do you want to disable VOD?

Frostwolf

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 5, 2005
190
1
Ok, after having nothing but trouble with Dish's VOD software on my 508's. And not wanting the 508s to die becuase the HD is running 24/7.

I have started a petition to have dish network include an option in the setup menu to disable Video on Demand downloads

http://www.petitiononline.com/VODOFF/petition.html

Help Spread the word please.

Please sign the petition, I don't feel having the option to turn it off is to much to trouble.

Thanks
James
 
Maybe they will add that option in the next, software upgrade.
 
Maybe they will add that option in the next, software upgrade.
Not when its just there to make them money, buy people using the feature or just wearing machines out.

As for adding features, I'm still waiting for the NBR feature promise back in Jan 05.
 
Hence the reason I didn't go and sign your petition!

Well thats your choice to use it. I personally haven't seen any movies on VOD worth watching. And there are plenty of PPV channels to watch also.

I'm just asking that dish give us a choice to not have it download and wear out the hard drives downloading stuff you won't watch.

Help give those who want a choice a voice, it probably will be ignored by dish, but I want to try.
 
I would rather they finish the DVRs before adding other features.

Example: where is my local guide data for the Digital OTA sub channels on my 622?
I pay $5 a month for the guide data.

Direct has all the guide data for all sub channels.

Example: Finish the Ehthernet port and Video over IP

Example: give us the external storage (yea dish says it soon, but we know what that means- next fall).
 
Ok, its obvious from the postings on the sites I've asked for help that some people don't understand what VOD is or understand how it works.

VOD is Video on Demand. It alows your dish receiver to download a choice of movies onto your DVR (digital video recorder) equipment. Once downloaded you can then choose to watch them for a fee. Same thing as Pay Per View except its already on the hard drive in your DVR.

What effect does this have
1. DVR is constantly working to bring you VOD
2. Hard Drive failure IS going to happen, VOD will speed it up.
3. Cooling systems are going to turn on to keep the system cooled if not ventilated well.
4. Additional electricity is used to run the DVR all the time.
5. Additional noise polution for those who can hear the DVR. See numbers 2+3.
 
I would rather they finish the DVRs before adding other features.

Example: where is my local guide data for the Digital OTA sub channels on my 622?
I pay $5 a month for the guide data.

Direct has all the guide data for all sub channels.

Example: Finish the Ehthernet port and Video over IP

Example: give us the external storage (yea dish says it soon, but we know what that means- next fall).

Yes that is a problem that dish has. But has dish ever finished all the features they promised when it was released or after for that fact?

Like NBR on 508's and family. How about internet on the 508's. What the heck is that expansion port for anyways?

I designed a unit that blended with the cover of the 508's that would upgrade the most popular box they had to have usb, ethernet and CF card expansions and look factory at the same time as it fit perfectly under the unit ans plugged into the expansion port, Well at least on paper:) can't find enough data on the port:(
 
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What effect does this have
1. DVR is constantly working to bring you VOD
2. Hard Drive failure IS going to happen, VOD will speed it up.
3. Cooling systems are going to turn on to keep the system cooled if not ventilated well.
4. Additional electricity is used to run the DVR all the time.
5. Additional noise polution for those who can hear the DVR. See numbers 2+3.

You have evidence for your above points? As far as my 522 is concerned, the hard drive is always on anyway. The receiver is always on. When you turn off the receiver, you are only activating a screen saver.

Based on my experience with computer hardware (I do this for a living), I doubt that is has any appreciable effect on wear, noise, heat, or power consumption. You can really hear the difference between a hard drive spinning and reading/writing? ;)

While I am not a fan of VOD and think it's a waste of time, my only concern is if it reduces the recording capacity of the programs that I choose to record.

My only complaint with VOD is the 'in your face' menu changes that came with it.

If you really want to save noise and electricity, unplug the power cord when you aren't using it. The hard drive won't 'wear' out (but it may die from the power-on surge), you'll save electricity, and prevent VOD movies from downloading.:)
 
You have evidence for your above points? As far as my 522 is concerned, the hard drive is always on anyway. The receiver is always on. When you turn off the receiver, you are only activating a screen saver.

Ok first question, evidence will be linked to last part of post, Behavoir that may be part of the VOD, unsure, I dont have that reciever. My 508s however did not behave this way before VOD. I understand by dish that the 508 is or was the most popular receiver still in use. Can anyone confirm this?

Based on my experience with computer hardware (I do this for a living), I doubt that is has any appreciable effect on wear, noise, heat, or power consumption. You can really hear the difference between a hard drive spinning and reading/writing? ;)

The changes in heat affect the life of all computers, the debate still goes on about whether to turn it off or on.

