Thread: Purely from a Technology Standpoint

In my opinion.....

Bouquets & Brickbats:

Dish currently has the best DVR (VIP622/VIP722 & the new 'K' models offering 4 total tuners in a single chassis) though external storage capability (size) seems to be lagging. C'mon E*, the sweet spot in EHDs right now is 1.5 TB. Kudos also to Dish for their 211 receiver $39.99 conversion to a DVR with only a phone call and one time payment and no DVR fees (or phone line) required. More Kudos for continuing to offer ATSC tuners for OTA with local-into-local guide info.

DirecTV currently has the best signal distribution technology anchored in their SWM-8 stacker, though the necessary hardware can get a tad expensive if you have an MDU to do. Having to restart multiple receivers individually after a power interruption is also going to make the phones ring in tech support.

Brickbats go to E* for their problem-plagued 222 receiver and new eastern-arc MPEG4 choppy video problems and the CSR's still in the dark on both, still denying knowledge of known issues. Better fix this fast fellas! Subs will switch in a heartbeat and legally break contracts on justifiable grounds.

E* is also presently (still) in the middle of a protracted card-swap for reasons I'm sure are all too familiar to D* folks, along with being embroiled in a huge legal battle with TIVO. We're all growing quite weary of this circus. Settle it!

Brickbats to D* for discontinuing ATSC tuners and for refusing the dishmover package to long time legacy subs with older and very expensive Platinum E86 IRDs that many of us paid $500 apiece for. The replacements you offered (forced on us) (H20) were junk by comparison. Those subs paid a fortune for those wonderful old receivers and should have at least been swapped even-steven for DVRs. More brickbats to D* for the horribly unintuitive remotes. What creatin designed this thing?

Originally Posted by PBX_Guy

More Kudos for continuing to offer ATSC tuners for OTA with local-into-local guide info.

Brickbats to D* for discontinuing ATSC tuners and for refusing the dishmover package to long time legacy subs with older and very expensive Platinum E86 IRDs that many of us paid $500 apiece for. The replacements you offered (forced on us) (H20) were junk by comparison. Those subs paid a fortune for those wonderful old receivers and should have at least been swapped even-steven for DVRs.

I agree with most all of what you said except these two statements. First Dish is also discontinuing the ATSC tuners as a standard feature in their new DVR's. You will soon need to purchase an add on to have this capability.

Then why would any company swap a non DVR for a DVR. Did you forget that the E86 was not a great receiver. It had a pretty bad ATSC tuner and also over heated all the time. I had one of these and I could not pick up most of my locals because of multipath issues with this box. Switched it out for a newer receiver and it compenstated for the issue more than the E86 did.

Purely from a technology standpoint, why does the TiVo v. E* court case matter?

Originally Posted by jacmyoung

Purely from a technology standpoint, why does the TiVo v. E* court case matter?

Because the E* DVR technology is based on stolen TiVo technology.

Originally Posted by Curtis0620

Because the E* DVR technology is based on stolen TiVo technology.

Not for the receivers that you're so fond of.

Originally Posted by JAG72

I agree with most all of what you said except these two statements. First Dish is also discontinuing the ATSC tuners as a standard feature in their new DVR's. You will soon need to purchase an add on to have this capability.

I agree with the way Dish is doing it. Create a slide in module. No extra boxes or cables.

Originally Posted by PBX_Guy

In my opinion.....

Bouquets & Brickbats:

You forgot one. Brickbats to D* for not allowing your users to go into the OTA setup and hit the scan button. Ask the users who are still waiting to watch their Fox station in New Orleans via OTA after they moved the digital signal back to their old analog VHF channel. Phone calls from the users and even the station engineer to DTV are going no where.

Originally Posted by digiblur

I agree with the way Dish is doing it. Create a slide in module. No extra boxes or cables.

Boy have times changed. I remember when everybody was slamming Directv for removing the OTA tuners from their receivers. Most people didn't complain about the extra box just that the OTA module was gone. Dish does it and nobody cares?????

Originally Posted by JAG72

Boy have times changed. I remember when everybody was slamming Directv for removing the OTA tuners from their receivers. Most people didn't complain about the extra box just that the OTA module was gone. Dish does it and nobody cares?????

I care. I'm glad all my Dish HD boxes have OTA capability built in. IMO, ATSC tuners should be mandated in all STBs: cable, satellite, IP.

Originally Posted by JAG72

Boy have times changed. I remember when everybody was slamming Directv for removing the OTA tuners from their receivers. Most people didn't complain about the extra box just that the OTA module was gone. Dish does it and nobody cares?????

Here's my take on it. When you are ordering the service and/or receiver one of the questions they should ask is if you want the a free OTA module to receive additional channels from an antenna. If the user turns it down then they will not ship with one. If you are purchasing the box you should be able to purchase the DVR without the OTA module in order to save yourself a bit of money if you don't have antenna.

Let's face...most people out there don't have antennas. I know quite a few people with 722's and 622's that didn't even know they can hook up an antenna to it for HD locals. So it really makes sense to make it a slide in module in order to save a bit of money.