Learned a Painful lesson about External HDDs

[rockymtnhigh]

Tonight I learned a painful -- ok maybe just irritating - lesson about External HDDs and Dish. We just sold our house yesterday, and for the next month are living in temporary housing, without Dish. I figured, no big deal; I will just powerup the 622, and use it to run the DVR and the 1.3TB of movies I have archived. More then enough to keep me going for a month.

Well, the receiver is up and running; and was able to watch stuff on the DVR tonight. BUT not the External HDDs. Oh they get recognized, but each one demands to be "activated" in order to be used. And since there is no sat feeding the Dish, no way to do so.

Bummer, but it shows pretty clearly to me that while the external archiving is cool; you pretty much are locked into being a current Dish sub with an active sat connection to be able to use it. You can't just build a huge library, unsubscribe to Dish, and just use the receiver as a fancy library.

Oh, I am not surprised, but it is definitely a bummer.

At least I have my HD DVD library

 

[pdxsam]

I had the same issue but my 622 was offline for maybe 2 hours while I was moving it. When I plugged it back in it had to authorize again. I'm concerned that I've run through 2 of 3 at this point counting the original authorization.

 

[KAB]

I had the same issue but my 622 was offline for maybe 2 hours while I was moving it. When I plugged it back in it had to authorize again. I'm concerned that I've run through 2 of 3 at this point counting the original authorization.

The move limit has been lifted, albeit a few bugs.

 

[dfergie]

A dish 300 in a bucket where you could access 1`bird would probably bring it back to life

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I had the same issue but my 622 was offline for maybe 2 hours while I was moving it. When I plugged it back in it had to authorize again. I'm concerned that I've run through 2 of 3 at this point counting the original authorization.

You are authorizing it on the SAME receiver, not a different one, so that would not matter, even if the limit had not been lifted.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

A dish 300 in a bucket where you could access 1`bird would probably bring it back to life

If I only had a dish to do that, I would. But the Dish 1000 was left at the old house; and I know that my wife would plain old kill me if I showed up here with another Dish. "Its only 26 days..." she says, "And I know what your priorities are..." (say with a whiny voice)

 

[JohnL]

If I only had a dish to do that, I would. But the Dish 1000 was left at the old house; and I know that my wife would plain old kill me if I showed up here with another Dish. "Its only 26 days..." she says, "And I know what your priorities are..." (say with a whiny voice)

Rocky,


Its ONLY been 26 days since you have been able to use your Dish HD receiver. I know my wife would be PI%$ED if she could NOT use our Satellite receiver for 26 days.

If and when we do move, our Dish service or any Multichannel service will be turned on inside one week of the relocation.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Rocky,


Its ONLY been 26 days since you have been able to use your Dish HD receiver. I know my wife would be PI%$ED if she could NOT use our Satellite receiver for 26 days.

If and when we do move, our Dish service or any Multichannel service will be turned on inside one week of the relocation.

No, only one day so far... 26 days until we arrive at our new house. Dish install is set for right after that.

Just bummed that my plan to use External HDD didn't work out. I even bought a third HDD three weeks ago, filling it with stuff to last the month.

Sadly, I don't think my wife would care if Dish or HDTV went away.

 

[pawdog]

Sadly, I don't think my wife would care if Dish or HDTV went away. [/QUOTE]

Must be true love dude.

 

[KenSoren]

You are authorizing it on the SAME receiver, not a different one, so that would not matter, even if the limit had not been lifted.

I need to mention that I had a CSR tell me that the external HD feature is added to your account and is not tied to a specific receiver. I added the feature around the holidays and then a week later upgraded my receiver from a 622 to a 722. The system asked for authorization but then worked fine.

Since then the system for no particular reason has asked for authorization probably twice but once I said "OK" everything was fine.

 

[Stargazer]

So you mean to tell me that if a satellite receiver is not authorized for Dish Network programming or it gets shut off you cannot view those shows that you archived on the external hard drive even though they charged you a $40 fee for the feature? Will they charge the $40 fee again if you shut an account off and turn the account back on under the same name?

 

[rockymtnhigh]

So you mean to tell me that if a satellite receiver is not authorized for Dish Network programming or it gets shut off you cannot view those shows that you archived on the external hard drive even though they charged you a $40 fee for the feature? Will they charge the $40 fee again if you shut an account off and turn the account back on under the same name?

