Sony SATHD300 DIRECTV HD Receiver w/ Dolby Digital Passthrough & Universal Remote Commander
Perhaps more bad news than good news
An electronics fan from Castro Valley, CA, has written a thorough review to which I can add very little, except a couple of other negatives:<BR>  <BR>1)  I,too, am experiencing audio dropouts, and<BR> <BR>2)  It is nothing short of offensive that channels I choose to hide from my custom menu (e.g., Gem Shopping Network) keep coming back.  I am guessing they are commercial channels through which Sony and/or DirecTV get some form of payback.  <br />As for the audio dropouts, I have had the unit for about 3 mos. and am only now having this problem.  It is becoming more frequent, however.  <br />As for being subjected to having my deliberately short custom channel list expand daily to include the same channels I have time and again hidden, I couldn't be more angered that I paid over $600.00 to become a captive audience to sales channels I would never watch.  I have nothing against those channels, but I have everything against not having a choice.  This alone is enough to make me never by a Sony product again.<br />The custom list is essentially worthless since it cannot be made to be the default that shows up when you want to see a programming guide.  Instead, you have to go through several button pushes to filter through to only the channels you want.  Kinda defeats the purpose.<br />When I tried to call Sony, I got a recorded message telling me to call between the hours of 8AM and 8PM.  It was during that time span for me.  Apparently, they never heard of customers in other time zones. Nothing like truly customer-oriented service!