New On-Demand Coming soon

[stevenl]

Well after my old bird passed on, (we had a great burial service for him) I got a new one and during a cage cleaning he informed me of the following new On-Demand channels coming to all BHN Markets "within the next coming months"

WWE On-Demand
Anime On-Demand
Fight Club On-Demand
Starz On-Demand

The Following HD On-Demand Channels:

Smithsonian On-Demand
FearNet On-Demand
HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, TMC, Starz HD-On-Demand

and Free On-Demand

 

[JonOrlando]

with the addition of starz on demand and starz-hd, cinemax, tmc does that mean we will also be getting those regular HD channels or did the new bird not chirp that info?

 

[stevenl]

Yes.

 

[JonOrlando]

that will be nice to have more channels in HD to choose from. maybe i will hold off on some plans i had in mind.

 

[Saxamoophone]

Awesome...HD video on demand will really make those movie channel packages look a lot more attractive.

 

[stevenl]

I just cant wait for Starz on-demand.. Been waiting for ever on that!

 

[JonOrlando]

so, with the announcement that BHN made some time ago, this would be included in the 50 new HD channels...any idea whatelse might be around the corner?

 

[skottey]

I just cant wait for Starz on-demand.. Been waiting for ever on that!

I hate to brag but DirecTV has given me Starz ON Demand, and a lot of Starz HD channels.

Sorry BHN... I just couldn't take the unknowing anymore.

 

[stevenl]

Ya ill rather wait for BHN to get it then deal with satellite allmost-ondemand service.

 

[skottey]

Ya ill rather wait for BHN to get it then deal with satellite allmost-ondemand service.

It is surprisingly better than I expected it to be. They actually have a lot more on demand than BHN but there is no HBO or Cinemax on demand. They have everything else. It is still in beta so none of it is HD yet.

I actually kept a BHN HD DVR but dropped all premiums and the other little extras like the movie pak and sports pak (NHL fan).

 

[stevenl]

See i dont think id trade hbo/cinemax just to get starz, glad ill have all of them soon enough..

I havent read any "real" reviews of D-Ondemand, how is it? Is there much delay? Some say between 1-2 mins. I guess it depends on your internet connection and of course their traffic. My only big problem with D-Ondemand is from what I hear you only get 24 hours to watch the movie? so this means if you download the whole thing, watch half leave and want to watch it the next day from the point you left off you have to wait for the whole thing to download again. With cable on-demand I can start fast forarding to any part the second I start it.

Granted its way better then nothing, and a step in the right direction for Dish but it still requires the customer to use a competitors of Dirctvs service.

 

[skottey]

See i dont think id trade hbo/cinemax just to get starz, glad ill have all of them soon enough..

I havent read any "real" reviews of D-Ondemand, how is it? Is there much delay? Some say between 1-2 mins. I guess it depends on your internet connection and of course their traffic. My only big problem with D-Ondemand is from what I hear you only get 24 hours to watch the movie? so this means if you download the whole thing, watch half leave and want to watch it the next day from the point you left off you have to wait for the whole thing to download again. With cable on-demand I can start fast forarding to any part the second I start it.

Granted its way better then nothing, and a step in the right direction for Dish but it still requires the customer to use a competitors of Dirctvs service.

I would say the delay is more than 1-2 minutes. It has to get to something like 66% downloaded before it will play. However, I queue up and download a few items before I watch them. I don't watch them instantly like I had previously with BHN's On Demand.

As far as being limited to 24hours, that only applies to PPV.

As far as the other stuff, let me explain it like this. You know how Showtime on demand for example has let's say, Batman Returns available until June 20th and then after June 20th you can no longer find it in the menu and download it? Well, it works similar. You can download Batman Returns from Showtime On Demand and it appears in your recorded list with the DVR programs except it says VOD next to it. It has an expiration date of June 20th. So it is available the same amount of time. Obviously, it is better to DVR the movie and set to save it until erased.

Since I have downloaded 4 or 5 items to On Demand, some have gone away by expiring out while I watched a few others.

As far as the PPV movies on demand. You can download them and are only charged if you watch them. And I believe the 24 hours starts when you watch it, not when you download it.

 

[stevenl]

The on-demand uses your DVR storage right? So if you have 4-5 on-demand movies on the DVR that takes away from your storage space? How much space do the DVRS have? Cause thats 6-7 hours of programming wasted on on-demand content. Is it also true that some "high demand" stuff Direct automatically has your DVR download it?

The 24hour PPV is the same with BHN which you know. its from when you start the movie.

 

[skottey]

The on-demand uses your DVR storage right? So if you have 4-5 on-demand movies on the DVR that takes away from your storage space? How much space do the DVRS have? Cause thats 6-7 hours of programming wasted on on-demand content. Is it also true that some "high demand" stuff Direct automatically has your DVR download it?

The 24hour PPV is the same with BHN which you know. its from when you start the movie.

Yes, the On Demand uses the DVR storage. I am not exactly sure how much it holds but I have had six or seven movies (a mix of HD and VOD) on there plus five HD episodes of Dave Ramsey and have yet to fall below 79% available space. I have two HD-DVRs with them and a BHN HD DVR still so I am not really concerned with running out of space. If it comes down to it I can hook up a eSATA hard drive (same as with BHN) but I don't see running out as a problem for now.

I am not sure if they automatically download high demand stuff (if I remember correctly that is what Dish did). If it does, it isn't taking from what shows up as available space. They probably have it on another partition so you would never know you are missing the space anyway.

As far as PPV, I never order PPV anyway but I am less likely to now that all the providers were forced by Hollywood to do the 24 hour rule. I buy a lot of movies on DVD and bluray and if I don't buy it I wait for it to come on the premium channels. I just hate PPV. I feel like I am being ripped off. I think the last PPV I ordered was the movie Friday back in 1996 or maybe it was the original Clerks. haha.

 

[stevenl]

I too miss the old "in-demand" service I could record the movie on my DVR and keep it as long as I wanted. Now of course with iControl and On-Demand I can not do such a thing. If not for my huge discount on PPV I probably wouldn't order it either.

 

[iceturkee]

The on-demand uses your DVR storage right? So if you have 4-5 on-demand movies on the DVR that takes away from your storage space? How much space do the DVRS have? Cause thats 6-7 hours of programming wasted on on-demand content. Is it also true that some "high demand" stuff Direct automatically has your DVR download it?

The 24hour PPV is the same with BHN which you know. its from when you start the movie.

incorrect. there is seperate storage space on the dvr just for demand programs. it doesn't interfere with your normal hd recording time.

 

[stevenl]

Its still the same hard drive. If you only have a 80gig hard drive you only get 80gigs worth of storage regardless of where on the drive you put the data The DVR has the same amount storage space it did before they launched on-demand. So you have to take away the 2 hour program you have downloaded for on-demand from your normal storage capacity.