Dish to introduce portable DVR by XMAS

[Scott Greczkowski]

Dish to introduce protable DVR by XMAS!

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB...e/30day&vql_string=echostar<in>(article-body)

EchoStar Plans A Portable Device For Digital Video

By ANDY PASZTOR
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


It is the perfect product for couch potatoes on the run.

Satellite-broadcaster EchoStar Communications Corp. is developing an inexpensive, portable digital video recorder designed to be used in hotel rooms, cars and various mobile locations, allowing users to store and watch programming on the fly.

The Littleton, Colo., company hopes the hand-held device, which will have its own high-resolution screen, will keep it in the forefront of technology in the fast-growing realm of personal video-recording equipment.

Chairman Charles Ergen also is betting that placing EchoStar's brand on the novel device, likely to feature a 6-inch screen and sell for less than $200, will provide the company with a marketing boost against both cable-television and satellite rivals.

The device may be available for the Christmas selling season, with EchoStar likely discounting it deeply or providing it free to customers who agree to sign up for premium programming

 

[gpflepsen]

This strikes me as one of those "ho-hum" products. A better product would allow the downloading of video programming to a computer (laptop) enabling a multi-functional portable product solution which already exist. Who wants to travel and add another function-dedicated device to the pile of stuff you are already schlepping around?

Charlie needs to lend his vision to the roll computers are going to play in the future of entertainment. Namely, computers will be blended in every facet of A/V. Hell they mostly are already.

 

[rad]

Oh, this could be dangerous. Make it that small and portable you might be causing traffic accidents when you throw it out your car window while going 70 because it just locked up and lost your program

 

[jds44]

Don't throw it out the window. All you need to do is hold down the power button for 10 seconds so it reboots. The problem will go away with the next software upgrade due out any day.

 

[ROLLTIDE]

I bet that its just like the 921 and that we don't see it for at least 2 years

 

[gpflepsen]

But then you'd be screwed, and the acquiring satellite screen would be displayed until you return home to hook up the dish again.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I can imagine it now.

It comes with a battery boasting that it last 5 hours.

You get it home and plug it in then when you go to use it the battery only last 5 minutes. You call Tech Support to find out whats going on and are explained by the tech that the 5 hour support is coming with a future upgrade.

I am sure the folks at Dish get mad when they read jokes like this, but look at their past track record, why are most of the features on new Dish Receivers always COMING SOON? Why can't a Dish receiver have all features WORKING out of the box?

 

[Curtis0620]

I guess they are trying to compete with this:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040108/sfth080_1.html

 

[Mark]

dish needs to work on there current problems, wait for upgrade

 

[oby]

Don't throw it out the window. It may hit someone in the head, and you will get sued.

 

[Mike_H]

If they were smart they would come out with a hardware box that plugs into the expansion port and terminates in a firewire or USB2 port. With software from Dish on your laptop you could then select recordings to pull down to your laptop and then view. Even if you are only viewing it using their software, at least then you are not limited to the little LCD screens when you might have a 14" or larger on your Laptop already.

 

[gpflepsen]

Right, limited. If I were on the go and wanted one of these, it had better have accommodations for plugging into a display device, like a hotel TV.

 

[bsic]

Sigh-- give it a few hours and out come the E* bashers... they complain when there are no new announcements, and BASH the hell out of E* when they do announce something. They come in droves...

 

[gpflepsen]

I'm not bashing E*. I'm bashing this product. I think it's safe to say those following E* on this board want info regarding HD programming announcements, equipment and HD receiver fixes.

I think you can say on the whole we are E* proponents.

 

[Stargazer]

I would LOVE to have the ability to take the information from the hard drive to my laptop computer. Might as well just do all this myself by using the video capture device to record video to my laptop and DVD+RW's. For $200 you could by the capture device to do this on a laptop.

This sounds like a nice gadget though for some without laptops. Would be nice to have a little tv with receiver you can take around with you that accepts a satellite signal.

 

[dfergie]

With a Replay tv you could hook your laptop to it and download anything you had the space for to it, and watch at your convenience.

 

[BlackHitachi]

I'm not bashing E*. I'm bashing this product. I think it's safe to say those following E* on this board want info regarding HD programming announcements, equipment and HD receiver fixes.

I think you can say on the whole we are E* proponents.

Amen!! I want HDTV as much as i can get also i want fixes for my Hardware!!

 

[Stargazer]

Dish should do what Replay tv is doing and what Tivo is going to do. Why would Dish choose not to do such a thing when this is what many people want and would really help sales.

 

[jeffwtux]

My guess is that the studios and broadcasters aren't going to like this. All they will think is piracy.

 

[rad]

Sigh-- give it a few hours and out come the E* bashers... they complain when there are no new announcements, and BASH the hell out of E* when they do announce something. They come in droves...

Please tell me why people shouldn't bash E*??? If they had shown that they could actually get a product out that worked, on time and had all the advertised features up and running I might agree with you. But based on their past track record bashing is mild compared to what really should happen to them.