Day 3 from CES

[Scott Greczkowski]

Day 3 has come and gone, and boy are my feet killing me.

The day started this morning with a Dish Network Press Conference, The conference was held in a room with a basic wooden podium.

The conference opened with Marc Lumpkin introducing Charlie Ergen, Charlie however was mingling in the crowd and acted like he did not know he was supposed to talk and came on stage.

Charlie did his normal Charlie thing in telling the press why his company was better then everyone elses. After Charlie talked he then took questions from the press.

When asked about MPEG4 Charlie did say that all HD receivers would need to be replaced, however he did say that a replacement could be done for little to no cost if the customer is a HD customer.

He also mentioned that while no new HD content is planned until the fall, he may "have" to put up some additional HD channels in MPEG2 format in the future.

Charlie for some reason did not want to take a question from me, Marc Lumpkin looked uncomfortable fearing he would call on me and I would ask a bad question.

After Charlie Spoke, Michael Schwimmer was introduced, Michael explained Dish's Video on Demand service which did not sound anything like Video on Demand to myself or any of the other press I spoke with after the conference. Instead it would be a "Dish Pass" which someone at Dish Network would program all DVR's to record their own pre selected TV shows and movies.

Michael also showed us Dish's "Mosaic" and touted they were the first in the US to offer the Interactive Mosaic (DirecTV just introduce its MIX which is the same idea but in my humble opinion done better) Dish will be copying DirecTV by offering a News Mosaic Soon.

We were also shown some new Interactive features, including Karaoke which is still listed as coming soon as well as a new horse racing wagering interactive service which operates in conjunction with the TVG Network.

Mark Jackson then came out and gave us the tech lowdown.

He told us about the new Dishplayer DVR 625, which is just a 522 with a larger hard drive and software which supports Video On Demand. The 625 can record up to 100 hours of video, and it can also record another 100 hours of Dish VOD programming.

Mark Jackson then told us about the great new 942. They showed a screen shot of its new program guide which was enhanced for 16 x 9 screens. This screen shot looked great and is a great use for a 16x9 screen.

Mark then showed us a couple of new items including two portable DVR's. As you may remember in the past Dish has shown a "Dish Pod" portable screen. The units shown were not the actual units which Dish will be making, infact one looked like a RCA or Archos unit I have played with before. I do not expect this product to make it to the market in 2005.

Mark then took questions and I managed to get one in, I ask Mark if the new 942 would be upgradable to MPEG4 and the answer was NO. Many of the news people noted this and the ones I talked with stated what I have been thinking for a long time, the 942 is going to be obsoluite before it hits the streets.

BTW they did announce that the 942 would be available for sale at a MSRP of $749, plus it will be available in select DHA packages.

They handed out a press kit which included the 2005 Dish Network Product Collection, and in it are the following receivers....

Dish 311, Dish 322, DishPlayer DVR 510, DishPlater DVR 522, DishPlayer DVR 625, Dish 811 HD, Dish DishPlayer 942 HD.

Gone from the product list from 2004 include the Dish 111, Dish 721 and the Dish 921.

No mention of the price increase was mentioned at the Press Conference.

After Dish Networks press conference ended it was a rush down the hall to the DirecTV Press Conference. This press conference was also in a room, however DirecTV had it all setup, with a nice glass podium with a Plasma screen in front of it and a big screen used for showing DirecTV videos, and they had a backdrop behind the stage with the DirecTV logos. In addition for making their press conference feel like a event, DirecTV also gave out boxed lunches to everyone in attendence.

Because it is getting late I will highlight the key points.

1 DirecTV will be launching HD locals this Summer in MPEG 4 format. They will launch HD locals in 12 cities at first. Those first cities are as follows...

New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philidelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington DC, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston and Tampa.

DirecTV will be introducing its own DVR and Home Media Option. (See attached photos for more details)

Plus they demoed the MIX channels and new Interactive channels, they also showed us a new MIX / Interactive channel for the NFL Sunday Ticket which puts you in the action, if your a football fan your going to love this!

