Killer App Gap - Multiroom HD DVR.

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Bobby_M

Well-Known SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Nov 3, 2004
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I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, I didn't see anything. I was plenty content with the 622 TV2 SD output for a while but like so many others, I want an HDTV in my bedroom. Frankly after a couple years running both primary displays off a single DVR, there's no way I'm going to convince myself or wife that a second Tuner and/or DVR is going to cut it. When is dish going to support HD streaming to slave boxes around the house? Doesn't FIOS do this?

Bobby
 
I agree completely. MRV is high-up on the want list for my wife and I. From what I've seen E* seems to be pinning it's hopes on the 922 with the built-in sling box. I've been wondering if they'll be releasing any receivers with sling-catchers built in - or even better adding the functionality to current VIP recievers. Put those two together and you've got your multi-room viewing (MRV) solved.

D* has had HD-DVR to HD receiver MRV testing in their CE program for some time. I've been following the CE threads and overall it looks like it works pretty well. Seems like the function might be close to a national release. If they get HD DVR - HD DVR MRV too I'll give them some serious consideration.

I don't know about FIOS MRV, but AT&T's U-Verse package has MRV.
 
Maybe I can help clarify why it's so necessary. My wife and I will sit down for TV watching a good hour after the primetime shows have started. We watch a bunch and then get tired and decide to pause, go to the bedroom, then finish up watching the shows. It's that simple.

It's just a matter of watching DVR'd content more than 95% of all of our TV watching. I can't imagine having to go to a specific room in the house to watch a given show because that's where it was recorded. It's so 1985 VHS....ER, at least THAT was portable.
 
I just run the component output via cat6 to my bedroom hdtv from the 722 in the living room and continue watching in bed when I want to. With HDMI and Component output all hot at the same time, it works great for me. But, I over wired my house with several thousand feet of rg6 and cat6. Mainly use the cat6 now.
 
Agree with the OP - this is a must. I would lease additional receiver(s) if they supported this.

Why do i want this? to watch the same HD show in multiple rooms without having to have mulitple DVRs record the same content.
 
rad said:
That's in testing on the HR20's as of the last CE release.
Click to expand...

Great news. I am currently having ATT Uverse on trial basis, and supended my D* service for a few months. My plan was to find out how good the Uverse MRV is, then decide which provider I will finally go with, Uverse, D* or E* (with the new 922).

D* making the HDDVR/HDDVR MRV available will most certainly gain a few points from me.

The Uverse MRV is very limiting and unstable so far. The HDMI output on the client box just died and a replacement is on order.
 
riffjim4069 said:
I have never understood the appeal of MVR. To be honest, we've had multiple HDTVs and HD DVRs since 2002 so MRV has never interested me in the slightest.
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That's the thing. If you had MRV, you wouldn't need multiple HD DVR's. You would only need one that could feed its recorded programs to multiple locations in your home in HD.
 
GaryPen said:
That's the thing. If you had MRV, you wouldn't need multiple HD DVR's. You would only need one that could feed its recorded programs to multiple locations in your home in HD.
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I actually have MRV with the FiOS and TivoHD DVRs. I will consider MRV useful when a set-top-box can replace all my DVRs...minimum 5TB storage, 6-tuners, instant response to remote. In the rare event I don't have a recording queued up in another room, the Slingbox works wonders.
 
GaryPen said:
That's the thing. If you had MRV, you wouldn't need multiple HD DVR's. You would only need one that could feed its recorded programs to multiple locations in your home in HD.
Click to expand...
I hope it is implemented in a manner, such that you could have multiple DVRs and that they could all see each other; like a hive mind of DVRs. If you had two DVRs, it would be the equivalent of having one of them that has twice the storage space and potentially 4 tuners (add another 4 for OTA)! Conflicts would be a thing of the past! I mean, the master-slave DVR relationship would be good, but it could be better with the way I just mentioned. I think Uverse and Fios work with just one master box, and then the others are slaves, making your DVR space limited.

