Scott's General Assembly Thoughts

Scott Greczkowski

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Sep 7, 2003
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Well Another Team Summit General Assembly is in the books and I got to be honest most of it was uneventful.

The big news was the news we broke last night and that was the news of AutoHop. This was a surprise to me, and in my tests it seems to work and work well. AutoHop makes watching television enjoyable again! Will the programmers like it? That remains to be seen, however since the original recording contains the commercials and is not edited in any way then it really is no different then a customer hitting the Skip Forward button a few times.

For me the other big news was the news of OTA and integrated Hopper support coming this summer. Now a lot of folks were expecting this, so they might not consider it news, but I got to be honest, with all the work they have done on the Hopper in just a few months time, this really is the best DVR system ever made. With the addition of OTA and dual hopper integration there really is no reason in the world not to get one. And with these additions I don't know what people are going to have to bitch about that's missing from the Hopper because even I have a hard time imagining what can be added to this thing. I also dont want to hear that DIRECTV's receiver is better because it has 5 tuners... with the dual Hopper integration we now have 6 seamless tuners, plus the DIRECTV box can not do Prime Time Anytime, AutoHop and share all recordings in any room of your house with full trick play.

The have made MAJOR progress on this receiver since releasing it on March 15th and more is yet to come!

On the programming front there were no real announcements, after the show I did ask some programming questions including asking about 3D and at this time there is no deal for the Olympics in 3D on DISH in addition there is no word on DISH ever offering live 3D content. In my two days here the feeling I get that the threat to drop AMC is real and I get the feeling this could turn into an unfortunate nasty battle. I got to be honest if it was not for these programming disputes DISH could be considered one of the best television providers in the United States. They are building up such a great brand now and these disputes do nothing but tarnish the brand they have been working so hard to build.

Besides the Hopper the other stars of the show were the guys from the Hopper ads. Their new Boston Hopper ads are so funny you can't help but to like them. To me the main character is a real life Peter Griffin from Family guy. These guys deserve their own TV show... and it could be the funniest TV show to come out of Boston since Cheers!

Speaking of marketing when Charlie was out talking about his vision for the future Charlie showed two videos, they were so well produced and so emotional, you couldn't help but feel good (and proud) watching them, besides the Boston Hopper ads which I am now a big fan of I have never really liked DISH's TV ads. If they could produce such touching emotional ads for Team Summit there is no reason they can't create such powerful TV ads. I was amazed by the quality and content of the ads!

There was not really anything interesting mentioned about new promotions, so I guess we will see what those promotions are come May 21st.

SO what was I expecting? Hard to say and while I did feel it was uneventful to a degree, I must say that the vision for the future of this company has me more excited then ever before!

The question now is what do YOU want to see from DISH in the future (besides 24 Hour HD RSN's Bob :D)

Anyway those are my thoughts, now I can't wait to get into the Tech Expo and get out there and play!

Once again I need to THANK your SUPPORTING PUB MEMBERS for making this years Team Summit Coverage Possible!

More to come from Orlando!

.
 
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Yes, great report as always, Scott! And now down to business...

Speaking of marketing when Charlie was out talking about his vision for the future Charlie showed two videos, they were so well produced and so emotional, you couldn't help feel good (and proud) watching them, besides the Boston Hopper ads which I am now a big fan of I have never really liked DISH's TV ads. If they could produce such touching emotional ads for Team Summit there is no reason they can't create such powerful TV ads. I was amazed by the quality and content of the ads!

Sooooo...all style, no substance? (apart from AutoHop)

The question now is what do YOU want to see from DISH in the future (besides 24 Hour HD RSN's Bob :D)
Since you didn't address me specifically, I guess I would want, um, 24 Hour HD RSN's. :D

More themed pack choices that can be added to base programming packages (in addition to heartland pack, sports pack, BBMP).
 
Thanks Scott! Once you get to play with the toys it would be nice to know...

1 - Does the Tech Expo show 2-hopper integration and OTA working..any chance for some video? I'm curious to see exactly how many shows you could record at one time with it all working.

2 - Any word about if you need 2 sling adapters with 2-hopper integration?

3 - The new iPad Dish App looks awesome...will Android get the same upgrade?

4 - For the future wish list..I'd love it if you could download recordings from your hopper system to an iPad/Android tablet for offline viewing. but that's just wishful thinking.

:)
 
Thats a very genuine report,appreciate your honesty!Thanks to both you and Scherman for the coverage!:up

I got to be honest if it was not for this programming disputes DISH could be considered one of the best television providers in the United States. They are building up such a great brand now and these disputes do nothing but tarnish the brand they have been working so hard to build.

