Bad news regarding Dish and "DRM"

[Pepper]

This sounds bad, really bad.

If it comes to pass that I can't skip commercials, store content, or watch HD on my 54-inch 1080i display that only has component inputs, I fear I will have to sell all my dish equipment and "move" to Toronto. And heartily support whatever class-action lawsuits are sure to come from this.

I might take the money I'll save without a dish subscription and build one of these. EFF: Cooking with EFF: KnoppMyth R5a10 and pcHDTV for DTV Liberation sounds pretty easy to do and it even supports control with a dish remote. I wonder if a FTA satellite card will work with MythTV?

 

[kb7oeb]

Is that still true ? I believe it used to be, but it's req'd nowadays.

I was going by wikipedia but I have read Microsoft requires HDCP support to say something is Vista compatible.

 

[haertig]

I wonder if a FTA satellite card will work with MythTV?

I don't know about the FTA card and MythTV. You'd need to ask that on the MythTV mailing lists. But MythTV itself is easy. Of course, I'm a Linux-geek-programmer-type so take what I say in that context. KnoppMyth is a nobrainer to install. Compiling from scratch wasn't hard either (I did this on a Debian system), but you do have to chase down and install a few dependencies if you don't go the KnoppMyth route. MythTV is almost as polished as a Dish DVR (almost!) and much more flexible. For example, you can have it record your show, automatically strip out the commercials, transcode it, and put it up on a website as a podcast - all automatically, it something like that strikes your fancy. You can access the webserver running on your MythTV box and setup all your recordings and manage them from anywhere (you'll want to setup security so not just anybody has this access). You can have multiple computers working together with a bunch of tuner cards spread amongst them, so you could record lots of simultaneous shows. All that is not difficult if you're of a programmer, computer geek mentality. But it might be a little beyond what you could expect your technophobe grandma to do.

 

[daro]

You gotta love Dish. They tell us to use HDMI cable, yet our shop has not received a shipment of them in a couple of months.

I don't even want to guess how many HD installs and upgrades we have
done without them.

We never have had a hdmi cable at our shop

 

[tigerfan33]

I would hate this too. My Sammy lcd looks alot better with component. Too cloudy with hdmi. I wonder too if there are a large number of people hook one 622 or 722 to two hdtvs using hdmi and component. I doubt it. It was the first thing I thought of when I read this.

 

[kovach]

I never hooked my 622 up via HDMI due to all the known issues surrounding the weekness of that hookup and having to get a new receiver. If we all have to go this route, I hope Dish knows how much it's going to cost them in the long run to replace a bunch of receivers with faulty 622 hookups and gets some compensation from those channels requiring such a switch.

Probably just a pipe dream...it'll all be passed on to the consumer in increased prices.

 

[ekilgus]

I use the component hook up because the picture is noticably better than with the HDMI hook up. Other than that, my 622 works just fine so I'm reluctant to swap it for a replacement just for HDMI (assuming the poor HDMI pq is due to the 622).

Perhaps if this HDMI requirement comes to pass, E* may have to offer waivers to those who have a HD TV without a HDMI port. This assumes they can disable the HDMI requirement on individual receivers. if so, maybe we can all call dish and tell them we have a particular HD TV that doesn't have HDMI ports.

 

[Sammy033]

Fair point... however many of them would maybe just by 1 or 2 movies instead of pirating 50 a year.

I read an article recently about the software industry copyright "police". Lets say someone has a licensing problem with an MS Office bundle. To cover the cost of the four programs MS will demand money based on how much each would have cost separately (assuming they were even offered for sale that way). Not the bundle price. For places that have multiple installs it starts to add up. If they were truly stolen then few people would shed any tears. But keep in mind that for them a licensing problem also includes simply not being able to produce receipts on demand. Nice guys.

I imagine Hollywood does the same kind of shell game when saying how much it loses. So when the next Harry Potter DVD comes out in Dec it will count each DVD rip downloaded as a loss of the retail price of $30... even tho nobody is charging anything close to retail and can it be had at Amazon for a little over $15. Still alot of potential profit lost. But even with the losses they still make many billions of dollars and fight like mad when, for example, writers think they should get some small royalties from DVD sales.

 

[DAVEGTESTR]

I use the component hook up because the picture is noticably better than with the HDMI hook up. Other than that, my 622 works just fine so I'm reluctant to swap it for a replacement just for HDMI (assuming the poor HDMI pq is due to the 622).