I for one know that mechanical parts wear out, bearings turning all the time, air bearings even wear out (laser print heads on copiers/printer do go bad). I myself work as a computer tech, networking tech, copier tech, printing, scanning, email, wide format printing, you name it tech. And thats just my day job. I fix everything from air conditioners to vcr's ( well back when vcrs weren't disposible:) )

And yes I can hear the spinning of a hard drive, and some of them writing, especially seagates and quantums, some western digitals. I can hear a bad flyback or one warming up at the other end of the house. I can even hear a dog wistle. But, even the average person can hear the hard drive power up and even the cooling fans when they are on.

While I am not a fan of VOD and think it's a waste of time, my only concern is if it reduces the recording capacity of the programs that I choose to record.

My only complaint with VOD is the 'in your face' menu changes that came with it.

I don't really mind having to press the pvr button twice on my 508, the 522's I believe have a diffent menu system, so no comment there. as for reducing the capacity, yes and no. the Advertised capacity is based on and approximate hours, actual use is affected by sound quality and picture quality. How much is movement I believe even affects the compression. Now the Hard drive is and has always been partitioned with reserve space that 508,510 users cannot use. It was for future use whcih is now VOD. We do get our advertised capacity though.

If you really want to save noise and electricity, unplug the power cord when you aren't using it. The hard drive won't 'wear' out (but it may die from the power-on surge), you'll save electricity, and prevent VOD movies from downloading.:)

I have UPS system on all my dvrs' (excpept one, I'm waiting on a new battery), That way when the power fails ( at least twice a week or more here :( ) I won't lose the recording if the thing will wake up to record (VOD side effect apparently on the 508s). As for saving electricity, read the evidence below.

I hope I was clear, been interupted about 50 times writing this.

Evidences
What effect does this have
1. DVR is constantly working to bring you VOD

Established, it won't have VOD if it doesn't do download when your not using the box. The less you use the box, the more free time it does get though.

2. Hard Drive failure IS going to happen, VOD will speed it up.

Why do hard drives wear out? First, it is important to recognize that the platters inside a hard drive (which look something like several CDs impaled on a golf pencil) are spinning remarkably fast. Many popular drives boast speeds of 10,000 revolutions per minute (rpm). At these speeds, any friction leads to heat and physical wear. Heat is an important consideration because physical materials expand and contract by different amounts, based on changes in temperature. The size of a gap between surfaces will change with the temperature, and an important component of drive engineering is to make sure that such changes do not lead to unexpected friction that can lead to undue wear.

and

Very high humidity for extended periods can cause accelerated wear of the heads and platters by corrosion _ believe me, in alabama we know about humidity.

and

The hard disk's electronics control the movement of the actuator and the rotation of the disk, and perform reads and writes on demand from the disk controller. Modern disk firmware is capable of scheduling reads and writes efficiently on the platter surfaces and remapping sectors of the media which have failed. Also, most major hard disk and motherboard vendors now support self-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology (S.M.A.R.T.), by which impending failures can be predicted, allowing the user to be alerted to prevent data loss.

and

Hard drives do have a limited life, however. Hard drives, as do most other electronic components, naturally wear out as they are used. Inside hard disk drives you'll find moving mechanical parts which add to the reason why hard drives wear out over time. The average life of a hard drive is at least 3 years or so. So, you have a while before a normal hard drive will wear out. It is always a good idea to back up any important documents, photos, videos, etc. just in case your hard drive does fail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk
http://computers.families.com/blog/turning-off-computer-ruin-hard-drive
http://www.smartcomputing.com/edito...00/s1103/09s03/09s03.asp&articleid=7468&guid=

3. Cooling systems are going to turn on to keep the system cooled if not ventilated well.
This is a given, thats why there is a cooling fan on it. Some recievers are averaging 118-120 degrees. see this thread http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=68690

4. Additional electricity is used to run the DVR all the time.

google energy vampires or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power

Government has passed laws regarding this www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/07/20010731-10.html

According to America's Department of Energy, national residential electricity consumption in 2004 was 1.29 billion megawatt hours (MWh)—5% of which is 64m MWh. The wasted energy, in other words, is equivalent to the output of 18 typical power stations.

2000 study showed that standby power accounted for around 10% of household power-consumption. So take 10% of your power yearly power bill (for fluctuations of summer and winter) YIKES for people who live pay check to pay check.

5. Additional noise polution for those who can hear the DVR.
This is for those who can hear the DVR as stated. I can, especially at night, wtiht the one I have in the bedroom, I'm working on putting it the closet, as soon as I have time to relocate wiring.

I tried to condense this, do I hold a record for longest post?
 
