Could SWM Lead To A Quad Tuner HD-DVR?

[vegassatellite]

DISH has a good card against DirecTV in the ability to get two rooms for the price of one. With SWM technology, I think DirecTV has the potential to fire back on DISH by building a quad-tuner box. They could potentially serve four rooms from one box, or really serve the DVR aficionados with it.

Here's the ideal box as I see it:

The box would be an HD DVR so a customer could record 4 HD programs at once. Either that, or they could have the equivalent of four rooms of single tuner DVR.

A built in modulator that modulates all 4 tuners to NTSC channels in either cable or UHF band. This can be distributed to the rest of the house and individual rooms can be put on the particular channel that the remote is assigned to. So remote #3 might be channel 40, and remote #4 might be channel 45, etc.

Two HDMI INPUTS, that will appear in the EPG so customers can connect DVDs, game consoles, etc., and simply have to go the correct "channel" in the EPG. These will be pass-through to the Tuner 1 HDMI output only and not recordable with HDCP compliance.

Built in support for USB wifi dongles, a cat5e jack, a phone jack, etc.

What do you all think?

 

[jcrandall]

I think you're thinking a little far-fetched As cool as it would be, I wouldn't count on it.

What we may see eventually is a centeral storage media center type thing - but it is still a couple years away.

I think what we'll see new for next year is the DVR to PC software, and a external sat tuner for PC. Both of these are in development now, and hopefully a good chance for late this year or early next year.

But, to answer the first part - SWM makes a 4 tuner DVR easier. That said, don't bet on it.

 

[atp1313]

...I think what we'll see new for next year is the DVR to PC software, and a external sat tuner for PC. Both of these are in development now, and hopefully a good chance for late this year or early next year.

Is tis to imply that we would have control over the DVR with a PC, or is this intended as being able to record to the PC and redistribute back to the TV and/or watch on the PC?

 

[jcrandall]

Is tis to imply that we would have control over the DVR with a PC, or is this intended as being able to record to the PC and redistribute back to the TV and/or watch on the PC?

FRom what I've heard - just watch on the PC, but also can FF/RW/etc. You can "control" using the remote scheduler on the web.

 

[dodge]

DISH has a good card against DirecTV in the ability to get two rooms for the price of one. With SWM technology, I think DirecTV has the potential to fire back on DISH by building a quad-tuner box. They could potentially serve four rooms from one box, or really serve the DVR aficionados with it.

Here's the ideal box as I see it:

The box would be an HD DVR so a customer could record 4 HD programs at once. Either that, or they could have the equivalent of four rooms of single tuner DVR.

A built in modulator that modulates all 4 tuners to NTSC channels in either cable or UHF band. This can be distributed to the rest of the house and individual rooms can be put on the particular channel that the remote is assigned to. So remote #3 might be channel 40, and remote #4 might be channel 45, etc.

Two HDMI INPUTS, that will appear in the EPG so customers can connect DVDs, game consoles, etc., and simply have to go the correct "channel" in the EPG. These will be pass-through to the Tuner 1 HDMI output only and not recordable with HDCP compliance.

Built in support for USB wifi dongles, a cat5e jack, a phone jack, etc.

What do you all think?

That would be nice, add 4 ota tuners and have tv 1 and tv2 be able to do hd(long hdmi cable) tve 3 and tv 4 sd and have the ability to do ota on all 4 sets, also need a web browser on the unit and wireless mouse and keyboard with ethenet jack.

 

[tigerfan33]

I like this idea too. Something tells me Direct would not like it too much. Every box you take away, the more revenue you take away from Direct.

 

[spaceghost]

I think you're thinking a little far-fetched As cool as it would be, I wouldn't count on it.

What we may see eventually is a centeral storage media center type thing - but it is still a couple years away.

.

I see this path also, but with wifi built into it. One center box that is hardwired into the dish and everything else is redistributed wireless through the house. Cuts installation and trouble shooting down.

 

[Jimbo]

What we may see eventually is a centeral storage media center type thing - but it is still a couple years away.

This was talked about several years ago, about the same time the talk of the HR20's were to come out.
It was a Home something or other, where you could send programming to all TV's from one location I think.

Jimbo

 

[darrencp22]

I'd like to know if a software upgrade could create a seperate OTA tuner so you can record 3 at a time.

 

[jcrandall]

I'd like to know if a software upgrade could create a seperate OTA tuner so you can record 3 at a time.

Conceivably - yes. The original print of the HR20 manual speaks to 3 recordings at once using OTA. Later it was decided not to go that route when they activated OTA 6 months after release.

The concesus is that the processor may not be able to keep up with 3 HD streams at once, so D* decided against it.

 

[commodore_dude]

Conceivably - yes. The original print of the HR20 manual speaks to 3 recordings at once using OTA. Later it was decided not to go that route when they activated OTA 6 months after release.

The concesus is that the processor may not be able to keep up with 3 HD streams at once, so D* decided against it.

Probably a good idea as many key queuing issues as I have just watching one channel

I'd really just like to see some sort of networking capability for watching and scheduling recordings to one DVR from any receiver in the house. I believe FIOS or U-Verse has this?

 

[dishrich]

DISH has a good card against DirecTV in the ability to get two rooms for the price of one...

What do you all think?

Well I've ALWAYS thought this was a crock anyway - while you technically CAN get 2 different programs out of the receiver at once, each room ONLY gets 1 tuner. So, if both rooms are watching something live, each one then CANNOT record another show at once.
Also, if the customer happens to NOT have a landline, (which more & more do NOT) then they are penalized $5 - which is the SAME cost as having another receiver anyway. (& before you mention the ethernet connection, many of those same people do NOT have these connections, or care to have them, so that's not a real solution, either) So, these same customers would be better off just getting the 2nd receiver & then each room having TWO tuners to boot.

After I explain all these things to potential new D* customers, they usually agree with me that it's a crock too, & just go with a 2nd DVR. They REALLY appreciate after they realize how quickly you can just fill up ONE DVR, let alone two!

 

[vegassatellite]

Well I've ALWAYS thought this was a crock anyway - while you technically CAN get 2 different programs out of the receiver at once, each room ONLY gets 1 tuner. So, if both rooms are watching something live, each one then CANNOT record another show at once.
Also, if the customer happens to NOT have a landline, (which more & more do NOT) then they are penalized $5 - which is the SAME cost as having another receiver anyway. (& before you mention the ethernet connection, many of those same people do NOT have these connections, or care to have them, so that's not a real solution, either) So, these same customers would be better off just getting the 2nd receiver & then each room having TWO tuners to boot.

After I explain all these things to potential new D* customers, they usually agree with me that it's a crock too, & just go with a 2nd DVR. They REALLY appreciate after they realize how quickly you can just fill up ONE DVR, let alone two!

I didn't want to turn this in to a debate. Not all customers are best suited by having a dual tuner receiver such as DISH offers. I wasn't saying that, I was saying that its an option that DISH has over DirecTV. I'm just stating a means of how DirecTV could fire back at DISH with a quad-tuner option. For those who are serious recordomaniacs, a quad tuner would be a dream.