I completely agree with you.They do some really great stuff and have awesome equipment,but all these disputes get tiresome.Some of them I applaud Dish for standing their ground but with the Rainbow dispute leaves me shaking my head.


What I would like to see from dish.

Get the Disney and Rainbow disputes settled and for those in NY the MSG,SNY, settled.
Of course Espnu in HD
all of the main locals in every market in HD.

To a lesser degree allow the mixing of vip/hopper

If they can get a dish phone and triple play bundle for $100 a month that would be icing on the cake.
 
Get the Disney and Rainbow disputes settled and for those in NY the MSG,SNY, settled.
Of course Espnu in HD
The Disney dispute and the ESPNU in HD are the same issue, so replace the ESPNU request with 24/7 HD RSNs, and you have a winner. :)
 
Scott, thanks for the report. But you said something very interesting. You mentioned that dropping AMC Networks was a threat. Now I myself thought that this was a done deal. So, IYO, is there a chance that something could be worked out? Or am I misunderstanding you?
 
Can someone see if Dish is willing to give a concrete timetable for western arc's signal conversion to free up bandwidth? It seems like Dish has been dragging its feet on this one and is a serious limiting factor to providing additional HD content that people want.

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It's more than just a 5 tuner system, I consider it the 8 tuner system since the H25's have their own tuner. The system might be able to compete with the DirecTV 8 tuner system if you can have a unified scheduled recording list between the two hoppers. If so, then we have a very very close race in hardware. Which is a good thing as it will be down to programming choices and price that makes the difference. Competition is a great thing!
 
It's more than just a 5 tuner system, I consider it the 8 tuner system since the H25's have their own tuner. The system might be able to compete with the DirecTV 8 tuner system if you can have a unified scheduled recording list between the two hoppers. If so, then we have a very very close race in hardware. Which is a good thing as it will be down to programming choices and price that makes the difference. Competition is a great thing!
Without trick play at each of the H25's extra tuners, I can't grasp how that comparison can be made honestly. :) There really are too many differences between the systems to make an apples-to-apples comparison, hardwarily speaking. :)

Cool, I made up a new word.
 
Without trick play at each of the H25's extra tuners, I can't grasp how that comparison can be made honestly. :) There really are too many differences between the systems to make an apples-to-apples comparison, hardwarily speaking. :)

Cool, I made up a new word.

All breaks down to how you use the system. We are either watching recordings or live tv. Rarely ever are we watching delayed tv. So no trick play is not a loss.

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As a DVR user, I can't fathom not being able to pause to answer the phone, go to the bathroom, get a drink from the kitchen, skip back to catch the dialog I missed. I even catch myself trying to do it on my stereo in my car. Deal breaker for me and I would not allow that in my house. :)
 
Without trick play at each of the H25's extra tuners, I can't grasp how that comparison can be made honestly. :) There really are too many differences between the systems to make an apples-to-apples comparison, hardwarily speaking. :)

I have to agree here.

The trick play on live TV is very important to me. To get the same functionality with D* would have been $600 in equipment fees with a DVR at each location vs $200 for 2H/2J. Granted that would be 11 tuners total, but three is usually enough, and six is already overkill.

There are no apples to apples comparisons. Each side can always come back with a "...but ____ can do this or that better." Neither is necessarily better, it just depends on what fits you best.

I have a D* contract up in about 6 months, if the RVU boxes are out by then, I may get the HR34 and try it out. If not, I will switch that house to Dish and Hopper. Then it will be another 18 month wait to see what is new in 2014.
 
That commercial makes me believe that I can skip live tv commercials. Another misleading advertisement but at least they are getting funnier.
 
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It's more than just a 5 tuner system, I consider it the 8 tuner system since the H25's have their own tuner. The system might be able to compete with the DirecTV 8 tuner system if you can have a unified scheduled recording list between the two hoppers. If so, then we have a very very close race in hardware. Which is a good thing as it will be down to programming choices and price that makes the difference. Competition is a great thing!

+1
 
ty scott for everything you do on this site and everything your doing there and all info you and scherrman are doing there :)
 
As a DVR user, I can't fathom not being able to pause to answer the phone, go to the bathroom, get a drink from the kitchen, skip back to catch the dialog I missed. I even catch myself trying to do it on my stereo in my car. Deal breaker for me and I would not allow that in my house. :)

Huh? I guess you don't understand the 8 tuner system. As that can all be done.

I wasn't trying to start a tit for tat battle I was actually giving some positive comments to the kangaroo system. I think it is great that the two systems will soon be neck and neck with the hoppa integration.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad Cartridge