest NOT getting the Panny unit. I have it and hate it. Get any of the others. I HAD a Sony, loved it (even tho members on this forum have rightly complained about any number of problems), only took it back because I was able to get a steal on the Panny at $200.


It's... S--------------------------L-------------------------O-------------------------W. The... time... it... took... me... to... type... "S--------------------------L-------------------------O-------------------------W"... is... about... the... amount... of... time... it... takes... to... change... the... channel. Worse, because of the delay (I think it's in recognizing the remote coming in), it may times will start changing the channel halfway through. You type in 199 for HDNet, it sometimes changes (in 5-10 seconds) to channel 19 (station not available). Then to channel 9 (station not available). AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGG!!!!


This is AFTER sending it to Elgin to get the slowness "fixed".


(Tom, tell us how you REALLY feel about it)


The thing's a POS.

 

[TWilly]

It's like the guy with asthma in Malcolm In The Middle....

 

[TWilly]

It's like Heinz ketchup....

 

[montynyc]

OH MY! thanks for the posts


guess ill have some more "negotiating" to do


guess ill start investigating the mits sr-hd400


thanks again

 

[YardleyBill]

Yeah, what he said.....


And I quote.....


S--------------------------L-------------------------O-------------------------W


Panasonic -- hello? You should buy these back from us -- since we do the majority of the recommending, and we currently hate your product.

 

[jaune]

if you are considering the Mits srd-400, then I suggest you consider the Hughes E-86. It's the identical product (actually the Mits box is a hughes box, they just slapped on the mits name) but much cheaper than the mits. You can have one for $450 or so online.

 

[Thomas JW]

Quote:

Originally posted by montynyc and is the deay also for non hd channels?

Well to answer this part of your question ... no, there is no delay for non-HD channels.


To my knowledge, there was no hardware fix for the response time. The h/w fixes I had implemented at Elgin were for the fan (quieter but still can be heard) and for the picture dropouts on HD channels (no more dropouts).


The downloaded software v7.4 supposedly is the fix for the slowness and if you had the previous version then you know it did improve a lot (especially with the guide) but there is still the noticeable delay on the HD channels.


The problem I have with the non-HD channels is the inclusion of thin vertical black bars on the sides of the 4:3 material being presented in the 16:9 picture. I am using the STB with a Panasonic PT-WXF56 monitor and I don't know if that makes a difference or not but it is most annoying.


I use this STB for HD content only (OTA & Sat) but would stay away from this one if it was going to be my only STB.

 

[darrinps]

You might want to wait until July or so. The new Samsung is due out then. Of course, by the time July gets here, we might find out that it is due in August. When August rolls around....well you get the idea.

 

[montynyc]

thanks for all the info but there is no way I can wait until July since iv'e been standing on the sidelines for 6 months already. For 2 weeks straight now i have been reserching for a tuner and quite frankly the more I read the more im getting confused.


ATM I have narrowed my search to 2 tuners the DST-3000 and the HIRD-E86 (thanks to a post above). Basically the determining factor to which one is bought is which one is cheapest. Im figuring ill be buying another one sooner or later so why keep wasting time looking for the "perfect" one. for now ill stick with one of those 2 unless someone posts somthing terrible about one of those.


thanks again



sure hope its worth it

 

[sangs]

I just went back to my DST-3000 after using the Panny for a month. (Since they fixed the DST re-mapping problem with FOX in NY.) While the Panny had a great picture for HD and non-HD alike, I just couldn't get past the lack of speed. It was so damn frustrating, even though I used it primarily for just HD content. The remote control entry process and having to re-do it nearly every time made me want to burn the damn thing. For now, it goes back to being my backup STB should anything ever happen to the DST-3000. Good luck. Oh, and I love the DST. I'd have never opted against it if not for the re-map issue and that seems to have been a FOX issue (big surprise I know) more than anything else.

 

[montynyc]

Ended up buying the dst-3000 also bought a Winegard plus dish(on ebay) but I cant find any info on the dish on winegards site. now the only thing i need is a OTA ant and im good to go (up on the roof that is). Any suggestions for a OTA ant? my range is about 50 miles out of NYC and i want to keep the ant as small as possible maybe something that hooks on to the plus dish?



after ordering all this gear I'm getting the shakes waiting for it all to arrive :}. also it seems I may even start watching CBS after all the reading i have done regarding their primetime in HDTV, I dont think ive watched CBS any other time but football season :}