After the DirecTV press conference I shot down to the VOOM Booth and was given an impressive demo of VOOM's upcoming DVR product, what makes the VOOM DVR unique is you make your own TV channels. For example if you like Sinefield you can set the unit to record all the Sinefield episodes and all the shows can be seen on their own channel (IE the Sienfield Channel, Channel 901) to me this idea is better then just having all recorded items in one area, and it also is better then having folders. When you want to watch Seinfield you know you can tune to channel 901 for Seinfield. (And its also listed in the guide with all the other channels.)

The VOOM DVR was not perfect, it had problems with basic functions, but it worked great on all the hard features. I am told that the software is 85+% done, the hardware is comeplete and ready. I honestly believe VOOM will be able to get the DVR out the door by the end of March.

As you may have seen VOOM also mentioned today that they plan on offering up to 70 HD channels by March. Things are looking up for VOOM.

It was a busy day, I must have walked 15 miles today, while walking around I stopped by the DirecTV booth and saw the first actual MPEG4 broadcast, this was an actual LIVE Satellite MPEG4 broadcast. I also ran into DirecTV's Tanya Meme who was nice enough to pose for some photos.

While walking around looking for SBC's booth to check out the new 2Wire receiver I ran into Tom Arnold at the XAVIX booth. This guy is one friendly guy who enjoys having fun. I got to spend about 5 minutes talking with Tom.

And that was my day today...

I never did find the SBC booth but I will look tommorow, and also I will be paying a visit to the TimeTrax booth as well. More tommorow.

Also look for video later this weekend and next week (I dont have time to edit video here and our broadband here is slower then a 1200 baud modem at times) Thanks for your understanding.

Here are some photos. Enjoy!

 

[BFG]

Great report, but I think you meant Day 3 from CES

I love the descriptive press conference, I love that dish looks so happy in those pics and are trying so hard to market their products.

So I guess that D* MPEG4 stuff is in house and on what satellite? Good to know that E* went public with MPEG4 plans first, yet D* already can prove it is working...

Of course we all agree the 942 is a silly waste of investment for the 6-10 months of it;s use, but at least the interface will be better, I'm interested in the DHA availability...

I like what D* has lined up but they are still too expensive for me and many other new customers that don't want to invest a lot in hardware...

 

[Mainstreet]

Hey! That's me!

 

[BFG]

Wow, neat! Did you say hi to Scott?

 

[korsjs]

who's the girl?

 

[John Corn]

Hey! That's me!

LOL......NIce side shot Justin.

 

[slacker9876]

Thank you for your hard work and good reporting. Do you know or will you find out if D* plans to offer the NFL Mix in HD to HD customers? The demo shows the 700+ channels and these are all SD.

Thanks!

 

[minorthr]

Scott,

Did you actually get to see this new D* DVR. If so what was your opinion on it? And are there two one SD one HD or is there just one that does both ?

 

[wcswett]

Day 3 has come and gone, and boy are my feet killing me.

Nice work, Scott!

I'm particularly interested in the adaptation DISH has planned for the Archos portable DVRs. I own an Archos model 380, which has an 80 gig hard disk and is the predecessor of the 4xx model on the right in your picture. The Archos will play Xvid and Dvix files, within certain resolution and frame rate limitations, and has a built-in USB2. I guess we might see our first application for the USB connections on DISH receivers but they're going to have to do something to resolve the file format compatibility, either on the Archos or the DISH receiver side. The Archos portables just look like an external hard drive to a computer, so any files transferred to one could easily then be transferred to a computer for archiving. One might also emulate an Archos portable and gain access to recorded programs that way, which opens up other home media center posibilities.

--- WCS

 

[Juan]

ummm scott How can you say the D* mix channels are better than e* For sarters you cant go full screen on a single channel with d* and you have to press 5 or 6 buttons to change the audio to the specific channel..How is this better? I must be missing something

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

ummm scott How can you say the D* mix channels are better than e* For sarters you cant go full screen on a single channel with d* and you have to press 5 or 6 buttons to change the audio to the specific channel..How is this better? I must be missing something

It's easy to say DirecTV's MIX channels are better.

Dish's Matrix Channel is just 6 static channels, thats it.

