HDorBust
07-28-2002, 01:16 PM
The DST-3000 was my first HDTV Receiver (still in use). I was originally using it for only OTA (off the air) HD broadcast reception (Boston Area). I had digital cable as well. When Direct TV started offering Showtime in HD I had my oval dish installed with 3 dual-LNBs and dropped the digital cable (no HD in the near future).
See my other post for the Panasonic TU-HDS20 review (returned)
The good:
You can get signal strength for both Sat and OTA tuning. You can change channels while in the signal meter. The signal meter give audible as well as visual signal strength. This is important for setting up the OTA antenna.
The unit works flawlessly with my Toshiba 40H80 (HD output is 1080i through component video) although I wish I had the options of black side bars instead of gray for 4:3 broadcasts.
The bad:
You can't record to a VCR without switching to 480i.
The channel guide is slow.
You can't use two different OTA signals at the same time for HD (but you can manually switch with some amount of pain).
Glitches seen:
The PSIP information (virtual channel mapping) was confused early on, needed a channel rescan to fix it.
The Direct TV access card didn't work initially when I had my oval dish installed. I was getting signal strength for the transponders, but I couldn't tune channel 100. My air-conditioner tripped the circuit breaker which caused a power-failure to the DST-3000, then I could tune channel 100 and sign up for service. So if you have access card problems when setting up Direct TV, try unplugging the power for a minute!
I couldn't save the channel favorites when I wasn't subscribed to Direct TV and the access card was plugged in.
Overall impression: good
Supposedly this is the same as the Hughes E86, can someone with a Hughes comment on if it has the same signal metering capabilities? Anyone who is using an antenna for OTA will need the capabilities of this unit in order to correctly point the antenna for the best reception.
For OTA, I am using a Channel Master 4228 8-bay Bow UHF antenna with a CM 7775 re-amp in the attic of my duplex. (available from Stark Electronic, Worcester, MA).
Useful links
http://www.antennaweb.org
http://www.starkelectronic.com/cmuhf.htm
See my other post for the Panasonic TU-HDS20 review (returned)
The good:
You can get signal strength for both Sat and OTA tuning. You can change channels while in the signal meter. The signal meter give audible as well as visual signal strength. This is important for setting up the OTA antenna.
The unit works flawlessly with my Toshiba 40H80 (HD output is 1080i through component video) although I wish I had the options of black side bars instead of gray for 4:3 broadcasts.
The bad:
You can't record to a VCR without switching to 480i.
The channel guide is slow.
You can't use two different OTA signals at the same time for HD (but you can manually switch with some amount of pain).
Glitches seen:
The PSIP information (virtual channel mapping) was confused early on, needed a channel rescan to fix it.
The Direct TV access card didn't work initially when I had my oval dish installed. I was getting signal strength for the transponders, but I couldn't tune channel 100. My air-conditioner tripped the circuit breaker which caused a power-failure to the DST-3000, then I could tune channel 100 and sign up for service. So if you have access card problems when setting up Direct TV, try unplugging the power for a minute!
I couldn't save the channel favorites when I wasn't subscribed to Direct TV and the access card was plugged in.
Overall impression: good
Supposedly this is the same as the Hughes E86, can someone with a Hughes comment on if it has the same signal metering capabilities? Anyone who is using an antenna for OTA will need the capabilities of this unit in order to correctly point the antenna for the best reception.
For OTA, I am using a Channel Master 4228 8-bay Bow UHF antenna with a CM 7775 re-amp in the attic of my duplex. (available from Stark Electronic, Worcester, MA).
Useful links
http://www.antennaweb.org
http://www.starkelectronic.com/cmuhf.htm
