and THAT is the reason that D* is toying with the idea of charging customers for it. It's not like life would end if MRV wasn't available. It wasn't there before you joined the CE group. Overinflating it's importance is what is going to drive D* to charge for this feature. I had an interesting thought last night... It was raining here pretty hard late last night. So while the Sat was out, I went to my other DVR and watched a bunch of old reruns of Cops and MASH... When I was ready for bed, I asked myself if I would PAY to watch old episodes of Cops and MASH.... My immediate response was NO!
Now... I do use MRV to turn my single DRV with two tuners into a DVR with four tuners with MRV. I do like the concept of MRV, and would like to see it as a feature of my service with D*... I would rather think of it as an ANSWER to the problem of Sat TV going out during rain storms, than to see them CHARGE for it!
Directv would be turning their back sides to what has worked and gained new subscribers if they broke from their "compliments of Directv" approach. They didn't charge for VOD, Score Guide, Double Play, or TV APPS; why start now with MRV when they may never get it as good as the Local DVR playback. There's a thread on another site that found a lot of the pixeling issues with Client MRV streams is caused by the mpeg2 to mpeg4 conversion process with errors from originating broadcasters and Directv contributing to the mix. The ATSC standard is mpeg2 but cable & sat carriers want mpeg4 compression to save bandwidth. It looks that's going to be an issue for some time. And the boxes seem too busy or have their priorities wrong when streaming MRV. The only way to get around it is to increase the Client buffer to allow for more video processing like the Local DVR does but Directv doesn't seem to want to go that route. I wouldn't even mind seeing a winding wait timer that indicates the buffer is filling prior to resume after commercial skip as long as it allowed me first find the resume point.
Pay for that? No; I think someone is running the flag up the pole to get a response or someone is being naive or wishful about the idea. I wouldn't even consider a DECA upgrade if it meant paying a subscriber fee to use it. And I think Directv knows that better than I do.
But maybe Directv can be given the benefit of doubt here. We're testing MRV and helping to shake it down like the other free add-ons. And yet MRV returns again to CE after CC made it to NR. It wasn't ready for NR and that's good news; Directv still wants it to work and needs it to work for future growth in a changing market. The other site is still asking for MRV issues and has a dedicated thread for that. Directv's actions don't match with the rumors, IMO. Just because someone heard something and told someone else doesn't mean Directv is losing their competitive thinking. I would wait until something definite is announced before I conclude anything.