Great answers! If it's not the longest thread I have read, it is among them, but I don't think it really answered all my questions.

I know how hard drives work, but I don't know that reading or writing affects their lives and your explanation, while quite thorough, doesn't address this. Modern hard drives are 'Winchester' disks. The heads float above the platters so there is no direct contact. If there was, the drive would crash. The speeds and S.M.A.R.T. technology pieces are nice, but irrelevant.

The cooling and standby power information was also nice, but did not address the differences in power consumption or heat production between 'standby' and not 'standby'.

I have my DVR in the family room inside a cabinet (that has a fan to cool it). I'm not sure I would want it in my bedroom either.

With hearing as acute as yours, I'll bet there are a lot of annoying noises that the rock music of the 60s and 70s cured me of hearing!
 
Great answers! If it's not the longest thread I have read, it is among them, but I don't think it really answered all my questions.

I know how hard drives work, but I don't know that reading or writing affects their lives and your explanation, while quite thorough, doesn't address this. Modern hard drives are 'Winchester' disks. The heads float above the platters so there is no direct contact. If there was, the drive would crash. The speeds and S.M.A.R.T. technology pieces are nice, but irrelevant.

The cooling and standby power information was also nice, but did not address the differences in power consumption or heat production between 'standby' and not 'standby'.

I have my DVR in the family room inside a cabinet (that has a fan to cool it). I'm not sure I would want it in my bedroom either.

With hearing as acute as yours, I'll bet there are a lot of annoying noises that the rock music of the 60s and 70s cured me of hearing!

Well thanks, on the great answers, Not knowing the differences in each receiver limits me on the information I can give with temps and power usage. Even each 508 probably has differences in power usage. Also how much tv addiction each famiy member has :)

As far as when the the cooling starts and stops also depends on the room tempurature to.

As far as how much power costs, Its not likely to ever cause anyone to go hungry, but as a nation, it adds up.

Now as far as how hard drives work, some here don't nor care too. Is my 508's hard drive as modern? It was designed like almost 5 years ago. And unplugging a receiver when the hard drive is running is never good but unavoidable. Also People who move the receiver believing it is off could cause the heads to bounce, or if you have a cat (21 lbs of muscle and size not fat , as long as a twin bed is wide, not counting the tail) who likes to jump into the middle of your working on a pc, nvm, thats another story of a cat losing one if its nine lives, by destoying a laptop hard drive :)

On our Copiers we sell, we tell the customers the let the hard drive spin down when they have to reboot the machines. Even the warning label opn the power cord of the 508 I have says wait like 30 secs after turning the receiver off before unplugging it. That no longer matters when the hard drive stays on.

Last note, I have been told I am being to pushy on other forums, so I appoligize to everyone who feels I have.
 
VOD is the worst thing Dish could have added to the 508. Ever since the useless update we have been getting missed timers and receiver freeze-ups.

The noise the stupid thing does during the night. Spinning up and running for a few minutes then spinning down just to spin up again in less than a minute. It keeps me up until around 2AM when it just stays spinning up. It is going to kill the hard drive and keep me up at night which it is doing already.

The real beef is that if Dish is going to give us VOD, give us real VOD that the cable companies give you and not trying to milk more money for useless PPV crap that is going to make the receiver buggier, louder and wear out quicker.

I hope to get a 622 receiver soon. Liked the 510 until VOD.
 
VOD is the worst thing Dish could have added to the 508. Ever since the useless update we have been getting missed timers and receiver freeze-ups.

The noise the stupid thing does during the night. Spinning up and running for a few minutes then spinning down just to spin up again in less than a minute. It keeps me up until around 2AM when it just stays spinning up. It is going to kill the hard drive and keep me up at night which it is doing already.

The real beef is that if Dish is going to give us VOD, give us real VOD that the cable companies give you and not trying to milk more money for useless PPV crap that is going to make the receiver buggier, louder and wear out quicker.

I hope to get a 622 receiver soon. Liked the 510 until VOD.


Finally someone else losing sleep and timers just like me, Wait, that means, YES!! I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE!!! HEHEHAHA as the CSR tells me no one else has a problem almost everytime I call. Maybe this is the proof I need to get me out of my padded room. :hurah:

Yes the 508 VOD implemintation is a joke. And the movies are the worst.

so maybe the other 522's and others work with VOD but its ruined my machines, I'm going to hook up a vcr just so I don't miss 24. :grin:

Thanks Reddice, I was starting to lose hope completely.

Sorry for those reading the post elsewhere. Don't want to leave anyone in the Dark.
 

"no Programming"/epg ?????

Just got disco-ed. Uh oh.

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