Where is USB External Storage for the 942/ViP622?

[shanewalker]

I would think that, with encryption and keying to the E* set-tops in place, recording shouldn't be a problem. Technically.

However, I could see that feature being curtailed, though, by the time we, meaning the general public, get our hands on an actual released feature. The MPAA could force their hand...needlessly, of course, but it wouldn't be without precedent. Why would I think that? Remember firewire out on the 921? Exactly.

 

[dfergie]

And let's not forget where out beloved Divx Codec got it's name from, the ill fated Circuit City, view it once in 24 hour DVD. That died in about six months.

Different divx...

 

[DISH_NC]

I would think that, with encryption and keying to the E* set-tops in place, recording shouldn't be a problem. Technically.

However, I could see that feature being curtailed, though, by the time we, meaning the general public, get our hands on an actual released feature. The MPAA could force their hand...needlessly, of course, but it wouldn't be without precedent. Why would I think that? Remember firewire out on the 921? Exactly.

What fails to be mentioned is that one of the cable Co's is already allowing this - Cox or Comcast - can't remember... And it's FREE!

And I expect that Recording will NOT be allowed because DISH can't be guaranteed what the performance of the external drive would be and to have possibly 4 concurrent streams (3 record and 1 playback) going over the USB connection to a drive that might not be the fastest out there is just asking for support calls.

I expect there will be an auto-archive feature that will kick in when there is less than maybe 4 hours HD on the internal drive and will push over the oldest program to the external drive automatically.

 

[ripnbigc]

What happens when the your 622 dies and you have all that content on the ext hd? Wasn't the hd going to tied to one 622?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok let me state something, I have been contacted by a number of beta testers about a statement I have made that you could record directly to the external hard drive.

I said this because I was told this at CES.

However the beta testers tell me this is NOT the case in the beta versions they are running now. In addition a number of them have let me know that transfers between devices are SLOW.

This could be another reason why its not released yet.

 

[DISH_NC]

What happens when the your 622 dies and you have all that content on the ext hd? Wasn't the hd going to tied to one 622?

Dish had mentioned that as part of the RMA/Repair process for a failed 622, they would 're-link' the external storage to the new receiver. There is supposedly a process in place to allow that.

 

[navychop]

Ok let me state something, I have been contacted by a number of beta testers about a statement I have made that you could record directly to the external hard drive.

I said this because I was told this at CES.

However the beta testers tell me this is NOT the case in the beta versions they are running now. In addition a number of them have let me know that transfers between devices are SLOW.

This could be another reason why its not released yet.

Double ungood.

 

[DISH_NC]

Ok let me state something, I have been contacted by a number of beta testers about a statement I have made that you could record directly to the external hard drive.

I said this because I was told this at CES.

However the beta testers tell me this is NOT the case in the beta versions they are running now. In addition a number of them have let me know that transfers between devices are SLOW.

This could be another reason why its not released yet.

And I expect, as stated in the last Tech Chat, direct recording will probably NOT occur. I expect that the copying/moving to remote device is slow because they are doing constant checks to make sure the drive is still the same device - enhanced security testing.

Playback would not have this amount of validation required.

 

[navychop]

Dish had mentioned that as part of the RMA/Repair process for a failed 622, they would 're-link' the external storage to the new receiver. There is supposedly a process in place to allow that.

It's been posted that the external storage was to be linked to the ACCOUNT, not any single DVR. So it would work with other receivers you have- maybe just ViP622s, but possibly ViP211s one day.

Or has this changed, too?

 

[bkushner]

What fails to be mentioned is that one of the cable Co's is already allowing this - Cox or Comcast - can't remember... And it's FREE!

And I expect that Recording will NOT be allowed because DISH can't be guaranteed what the performance of the external drive would be and to have possibly 4 concurrent streams (3 record and 1 playback) going over the USB connection to a drive that might not be the fastest out there is just asking for support calls.

I expect there will be an auto-archive feature that will kick in when there is less than maybe 4 hours HD on the internal drive and will push over the oldest program to the external drive automatically.

I've been recording externally on my Comcast DVR for 3 years now. Just bought a nice 500GB drive. Programs record to the drive that has the most available space at the time of recording.

I've been waiting for this feature first on the 925 and now the 622 for years.

 

[DISH_NC]

I've been recording externally on my Comcast DVR for 3 years now. Just bought a nice 500GB drive. Programs record to the drive that has the most available space at the time of recording.

