DISH Content to Portable Device

[Jim1348]

I have a DISH 622 now and I may be interested in transferring saved content to a portable device. I recall the Pocket DISH, but they seemed to have vanished. My sons both have iPod Touches. Is there a viable choice to transfer content to the iPod Touch? I am also aware of some of the Archos devices. Are they a reasonable choice?

 

[harshness]

If you're looking to load up two devices with the same content, analog video capture (either SD or HD) is the only avenue.

Since iPods can't record video, you would need to get a computer involved to do the conversion.

The Archos devices should be able to do an analog capture without additional software or hardware.

 

[TheKrell]

There is a free Dish Network plug-in for the Archos 50x portable media players which would work for mpeg-2 SD programs. The Pocket Dish is impossible to find these days, but the 50x's are still plentiful (though obsolete). Archos devices are mpeg-4, and the latest/greatest Media Tablets can play back 720p HD programs. But the annoying fact of the matter is that there is no such plug in available, either for the mpeg-4 SD, nor any HD programs on Dish. Seems like Dish and Archos had a falling out.

Anyhow, that digital transfer would be good for only one portable device, since it gets encrypted in the transfer. Harshness also mentioned that the Archos can record analog audio and video, so that might do double-duty to capture the programs in real time, if that is what you decide to do. Incidentally, 4th gen Archos players (and later) cannot record video without an additional docking station to add all the I/O ports.