I started my service with DirecTV at the same time that I purchased my 55" Mitsubishi 55857 HDTV. At the time of purchase the RCA 100 was the only game in town for DirecTV HDTV (the only provider sold by SoundTrack where I bought my TV). I learned an important point as soon as the installer came to my house. The RCA DTC 100 does not come with a dish. You must purchase the oval dish separately at about $200. During the dish install the installer cut my land cable line to use the same cable for my dish, so no side-by-side comparison of Cable Vs. Satellite on my new big screen was possible. After install I called DirecTV and instantly had hundreds of channels at my fingertips. Problem was that the reception was not what I expected.
DirecTV advertises that they use the same encoding (MPEG 2) that is used by DVDs for their signal. This may be true but they definitely do not transmit that same amount of data. On a large screen there is very noticeable "pixellation" of images. This is especially obvious with close-ups of faces on the skin tones, flowing colors like grass, and sports (the worst of the bunch due to compression issues on live broadcasts). Its not all bad though. The signal is "clean" there is absolutely no snow or distortion, and the audio (usually Dolby 2.0) is superb. Where this receiver really shines is with HDTV signals. HDTV is absolutely stunning. The only problem is that DirecTV only provides a Demo channel (with Pay-Per-View starting at 10:00 pm Mountain time), and HBO. That's it; 2 channels. What I came to find out later is that Dish Network has Showtime, HBO, a full-time Pay-Per-View, and a Demo channel for less money.
Over-the air signals are also lacking in my area. I can receive PBS which broadcasts 1-2 shows /month in HDTV with daily digital broadcasts. Their digital signal is slightly better quality than DirecTV’s. I also get Fox which is basically a cropped version of their 4:3 screen to fit a 16:9 screen. This makes all of the actors look like their bumping their heads on the top of your screen. The signal is on par with DirecTV’s. Downsides to the over-the-air setup is that you have to switch to the antenna input (different menu and about a 5 second delay). This is opposed to the Dish Network 6000 that allows you to go directly from satellite reception to antenna without switching. This is a minor pain.
Setup is easy with optical audio outs as well as stereo outs. video output is via coax, RCA, S-video, or computer-style cable made specifically for RCA televisions. For an extra $100 you can get a converter to allow Component video output (this is the only way to view true HDTV signals). The downside to the converter is that you have to control screen centering (it will be off-center out of the box) with a screw on the back of the converter. This is a minor hassle and needs no adjustment once it is set up. The RCA 100 does not output video to both HDTV and S-Video at the same time. This requires you to switch between the two outputs. This may seem like a minor issue, but my 16:9 TV has better options for converting a 4:3 (standard) picture to a 16:9 screen than the RCA 100 does. When the RCA is outputting from the HDTV output my Mitsubishi TV is forced into 1080i mode and cannot adjust the picture's dimensions. Options on the RCA 100 only allow you to either squish the picture or display bars on either side (this is only for display of 4:3 images (the vast majority of what’s available) on a 16:9 screen). My Mitsubishi allows me to stretch the very edges of the picture to fill the 16:9 screen without distorting the center of the picture. This is important as viewing any single image for too long on a screen (i.e. the gray bars) will burn those images into your screen.
The menu system is fairly intuitive if not a little ugly. Download times for program information runs from 5-30 seconds. You can also view video and hear audio though the menu system if you have it set up correctly. The online TV schedule allows you add several different "Users" so you only see the channels that you have previously selected for that user. This is nice for filtering the hundreds of channels and for kids. The system comes with all of the cables that you need for installation including the component video cables (these can be fairly expensive). It also includes infrared cables to hook to your VCR. This allows you to program recording directly from your Dish menu (a very nice touch).
The remote control is nice and easy to use in the dark. It does not perform well as a universal remote, so I use my TV remote for this. I have dropped my RCA remote several times with no problems. It operates well from the back of my dining room (roughly 10 m).
I have just started to notice some minor fan noise coming from the box even when the system is off. This is audible only when listening to movies at low volume so as not to wake my wife and kids.


Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 500