Sony SAT300HD

[Gregg Lengling]

I'll be posting a review on Sony's latest Sat/OTA receiver in the next couple days.  According to UPS tracking it's on the truck and will be delivered today, so the fun begins....now I'll have the 200 and the 300.  Also I bought the Radio Shack 8 in 1 Universal Remote touch screen unit...that also can handle macros.  Got it working pretty much yesterday and now I only have to hit one button to turn everything on.  Some neat functions are:  After I have everything turned on I select SatBox and they have a move control function...so I moved the volume controls from the AV reciever to the Sat Box control panel so I don't have to switch back and forth.  I also programmed a macro that turns on the DVD player, whilst changing the AV input to DVD and adjusting a couple other little things.  Nice remote and so far my only complaint is that it's a pain to program macros as it took me about 40 tries to get the system power on macro to work...but it's in there now.

I'll make notes on both items and process up a nice review on both for anyone interested and put it here in the equipment forum.

[Matt Heebner]

Is that Radio shack remote a learning one ?


Matt

[Gregg Lengling]

Yes it is a learning remote so you don't have to worry if it doesn't control something you can teach with the original equipment remote.

Got the SATHD-300 all hooked up and started playing with it.  A few notable things...the remote is both IR and RF so if you hide the reciever you just hookup the included RF antenna and you can control it.  Also has an extended IR remote cable like my Hitachi Set came with so you can feed hidden boxes via IR.

And now the best news....on the new 300 the composite outputs are always active...so even if you are feeding 1080 or 720 via Component or DVI you can still use the composite outputs at 480i or p for use on Recorders or other devices (I use this output to feed X10 transmitter that sends the sat sigs to my other TV's in the Kitchen and garage without having to pay for another box, and the real plus is now I can watch the HD only channels on regular TVs throughout the house....Like DiscoveryHD or 36.1 or ESPNHD).

So far I'm impressed...not bad for 399.....even less after the credit Directv gave me for buying the new box....customer retention gave me a $250.00 credit.....so that's over 3 months of free service based on my account.

As I get more time to play with the remote (it's the Kameleon one) and the Box I'll let you guys know how it's panning out.  However I'm already thinking about moving the 300 to the family room and putting the old 200 in the Master bedroom.

[tazman]

I hope it has a bubble memory for when you need to change batteries.  Let us know how you like it after awhile.  I always had a problem finding one remote that would do all my equipment.  It seems that there is just that one peice of equipment that is not supported.  Then trying to explain what buttons are for what to my wife.   Ahhhhhhhh FUDGE.. Forget it.:mad:   I got that nice little wicker Easter basket on the table full of remotes.

[gparris]

I don't think Gregg bought the nice sat receiver for the remote capability, I think he bought it for the host of other great features.

If you want a do-it-all remote, try a "learning" remote,or, in my case, a "pronto"  remote where you draw your own icons using a computer interface if you do not like the ones they have built-in and make all your remotes come alive in side it.
The pronto recreates the remotes for you for every remote and I do mean every remote you have,  so you never ever use another one again (ditch that basket) .
I know this to be true, since I have had one for 4 years with its own charger. It is very useful in all applications and the pronto  has never said "never" - ever,  to replacing a remote control!
So what do I do with the old remotes?
I keep them all in a box with their batteries removed, just in case I sell the equipment it goes with and I have stopped having to buy batteries, too. .

[sp44again]

Originally posted by Gregg Lengling


So far I'm impressed...not bad for 399.....even less after the credit Directv gave me for buying the new box....customer retention gave me a $250.00 credit.....so that's over 3 months of free service based on my account.

 

How did you get a $250 credit when you already had an HD box?
Also, did you buy the box from Best Buy?

[Gregg Lengling]

Yes I bought it on line at Best Buy...I bought it as my second box to replace my SD box.....chatted with customer retention and wanted a deal to replace my SD box with an HD box....they would do it but required it to be delivered by an installer.  I don't use installers and wanted to do it myself.  So they told me get any box I wanted and they would give me the credit when I got it activated.  So this way I got the Sony box I wanted and got the 250 credit.  I didn't want the Samsung box they were giving out..this way both boxes work "Almost" the same......there are some diff's between the 200 and 300 but all the functions are the same so the wife is happy.

[StarvingForHDTV]

I ended up getting the JP1 cable and downloading some files onto my Radio Shack remote.  It might be worth looking into for yourself.

Starving

http://www.hifi-remote.com/ofa/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jp1/

[Gregg Lengling]

I'll look into that...so far it's been working great.

On another point...to the SATHD-300

Because they get the programming guide from the satellite for the Sony boxes I always showed all of CBS's digitals on 58.1, 58.2 ect....but was never able to view it there always had to go to 1.1

Well the new 300 shows both 1.1 and 58.1 channels and they both work...so I'm guessing that the OTA scan picked up the PSIP for 1.1 and that the sat download is now figured out so it realizes that 58.1 is really on channel 46 and does it's own remapping.  It made my wife happier because she would always complain when she went to the guide and found a HD program on 58.1 and couldn't watch it, even though I continually told her to go to 1.1, and I understand her angst as their is no program info on 1.1

Ever year it gets better.  REgarding all this screen burning stuff, we've always suffered with fatter people on SD programs and did the stretching, I didn't mind the fat people as I felt it was better to use all 65 inches of my screen, just found it too distracting to have bars on the sides.

[tazman]

The pronto recreates the remotes for you for every remote and I do mean every remote you have, so you never ever use another one again (ditch that basket) .

Where can I get one?  Thanks:)

[Gregg Lengling]

Originally posted by gparris


If you want a do-it-all remote, try a "learning" remote,or, in my case, a "pronto"  remote where you draw your own icons using a computer interface if you do not like the ones they have built-in and make all your remotes come alive in side it.
 

The Radio Shack Kameleon is also a learning remote so you'll never have to buy another, but the big thing is the price....though you can't make your own icons you can do anything with this sucker.  I think it was 69 bucks...for the 8 device one I have...but I really probably didn't have to buy the 8 unit with the macros and the ability to move controls from one device to another it's just slick.

[sp44again]

Greg, you still were able to buy the box at Best Buy for $399 even though it says for new subscribers only? I wish I would of known that sooner, they are all out.

[Gregg Lengling]

Are you sure they are all out....I just think they don't stock them at the stores, I ordered mine on-line last Friday and it shipped Monday and arrived 2 days later.  Check out Bestbuy.com it's still there, the only caveat is that it must be activated within 30 days...nothing about creating a new subscription.

When mine came in I hooked it up and called them to deactive the old one and active the new one, they then forwarded me to customer retention where they found the Code # I was given so they could apply the 250 credit to my account.  It was all rather painless.

[sp44again]

Code #?

[Gregg Lengling]

The code number I got from customer retention...told them I didn't want their choice of box or an installer and that's the only way the deals work from them. So I got a supervisor and she understood and said I can go out an buy any HD Box I want from any source and they'd still give me the 250 rebate.  So I needed the code she gave me for when I called back to activate to get the 250 credit on my account.