I've been waiting for this feature first on the 925 and now the 622 for years.

The big difference is how many simultaneous recording and/or playback streams does the Comcast DVR allow? One? Two? Four?

This has a huge impact on an external drive, let alone an internal drive.

 

[Smith P.]

It's been posted that the external storage was to be linked to the ACCOUNT, not any single DVR. So it would work with other receivers you have- maybe just ViP622s, but possibly ViP211s one day.

Or has this changed, too?

I would say they want to make it that way. Demo wasn't resticted.

 

[Smith P.]

<skip>
However the beta testers tell me this is NOT the case in the beta versions they are running now. In addition a number of them have let me know that transfers between devices are SLOW.

This could be another reason why its not released yet.

Interesting to know what is the reason of SLOW access.
Not why the feature delayed.
Are they implementing inefficient method of resicted access ?

 

[navychop]

"...I would say they want to make it that way. Demo wasn't resticted...."

Oh boy! And "I want" to win the lottery. "Soon."

 

[shanewalker]

I've been recording externally on my Comcast DVR for 3 years now. Just bought a nice 500GB drive. Programs record to the drive that has the most available space at the time of recording.

I've been waiting for this feature first on the 925 and now the 622 for years.

Because the FCC mandated firewire output on cable boxes.

Why they don't extend that to satellite is a matter for pointed discussion. The FCC seems to make assumptions/decisions based on how the pay t.v. market was circa late 1980s....makes NO sense that the same rules shouldn't apply to ALL delivery systems today and moving forward.

The FCC mandate is, without a doubt, the ONLY reason the MPAA didn't put the kibosh on cable archiving/output as well...they couldn't.

 

[ChetK]

It's been posted that the external storage was to be linked to the ACCOUNT, not any single DVR. So it would work with other receivers you have- maybe just ViP622s, but possibly ViP211s one day.

Or has this changed, too?

It has also been stated that the external storage being linked to the ACCOUNT is not going to make it into the first release of this feature.

 

[John Kotches]

And I expect, as stated in the last Tech Chat, direct recording will probably NOT occur. I expect that the copying/moving to remote device is slow because they are doing constant checks to make sure the drive is still the same device - enhanced security testing.

Playback would not have this amount of validation required.

Why? You check the device at the beginning of the transfer. If they pull the device and swap it will kill the transfer on "Device Not Ready". So they won't be able to swap midstream.

This makes literally no sense. Never mind that the request is answered out of the cache for the drive which would be nearly instantaneous.

My guess is that they're having issues getting it to run at USB 2.0 speeds and are stuck with USB 1.0 @ 12 Mbits/second. This is real time to slower than real time. Which is somewhat odd as USB 2.0 works flawlessly on the RedHat boxes I've tested with.

Best,

 

[John Kotches]

And I expect, as stated in the last Tech Chat, direct recording will probably NOT occur. I expect that the copying/moving to remote device is slow because they are doing constant checks to make sure the drive is still the same device - enhanced security testing.

Playback would not have this amount of validation required.

Why? You check the device at the beginning of the transfer. If they pull the device and swap it will kill the transfer on "Device Not Ready". So they won't be able to swap midstream.

This makes literally no sense. Never mind that the request is answered out of the cache for the drive which would be nearly instantaneous.

My guess is that they're having issues getting it to run at USB 2.0 speeds and are stuck with USB 1.0 @ 12 Mbits/second. This is real time to slower than real time. Which is somewhat odd as USB 2.0 works flawlessly on the RedHat boxes I've tested with.

Best,

 

[Tom Bombadil]

No direct recording

Slow data transfers

Linked / tied to a specific DVR

Now all we need is for it to have a $5/month usage fee.

Can you spell DOA?

 

[riffjim4069]

I picked up a 500GB eSata/USB drive on sale yesterday because the wife complained about having to delete shows on the SA8300HD DVR w/160GB hard drive. Anyway, I plugged in the drive, prepped it for service, and it works like a charm: direct transparent recording, direct transparent playback, no addition lifetime or monthly fees, no nonsense. It's incredible to believe that cable has been doing this on their crappy HD DVR for the past two years, yet E* can't manage to roll-out this basic feature on their most "advanced" future-proof ViP receivers.

On a side note, Western Digital are 15% off at Best Buy (decent deal on their external HDD). I picked up the 500GB eSata/USB drive so it can be used with Cable and the ViP622. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;jsessi