Dish Pause disables ext HDD???

[rajmarie]

I feel sorry for the OP....because I am also recording & transferring movies/shows that I will watch later to ehd. But it's a feature...or let's say extension to active subscription. Pausing account allows you to watch that program again in the future when you un-pause it.

Imagine....dish allows unlimited ehd attachment....so somebody can make an active account....record like anything for 3 month & then deactivate it....& continue to watch all ehd recording. Not a smart business.

IMO send the pm to the DIRt member & see what they can do for you.

 

[DISHinOhio]

1. No, one is a DVR, one is an EHD . Dish will allow you to watch what you recorded on their equipment, the DVR, because they have control over it, they have no such control over the EHD, your equipment that once detached is out of their control.

2. There is not design flaw, it's a combination of you thinking they are the same thing, and Dish not wanting you to use it if you are not actually buying programming from them.

3. You miss the point. It may need the Dish receiver, but Dish/HBO, or whoever wants to be sure it's on your receiver, not brought to another house or easily copied. What's to prevent you from going to someone who has Dish and share programming content by moving items to the EHD instead of buying actual programming. I tell you what prevents it, the signal that only comes if you have said actual programming.

Neither the CSR or Dish has mislead you, honestly you mislead yourself. The CSR clearly told you that the DVR would still be able to be used, and it can. You decided that meant the EHD also, and unfortunately you were wrong.

That pretty much sums it up

 

[tedb3rd]

You can be mad at Dish for not telling you right. But I think you also owe a "thanks" to the providers for their uber-restrictive DRM demands they place on Dish, Comcast, Direct, everybody.

 

[dare2be]

I still don't see the difference between the recordings on the DVR and the recordings on the EHD. It was said that the DVR is Dish's own equipment and they have more control over it. Well, obviously they have as much control over the EHD as they can prevent access to it just as they can the internal DVR if no sat cable is connected. But in this case with the sat cable connected and the account on pause, the internal DVR is allowed access and the EHD is not? Makes no sense. Either disable both the DVR and the EHD, or allow access to both. Period. Be consistent.

 

[DISHinOhio]

just as they can the internal DVR if no sat cable is connected.

What do you mean by this?

 

[R0ss]

After hearing that my position would be terminated in a few months, I took proactive steps to immediately reduce unnecessary expenses. I heard about Dish Pause, and was assured that I'd have access to recorded material on my DVR. Since I have a 722 along with a huge 1TB external hard drive (which contains 99% of the stuff I actually care about), it seemed reasonable and I was depending on being able to still access that huge library of recorded movies during this difficult period.

However, after they activated Dish Pause, I tried to access my external hard drive but the system said that it wasn't activated. I started another chat to complain. Their line? Basically: Oh, we're sorry we lied to you... all that stuff you recorded that we SAID you could still watch, you can't because we're stupid and have no way to keep the external hard drive enabled during Dish Pause, even though it's utterly unfair to the customer and contrary to what we tell you you can do. And despite it being logically and morally wrong, we're not going to fix this bug/incompetency in our system.

For real?

After thinking about the OP's situation i agree he wasn't mislead, but by the same token the CSR should have asked if he had an EHD and explained that those recordings would not be available. I believe that most folks, even those that read this forum, (the regulars excluded) would not even think that the EHD would be deactivated during DishPause. The EHD is an extension of the DVR, the recordings on it cannot be accessed without the DVR, and if you leave Dish you can't access the recordings ever again. If Dish Pause allows viewing of the recordings on the internal Hard Drive I see no reason why Dish can't " fix" it so the programs on the EHD can be viewed as well. My feeling is that most folks that use Dish Pause either due so during extended vacations or for economic reasons, those that might record a few terabytes of programming with the intent of going into Dish Pause and just watching that programming are probably so few that it doesn't have any economic effect on Dish at all. Besides doesn't the receiver need an authorization to play back the recordings from the internal HDD? I seem to recall folks that have had service discontinued before watching all their recordings commenting that they were unable to watch any recordings while waiting for the return mailer to arrive...

