Where is USB External Storage for the 942/ViP622?

[Smith P.]

I'm speachless - tell me now about that crap from Dish related to protecting intellectual property of content's provider !!!
Cable and DirecTV already have external disk support, but Dish will twist words and our wallets to do whatever bring them more revenue.

 

[shanewalker]

Exactly...I maintain that it's most likely NOT a series of technical issues, but economic and industry politics issues that have dragged out this feature release. Too bad.

They need to be out ahead of cable on these things to compete, not trailing behind.

 

[navychop]

No direct recording

Slow data transfers

Linked / tied to a specific DVR

Now all we need is for it to have a $5/month usage fee.

Can you spell DOA?

Well, it's also been reported that there is a single one-time fee for this, no monthly fee. But if everything else reported has gone down the toilet.......

I'd still like it, even with the limitations. But not with a monthly fee.

 

[DISH_NC]

From all the things I have heard (even the last tech chat) is that it will be a One-Time Enabling fee. Question is, will it be $10, $20, $50??????

 

[Smith P.]

Don't forget - EACH disk will require the 'enabling fee' !

 

[long_time_DNC]

I could handle a reasonable one-time enabling fee of say, $10-$15, but that's it. If they impose a monthly fee, then forget it...

 

[lakebum431]

Don't forget - EACH disk will require the 'enabling fee' !

I don't think that is what they said at all. To me it sounded like an account based thing (ie pay $20 or $50 or whatever they make the fee and then you can use external hard drives).

 

[Smith P.]

You missing TECHNICAL point of making the bind.

 

[kb7oeb]

The big difference is how many simultaneous recording and/or playback streams does the Comcast DVR allow? One? Two? Four?

This has a huge impact on an external drive, let alone an internal drive.

The SA 8300HD can do 4. It has two tuners, one HD output and an SD output. The SD output is intended for a vcr and can output a different recording similar to the 622.

 

[lakebum431]

You missing TECHNICAL point of making the bind.

No, I'm not. The fee can enable external disk use on the account. Then when each drive is connected it can bind it to the receiver. No need to have multiple fees to have multiple drives.

 

[Smith P.]

We shall see, but my guts telling me it would be for each new disk.

 

[David_Levin]

I picked up a 500GB eSata/USB drive on sale yesterday because the wife complained about having to delete shows on the SA8300HD DVR w/160GB hard drive. Anyway, I plugged in the drive, prepped it for service, and it works like a charm: direct transparent recording, direct transparent playback, no addition lifetime or monthly fees, no nonsense. It's incredible to believe that cable has been doing this on their crappy HD DVR for the past two years, yet E* can't manage to roll-out this basic feature on their most "advanced" future-proof ViP receivers.

Big difference here is that Scientific Atlantic is using an SATA interface. This is a full speed interface designed for HDD interface. You can't compare this to what can be done with USB (though if E* was really smart, that's the port they would have provided).

I'll take the 622 USB support even if it's slow. But yes, E* is taking way to long to get this out. There is really no excuse. The program providers may not like it, but others are already doing it.

On a side note... There is way too much unfounded speculation going on about exactly how this feature will work, and how much it will cost. We really have to wait and see. But remember, in all likelyhood, the USB will only handle 1 HD stream. Think about it and decide if you can live within that limitation.

 

[riffjim4069]

Big difference here is that Scientific Atlantic is using an SATA interface. This is a full speed interface designed for HDD interface. You can't compare this to what can be done with USB (though if E* was really smart, that's the port they would have provided).

I'll take the 622 USB support even if it's slow. But yes, E* is taking way to long to get this out. There is really no excuse. The program providers may not like it, but others are already doing it.

On a side note... There is way too much unfounded speculation going on about exactly how this feature will work, and how much it will cost. We really have to wait and see. But remember, in all likelyhood, the USB will only handle 1 HD stream. Think about it and decide if you can live within that limitation.

[PIE]Very true. However, it was E*'s decision to support USB 2.0 vice firewire (i.e. with the 921) or eSata. USB works very well in offline mode with my Pocket Dish but, as you mentioned, it may not be capable of recording more than a single HD stream. Perhaps E* will only support MPEG-4 encoded programming when support is finally released?

Anyway, the "Almost Ready for Primetime" external storage solution has been in final bets for the past 18 months. Unfortunately, we can only speculate, and speculate, and speculate since there is no actual product...nor is there much factual product information being released by E*.[/PIE]

 

[ChetK]

This is VERY A$$HOLEY of Dish Network to do this to us. What's the freakin' hold up? They're a bunch of retards and this is beyond rediculous.

 

[Stargazer]

You mean Directv allows us to connect external hard drives to their receivers right now? Which ones?

Maybe Dish Network would put this support on all MPEG-4 receivers which would turn a regular receiver into a DVR when an external hard drive is connected to it or allow all other receivers to have access to it through the phone/ethernet/power line. I do not see what would be so hard about that.

 

[Smith P.]

HR20-700.

And YES - it is really hard to write HD support for embedded systems - I wouldn't blame those ppl.
So, don't point to 211/411 with USB connector as easy target for it.

 

[navychop]

Yes, a whole house media center would be nice. With backup capability for the inevitable day when the thing fails.

 

[fish2222]

External Hard Drive on 622

Has anyone tried a USB drive on theirs? I tired a Fat32 formatted one, and it said not a useable device. If it was formatted as EXT2 like the internal drive, will it work?

 

[Cold Irons]

Not yet.

Haven't looked around this site very much, huh? Lots of posts on all of us awaiting the activation of external USB disk storage.

 

[fish2222]

Not yet.

Haven't looked around this site very much, huh? Lots of posts on all of us awaiting the activation of external USB disk storage.

I saw a few posts about it, but they were all on the 522. I thought maybe there was a difference on the 622. I just tired an ext3 formatted drive, and it doesn't even recognize it... Oh well, no big deal.