Any news on the release date yet? Any hdtv dss receivers other than the RCA available?

Is supposed to be released in the 1st week of March.

I don't know about the Sony STB but my dealer has (or had) both the Mits HDSR5 and the Panasonic TU-HDS20. I just purchased the Panasonic. The demand is extremely high, they are selling as fast they get them in. BTW I'm in West Palm Beach, FL.

Does the Panasonic have component out?
And are they priced under $750.00.

Thanks.

The Panasonic has selectable component or RGB out. Also has DD optical, analog L/R stereo, composite video, S-video and 75 ohm for OTA/cable. Also, unlike the Mits, it has selectable ouput format for the component video. The Mits will give only 108i from component and 480i from composite/S-video. The Panasonic has 108i, 760p, 480p and 480i. Also, if your monitor can handle all of them, it can be set to be automatic based on source.
Another nice feature of the Panasonic is that the output mode switch is on the front of the unit with LED indicators, the Mits has a slide switch on the back with no visible indicator. This is important if you plan to record anything, since most VCRs expect a 480i composite or S-video signal. This and the selectable output are why I chose the Panasonic.

Please note that all this is based on review of the specs, I have not yet seen the Panasonic in operation, I'm waiting for the install.

The Panasonic is sold without the dish. I purchased a "package" which included the DirecTV Plus oval dish and the Pansonic receiver for $999.95 (not including installation).

Panasonic, Toshiba and Mits are avail, once again Sony drags behind

I now have the new sony HD100 unit and like always it is worth the wait!!!
Need to find discrete codes for output-1080i,720p,480i,...........
Nice unit even does a good job of upconverting to 1080i.

I ended up with the Mits.
Does the Sony give you the over-the-air program info on the guide? I saw that Sony, That thing is huge! It looks cool though. How does the NON-HD stuff look, and do you watch the non-HD through component or "S" video?
My Mits looks terrible for the NON-HD.

NON-HD looks pretty good(much better than the RCA)
The non-hd can be watched any way you want.
component,s,composite......It depends on how it is selected.
Over the air on the guide I don't know about I don't have it connected to over the air yet.

I just bought the Mitsubishi. In the Seattle area the Sony has not shown up, at least not in my area. The Panasonic is hard to find as well. The Mitsubishi is at least shipping.

I have learned a few things. I have a Sony KW-34HD1 HDTV. The OTA HDTV tuner in the Mits is FAR superior to the Sony tuner shipped with the TV. The Mits locks in to the HDTV OTA signal rapidly and is stable. The Sony could take up to 30 plus seconds and then would fail to lock onto the signal in many cases. The Mits also has a Signal Strength meter for BOTH the DSS signals and the OTA HDTV Digital signal. Using the HDTV signal meter it was very easy to aim my roof top rotator for maximum signal strength on the HDTV OTA signal.

I have found that contrary to what might seem logical, the picture on SD stations is MUCH better by setting the Mits tuner to think it is connected to a 4:3 TV, NOT the 16:9 that I actually have. I then set the 16:9 image to FULL in the Mits setup. The TV will scale SD stuff to fill the 16:9 screen much more cleanly than the Mits scaler. If the tuner is outputting a real 16:9 image the TV is smart enough to leave the image alone. Setting the tuner to FULL for 16:9 images does not cause any stretching.

The Advanced Guide is very cool. The setup allows you to set your zip code for local OTA/cable stuff. Based on that it will download the local show information into its guide so it is seamless to go from DSS to local. For local stuff you simply tune to channel 2 to whatever your highest local channel is. For DSS start at 100 and go up. Again, ALL of the channels are displayed in one guide seamlessly.

Another nice feature is that if you are getting your local stations via the local rebroadcast from the DSS, on DSS tuners such as the Sony SAT-A50 you would tune to a channel in the high 800 through high 900 range depending on your city. In my case the local ABC station is KOMO channel 4. The old Sony SAT-A50 listed the DSS rebroadcast as SE-4 channel 974. On the Mits, the ABC local station appears as:

SE-4 channel 4
KOMO channel 4
KOMO-DT channel 4-1

So all you have to do is go to the base channel of your local station and you can directly move from the DSS rebroadcast, the OTA NTSC analog to the HDTV signal simply by pushing the channel up/down button. This makes it incredibly easy to see the difference in signal quality. I live 30 plus miles east of Seattle in the woods with some low mountains between me and a direct line of sight to the tower. On the analog signal the image is pretty bad, the DSS rebroadcast is much better, the DTV image is incredible.

I would like the chance to see the Panasonic with its variable output format for the HD stuff. However, since it is pretty difficult to return a DSS tuner that has been activated, and without activating the tuner you really can not get enough to really form an opinion as to quality. I really do not fill like experimenting at >$700 a pop to see if the Panasonic or Sony HD100 is materially better :-).

Taft

Can you receive the HD signal through the COMPONENT video out or do you have to use the VGA out ??

Kevin: The Mits only has component video for HD. It does not have VGA.

JOE

Well after getting the oval dish installed yesterday, (I initially had the Mits hooked up to my old 18" dish), things are not looking as good.

First, whenever I select the 1080i component output the picture will randomly totally disappear to a solid black screen, sort'a the inverse of a "flash" :-). The blackout lasts from as little as a second to maybe 5 to 10 seconds, the sound never stops, only the picture. It "appears" to be more prevalent when there is a bright flash in the scene, such as a bomb explosion and flare of flame, and blink, the picture disappears briefly and then flashes back on. I went to the 480i SD S video output and have so far NOT seen this behavior on the S video out.

Second, upon closer examination, in the 1080i output any NON HD stuff, i.e., standard old NTSC be it via the sat or OTA, is slightly soft looking, almost like the picture is slightly out of focus, certainly not the razor sharpness the Sony KW-34HD1 normally exhibits. Even worse, I was watching a movie off of the sat last night, in the 1080i output the upper right corner of the picture would "tear", down about 2 inches from the top of the screen. It almost looks like a tracking adjustment error on a VCR. Again going to the 480i output totally eliminates this strangeness.

Third,even in the 480i mode, the picture is just not as sharp as my old Sony Sat-A50.

The regrettable thing is that the OTA HDTV is OUTSTANDING, much better than the Sony KW-34HD1 HD tuner. On the DTV channel 199 loop, WHEN the picture is present, i.e., no black out, and the utput is in the 1080i mode, the picture is stunning.

It is beginning to look like either an interface issue between the Mits and the Sony on the 1080i, or I have either a bad Mits, or my HD input on the KW-34HD1 is bad, (which of course until now has never been used, the Sony tuner connects via a dedicated connector).

Has anybody who has actually been able to get the Sony Sat-HD100 been able to verify if the guide issues that the last Sony receivers have is corrected or not? In addition, how is the picture quality of the SAT-HD100?

I was aking about the Sony HD-100 :-)

In that case, no you do not have to use the VGA for HD signal. The component video will output 1080i.