I’ve had a Dish 6000 for about a month now, and love it. Especially after the last upgrade. True the interface is no frills, and pretty genetic looking, but for the most part it serves it’s purpose very well. It’s very quick. Faster than the RCA DTV receiver my friend has, and the DTC-100 I had, and much faster than the Motorola Digital Cable box I had from AT&T (Talk about SLOW!!!).
The 480i to 1080i upconversion is a little soft, but that goes with the territory. ANY upconversion will seem soft regardless of equipment because, well you’re creating resolution that doesn’t really exist. I still have to admit, I find the unconverted 480i signal very satisfactory. Dish channels look very good, and local OTA DTV looks terrific.
Above all, true HDTV looks down right amazing!
The main feature that sets the 6000 apart from every STB on the market is the great flexibility this receiver gives you in aspect control. You have 5 basic modes.
Normal, Unaltered image in it’s correct aspect (4:3 black bar or 16:9, etc).
Stretch, Pulls 4:3 images out all the way to fill the screen (Hides black bars on OTA paneled 4:3).
Grey Bar, replaces black bars with Grey bars to premote more event CRT aging on RPTVs.
Partial Zoom, A intelegent mix of zooming and stretching (I use this almost 100% of the time for watching 4:3. It is awesome! Best way to deal with 4:3 on a 16:9! Hides black bars on OTA paneled 4:3).
Full Zoom, good for getting rid of 2.35:1 black bars on HDTV movies, or 16:9 movies letterboxed for 4:3 (If that sort of thing bothers you. I prefer to zoom in 50% of the time to minimize CRT burn in.). Full Zoom is also great for watching 4:3 without any stretching, but I feel you loose too much with this mode in 4:3, partial zoom works fine IMHO.
The feature that sets this STB apart from the rest is that you have full aspect control on 1080i broadcasts! For example ALL the OTA DTV locals in Dallas broadcast a 4:3 image already paneled in black bars. Well, as far as I know, this is the only receiver you can actually zoom into the 4:3 and get rid of the black bars (Use Partial Zoom, it’s great!)! If you fear uneven CRT burn, than you will find this receiver a godsend!
For the most part, I have little to complain about. There are a few quirks and bugs with the guide, but nothing major. If I had a choice to do it over, I would go dish all over again. Everyone I have dealt with has been very nice and knowledgeable. Prices are good. I get the Dish EVERYTHING pack for under $70 a month, my friend gets the DTV everything pack for closer to $80-$90 I think. I don’t think you’ll be dissatisfied.
Enjoy!
Bill
