What a cool forum. I have been reading for about a month and feel that I have learned a great deal about the ability of the Pronto and its upcoming software-thanks to everyone. I have seven units that I would like to control, but no one has mentioned anything about controlling a mini satellite dish system like the Dish Network receiver (maybe I missed it). I have the sony str-da50es a/v receiver and the lighting challenged remote that does not have the codes for the Dish Network receiver. Can the Pronto control this to? I will be willing to share my setup for the sony a/v receiver and sat dish as well when I get the Pronto.

I have had the DISH network for about two months and the Pronto for about three weeks. Yes the Pronto can be used to control the DISH network very easily. I have taken my DISH network remote out of my main viewing room and just use the Pronto. I use the DISH network remote in the bedroom on my other TV. I only have a single DISH network reciever (model 5000 that has IR as well as radio frequency control) and I use the remote in the bedroom. It can turn on the receiver in the basement in my main viewing room using the radio frequency.

One caveat - older model 5000 receivers only had the abilty to use radio frequency. Newer ones use IR and radio frequency. The pronto only uses IR.

Dave

Terence, Dave:

Another caveat re Dish 5000. The combo unit including the JVC DVHS recorder only accepts uhf, even the new ones (I got mine in October). I intend to pull mine out and open it up to see if it is retrofittable for ir control, but it's not looking good at this point.

Please let me know how you worked out the problem with the JVC DVHS unit and the pronto. I own the JVC unit and was about to buy the PRONTO until I saw your post. Thanks for reminding me that the JVC uses radio waves instead of IR,(what a bummer!)

I was about to purchase the JVC DVHS unit as well as one of the universal remotes. If I can wander off subject for a minute, how good is the JVC DVHS unit? Is it worth the sacrifice of not buying a universal remote? TIA.

Apart from the constantly buzzing cooling fan, I feel it is one of the coolest piece of equipment available.The D VHS recrding is absolutely indistiguishable from the original. This unit can also do dolby digital but no such programing is availble from dishnetwork so far.

Based upon all that is happening with respect to DVT, HDTV, receivers(off air & dish) AC-3, etc, I'd probably hang about for a bot before investing any sum into something that may prove to be short lived. With hard disc drvies plummeting in price and soaring in capability (new IBM 12 GB running at 7200 RPM) means that HD recorders that actually make sense are now within view. Unless you're looking to record and save the DVHS tapes, I think the HD solution will come of age this year. It was shown by a number of players at CES and does work. Tack MLP (Meridian Lossless Packet) compression onto the equation and it becomes very powerful.
And then of course what happens when the sat boys start xmitting AC-3 and HDTV. Does the JVC have the capability?
By years end, DishNetwork plans to have 500 channel capacity so I would expect HDTV broadcast is in their sites as well.
Just my oppinion.

I hear alot of discussion related to the "dish network". I've had directv for almost 2 years now and I always thought that there was more of a selection than any other dss source. Have I been misled?? If so I would like to know, because I may have to make a change. BTW is dish network the same as echostar?

DishNetwork=Echostar
No NFL, NBA, NHL (contracts)
YES to local network stations in large markets which is their main claim to fame(over DirecTV and USSB) for people who have poor cable/antenna reception. Takes three channel slots to put networks up from each city as they are LOCAL feeds bounced up off their birds. This is why they are soon to have 500+ channels. Perhaps they'll also do some HDTV, but this is only a guess. BTW, as a user of the "other" service you have probably seen the lack of use of as the law suit was finally lost and the use of had to go.

This is probably getting off the Pronto track, but in response to posts/queries about the JVC/Echostar DVHS unit, I'm fairly satisfied with mine. I was in the market for a second E-star receiver and an S-VHS recorder so this seemed to be a cost-effective solution. There are some annoying operational quirks with the JVC however, and this issue with uhf-only remote control is a bloody nuisance. However I haven't given't up hope that I can retrofit the IR control, just haven't got round to diving into the cabling rats-nest yet. Will post the findings when I do.

Incidentally, the reason I chose Dish over DSS was for the international soccer (FSA, RAI, telemundo and hopefully soon Fox Sports world).

Fundamentally agree with Jack's comment that tape-based video recording will quite soon be a thing of the past. E.g., Replay.com?

That's www.replaytv.com. They have some pretty cool products that should be hitting shelves in the summer. A good friend of mine is on the engineering team over there.

Philips also announced a deal with TiVo to offer timewarp products in a similar timeframe, and timewarp features integrated into a satellite receiver towards the end of the year.

I have to disagree that video tape will soon be a thing of the past - products with only a hard disk aren't much help for archiving. But when a writable DVD technology comes of age, that could be the beginning of the end...

A dumb question.....

I have a HDTV set with AC-3 rcvr and am getting cable right now (Cox) and they also offer D-cable services. It is about $50/mo....

Does Dish/DSS provide better picture/sound quality than cable? Doas it provide HDTV or AC-3 programming ?

Do you guys now of any good sites where the discussion is more about specific features of each network rather than specific features of JVCxxxU vs. Sony PRTyyyT ???

Thanks for your help....

David

A DBS satellite transmission (as DSS and Dish Network are) has considerably more bandwidth per transponder available than is set aside on the so-called 'digital cable' systems currently available (which are actually hybrid digital/analog).

This allows the satellite operators to compress the video images less than is necessary for the current 'digital' cable systems. The more a digital image is compressed, the more it is degraded.

Although this is a sweeping generalization (and I'm sure will be contradicted by someone almost immediately) you'll generally get better pictures from a DSS or Dish Network reciever, given a few caviats:

a) the satellite operator has to choose how to divide up the bandwidth, and will tend to favor those that are popular and/or lucrative (e.g. PPV channels). Same is true of digital cable (although most of the channels on a 'digital' cable system are analog). So for a given channel, it depends how important the respective operator thinks that channel is, as to how much bandwidth is allocated to that channel.

b) the method of connection. A DBS receiver viewed via channel 3 from a modulator will look worse than a digital cable box connected by composite video. But having a DBS receiver and not using an S-video connection to your TV should be a crime, in my opinion :-) And I've yet to see a 'digital' cable box with an S-video output, which is crazy...

c) the quality of your cable service. Since many of the 'digital' cable channels are analog, you'll still be at the mercy of the cable company's service level. Generally, the cable company does a poor job of maintaining their distribution network, and the wiring/equipment in your neighbor's houses usually contributes to the problem (what the cable company calls 'ingress noise').

d) the quality of the dish installation. If the dish isn't put in a good location and aligned to the satellite properly, then the digital bitstream will be vunerable to errors, 'rain fade' (microwave signals are attenuated by rain) and other nasties.

Best thing I can recommend is to get a DSS receiver and local basic cable, and keep hounding the cable company until they clean up your 'drop' (run of cable from their backbone to your house), since it'll probably be sub-standard.

Then once DirecTV start a reasonable schedule of HD programming, go and purchase one of the HD DSS receivers (RCA was saying they'd be $649 when theirs is released - a bargain). I wouldn't expect the cable companies to deliver good-looking HD pictures over cable for quite some time - they have been dragging their feet from the start.

After this brief interlude, we now rejoin the discussion on remote controls, currently in progress...