510 Dish on Demand: How does it work?

[mattardo]

Hello, there. My 510 now has an annoying new featureish on demand ( a more expensive pay-per-view that forces me to hit extra buttons to get to my pvr menu). Forgive me if this has all been covered on another post, but i have had no luck finding one.
I do not use ppv, never have, never will. I do not hook a phone line up to my receiver (i am cell-phone only). In short, this feature is kind of silly. I doubt anything is for widescreen tvs, you cannot record it, and you have it for only 24 hours. Wow. That's so retro. perhaps they'll start making dvrs that work on vhs tapes next.
1. My main worry is, even though my menu says i have blah blah hours recording time left, is my dvr wasting space by holding these things in some sort of cache? And if not, are they wasting bandwidth streaming these movies to every single box that orders a movie?
2. is there a way to remove this "upgrade"? (name-based recording would be better, and no the #button is a lame excuse seeing as i pay a fee . There should be substance with the fee, not something i can get from a pc software program).
3. Why is there a tvguide logo on my program guide now? I can't seem to recall ever seeing one before.
Thank you in advance, for answers to these questions.

 

[n0qcu]

Hello, there. My 510 now has an annoying new featureish on demand ( a more expensive pay-per-view that forces me to hit extra buttons to get to my pvr menu). Forgive me if this has all been covered on another post, but i have had no luck finding one.
I do not use ppv, never have, never will. I do not hook a phone line up to my receiver (i am cell-phone only). In short, this feature is kind of silly. I doubt anything is for widescreen tvs, you cannot record it, and you have it for only 24 hours. Wow. That's so retro. perhaps they'll start making dvrs that work on vhs tapes next.
1. My main worry is, even though my menu says i have blah blah hours recording time left, is my dvr wasting space by holding these things in some sort of cache? And if not, are they wasting bandwidth streaming these movies to every single box that orders a movie?

DISH has reserved space that doesn't take away from your time.

2. is there a way to remove this "upgrade"? (name-based recording would be better, and no the #button is a lame excuse seeing as i pay a fee . There should be substance with the fee, not something i can get from a pc software program).

NBR is coming next. There is no way to remove an upgrade. We are stuck with it.

3. Why is there a tvguide logo on my program guide now? I can't seem to recall ever seeing one before.
Thank you in advance, for answers to these questions.

The TVGuide logo has been there awhile. It's part of the setttlement to a lawsuit.

 

[mattardo]

Thank you for your answers. So, all this time I didn't have to delete those programs i had recorded because i ran out of space? There's super secret space I'm not allowed to use! For shame...
I suppose if i just kept my dvr on all the time, it would stop giving me movie selections. Elfen Lied i've already seen (in fact my girlfriend owns the series) and Brokeback Mountain ...well, I'm sure there are some people who watch movies simply because they won awards, but not I. Those are my two choices.
Name Based Recording has been promised to us 500 series owners since at least 3 years ago. Do you have new information about this? Or do I still have to get a more expensive receiver?

 

[Smith P.]

Will you be more happy if you'll know how much space taken for the VOD on your 510 ?
30+ GB. It's enough for 20+ hours.

 

[Zookster]

On Demand features are pretty cool when done correctly like cable does. With my HBO sub, I get free access to dozens of their movies, series and specials at anytime without taking up any recording space on my DVR. Does anyone know why DISH didn't make these VOD movies available as a "stream" like their other PPV offerings.

I go back and forth between cable and DISH depending on current technology and programing/pricing... but with DISH's venture with VOD, I'd have to say they've taken a step backwards vis-a-vis cable.

 

[mattardo]

Now I'm sad. That's a lot of unsolicited 2 minute "informative" recordings from the good folks at Dish Network telling me all about their Dish on Demand service (which, by the way, if I'm not mistaken, is what they've bben telling us the DVR fee is for which we've been paying for). They had me believing that the $4.98 I was paying ("cheapest around!" they said..BY A PENNY), was for Dish on Demand - the ability to record things whenever i wanted..just like a VCR! Of course, now it's around $6 for the service. So why do I have to pay for the movies? They should be free. After all, it's not like I got any of the features Tivo offered, or the Directv Tivo. So they should have plenty of money left over.
I apologize if this sounds like I'm a cranky old man, but I feel like they are severely lagging behind innovation-wise. Dish on Demand is just glorified pay-per-view. With less choices. I had a glimmer of hope when I saw Elfen Lied. Is it reviewing my viewing habits? but then Brokeback squashed that. Has anyone on this forum tried this new feature?

 

[mattardo]

Zookster, you mirrored my sentiments exactly. But if they had a direct stream like pay-per-view, then all it would be is pay-per-view. No fancy name involved. No justification for higher costs. "we have dish on demand lookat us! no you can't have name-based, losers!" heh

 

[Purogamer]

TV guide logo has been there for like a year, where you been...

They CLAIM the space was always there, but I don't believe that. Dish doesn't think that far ahead...

Can I ask how much you're paying a month? At some point, with all the fees, it makes sense to just upgrade to the AEP and be done with the fees. You'll pay a few bucks more but get everything. Only cost me about 4 bucks more per month to add starz and showtime that way since I was already getting 180+hbo+cinemax+locals+dhppppppwhatever...

 

[SaltiDawg]

... Does anyone know why DISH didn't make these VOD movies available as a "stream" like their other PPV offerings. ...

In a word, bandwidth. Dish transmits its PPV at scheduled times - one transmission, potentially millions of viewers. If they transmited starting at 8:00 PM for me and starting at 8:03 PM for you and two minutes later for Herb.... well you get the idea.

 

[catnap1972]

It's all about those two people in the main office: "KA" and "CHING".

 

[Nevada_MO_Guy]

Hello, there. My 510 now has an annoying new featureish on demand ( a more expensive pay-per-view that forces me to hit extra buttons to get to my pvr menu).

Mine also.

It just showed up yesterday.

I came home after work.....7am and was getting ready to checked out some Bonanza....when I hit my DVR button a foreign screen appeared.

I was like....what the hell. :yikes

Now I have to press DVR twice to get to my list and if I want to back out......holy crap, I have to press cancel twice as well.....when will it stop.

 

[Purogamer]

Can't you just hit the "view" button to get out with 1 button press, like before?

 

[Nevada_MO_Guy]

Can't you just hit the "view" button to get out with 1 button press, like before?

Oh yeah.....hey that works better. Thanks for that

 

[michelb]

Can you guys still record PPVs? I seem to have lost the capability of recording PPVs with the on-demand arrival.

Any solution?

 

[Purogamer]

That had better not be true...

 

[cdoyle]

I have the update firmware, and I just purchased a PPV yesterday, and it seemed to record OK.

If Dish ever did try and disable the ablity to record the PPV's they would really be shooting themselves in the foot. Nobody would buy them anymore.