First Look - Dish Whole House HD/SD Solution?

[Scott Greczkowski]

I guess you can call this a SatelliteGuys FIRST LOOK.

It appears Dish Network is working on a whole house solution and will soon be announcing a new product called the DP-777 Home Headend.

What makes it interesting is it has two build in HD Encoders / Modulators so you can enjoy Dish Network HD programming on any HDTV which has a HD tuner in it.

The receiver modules go inside the DP-777 and can house up to 6 receivers and also features optional DVR modules which can let you share your DVR amoungst TV's.

Maybe we will find out more about this product next week at Team Summit.

Here is a Diagram from Dish Network on this new exciting technology!

(We should note, that even though we have this documentation on this item, we should consider this item a concept until Dish Network issues a press release about this item. And until then specs are subject to change)

 

[jlhugh]

I like this idea a lot. If E* can make it work right that would be even better.

 

[kspeters]

This could be downright revolutionary!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

This could be downright revolutionary!

I got to be honest.... This is the most exciting thing I can remember coming from Dish Network. This is the future of Satellite Television!

 

[SummitAdvantageRetailer]

Isn't this somewhat similar to DirecTV's whole house distribution system as well? And you meant DVR modules, not DVD modules.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Sort of, the one thing that the DirecTV who house system has that the Dish one does not is that the DirecTV solution will transmit to TV's via wireless using a customized version of 802.11n.

Of course since the DirecTV solution is still a secret and no one is not supposed to know about it, I can't say more then that.

 

[TuxCoder]

This is cool, but it follows a trend I've noticed in life. I decide to embark on a new geek project. After figuring up a good way to do it, and careful consideration on what I'll need, I go and buy the necessary pieces (and sometimes make what I must). I put it all together, and tweak and adjust to get it working right. Then, less than a year later, some company makes a magic black box where you toss in some standardized modules, maybe press a few buttons, and the system springs to life... so now "everyone and their brother" is gonna have one of these...

But, nonetheless, this will be a great product if (a) they release it and (b) it works. I especially like the ATSC modulators, I've been wondering what kind of consumer level ATSC encoder/modulator units are available. For simplicity, they would probably just put out one subchannel per frequency, I'm guessing.

 

[David_Levin]

I thought E* was worried about allowing recordable HD signals getting out of the box?

Going to need tuners for my 2 HDTVs....
SDTVs would not get digital audio (or s-video/composite).

Do we really think this will see the light of day?

 

[korsjs]

this is a good idea. can dish do it right?

 

[bpasker]

I thought I read somewhere that VOOM was going to do this where you could pause a DVR in one room and then pick it back up in another room. This sounds to be the same thing, which is awesome.

 

[BFG]

Wowzers, sweet.

The only thing I'm saddenend by is if dish is going to modulate ATSC HD on this module, why couldn't they have done it for the TV2 output of the 942 so folks with HDTVs with tuners as a second TV could enjoy it.

 

[mdonnelly]

Well, I like the idea, but when I bought my HDTV sets, I didn't bother getting integrated tuners. Will there be a follow-on STB product to provide the tuner function at the TV?

 

[mathius8]

confused

will this product be the mpeg 4 solution, will the 811, 921, 942 still work when upgraded to mpeg 4? the way this looks is just to run a cable into it and run a cable out into a hd reciever.

 

[BFG]

No, this has nothing directly to do with MPEG4.

This thing is basically a box with 6 encoders in it. So they can be MPEG4. But with this product no receivers are needed. That box is the only decoding device. The cables go directly into TVs, not exisiting receivers.

 

[dfergie]

I wonder if it is brand specific... say put a D* hd box in one slot...

 

[bcshields]

My luck some redneck will want me to wire this up in the closet of his trailer.

 

[jlhugh]

My luck some redneck will want me to wire this up in the closet of his trailer.

I resemble that remark.

 

[noremac]

I thought E* was worried about allowing recordable HD signals getting out of the box?

Good question. With this scheme, there is a unencrypted ATSC stream being outputed. Lots of devices can record that! From an MPAA perspective, this is much worse than analog HD output, and they will never allow it (IMHO).

 

[cdru]

No, this has nothing directly to do with MPEG4.

This thing is basically a box with 6 encoders in it. So they can be MPEG4. But with this product no receivers are needed. That box is the only decoding device. The cables go directly into TVs, not exisiting receivers.

I wouldn't say that it has nothing directly to do with MPEG4. From what little is shown in the thread, it has 6 decoders (think mini-receivers) that then output a signal that gets sent around to the house. It is a more convienent forum of having 6 seperate receivers with agile outputs being combined for a single signal to be redistributed.

From what Scott said, it only has 2 actual HD encoders that will take the HD output from one of the HD modules and puts it back into something that your TV can understand natively.

Again, from what it sounds like, the device will be modular so that if/when a new technology comes out, all you'd have to do is replace a module, not the entire unit. Kind of like blade servers or modular network switches.

 

[Pepper]

April 1 was over two weeks ago...

Seriously though, this looks like a great idea but likely a very expensive one. I notice they say it can be mounted outside. I would NOT want an expensive box like this out where it could be damaged or stolen.