Pictures from CEDIA: Dish Network

[digiblur]

So, can you pull the current version from demo box ?

No, P Smith... you can't capture the stream, modify the serial number range to your 622's serial number, remodulate it into your 622. Just kidding...

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I am guessing it won't be about a external hd fee, but whether or not to allow third-party drives, OR just make you buy an external drive FROM them; which would be just a third-party drive that is marked up.

God I hope they are not taking that route. I want to be able to use my 320GB my Book.

I am definitely going to lobby for this to be a freebie (i.e. no fee and any third-party drive) to whoever is there from E* at the CEDIA Reception tomorrow! Just 24 hours away. I can't wait!

 

[John Kotches]

Thats actually kinda low, that file is only running an average of 12.5 mbps. Full rate HD at 19.3 mbps would use up about 579MB for the same 4 minute clip.

You can't just say X Mbits/second is low. It's not that simple an equation.

It depends on a number of factors, including whether or not it's an on-line or off-line encode. On-line encoding will almost always have a higher ABR than an off-line encode. 720p content will generally have a lower bit rate than 1080i content. Video content will generally have a lower bit rate than film content as a cleaner frame is easier to encode than a dirtier frame etc etc etc.

So without knowing any of the details, you can't arbitrarily say "it's low".

Cheers,

 

[BlackHitachi]

I am guessing it won't be about a external hd fee, but whether or not to allow third-party drives, OR just make you buy an external drive FROM them; which would be just a third-party drive that is marked up.

God I hope they are not taking that route. I want to be able to use my 320GB my Book.

I am definitely going to lobby for this to be a freebie (i.e. no fee and any third-party drive) to whoever is there from E* at the CEDIA Reception tomorrow! Just 24 hours away. I can't wait!

Give them Hell there are more of us that feel as you!

 

[John Kotches]

And Baseball Tonight came from ESPN or ESPN2HD, which is a 720p source which has a lower bit rate to start.

 

[Kirby Baker]

You can't just say X Mbits/second is low. It's not that simple an equation.

It depends on a number of factors, including whether or not it's an on-line or off-line encode. On-line encoding will almost always have a higher ABR than an off-line encode. 720p content will generally have a lower bit rate than 1080i content. Video content will generally have a lower bit rate than film content as a cleaner frame is easier to encode than a dirtier frame etc etc etc.

So without knowing any of the details, you can't arbitrarily say "it's low".

Cheers,

John, I would have thought you would know me better than that! Of course it depends, that wasnt the point I was trying to make. Scott seemed shocked at the large size of that 4 minute clip, I merely was trying to show him how it was still quite small compared to what it could have been for a full 19mbit signal.

 

[Ilya]

So, can you pull the current version from demo box ?

I am afraid I won't have time for that, besides I've been at their booth 4 times already.
It's most likely some beta version anyway, so what the difference does it make?

 

[mike123abc]

I would like to see Dish sell a drive/enclosure that they support and let the mark it up, but also allow you to hook up and USB drive you want -- they would just say sorry we do not support it to any one that called in with a problem. One has to remember people will see the feature, go to the store and buy something they think will work (well it had USB and disk symbols on the box) and expect Dish to be able to solve any problems they might have.

Have Dish put out an official expansion drive but not close off the interface to those that know what they are doing.

 

[John Kotches]

I wish that some of these NAS companies like Infrant would allow access to the storage via the USB port instead of just expansion via the USB port. Then you could attach the ReadyNAS NV via the USB port and BAM, you have 150-200 Hours of recording time if you populate with 4x 750GB drives in RAID 5.

Cheers,

 

[TheForce]

I'm excited about having this here.

As for the business model, I would not complain if E* wanted to recoop their R&D investment by selling a special download to enable this feature as a one time upgrade charge, It would convert your 622 to a VIP 622 ESO for "External Storage Option" All you'd do is call the CSR, give him your authorization CC info and he would initiate the upgrade software and then you'd be on your own to add the drive, initialize it and have fun.
Then you would be allowed to use any specification hard drive for storage you wanted. They would have to offer a special feature that would initialize the drive for their operating system and then it would be ready to go. Once initialized the drive would only work with your 622ESO for security purposes. I would easily pay a one time charge of $99 for having the feature as long as that was the only one time charge and the external hard drive was not limited in maximum size and any 3rd party spec drive was allowed.

 

[Kirby Baker]

Yeah, Dish has done this in the past too right? I recall a $99 one time fee on my old dish Player unit, not sure what it was for though...

 

[dude2]

So what is the total capacity in hours of hd programing for the unit.

 

[John Kotches]

So what is the total capacity in hours of hd programing for the unit.

You can't set an exact value, as it varies based on bit rate. As a general rule 10GB/hr is a safe estimate. So 30 hours or so is a good ball park estimate, and likely 33-35.

Cheers,

 

[AdamGott]

Give me a break! The business model should be simple: attract new customers with features like this, without nickel/diming them to death. I'm already paying to lease AND a fee to use the DVR. Shouldn't the fee I already pay for the DVR include the ability to hook up an external drive?

If there is an External Drive Enablement Fee I'll sh*t my pants. Get the change of clothes ready....

Once they let the data out the USB port I am hoping for some third party reverse engineering....

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Give them Hell there are more of us that feel as you!

I did just that! I made as strong a case as I could with the E* folks to enable us to use our own drives, and to not charge us to do this. We'll see what happens.

 

[AJF]

External HD would be great .

I'd also love it if you could daisy chain several receivers together using the USB and it would act like one big DVR .

 

[conehead433]

So if you owned your own 622 what would prevent you from just swapping out hard drives once full? Does getting a HD to work in one require any special formatting or does it have to be formatted through E*'s software? This is my first post here and I currently don't have Dish. I have been on the sidelines for two reasons- the problems others have experienced with the HDMI port, and the ability to transfer or record in full HD to an external HD or other device. I would hate to buy a 622 receiver and have problems and of course you couldn't swap out the drives if you didn't own the unit. Hopefully E* will announce the external support soon then maybe I can make a decision.

 

[John Kotches]

I suggested activating the E-net port so that you could mount up a network share for the storage. Then you have RAID protected storage ;-)

Cheers,

 

[dishcomm]

Give me a break! The business model should be simple: attract new customers with features like this, without nickel/diming them to death. I'm already paying to lease AND a fee to use the DVR. Shouldn't the fee I already pay for the DVR include the ability to hook up an external drive?

If there is an External Drive Enablement Fee I'll sh*t my pants. Get the change of clothes ready....

The fees are pretty stressful..my install customers mosty frequently used comment.."They never told me about that (fee)"..
Some just roll withit..Some dig their heels in and tell me they want to talk to dish about getting the fee waived..I tell them good luck...A few have canceled their installs...most don't ..But it's still a pain in the ass having to explain....not my job to re sell the product...