View Sonic TV questions

[rldriver]

1. Our Big Sky came with a View Sonic HDTV and after much trying and research I was told by the manufacturer that there is no way you can control the television with another remote. Has any one figured a way around this? I am tired of using 2 remotes at the same time. I need one hand free for the adult beverage and I can't remember which one to use to make changes and which one to control the volume.

2. Is it me or is the picture quality not very good on this unit. Is there some thing I am missing or not setting up right. I am using Dish and not happy with what I get.

[Jim Jarvis]

quote:Originally posted by rldriver

1. Our Big Sky came with a View Sonic HDTV and after much trying and research I was told by the manufacturer that there is no way you can control the television with another remote. Has any one figured a way around this? I am tired of using 2 remotes at the same time. I need one hand free for the adult beverage and I can't remember which one to use to make changes and which one to control the volume.

2. Is it me or is the picture quality not very good on this unit. Is there some thing I am missing or not setting up right. I am using Dish and not happy with what I get.

Dick, I had the Tech who installed my dish try and program another remote but could not. I haven't had any luck either.

My pic quality is nothing to write home about either. In fact the small tv in the bedroom has better quality. You'd think that for the Big Sky they could have stuck a Sony in there.
Jim

[bsmeaton]

Dick,

Same frustrating story with the remote on our Montana viewsonic as well. After hours of trying to control by the Dish remote, I surrendered. I also never got the sound system to comply either.

Picture is nice - but it ain't Sony. A little fuzzy on the edge of those polygons.

After 2 or 3 of those adult beverages, I remember what my tent used to be like and that viewsonic picture clears up a little and the sound adjusts automatically . I just figure it will get stolen, broken, or frozen before too long and I'll put in a Sony.

[William H. Collier]

The picture on my View Sonic is nothing short of awesome, I have a Direct TV HR20 receiver and have it connected with a HDMI cable. I must say the picture off the antenna is very good also, some of the locals are HD.
Bill

[bncinwv]

My stick house plasma has a noticeable difference when using HDMI connections. Is this a possible soultion or is everyone dissatisfied with the picture using HDMI cables??? Just curious for future reference!!
Bingo

[fulltimedreamer]

I may have an inexpensive solution for those of you who want to use a single remote for all your A/V equipment. I tried several of the programmable remotes and always had one component that I couldn't control. There are several high dollar learning remotes that are way out of my league, but I found a Sony Remote (RM-VL600) that is only $25.99 at Best Buy. (Actually, I bought an open box and got it for $15.99.) Anyway, I now have one remote that runs my Maganavox HDTV, RCA HD upscaling DVD, Bose 321 receiver and Dishnetwork DVR. It even has System Control buttons that can be programmed for watching TV - i.e. turns on tv, receiver and Dish DVR with only pushing one button. This remote can learn from your existing remotes by simply putting it in learn mode, pressing the button you want to program and then point your existing remote at it and press the appropriate button you want it to learn. I am very pleased with this remote. And more importantly Debbie likes this remote because now she can press one button and watch tv.

As to the quality of the picture on your HDTV, I have a Magnavox HDTV and it has a great picture on Over The Air antenna local HD channels. I also have an upscaling DVD player that upscales standard DVDs to near HD. Wide screen DVDs look really good from this player. (I will upgrade to HD-DVD as soon as the prices drop a little more and the HD-DVD, Blu-ray fiasco works its way out.) The pictures I get from my Dishnetwork DVR are not hi-definition and really don't look as good as they do on my standard definition tv. Eventually, I will go to HD on Dishnetwork and the picture will be much improved. However, OTA antenna HD will still look better because those signals do not have the compression that Dishnetwork and DirectTV have to use to put all those channels on their satellites. Hope this helps.

[RMccord]

You may want to reconsider HD DVD's. THey are an interim media. The industry is going big on Blue Ray. HD Dvd's are going to come and go quickly. I am sitting out the HD Dvd and going to let the Blue Ray players drop into this HD DVD price range. The image is immensely better as is the sound. and I have heard that the Blue Ray players may not be backwards compatable to HD Dvds. SO in the meantime I too use an upscaling player. Not HD DVD but darn good. Now HD for the cable channels and local TV channels is the way to go.
I heard all this from a friend at Fry's. He keeps me out of trouble on tech stuff that is going to gather dust pretty quickly. See how much is coming out in Blue Ray now. For various reasons the media industry has moved this direction. I think HD DVD's may be the 8 tracks of this generation.

[fulltimedreamer]

quote:Originally posted by RMccord

You may want to reconsider HD DVD's. THey are an interim media. The industry is going big on Blue Ray. HD Dvd's are going to come and go quickly. I am sitting out the HD Dvd and going to let the Blue Ray players drop into this HD DVD price range. The image is immensely better as is the sound. and I have heard that the Blue Ray players may not be backwards compatable to HD Dvds. SO in the meantime I too use an upscaling player. Not HD DVD but darn good. Now HD for the cable channels and local TV channels is the way to go.
I heard all this from a friend at Fry's. He keeps me out of trouble on tech stuff that is going to gather dust pretty quickly. See how much is coming out in Blue Ray now. For various reasons the media industry has moved this direction. I think HD DVD's may be the 8 tracks of this generation.

I guess we'll see with HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Sony(Blu-ray) wants everyone to think that its better because the first generation has a larger capacity per disc. HD-DVD picture quality and sound quality is as good or better than Blu-ray. The cost of HD-DVD players is about half of what Blu-ray is and HD-DVD has full funtionality including an RJ-45 port for connecting to the internet. There is some question as to whether the current Blu-ray players will be compatible with future Blu-ray discs.

Also, note that Paramount and Dreamworks announced last week that they are going exclusive with HD-DVD (no more Blu-ray discs). There are a couple of Chinese companies starting production of HD-DVD players that will retail for $150.00 or less by Christmas. Blu-ray cannot compete at that level for at least a year. The average guy will buy a $150 player but will balk at $400 - $1000 player.

Toshiba's 3rd generation of HD-DVD players will be out next month. They will range from a $200 well appointed player to a $600 audiophile version. I think there will be two standards for some time. I'll probably jump in next month and get an entry level player, as the Toshiba's are doing an outstanding job of upscaling current DVDs.

If you are interested in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray saga, here is a great website:

http://www.avsforum.com/