First Look: The Best of Dish

[bcshields]

I set all my shows to record even if I'm home.. that way I can get stuff done, and use the extra 20 minutes washing dishes that I would otherwise spend watching commercials.

I say to heck with this "Best of Dish" stuff... if people are too dumb to record their own shows, especially with NBR.. then they should remain SOL.

 

[Stargazer]

There are two ways at looking at this. Since it is Dish's reserved area to do what they want with, I would rather them use it for something we can actually use it for without costing us anything than having all the space for VOD PPV's. On the other hand if it means having timer conflicts and it taking over my receiver when I want to record my own stuff then I say it is more of a bother than anything.

Perhaps they could have the software detect if there are a certain number of timers or a certain amount of time that the timers record and have those timers have priority over The Best of Dish (timer priorities being another new software feature that may come out in the future itself). The Best of Dish may be good for those that do not set that many timers or for those that do not know what to select as timers to watch, so it can be a benefit as well.

 

[BobMurdoch]

It could also be good for those of us who have a brain burp and forget to change an American Idol start time...... As long as it isn't erasing stored programs to make room, I have no beef with the capability

 

[dlsnyder]

I use my 508 for watching live TV as well as recordings. Best of Dish would likely be recording stuff at all hours of the day, not just at 3:00 am eastern time (which is midnight Pacific time - sometimes I am still up then). Sometimes I record music off of it onto my computer while unattended. The first time this thing fires off a timer that I didn't schedule while I am recording some music I am going to complain to anyone at Dish that will listen. Well, maybe not if it records something I like

 

[SimpleSimon]

I think the timer premption "problem" is a non-issue. The developers at E* DO do stupid things, but I think this is even beyond them.

We have seen some stuff regarding a "timer priority" feature which I think is part of NBR - but relates nicely to this. I predict that VOD & 'Best of' will have the lowest possible priorities.

 

[AppliedAggression]

all these features make me wonder exactly how much space is reserved for dish. seems to me they're hiding 20+gb of space from us....

 

[Stargazer]

I am guessing that Dish Network is hiding 25% of the space on the hard drive (meaning we have 33% more than what it appears as free space on the hard drive). I believe the 721 really has 120 hours but 90 hours is all of the space we get to use while 30 hours is what they probably have reserved.

With "The Best of Dish" I see another possible problem. What if the shows that was selected by that feature were shows that you had already selected yourself? It would just be a duplicate of thoe shows you done chosen to have recorded.

 

[RBBrittain]

I am guessing that Dish Network is hiding 25% of the space on the hard drive (meaning we have 33% more than what it appears as free space on the hard drive). I believe the 721 really has 120 hours but 90 hours is all of the space we get to use while 30 hours is what they probably have reserved.

With "The Best of Dish" I see another possible problem. What if the shows that was selected by that feature were shows that you had already selected yourself? It would just be a duplicate of thoe shows you done chosen to have recorded.

If SimpleSimon is correct, that won't be a problem most of the time; if both timers fire at the same time, your timer would override the BOD timer (which makes sense). Will BOD be smart enough to skip programs you've already recorded? Don't know yet.

It's also possible that E* will set up a special hidden channel for BOD programs, which the tuner can record when it's turned off; in fact, it's the only way I can see BOD being implemented on a single-tuner DVR. (It would also work for VOD, but recording a late-night PPV showing is more likely.)

 

[AppliedAggression]

Actually, what would be very smart of Dish to do is to greatly compression channels during the hours of 2am and 6am, possibly channels that show infomercials. Then they can open up a few hidden channels between those hours that operate at 4,5, even 6x the amount of bandwidth that a current channels uses. That would mean that when a single tuner DVR is off, it'd be able to download a 30 minute program like Friends in 5 mins, instead of doing it in real time. If the receiver is turned on during that time, the recording is simply canceled. A great idea I think, but probably too complicated to be implemented.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Actually, the receiver sees a given transponder, and 'picks' the selected channel's packets off of that. So, your idea is certainly possible to implement. It might not even take much receiver software to pull it off. There'd be some work at the head-end.

A similar idea is to go the other way - let the BOD and/or VOD stuff come down the 'pipe' very slowly - a few packets here and there when there's room.

I may be over-simplifying the way the data stream works, but the concept should fly - and for all we know, they're already doing it - as in, how's our receiver software get here? A few packets at a time, interruptions are allowed.

 

[Stargazer]

I would not want my shows and movies that I want to choose to have recorded to my hard drive in the morning hours to be greatly compressed, when it is going towards making Dish more money on such things as VOD's putting that on my hard drive.

 

[video62]

Actually, what would be very smart of Dish to do is to greatly compression channels during the hours of 2am and 6am, possibly channels that show infomercials.

Ummm... when does "between 2am and 6am" occur? Eastern? Central? Pacific? Mountain?

 

[Stargazer]

So now we are talking about more than four hours, since you have to include all the time zones, you are adding another FOUR hours, a total of 8 hours. Not even ONE hour is acceptable.

 

[SAEMike]

This "Best of Dish" idea sounds almost like Tivo's "showcase" except instead of just showing the shows they actually record them and supposedly take up no room on the portion of your hard drive dedicated to recording shows.

Not a bad idea, certainly not a great one, either way, Dish still has FAR FEWER ads and what not downloaded onto your DVR than Tivo does.

 

[kwajr]

Sounds like shameless program placement that somehow Dish is going to make money off of. If it evolved into some kind of a Tivo-like suggested viewing list THAT might be interesting.

...as long as we could turn it off if it became too annoying.

maybe it will with the name based coming some time

 

[kwajr]

Gary - I really hope I'm wrong but something tells me they are up to no good. It's like finding a way to squeeze in yet another shopping channel, knowing that almost no one will watch. I'm afraid our DVRs are going to get "spammed" with infomercials. They say that these programs will be recorded in a reserved area but I don't want them cluttering my recorded program menu. It's already cluttered enough now!

or maybe actually finding ways around tivo patents that does take time so maybe they will be great after a while

 

[GaryPen]

If it can't be turned off, then it's forced advertising, not unlike Spam for our DVR's.