This Patent Looks Interesting...

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here is an interesting looking Patent from our friends at Echostar, the guys who make The Hopper for DISH.

http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20130247115

Imagine selecting the types of channels you like to watch, and have all those channels record at the same time. This is much how the Hopper works now for PrimeTime Anytime but looks like it could be expanded, for other stations such as Sports, News, Music etc...

Of course if they did this they would need to do some channel shuffling on the transponders since the groups need to be on the same transponder. (Ie for Music, MTV, VH1 Fuse etc need to be on the same transponder.)

Very interesting.

 

[Rey]

After seeing PTA when I switched to dish I hoped to see this one day. This would be great.

 

[Teehar]

Yep that would be cool.No more timer conflicts!

 

[sethwell]

Yep that would be cool.No more timer conflicts!

This was the most interesting thing I saw.

 

[Scherrman]

Very cool

 

[foghorn2]

Cool, but this would be great for the News channels!

 

[Jim S.]

I'm not sure the idea is unique enough to be patent-worthy, but the criteria for that have gone to crap lately.

If Dish is going to shuffle transponders, I wish they'd come up with a way to give them more bandwidth. On any given night, at least one of my HD locals looks like SD, and not even good digital SD.

 

[whatchel1]

It's a cool way of interleaving of signals. Also like the grouping of types of shows to be recorded.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Here is an interesting looking Patent from our friends at Echostar, the guys who make The Hopper for DISH.

http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20130247115

Imagine selecting the types of channels you like to watch, and have all those channels record at the same time. This is much how the Hopper works now for PrimeTime Anytime but looks like it could be expanded, for other stations such as Sports, News, Music etc...

Of course if they did this they would need to do some channel shuffling on the transponders since the groups need to be on the same transponder. (Ie for Music, MTV, VH1 Fuse etc need to be on the same transponder.)

Very interesting.

I suggested this same idea shortly after getting the hopper last year. Looks like Echostar and I think alike.

 

[Hall]

I'm not sure the idea is unique enough to be patent-worthy, but the criteria for that have gone to crap lately.

I was thinking the same thing - how is this patent-worthy ? As you point out, it seems as though you can patent anything nowadays.

I think what Dish is doing is patenting the "idea" behind PTAT and simply expanding it to include the concept of channel groups.

 

[ScottChez]

I also suggested this when the Hopper first came out, except with HBO and Starz. Dish must be listening to its customers on Sat Guys.

All they have to do is put HBO and or Starz all on one Transponder and then record everything just like they do with Prime time anytime.
An other option would be to do this record everything all the time EXCEPT during My Prime time hours since the tuner would be free.

 

[ScottChez]

Can they have one transponder for SyFi, Action, and Scary movies please? Or have some kind of Guy Transponder and maybe a Girls Transponder or a Kids Transponder all full of channels like these themes?

 

[lucky86]

That is one of the funniest things I've heard in a while.

 

[Jim5506]

Check out post #16 of this thread -

http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/297130

As I said , the big deal with the Hopper is that it can record multiple satellite channels from the same transponder with only one tuner - AVERY BRIGHT IDEA!!

I wonder if Dish owes me for publicly stating the idea first on 12 Nov 2012? - Charlie, call me I'll make you a very good deal on this!!

Just remember, I'm easy, but I ain't cheap!

 

[Bobby]

Even a blind sow can find an acorn from time to time....

 

[dvrexpander]

To have a no conflict issue on sats and transponders would be great - they could put HD locals and some channels that you can only get say on 129 which is way low in elevation and hard to get for many people on the east coast and stick them also on 72 or 61.5 to tie in a little wing with a 1000.2. Clearly with 129 blocked by a tree it would pick it up from the wing dish and everyone is happy or better yet keep everything that WA would get on just 72 and you could put out a single LNB with triple outputs.

 

[whitewolf8214]

Very Cool Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Jim5506]

This type of system would require the same number of satellites and transponders, it's just that your receiver would record groups of channels (presumably all on the same TP) with a single tuner instead of recording just one channel one channel. It appears to be a simple expansion of the PTAT idea.

 

[tedb3rd]

Transponders will be a non-issue as more and more content is delivered via internet.

 

[Joe The Dragon]

where is the bandwidth for that?? also download caps