DirecTV MIX Channels are not just 6 channels on a screen, instead they are LIVE Dynamic Channels, with Live News and Sports tickers on the screen with the 6 channels, plus they have hosts updating you on news and sports in realtime. Also the channels are dynamic, for example to sports channels are not always the same 6 channels on the screen, for example if TNT has NASCAR on then that is one of the channels shown, however once the sports is done then TNT is no longer on the Sports Mix.

Also with the NFL Sunday Ticket MIX takes it to another level where you can check stats of each game in progress, plus you can program it for Fantasy Football mode and your receiver can actually keep track how your fantasy football team is doing automatically for you.

Dish has a 6 channel Matrix, it's nice, but DirecTV's MIX are not just a 6 channel Matrix, but itself is its own channel with personalities all of its own.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The Archos will play Xvid and Dvix files, within certain resolution and frame rate limitations, and has a built-in USB2. I guess we might see our first application for the USB connections on DISH receivers but they're going to have to do something to resolve the file format compatibility, either on the Archos or the DISH receiver side. The Archos portables just look like an external hard drive to a computer, so any files transferred to one could easily then be transferred to a computer for archiving. One might also emulate an Archos portable and gain access to recorded programs that way, which opens up other home media center posibilities.

As I said earlier, I don't believe we will see this product released in 2005. Dish said the video will be transfered in its pure form and it will have Digital Rights Management, so you can't copy shows to another device, you can copy to it but not from it. I did get a demo on a 942 of a show download (Standard Def) and a hour and a half movie only took about 5 minutes for it to download via USB 2.0.

Dish needs improvements to its download software, I would like to see a selection screen so you can batch select files to download, then when you transfer I would like to be able to watch TV while the files are being sent to the portable DVR. There is no reason why we need to look at a status bar while files are being sent to the unit. (Maybe an icon on the lower right of the screen showing you the download progress and a notice on the screen when the download is complete.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Thank you for your hard work and good reporting. Do you know or will you find out if D* plans to offer the NFL Mix in HD to HD customers? The demo shows the 700+ channels and these are all SD.

For now it will just be SD. In the future when they is a HD Interactive receiver they may be able to do HD, but that is 2 or 3 years away.

 

[skidog]

I'm really interested in the equipement with the long dark hair, sexy smile, beautiful eyes and oh wait sorry I went off topic

 

[wcswett]

Dish said the video will be transfered in its pure form and it will have Digital Rights Management, so you can't copy shows to another device, you can copy to it but not from it.

They'll need a software upgrade for the Archos, then. I hope Archos will provide the software update and make it backward compatible with 3xx models.

--- WCS

 

[rocatman]

By the way, Dish just recently bought a large percentage of Archos, I think about 23 percent.

 

[JosephB]

any pictures or screenshots of the NDS or Ucentric DVRs?

 

[Mainstreet]

who's the girl?

She's Tanya Memme, the "host" on DirecTV's customer education spots on DirecTV. She's always on channel 201 telling customers how to use the system. She had just gotten finished wrapping up a promo segment from the DirecTV booth when Scott took the picture. It was pretty cool getting to watch them film it. Tanya is also a host on other TV shows. I watched a show on HGTV the other day (the one where they fix a house up using "staging" to make a house that isn't selling saleable) where she was the host.

I got a chance to talk to Scott shortly after that picture was taken.

On a side note: IT'S SNOWING IN VEGAS RIGHT NOW.

 

[smooth28la]

Firewire ports to DVHD from VOOM, Directv or DISH??

If there's a satellite DVR with firewire out, I'm switching IMMEDIATELY!

 

[ScottChez]

the D* mix channels are better than e*


I have use both at home. The Direct Ones have High Video quality, you can see whats in the boxes in my 65" the Dish boxes are more low res.

also it is like a whole NEW channel The 7th Box is the Direct TV News feed where they talk about whats in the boxes below them, what stories ect.

To change to one you just puntch in the channel number. They will soon have the interactive move the cursor to change channel feature like Dish.

Same with the Sports channel , there is a guy in the top 7th box talking about what is good on.

These are like whole new sports and news channels with real news guys talking.

You can also change the Audio feed to one of the boxes.

This is why they are better.