Perhaps if this HDMI requirement comes to pass, E* may have to offer waivers to those who have a HD TV without a HDMI port. This assumes they can disable the HDMI requirement on individual receivers. if so, maybe we can all call dish and tell them we have a particular HD TV that doesn't have HDMI ports.

Amen, my receiver is only 4 years old but just has component. I have already reduced my budget to AT200, HD, Locals & Showtime due to poor movies. I may have to move to Canada and get a 722. I think the studios should worry about their poor movies and the lack of future business.
...: for Sci-Fi HD....

 

[brad1138]

I don't have time to read all 100 posts, so sorry if this has already been said. This will not happen!!! HDMI has a lot of trouble, there are Millions of sets that dont have HDMI/DVI and millions more that don't have enough HDMIs. I Have 1 HDMI which is being used for my BluRay player. HDMI switchers are VERY problematic, basically they don't work.

A change like this would be a nightmare and create more class action law suits than you could count. I have been installing Dish for 8 years and I CAN NOT believe this would happen.

Brad

 

[akodoreign]

I don't have time to read all 100 posts, so sorry if this has already been said. This will not happen!!! HDMI has a lot of trouble, there are Millions of sets that dont have HDMI/DVI and millions more that don't have enough HDMIs. I Have 1 HDMI which is being used for my BluRay player. HDMI switchers are VERY problematic, basically they don't work.

A change like this would be a nightmare and create more class action law suits than you could count. I have been installing Dish for 8 years and I CAN NOT believe this would happen.

Brad

My 2 button manual press $18 dollar HDMI switch from monoprice works just fine Thank you very little.

Can watch movies from my HD-DVD add on drive for my 360 elite at 1080p on my sharp aquos TV while using it

 

[old corps]

Geeze, glad you posted that! I haven't used my "$18 monoprice HDMI switcher" yet! Had me worried!

Ed

 

[brad1138]

My 2 button manual press $18 dollar HDMI switch from monoprice works just fine.

I am glad to hear that, when I was looking at them (not that long ago) all I read about was compatibility/handshake problems.

 

[Jim5506]

People have pulled the HDDs from their 622/722 DVRs, put them in their PC, and got nowhere. Where did you read otherwise ?

groups.yahoo.com/group/PVRExplorer

 

[akodoreign]

I am glad to hear that, when I was looking at them (not that long ago) all I read about was compatibility/handshake problems.

Yeah, have had 0 handshake problems with it , nice little device for less than $20 bucks.

 

[Tyralak]

I don't have time to read all 100 posts, so sorry if this has already been said. This will not happen!!! HDMI has a lot of trouble, there are Millions of sets that dont have HDMI/DVI and millions more that don't have enough HDMIs. I Have 1 HDMI which is being used for my BluRay player. HDMI switchers are VERY problematic, basically they don't work.

A change like this would be a nightmare and create more class action law suits than you could count. I have been installing Dish for 8 years and I CAN NOT believe this would happen.

Brad

I would love to think you're right, however all us DNS technicians got the printed memo, and Scott has it too. I hope it's something that never actually happens.

 

[akodoreign]

They will do it for. Companies are all freaked out about loosing money. They want to lock everything down.

What they don't realize is, that this is backwards thinking. Microsoft and Apple are moving away from DRM content. All it does is encourage more piracy.

 

[Tyralak]

They will do it for. Companies are all freaked out about loosing money. They want to lock everything down.

What they don't realize is, that this is backwards thinking. Microsoft and Apple are moving away from DRM content. All it does is encourage more piracy.

And annoys the hell out of those of us who purchase legally.

 

[Pepper]

Kind of sad really, the corps give us basically two choices.

- Pay money for what amounts to a "defective product"

- Obtain for free a "not defective product"

 

[ekilgus]

I don't have time to read all 100 posts, so sorry if this has already been said. This will not happen!!! HDMI has a lot of trouble, there are Millions of sets that dont have HDMI/DVI and millions more that don't have enough HDMIs. I Have 1 HDMI which is being used for my BluRay player. HDMI switchers are VERY problematic, basically they don't work.

A change like this would be a nightmare and create more class action law suits than you could count. I have been installing Dish for 8 years and I CAN NOT believe this would happen.

Brad

Another reason this is a very bad idea is also a reason why I don't buy any HD DVD player which is, these players require you to use the HDMI connection or they won't play the movie in HD.
Can you imagine buying a High Definition (HD or Blu-Ray) DVD player and discovering you can't get movies to play in HD because your HD TV doesn't have an HDMI port?
This is a very bad idea and certainly would generate class action lawsuits but there's no accounting for greed.