Of course as has been stated and again I concur it doesn't appear that the OP was actually lied to; mislead, possibly; not fully informed, absolutely!

Ross

 

[garys]

just as they can the internal DVR if no sat cable is connected.

This was true of the 5xx receviers, but most of the newer receivers must be connect to at least one sat for the dvr to work.

 

[DISHinOhio]

After thinking about the OP's situation i agree he wasn't mislead, but by the same token the CSR should have asked if he had an EHD and explained that those recordings would not be available. I believe that most folks, even those that read this forum, (the regulars excluded) would not even think that the EHD would be deactivated during DishPause. The EHD is an extension of the DVR, the recordings on it cannot be accessed without the DVR, and if you leave Dish you can't access the recordings ever again. If Dish Pause allows viewing of the recordings on the internal Hard Drive I see no reason why Dish can't " fix" it so the programs on the EHD can be viewed as well. My feeling is that most folks that use Dish Pause either due so during extended vacations or for economic reasons, those that might record a few terabytes of programming with the intent of going into Dish Pause and just watching that programming are probably so few that it doesn't have any economic effect on Dish at all. Besides doesn't the receiver need an authorization to play back the recordings from the internal HDD? I seem to recall folks that have had service discontinued before watching all their recordings commenting that they were unable to watch any recordings while waiting for the return mailer to arrive...

Of course as has been stated and again I concur had the CSR explained that there would be no access to the EHD it would have saved the OP from feeling as if he was mislead and lied too, still might not be happy but that is totally different issue!

Ross

I do agree with the general idea of the quote. Honestly it is probably just that most CSR's do not know that fact about the EHD not being authorized while on Pause. However, one clue would be that in order to activate the EHD onto the rcvr, you have to call DISH. Also, from my experience, anything that is stored on the receiver's internal HD can still be watched when the account is not active. For example, if the account is disconnected by the customer or for non payment for their services. Obviously not for any sort of technical hard drive issue. I have never been on Pause myself, but was under the impression that Pause did not control authorization on internal recordings, only the authorization on an EHD

 

[Tampa8]

I believe that most folks, even those that read this forum, (the regulars excluded) would not even think that the EHD would be deactivated during DishPause.
Ross

Valid point. I knew because my brother goes camping and can't access his after a short time when he does not set up the Dish. In fact his receiver is not authorized after a time.
I guess my question is, from a practical standpoint, can you even get to the EHD if the receiver is not authorized when on pause?

 

[dare2be]

What do you mean by this?

This was true of the 5xx receviers, but most of the newer receivers must be connect to at least one sat for the dvr to work.

Maybe it was poor wording on my part, but I was saying that the internal DVR will stop working if the sat is not connected (just as the EHD won't work if there is no authorization signal).

So, while on Dish Pause, if they can send a "keep alive" signal to allow the internal DVR to operate, they can just as easily send an authorization signal for the EHD to continue to function.

 

[TheKrell]

However, one clue would be that in order to activate the EHD onto the rcvr, you have to call DISH.

This is no longer the case since Dish dropped the $40 one-time charge. But you may be on to something; the EHD restriction may be left over from an earlier era, like the "External Drive Enabled" field on my.dish.com. Or is that for a 211 which I don't have? Still, I might like to see a "N/A" rather than "No" in that field for my DVRs.

Ha! The "External Drive Enabled" text is a link that pops up the following explanation.

External Drive Enabled
Extend Storage Device
Enable an additional 500GB of storage to your DVR. Use an external hard drive to expand your DVR storage and create libraries of content.
Compatible Receiver Models: 612, 612c, 622, 722, 722k and 922

Enable DVR Functionality
Convert a non-DVR receiver into a DVR, allowing programs to record directly to your external hard drive
Compatible Receiver Models: 211, 211k and 411

So, it's original meaning was for both DVR's EHDs and for the 211's DVR conversion disk. It's also out of date given the "500GB" quantity.

So... What's a 612c?

 

[Tampa8]

612C never came out. From my memory it was going to have two tuner outputs both in HD. Probably conceived before the Hopper jumped on to the scene.

(Yes, intentional )