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Well, sticking your head in the sand doesnt help either.

Look, I get it, Dish is proving their point that the big broadcasters wont stop the autohop tech. Whoooopeeeee... Folks here and every where else can pat themselves on the back over it, but at the end of the day the broadcasters own the content. You want to think that when CBS/Fox/etc... finish getting their butt's handed to them over autohop they arent going to lay it to dish at contract time, then I have to some swamp land to sell you.

I love my Hopper, and dont use autohop, so I think all of this is silly and problematic.

To me PTAT is groundbreaking, you dont need autohop.

Here is the Hopper Secret Sauce.

"To create the AutoHop functionality, Dish technicians in Cheyenne, Wyoming manually view Fox's primetime programing each night and technologically mark the beginning and end of each commercial.
The program contentis not altered in any way.
The electronically marked files are then uplinked in Wyoming and eventually transmitted to subscribers in an "announcement" file that Dish makes available to subscribers after the show has aired.
Simultaneously with the uplink, three "beta Hoppers" record the Fox primetime block for transmissions in Kentucky,Pennsylvania, and Florida to test the marking announcement.These copies remain at the uplink facility and are used to make sure the commercials have been accurately marked and that no portion of the program has been cut off"

Scott Greczkowski said:

Here is the Hopper Secret Sauce.

"To create the AutoHop functionality, Dish technicians in Cheyenne, Wyoming manually view Fox's primetime programing each night and technologically mark the beginning and end of each commercial.
The program contentis not altered in any way.
The electronically marked files are then uplinked in Wyoming and eventually transmitted to subscribers in an "announcement" file that Dish makes available to subscribers after the show has aired.
Simultaneously with the uplink, three "beta Hoppers" record the Fox primetime block for transmissions in Kentucky,Pennsylvania, and Florida to test the marking announcement.These copies remain at the uplink facility and are used to make sure the commercials have been accurately marked and that no portion of the program has been cut off"

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dare2be said:

Yeah, it has been reported that OTA recordings of shows that are also part of PTAT could also be Autohopped. The kangaroo icon is the indicator that you can use Autohop on it.

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Scott - Doesn't this then mean that the Dish technicians in Cheyenne, Wyoming have to watch all of the OTA locals from all over the country to "technologically mark the beginning and end of each commercial"?? That's a lot of technicians...

cosmo_kramer said:

Scott - Doesn't this then mean that the Dish technicians in Cheyenne, Wyoming have to watch all of the OTA locals from all over the country to "technologically mark the beginning and end of each commercial"?? That's a lot of technicians...

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No I think they mark it and kinda apply it as a generic skip marker for all the affiliates since during primetime the shows are the same on all the affiliates.

gadgtfreek said:

Well, sticking your head in the sand doesnt help either.

Look, I get it, Dish is proving their point that the big broadcasters wont stop the autohop tech. Whoooopeeeee... Folks here and every where else can pat themselves on the back over it, but at the end of the day the broadcasters own the content. You want to think that when CBS/Fox/etc... finish getting their butt's handed to them over autohop they arent going to lay it to dish at contract time, then I have to some swamp land to sell you.

I love my Hopper, and dont use autohop, so I think all of this is silly and problematic.

To me PTAT is groundbreaking, you dont need autohop.

Click to expand...

You've missed the most important point about autohop. The commercials are included with the content. Autohop only gives the user the capability of skipping commercials if so desired. It really is not automatic. Therefore, the content providers have no beef. Nothing of the content is changed when downloaded. Some content gets skipped at the user's desire. Sounds pretty cut and dry to me and I do believe that the courts will see it the same way. Now, as previously suggested, rates may go up because the providers may start charging more for the content (to "get even" so to speak) but, if they do, they will regret it in the long run, IMHO. I already skip most network prime time shows now. I really think Dish should consider making the networks an "optional" package that users can subscribe to or not. Or maybe make it like the Super Station packages so that you can subscribe to a particular network individually. That could reduce costs considerably for those who do not need nor want ABC, CBS, Fox, or NBC.

The paint has worn off one of my remotes, right next to the skip forward button.

If there isn't any beer then I could hardly be called heaven!

3HaloODST said:

No I think they mark it and kinda apply it as a generic skip marker for all the affiliates since during primetime the shows are the same on all the affiliates.

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Most systems put local advertising in the spot right before you come back to the TV show. What I had learned from Charter (when they owned what is now Suddenlink in my area) is that while the local advertising may run a little longer that doesn't stop the national feed from already airing. A lot of times TV programs would get clipped by advertising on my local affiliates. So I can see how you can watch programming on one CBS and program another to work with AutoHop.

TheKrell said:

The paint has worn off one of my remotes, right next to the skip forward button.

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In the past, that typically happened around the volume buttons ! On a previous Dish remote, from the 622, if I recall, we wore down the arrow on the skip-ahead button. Didn't have that problem with the 722k and with the Hopper, we've only had it ~9 months so probably too early. We do NOT watch a lot of the Big 4 network programming to do a lot of Autohopping though.

bobsie said:

You've missed the most important point about autohop. The commercials are included with the content. Autohop only gives the user the capability of skipping commercials if so desired. It really is not automatic. Therefore, the content providers have no beef. Nothing of the content is changed when downloaded. Some content gets skipped at the user's desire. Sounds pretty cut and dry to me and I do believe that the courts will see it the same way. Now, as previously suggested, rates may go up because the providers may start charging more for the content (to "get even" so to speak) but, if they do, they will regret it in the long run, IMHO. I already skip most network prime time shows now. I really think Dish should consider making the networks an "optional" package that users can subscribe to or not. Or maybe make it like the Super Station packages so that you can subscribe to a particular network individually. That could reduce costs considerably for those who do not need nor want ABC, CBS, Fox, or NBC.

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Further and even more important is that the both courts recognize that the big nets do NOT own copyright of the COMMERCIALS, and it is ONLY the commericials that are skipped. Therefore, any claim that AutoHop in some way infringes on "their" (Big 4) copyrights has no merit with the court.

The only point the big nets did cite that the 9th Circuit did say they (the big nets) could win was that Dish appears to violate the clause in the agreements that forbids Dish from making any copy of their programming without the written consent of the big nets because Dish does indeed make a copy of the block of programming to ensure that all commercials are skipped and none of the programming, and this would appear to be a clear violation of the agreement. HOWEVER, the court further stated that the big nets would have to demonstrate that Dish's copy has or would result in LOSS for the big nets, and since it was copy for quality assurance only seen by a very few individuals, the court believes it very unlikely that the quality assurance copy is a violation of the retransmission agreement. In other words, the big nets ONLY chance for a win, is viewed by the courts as, at best, beyond dim, and at worst, a total waste of time and money.

The big nets know they have no chance in court, but they will not drop the suit because they can use it as leverage with Dish. Further, knowing they are "finished" in the courts, they will surly bring everything to bear with the next retransmission agreements. I'm glad to see TWC "leading the way" for Dish. In the long run, when a big local net is no longer available on an MVPD, it really is the big nets bigger loss than it is an MVPD.