It's here!

[Pismire]

My new MicroHd arrived this afternoon. What a sweet little box! Just did the firmware upgrade and setting it up now. Very easy to operate. Thank you SatelliteAV.

 

[Mr Tony]

it is a sweet machine

 

[chaskuchar]

any word on how the next shipment is coming through customs? i am patiently waiting on pins and needles... charlie

 

[jdbob]

Fedex put the unit on the truck for delivery this morning but since the 3 days weren't up yet (I guess) decided not to deliver it. Good news for UPS for future purchases when I have the choice.

 

[mucketbucket]

I ordered mine around 6/25. As of this morning it still says waiting to be shipped on my account at sat av. Fixing to go into dt's if it don't come soon. lol.

Pismire- when did you order yours?

 

[Pismire]

6/20....got my sats programmed and watching NBC on c-band now. Will work on favorites later. Loving it so far. Everything is smooth, no comparison to my solomend pos that this replaced.

 

[skysurfer]

my big giddy surprise (2 MicroHD's delivered on Tuesday instead of Thursday) was turned to a frown when neither box HDMI port seems to work.

I have two different HDMI input HD monitors, two different cables, two MicroHD's and the same issue. I don't know why when I plug in HDMI cable, then a LNBF then power that I don't get any menu or anything on the screen. When I plug the HDMI cable back into the manhattan receiver on both tv's, I get the OSDs and such so it shouldn't be a HDMI issue with my cable or hd set.

i am going to try the composite cable next to see if that even works.

 

[skysurfer]

composite works. I went to display, found it on 1080p. set it to 1080i and then rehooked up HDMI and HDMI now works.

Did I miss the post where it was said the box natively comes 1080p and you have to use a composite hookup to configure the the box to make HDMI work if one has a 720p or 1080i hd monitor?

going to unplug and replug and see if my 1080i setting is retained and HDMI works on powerup.

 

[Pismire]

I didn't have any issues. My TV is 1080p and worked fine out of the box at that. You might be on to something though if your TV doesn't support 1080p.

 

[skysurfer]

both microHD's defaulted to 1080p when factory fresh - I don't have any set that does that resolution so you get "nothing" on the HDMI hookup.

thank goodness for composite video "backup" and the fact the ALI interface isn't that much different compared to my other two ALI based receivers so there is no learning curve for me to figure out how to set the display resolution to 1080i (my hd sets).

 

[Mr Tony]

what version software is in it?

 

[skysurfer]

probably 5/23 - whatever version it ships with.

Firmware version upon power up of a brand new box is moot since you can't do anything about firmware updating until you can see an OSD. Now that I have an OSD, i'll be able to update to June 15th firmware.

EDIT: I see in the release notes the default resolution was changed in the June 15th update to 1080i.

 

[SatelliteAV]

We are currently debating setting the default resolution. We are considering 1080i, 720p and a few staff have suggested 480i. All we know is that the future default factory setting will not be 1080p.

 

[rdehaven]

I got mine today as well. I like the speed that you can move around in the UI as well as the polished feel. I'm very pleased!

 

[skysurfer]

We are currently debating setting the default resolution. We are considering 1080i, 720p and a few staff have suggested 480i. All we know is that the future default factory setting will not be 1080p.

I would think 480i to handle all sorts of monitors would be a good default to avoid support calls that the receiver is defective out of the box. OTOH, you might generate support calls that video on a HD service looks too soft because the user hasn't changed the default resolution to match their HD set's capability.

 

[rodder]

Fedex put the unit on the truck for delivery this morning but since the 3 days weren't up yet (I guess) decided not to deliver it. Good news for UPS for future purchases when I have the choice.

I know what you are talking about i dislike Fedex too. mine is in Atlanta i am 50 miles N. off Atlanta but they show Delivery for Friday the 6th.

 

[primestar31]

We are currently debating setting the default resolution. We are considering 1080i, 720p and a few staff have suggested 480i. All we know is that the future default factory setting will not be 1080p.

My microHD was set to the default 1080p with the firmware that was shipped with it. My tv set handles 720p natively and 1080i with hdmi. I got a signal right away on my tv regardless, and was able to use it. I do though suggest the default to be set at say 480p, and then it'll even support OLD plasma's with component, if they use an HDMI to Component adapter.

Then again, IF this setting also controls the composite output, then it definitely would be best to set it to 480i natively. Otherwise people going composite with an OLD tv set won't get anything.

One last thing: when this setting is changed, PLEASE have a confirmation screen to click an "OK - this works" (ala Windows), OR have it time out in say 20 seconds and go back to the default! When I changed it to 1080i, it blanked out for so long, I though I was screwed. It then finally came back up. So, I'm not sure if my tv was just taking it's sweet time hand-shaking, or if that time-out feature already exists.

 

[digiblur]

Mine still shows heading to Reno, NV since the 30th. Guess it got stuck...my hate for FedEx grows deeper.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

[skysurfer]

When I changed it to 1080i, it blanked out for so long, I though I was screwed. It then finally came back up. So, I'm not sure if my tv was just taking it's sweet time hand-shaking, or if that time-out feature already exists.

I think that's pretty normal. On my other two ALI chip-based boxes, the display resolution change usually blanks the screen for a few moments before the new setting takes. On some settings, I don't get any video at all because it's 525 line or whatever so I just hit the button once more until I get a display mode that my HD monitor is compatible with.

I'm just happy the microHD has NTSC composite as a backup - one of my other boxes I have to hook up an old b&w TV to straighten out the rolling picture (525 line) in order to see the OSD to change the resolution setting to something my HD monitor can do if I get stuck in some setting that I am not blindly push buttons on the remote to fix.

 

[Cham]

Ordered mine on the 28th from Brian but it ships via the Canadian distributor. Will I get an email with the tracking info when it ships?
Likely 720i as default resolution would be fine; taking for granted all TVs with HDMI would have at least that high resolution. Maybe I am wrong though..
I'll be using the composite as it's going to be running my old (6 year old) sony 26" CRT in the ham shack... The CRT doubles as a heater in the winter when I don't have the 2kw amp running...
-C.