My Movie Collection
Video Cameras
Digital Satellite Systems
Receivers: Sony Versus RCA
DISH versus DSS
Video Cameras
Sony DCR-VX1000
Digital Satellite Systems
Receivers: Sony versus RCA
Written: 11/8/97
Preface: The following is a long newsgroup message that I sent comparing/contrasting the newly released RCA with my old Sony.
I have both the first generation Sony and the third generation RCA. The RCA is now much more comparable to the Sony than in previous generations, while as far as I can tell, the third generation Sony has no changes from the second generation other than to make it smaller and remove the optical audio out.
In comparing them, I've focused on the RCA and things I liked/disliked in comparison to the Sony.
Things I like about the RCA
 | I like the concept of the scouts, although since they only work when the receiver is off, I haven't really used them yet (I typically leave the receiver on). |
| I like the ability to have the guide only show me the next hour of programming, although I hate the fact that it always comes up only showing me a half hour, and then I have to hit a button to show me the hour. This, along with a lot of other settings, should have been customizable. |
| Menuing to much later time slots is very fast on the RCA, whereas my Sony has to stop ever three hours to download more info. Note that this could have been improved in the later Sonys. |
| One feature I LOVE about the RCA is the AlphaSort. I'm scanning through channels, and I see the Outer Limits is on. I decide to look onwards, and possibly come back if I don't find anything. Well, I don't find anything, but now I've forgotten which channel the Outer Limits is on. With the Sony, I could set up a filter on TV Series/Science Fiction, but frankly, it's kind of cumbersome to do it, and so I'd rather just scroll through the channels. The RCA has a guide to show me all the shows in alphabetical order, so I can easily move to the O's, and then find the Outer Limits. It's very cool, and I wind up using this feature a lot. |
Things I don't like about the RCA
| Sony has a much better interface for simply moving through the guide and finding a show. First, I have the high end Sony, so I've got a little joystick that I simply push in to get the guide, push around to manuever, push in to select a show, and I'm done. The Sony I have to hit Guide, and then use arrow buttons, and then hit view. In a very irritating move, the RCA keeps the banner up on the picture much longer than the Sony does. I wind up always hitting the Clear button, which is yet another button press. Very stupid interface decision. While I appreciate the RCA's whiz bang features, the Sony is significantly better in the single most common action. |
| The Sony has Favorites, which is a very quick way to see 8 to 24 of your favorite stations. The RCA's only equivalent feature is the user profile. It's actually got a benefit, in that it's not limited to eight at a time, or 24 max, but it's a little clumsier to get to. It's ok, but I like the Sony better here. |
| If you bring up the full Guide on the RCA (i.e., viewing the whole screen for station information) you lose sound and audio. Doh! |
| When you move around in the Sony, moving to a show automatically selects that and you can see it slightly in the background and, more importantly, here it. It doesn't sound that compelling in print, but once you have it you wonder how you lived without it. The RCA you have to select the show, which then gets rid of the guide. Ouch. |
DSS versus DISH
Written 3/24/98.
I've owned two DSS receivers for over two years, both a Sony and an RCA (see above for comparisons between the two). I've always been happy with DSS, except for one thing: UPN. While I still haven't seen a Voyager episode that I wasn't embarassed to be caught watching, Deep Space Nine has done some nice things, and what can I say, it's a guilty pleasure watching both of them.
However, I'd probably still be on DSS except for one thing: Digital VCRs. This new breed of VCRs doesn't have a normal TV tuner built in, but instead simply downloads the MPEG bitstream from the digital receiver. While a digital VCR has shipped that works with DSS, it requires new generation receivers that are, sadly, still not out yet at the time of this writing. However, JVC has a unit out that is a combined Echostar receiver and their digital VCR. Some shows that I'm really interested in taping have recently begun showing, and I just had to take a look at the unit. The more I thought about DISH, the more I became interested in it, and since I'd have to upgrade all my equipment to use the D-VHS equipment (remember, they require new receivers) I realized that I had the opportunity to change systems without incurring a lot of extra expense.
Here's what I was expecting from the DISH network:
| Cheaper prices - DISH was about 10 bucks cheaper (for basic cable replacement) than DSS. |
| UPN channels and more superstations. |
| Less compression artifacts due to less channels on more bandwidth - When you see quick motion on the tv, and the picture gets kind of blocky, that's a compression artifact. It comes from using too much compression on a channel. |
| Less sports options. |
| Less Pay Per View Channels (PPV) |
What I actually got didn't really meet my expectations:
| Some channel swapping between DirecTV and USSB resulted in DSS getting cheaper, so that now the price difference is marginal. |
| Compresson artifacts seem similar or worse than on DSS. I'm seeing it more than I ever did on DSS, speciifically on the Cartoon Network during Batman: The Animated Series. I also see it on other channels, although the problem is definitely less on TNT. |
However, being in mid-transition, I've decided to continue with the change. I like UPN, and it does deliver on this and other Superstations. I've never been interested in buying the Sports packages, and in terms of what was free on DSS (Fox Sports, ESPN, etc.) DISH offers those as well. I miss the PPV, since DSS did a pretty good job of terms of picture quality, but not enough to make me want to give up UPN.
One other tiny point is that while DSS has better receivers, DISH just has a better grouping of channels. This doesn't seem like a lot, but it's nice to be able to scroll through a reasonable list of the normal program guide without having to use favorites list (which DISH also supports). While the receivers aren't as nice, they're every bit as functional in terms of ease of use and speed in navigating the program grid.
It's pretty much a toss up to me between both systems. If you're interested in buying a sports package, get DSS. If you like a ton of movie choices (including the PPV), I'd lean towards DSS. Anybody else should get DISH.
As for the D-VHS, I'm happy to say it works as advertised. The picture is perfect, period. I have a $1,000 S-VHS deck hooked up to it via Monster S-VHS cables, and enough there's only a tiny amount of signal degradation in recording from the D-VHS to the S-VHS, the quality difference is noticeable. It's especially noticeable in animation, where there's a tendency to smoother textures than is found in real life. The quality of the D-VHS is amazing.
But there is a catch: currently there are a couple of bugs with the D-VHS. Yep, bugs. The problem is apparently in software. One out of every three times when you record something with timer recording, a blank picture will record with the program info (time it played, name of the episode, etc.) but it will be a black screen. JVC is aware of the problem and working on it, but it's horrific in the meantime since I'm almost never home to see anything.
Additionally, the fan on the JVC unit is WAY LOUD!! I'm amazed, take the noisest computer you know, and now throw that into your living room next to the TV. It's definitely irritating. JVC is aware of this problem too, and offers a fan kit that supposedly reduces the noise significantly. Let's hope it does!!
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Pioneer LD
Mitsubishi VCR
Marantz Receiver