DirectTV: can you disable the DTV osd?

[Brett]

I am thinking of upgrading to DirectTV if I do though I want to use the builtin / banner info that BTV uses instead of the stuff on DirectTV is there a way to make the box not display anything except for the actual video for the station currently tuned to.

-Brett

[Brett]

how long extra does it take for channel changing?

does it flow together well you think?

After seeing my parents digital cable, I am kinda of jealous, they clearly have better reception then standard cable.

-Brett

[Brett]

I am paying $40/cable and it sucks the big one over here. I am thinking I am going to do this, its only a few dollars more a month and adds a crapload of new stations.

I have to figure up all the prices before I do anything.

My question now is can the coax from the wall to the receiver run 50ft without degrading, or would I be better off building another machine and placing it over by the tv/coax?

-Brett

[davefred99]

Originally posted by RadioActive
I am thinking of upgrading to DirectTV if I do though I want to use the builtin / banner info that BTV uses instead of the stuff on DirectTV is there a way to make the box not display anything except for the actual video for the station currently tuned to.

-Brett

I am using Direct Tv with a serial connection and find it to be smooth enough for me. Yes there is some delay in channel changing and the banner will come up from direct tv for a second or two when you change channels but I have gotten used to it and hardly notice it. When recording a movie off of a pay channel like HBO since they usually play a about 30 seconds of intro anyways so the movie is all recorded. In fact most all of the others seem to do the same and I like to conserve as much HD space as I can and if I miss 10 seconds at the beginning its not a big deal to me.
The picture quality off of digital satellite is excellent compared to cable and I have both mostly because I also have cable DSL and it only costs me $10.00 a month extra to get basic cable bundled. So I have 2 direct Tv boxes, One is dedicated to snapstream for recording and such and the second is hooked up to our Family room Tv. We then have cable to all other tv's in the house for general viewing of regular broadcasts. I have the luxury of patching my HTPC (snapstream) computer to the the Family room tv thru and existing pass thru as they share a common wall and the cables are only 12ft long.
OK I have rambled on enough for now I just thought I would share my system setup with you because I am pretty happy so far with my results. I plan on trying out the MVP-Player setup in the future too as it seems like a simple solution for watching recorded shows and accessing my Mp3 music files too.
Dave

[davefred99]

Originally posted by RadioActive
I am paying $40/cable and it sucks the big one over here. I am thinking I am going to do this, its only a few dollars more a month and adds a crapload of new stations.

I have to figure up all the prices before I do anything.

My question now is can the coax from the wall to the receiver run 50ft without degrading, or would I be better off building another machine and placing it over by the tv/coax?

-Brett

Satellite will cost about the same in the long run as cable. One thing that most people dont realize is that the Local channels are extra $5.00 a month plus there is a $5.00 per extra box fee. So saveing money should not be your primary motivation as it all ends up about the same. Digital cable is almost the same as Satellite in regards to channel availability and quality so if you have a choice its purely personal preference.

As to your question regarding cable length from the wall over 50ft degrading picture. As long as your total cable lenght from the dish to the receiver is less then 200 ft you should have noe problems. If you are refering to the Tv output from the back of your box to the computer thats a different story. Any time you use a ch 3/4 modulated output there is some signal degradation but for standard Tv input it is hardly a factor. There are Svideo solutions to run longer distances using two rca paired wires that can be used for longer runs Too.

I hope this info is of use to you, I just happen to be a comercial satellite Instalation contractor. I no longer do residential stuff as my specialty is Business Tv networks but some of it uses Direct Tv and DishNet equipment and I do lots of signal distribution stuff.
Dave.

[Brett]

Ok so this is what I am thinking now...

2 Receivers -> New Dedicated HTPC box that sits by living room TV and his hooked directly up to living room TV by Svideo.

Then using the existing system I will run a network client that will be outputed to the other tvs through standard coax.

That way the cables will be very short between the main tv, and the rest of the televisions will feed of a network client and could in theory watch an entirely different show.

I am not trying to save money in any way, I just do not want to spend a killing extra to do this setup. It looks like its going to run me $450 in computer parts plus some kind of case. I then gonna spend $100 on the 3-satellite deal that includes 2 standard receivers and 1 TiVO receiver. I will hookup the 2 standard receivers to BeyondTV, and give away or just hold on to the TiVO receiver.

I have not quiet worked out all of the final details but it looks like it will cost somewhere around $650 initially, and about $15/mo each additional month. But ofcourse this is a much better setup in my opinion.

-Brett

[Aahz]

One way to get rid of the DTV OSD is to send the clear command after the channel change. A small change to the DTV serial control utility should be able to accomplish this.

Phil

[berg]

One way to get rid of the DTV OSD is to send the clear command after the channel change. A small change to the DTV serial control utility should be able to accomplish this.

Good thinking Phil.

That would be great ! Maybe the guys at SnapStream could help us out ? Please PBMax

[berg]

One way to get rid of the DTV OSD is to send the clear command after the channel change. A small change to the DTV serial control utility should be able to accomplish this.

That would be great ! Maybe the guys at SnapStream could help us out ? Please PBMax

[merim123]

Anyone ever address this?

[merrypig]

I changed the osd display time on my stb (drd435) to the shortest possible setting. It's gone by the time SS gets going on a recording - can't remember when I last saw it.