I'm happy to report that I finally have the Pace 551 box up and running. I got a PM from Mole letting me know that the box product number for the Pace unit was 021, which allowed the CSR to enter in the proper serial number to get my box authorized. The problem is the billing department doesn't have their software updated yet, so the Pace units don't appear anywhere in their system. The old SA boxes had ser #'s starting with SAB, and that's what they were looking for, but the Pace boxes start with TD and 7 numbers. Moral of the story is, if you need something done by Rogers, call their Retail Business Number! The people there actually DO things while they put you on hold, like find the answer and the solution. The people at 1888-ROGERS1 only know how to answer with statements like "Unfortunately, we can't do this" or "we can't do that..."
Anyway enough ranting! Here is my first imrpession of the box:
- PQ is much better, especially at 480p. I always had my 3250HD box on 1080i for all channels, even SD, because the 480p quality was so crappy. Also on those SA boxes, when you flipped from an SD channel to an HD channel the screen would turn black for quite a few seconds. It made it very annoying to flip back and forth... But I am told that the Pace boxes are known for their good progressive output, so enabling 480p and 1080i looks great on this unit.
- unit has an Auto Pillarbox function so that when you are on an SD channel and in Normal stretch mode, the image will actually be in Stretched mode, thus avoiding the black bars on the sides of the image when viewed on an HDTV. Also when flipping through HD channels, the unit always defaults back to Normal view as if it
expects the signal to be true HD. I believe the 3250HD would simply stay in whatever zoom/stretch mode the last channel was in. So say I'm watching a SD movie on ch 301, and then flip to an HD show on ch 527 like Desperate Housewives. I'll never have to enter stretch for the SD signal or go back to Normal for the HD one. (not too sure if this is really a new feature or not, but it seems so to me!)
- DVD passthrough is a great feature, which as explained earlier allows you to have a component video input and either a coaxial digital audio or optical digital audio signal input into the Pace 551 unit. This works by simply turning the cable box off, which then switches the signal to the DVD component video. Only problem I had was coaxial audio input did not work on my box, so I had to switch to an optical cable. I know my coax cable works fine because that's the input I used directly to my receiver in my old setup.
- You can change Display functions such as 16:9 or 4:3 mode, and which video signal you want enabled (480p, 720p, 1080i etc) while the unit is
on by simply pressing the Display button on the front of the unit. This lets you see changes immediately on the channel you are currently watching. I know on the 3250HD you had to do this with the unit off, and press two buttons the unit to enter the display setup wizard.
- No idea whether firewire is enabled or not, as I have no idea how to use this. I just got a DV Camcorder tho, does that have anything to do with it?
- The unit is made to work with teh Scientific Atlanta network, or so a sticker on the bottom of the unit states. Might also explain why it uses the same old remote I got with my first rogers SD box...
Hope this helps, ask me any questions you like! I may just be the first member of the public to have one of these units up and running.