Man a loved that LG(3200s)/Sony/Zenith/(other rebrands) sat box. But I can no longer get them from my LG/Zenith supplier because, according to him they are discontinued. So I got one of the samsung ts360's in today and set it up at my shop to check it out. It did a good job at displaying my biorythms and helped me discover that i am an excelent 'egg egg' player but can't build train tracks to save my life (so stupid). How come no one, after years now, can get all of the right stuff into a HD sat box?

I thought the LG/etc was pretty dang good, ant dig signal meter that was easily accessable, almost all outputs live at the same time, RF output, great guide, quick operation, channel listings were customizable, IR or RF control, and some other highpoints.

This samsung box doesn't have RF output, you have about six steps until you get to tuning for ant dig strength and then you can't change the channel to check others without backing out and redoing the steps (a problem here in chicago because we have different source locations). The menu is ugly and slow, RF requires additional hardware, and there seem to be other 'clunky' issues as well. BUT WAIT, it has a 480i/p input that it will up/down convert!!! But it is accessed with a toggle that doesn't even have an anchor back to the sat input, how useless is this feature (to anyone who has component switching elsewhere in the system, and/or multiple component inputs on the tv with discrete access). I ran a few resolution test discs through it, the upconverter pretty much destroyed the picture.

Are the manufacuters clueless or are they just not finding out what we need?

Rant complete.

Does anyone have a better box than the samsung that they can reliably obtain?

Rant on....

You can thank DirecTV/Newscorp for their decision to homoginize all the brands and make one speck for all models in the future. Need some UHF capable non hd receivers for a client, and they don't make them any more! I also am down to my last 3 LG's, and then I don't know what I will do. Hated the Samsung TS160 (now available as the RCA 210) and don't want to try the 360.

So what are you guys recommending for hd directv? I'm on my second Samsung 360 because the first one froze every 3 days and had to be unplugged. This one has only frozen once in 2 weeks, but still-- why should it freeze at all? The rcvr came direct from driectv and when I asked Driectv to send me a different brand, they said you only get what they happen to ship that day-- can't pick your brand. The price was right-- $299 which is what it sells for now at Best Buy, but if it has to be unplugged every few days it's useless, especially when it's mounted in a custom wall unit!

Rant could continue, but won't.

I was impressed with the new RCA. It had RF simul.out and an RF remote!

Old Samsung boxes (ts160) where more reliable than new one(ts360). We have had issues with them locking up frequently. Price is right but that is about it in my opinion. What is the feed back with Zoom?

that's great news, we move a crapload of HD rcvrs, i can't wait to get a crapload of service calls. I certainly have plenty of time for it.

I think I will stop helping directv sell their service, it's a load off my plate to not deal with these hit and miss products, I'll just tell my customers to call directv and have some bonehead trunkslamers do the job. Or better yet i'll deal with the cable company.

HOW IT THIS NOT BEING ADDRESSED!!!!?????

Rant on....

My Rant:

Personally, I hate Directv and Dish Network. They haven't a clue as to what we want or what we need. While we're on the subject, I also hate most of the products associated with both of those services.

It's wise to understand that Dish and Direct are after one thing and one thing only......getting new customers to subscribe to their services and not losing the people who are current subscribers. In other words, it's all about RMR or "Recuring Monthly Revenue".

Unless you're Walmart or a company that only does satellite installs, we're not important to them.

What's the alternative? Not much.

I consider this segment to be a neccessary evil to our business. Without shows to watch, our $100,000 theater systems pretty much suck, don't they?

The old addage comes to mind that 90% of your time goes to fixing 10% of your customers, and that 10% happens to be satellite TV related.

I remember a couple of years back, after complaints from various integration people, Directv decided that it would allow CEDIA members to be able to purchase additional sat receivers at a resonable price without having to have a DIRECTV account.

What a deal! All that you have to do is spend $500.00 annually on a CEDIA membership to earn the right to not LOSE money selling DIRECTV equipment.

Now how's that for a rant?

Why is everybody getting mad at Samsung? You guys did realize that Samsung sucks didn't you? C'mon Samsung has sucked for the last- Well, FOREVER! They have sucked forever.

Their phones suck, their TV's suck, their satellite receivers SUCK, they used to make computers (they still might) and if they do THEY SUCK TOO!!!!!!!!

Because they've recently been promoted to the "Hey, look at us, we no longer suck" category?

Sorry all but I have to disagree with the thought that the Samsung sux. We quit actively doing sat installs for directv and dish when they went to 'free' installations. Now we only install HD gear for customers who go out and purchase it through directv, dish or some local b&m. I personally bought a Samsung SIR-TS360 at Tweeter because I could get it cheaper there than through directv. I love the fact that it has full two way rs232 control, including discrete input selection for those who need that-which is me for my PS2. I obviously dont care about the picture quality of an upconverted game console, some of you guys might though.

If I had to make a choice as to whose sat receiver sucks more, between RCA and Samsung, it would be RCA.

Just my $.02

Just for the record I never said that RCA didn't suck. We install satellite systems everyday and I haven't seen a RCA HD receiver since the old DTC100. So I have no comment about RCA.

My HD receiver of choice would have been the Hughes HIRD E8. I loved that thing. I would hit my mother over the head with a snow shovel if they would bring it back. Not because it was Soooo much better than any other receiver. I never had 1 problem with one. Not a service call. Nothing.

I am indifferent aboutthe HD receivers that are out there now. None of them jumps out at me and says "buy me because your never going to have problems, I'll work forever."

All I know is that AVgenius is about to get ALOT of service calls that are not his fault. Unfortunatley, he has to be the one to try and explain that to the customer.

Great getting feedback on the Samsung DTV piece. The Zenith/LG was is a great piece. Even with this unit however, it had a tendency to lock up when programming changes were made by the customer or the programmer (channel shifts/subscription additions esp. HD content etc..).
Having said that I only have had two lockups in 20 months - not two in two weeks.
My suggestion regarding the stupidity and/or cupidity of Hughes/DTV? Make there life hell. Write, call, email but specifically make every trade show a repetitious, tedious litany of abuse.
Prepare customers in advance for problems with poor quality hardware and make sure they know to call DTV customer support first, foremost and always. This stands in direct contradiction to what we do, but it must be done.
Finally, if enough of us buy one share of whatever (Thompson or Hughes) we can submit proposal at annual shareholders meeting and change policy or impact policy at the fat cat level.

Peace