Another great feature would be if you went to set a recording, but the DVR you were on already has its tuners occupied for the slot you want to record during; instead of making you go to the other DVR, the machine could ask if you would like it to set up the timer on the other DVR for you.

Is D*s working this way? Either of those features?
 
jdmacor said:
I hope it is implemented in a manner, such that you could have multiple DVRs and that they could all see each other; like a hive mind of DVRs. If you had two DVRs, it would be the equivalent of having one of them that has twice the storage space and potentially 4 tuners (add another 4 for OTA)! Conflicts would be a thing of the past! I mean, the master-slave DVR relationship would be good, but it could be better with the way I just mentioned. I think Uverse and Fios work with just one master box, and then the others are slaves, making your DVR space limited.

Another great feature would be if you went to set a recording, but the DVR you were on already has its tuners occupied for the slot you want to record during; instead of making you go to the other DVR, the machine could ask if you would like it to set up the timer on the other DVR for you.

Is D*s working this way? Either of those features?
Click to expand...

For #1 it looks like that's the plan at the moment from the CE testing.

For #2, not there in the current software. But DirecTV purchased the patents from Replay and Relay's DVR's had that capability in them so who knows?
 
rad said:
For #1 it looks like that's the plan at the moment from the CE testing.

For #2, not there in the current software. But DirecTV purchased the patents from Replay and Relay's DVR's had that capability in them so who knows?
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Sweet. So D* is clearly on the right track; now where E* is going with its 922, I am not sure of yet.
 
jdmacor said:
Sweet. So D* is clearly on the right track; now where E* is going with its 922, I am not sure of yet.
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The 922 appears on a slightly different track.

For one thing, it will MRV to a second TV, only in SD but nevertheless the SD set has full DVR funtions and can watch all the live shows and recordings, SD or HD, from the 922. That is something D* will probably not do. D*'s plan requires either an HD set at the remote location, or another HDDVR at that remote location, also the remote set cannot control the programming at the mother location, only to playback/pause/skip... the recordings from the mother location.

Another function of the 922 is of course the Sling remote MRV, E* has already demonstrated a 15" (or 20"?) "near-HD" flat panel that will play back from the 922, wirelessly. You can put this 15" LCD in the kitchen, or bathroom for that matter.

But in E*'s plan, if you want the remote location to support a full-HD set using MRV from the mothership, you will not get that, you will just have to add another HDDVR for that set.
 
jacmyoung said:
The 922 appears on a slightly different track.

For one thing, it will MRV to a second TV, only in SD but nevertheless the SD set has full DVR funtions and can watch all the live shows and recordings, SD or HD, from the 922. That is something D* will probably not do. D*'s plan requires either an HD set at the remote location, or another HDDVR at that remote location, also the remote set cannot control the programming at the mother location, only to playback/pause/skip... the recordings from the mother location.

Another function of the 922 is of course the Sling remote MRV, E* has already demonstrated a 15" (or 20"?) "near-HD" flat panel that will play back from the 922, wirelessly. You can put this 15" LCD in the kitchen, or bathroom for that matter.

But in E*'s plan, if you want the remote location to support a full-HD set using MRV from the mothership, you will not get that, you will just have to add another HDDVR for that set.
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This kind of gets at the question I had about the feature set of the 922; namely is it merely a sling box or also a sling catcher? If it is the latter, then having two 922s would be what I was referring to; the only missing piece would be controlling the recording of one 922 from the other, which I believe would only require software and not hardware (some back end link to the sling guide via ethernet, with the interface on the tv looking like the regular; or at least, that is my thought with making it work with sling).

I wonder if the quality would be crummy, if the box has to sling the thing over the internet, to sling servers, then get pulled back to your house in the next room over; maybe there would be a way to bypass heading to the internet and keeping local. That would probably allow for a better quality feed. I think...
 
I have sling and in my opionion it leaves much to be desired in the remote response time. even on my home network. i could never function with up to a full second of delay on the remote. E* needs a hardwired solution so we don't have this delay.
 

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