Where is USB External Storage for the 942/ViP622?

shanewalker

Overall, an O.K. Guy
Supporting Founder
Mar 15, 2005
1,239
0
KC/MO!
For those waiting patiently for the USB external archiving, I offer this suggestion (again)...

If you have the $500 and the inclination--Go get the NextCom R5000-HD mod for your 211/622, buy a big fat HDD and get to archiving to a PC pronto! I repurposed the 1TB Maxtor that I bought for the neverending "soon-to-be-released" official Dish solution at the beginning of the year. I only wish I'd done this sooner. It's fantastic.

I only wish I'd not been so tentative...there's a LOT of content I missed out on keeping hold of.

And trust me, 1TB isn't even enough. But, as you all point out...hard drives have consistently gotten bigger/faster/cheaper. It's those exponential improvement trends that make me love technology.

I'll be all over Dish's solution when it ever sees the light of day. Until then, I have a robust alternate solution that actually gives me more flexibility (D-VHS archiving, HTPC playback capability...I can even stream recordings to my XBOX 360). Hope Dish doesn't fully drop the ball on this feature, however, as MPEG-4 complicates things tremendosly.
 

Smith P.

On Vacation
Oct 4, 2003
8,907
2
Bay Area, CA
Unfortunately, the R5000 will not lasts long - soon all HD channels will be compressed by H.264 [MPEG-4] and all your money ( did it cost you $500 ? ) will be drained to sewage. :(
 

shanewalker

Overall, an O.K. Guy
Supporting Founder
Mar 15, 2005
1,239
0
KC/MO!
It records MPEG-4 just fine.

It's just that playback on any but the latest fastest PCs is a b****. The PC world is firmly entrenched in VC-1/WM-9, and the software players to handle AVC/H.264 seem to be slow coming. I use Elecard, but it's definitely got issues. By the time I get set up w/ a dedicated HTPC, hopefully some of this will be resolved by faster/cheaper hardware, improved acceleration and graphics card drivers, and better software player support...but none of this has anything to do w/ the R5000. It's the 'state of things' w/ MPEG-4.

The only other real functional downside, you can't archive the MPEG-4 content to D-VHS, which I'm doing w/ some of my MPEG-2-based recordings.

And, yes, you have to own the 622 to have it modded. I own one and lease one. You can also buy a pre-modded 211 direct from them.

Believe me, I don't throw my money away unless I percieve real value--long and short, I'm building a library of HD content. Now. And I'll be able to enjoy those recordings on into the foreseeable future. I feel its money well spent--or I wouldn't suggest it to you fine folks.
 

John Kotches

SatelliteGuys Master
Supporting Founder
Nov 21, 2003
6,765
197
Troy, IL (STL Area)
At CES they said you could use any External USB hard drive. I assume you can also use a External USB Enclosure for a internal drive. Check out the CES stuff, there is a video demo.

What do you think an External USB drive is?

It's a Parallel or Serial ATA drive with a USB to (interface) bridge. Some cases are prettier than others though.

Cheers,
 

John Kotches

SatelliteGuys Master
Supporting Founder
Nov 21, 2003
6,765
197
Troy, IL (STL Area)
Please reveal your HW and SW config. :)

Core 2 Duo 6600, which is roughly middle of the road these days for Intel CPUs.
MSI Diamond Plus 7600GT with HDMI output.
2GB RAM.

Software:
Media Player Classic
PowerDVD

Nothing terribly exotic to be honest with you.

The key is to get the card to utilize Hardware acceleration at which point I never exceed ~50% Utilization.
 

Hallmark to Launch HD Movie Channel

622 Freezes & Reboots

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)

Latest posts