THat is EXACTLY what I mean to say. I unplugged my receiver when I moved into an apartment, pluged it back in - but with no dish - and while the DVR works, the External HDD does not; it wants ot be re-authorized (which if i WAS connected to a dish, it would be no problem). BUT I am 100% confident that if they account was in-active - it would not work.

No idea about if you turn the account off. Don't plan to do that. Just eating the bill for a month, until I get to my permanent digs, and can get the Dish re-installed.

 

[waltinvt]

From last July:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/963115-post199.html

File this one under the "whatever".


waltinvt

Supporting Founder
Supporting Founder
Join Date: Feb 16th, 2004
Location: Vermont
Posts: 2,820

So you're going to trust Dish to control your archieving and $40 to boot?
Unless I've missed something (and it's possible since I only skimmed the last 10 pages of this thread), many of you are so confident with your relationship with Dish than you're willing to pay $40 for the privilege of giving them complete control of your program archive..........forever?

Fast forward 3 years from now and your 500 hour HD video collection is hanging in the balance as Charlie decides he wants to triple DVR fees or add a monthly ext HDD enabling fee or whatever.

As long as whatever you archive remains encrypted, Charlie's got you by the balls and the longer it goes on, the tighter he can squeeze.

I hope I'm wrong but that's the way I see it.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

From last July:

Fast forward 3 years from now and your 500 hour HD video collection is hanging in the balance as Charlie decides he wants to triple DVR fees or add a monthly ext HDD enabling fee or whatever.

As long as whatever you archive remains encrypted, Charlie's got you by the balls and the longer it goes on, the tighter he can squeeze.

I hope I'm wrong but that's the way I see it.

Yup, and he has them in a vise.

 

[wase4711]

Tonight I learned a painful -- ok maybe just irritating - lesson about External HDDs and Dish. We just sold our house yesterday, and for the next month are living in temporary housing, without Dish. I figured, no big deal; I will just powerup the 622, and use it to run the DVR and the 1.3TB of movies I have archived. More then enough to keep me going for a month.

Well, the receiver is up and running; and was able to watch stuff on the DVR tonight. BUT not the External HDDs. Oh they get recognized, but each one demands to be "activated" in order to be used. And since there is no sat feeding the Dish, no way to do so.

Bummer, but it shows pretty clearly to me that while the external archiving is cool; you pretty much are locked into being a current Dish sub with an active sat connection to be able to use it. You can't just build a huge library, unsubscribe to Dish, and just use the receiver as a fancy library.

Oh, I am not surprised, but it is definitely a bummer.

At least I have my HD DVD library

wasn't it always clear from the very beginning that they were not going to allow folks to create the large "library" on external HD's, and be able to watch them any other way than as a current, legal, Dish Subscriber?
Thats the main reason I have never activated the ext hd feature, and, unless Dish changes that part of the "rules" I never will ...

 

[KAB]

wasn't it always clear from the very beginning that they were not going to allow folks to create the large "library" on external HD's, and be able to watch them any other way than as a current, legal, Dish Subscriber?
Thats the main reason I have never activated the ext hd feature, and, unless Dish changes that part of the "rules" I never will ...

Then enjoy not having it. It's not Charlie, but the studios and their DRM efforts.

 

[wase4711]

yes, DRM and the major studios obviously are the real reason this "rule" is in effect....

 

[Bradtothebone]

I've forgotten about the $40 a long time ago, but we're sure enjoying having the extra storage. As long as you don't look at it as permanent storage, all's good. If you need something permanent, buy the BluRay........On second thought, that's not permanent, either. Hmmmmmmm........

Brad

 

[rockymtnhigh]

wasn't it always clear from the very beginning that they were not going to allow folks to create the large "library" on external HD's, and be able to watch them any other way than as a current, legal, Dish Subscriber?
Thats the main reason I have never activated the ext hd feature, and, unless Dish changes that part of the "rules" I never will ...

I am a current legal Dish Sub; paying my $132 each month dutifully. But for 30 days I am without an actual dish.... the issue was not that a non-sub could access the hard drive \(hell, I can access the hard drive on the DVR); but no being able to access the External HDDs.

And to be honest, I don't think its some nefarious plot -- rather, the software does a handshake to identify that the hard drive is activated, and without access to a Dish, no way to do that.

 

[Fitzie]

Wouldn't the handshake be done through the phone line, not the satellite dish?

Fitzie