First Look: DishONLINE

[Hall]

Neither does a phone line.

In the vast majority of cases, that is, people who use normal landlines, yes, it does.

And why the need to "prove" where it is if you only have one box?

I won't argue on that point. I'm pretty sure that I can't split my 622 -- the only box I have -- in half and loan it to my sister or brother or uncle.... The fact that I have to connect my 622 to my phone line is stupid, IMO. I don't order PPV, nor have any plans to, and in fact have all the PPV channels blocked or locked out.

[Ronald_Jeremy]

In the vast majority of cases, that is, people who use normal landlines, yes, it does.

That is no longer true due to phone number portability.

I won't argue on that point. I'm pretty sure that I can't split my 622 -- the only box I have -- in half and loan it to my sister or brother or uncle.... The fact that I have to connect my 622 to my phone line is stupid, IMO. I don't order PPV, nor have any plans to, and in fact have all the PPV channels blocked or locked out.

Which is the only reason they are charging the fee. Because revenue is lower for boxes with no phone line.

[Hall]

I'll repeat, "in the vast majority of cases".

[sobonefnet]

The phone line fee, the DVR fee, the IRD lease fee, way too many fees.

[Aqualung812]

I was only asking cause I know you don't need DVR service to use OnDamand on Comcast.

Yes, and they do have a great advantage over Dish when it comes to that. Many people are upset that Dish will be charging for much of the stuff it puts on DishOnline, while places like Comcast do much of it for free.

The problem is that with Dish (or DirecTV if they would try this), they have to pay someone for Internet bandwidth. They also don't control the quality of your Internet connection. Since they have to pay a TON to make sure they don't run out of bandwidth at their end, and they have no idea if you have enough at your end, they have to buffer it a great deal before it can be played.

Comcast owns the lines between you and them. While not "free", you could consider it free when compared to what Dish has to pay to get the data to you. Also, since they own the network between the two of you and it doesn't go across the Internet, they can place a higher priority on the packets that carry VOD. Joe's porno download and Jack's Counter Strike game all go a little slower do you can get your VOD programming!

[mdntblu]

Well it's past Feb. 15th and I still don't have a Dish Online menu on my 622. Should I be surprised?

[AdamGott]

I am still underwhelmed. There is so much that can be done with a Ethernet capable device connected to my TV, and a USB port on the device. The potential is great for kick ass things.

I expect it to be on par with Dish's Interactive services. Kinda neat, but gimicky with little value and priced just high enough that I won't bother. I'll keep an eye on their HD offering, and if their IPTV SD PQ is better than their DBS SD PQ, then I'll consider it as well.

Fat chance of that (better IPTV PQ!). I would guess that will be on par with DBS PQ or worse. I guess we will see (well I probably won't because I don't have ethernet cables running to my living room yet and unless I hear some absolutely amazing things about this service I am not ready to do that just yet).

[Cyclone]

If you don't have ethernet run to your STB location, then consider a Powerline Interface. I have used them and they go up to 80mbps. More than what your ISP connection is. You just plug one in by your router, and others at each location where you want access.

Still, about the PQ. If the Video was streaming, then yes I would agree that better PQ would be a pipe dream. But if the VOD content is a simple File Transfer, then the MPEG encoding would have had to have been done in realtime (like a dbs or streaming feeds) so it has the chance of looking like a DVD.

Thats my hope anyway.

[gitarzan]

Sorry if this is already asked. CinemaNow is available on Windows MediaCenter Online Spotline. It can stream to xbox 360 with the Media Center Extender. Is there anything exclusive with this service and Dish?

[grendyl]

If we are talking about only Xbox 360 specifically, I don't think it supports HDMI so that is one difference.