HR2x / R22 CE Release v.388 for 12/11

[jcrandall]

Systems in this CE
HR20-100 • HR20-700
HR21-100 • HR21-200 • HR21-700
HR22-100 • R22-100 • R22-200
HR21Pro • HR23-700

Window of opportunity to download:
Friday, December 11, 2009 11:00PM - 2:30AM ET
Saturday, December 12, 2009 11:00PM - 2:30AM ET

Risk Level for this Download: High Risk

New features
None for this release

Improved/Updated
Under the hood

Notes
Multi-Room-Video activation requires MRV Beta Opt in from the Multi-Room Setup Screen
This CE will remove your guide cache if you did not download last week's CE. Please allow up to 24 hrs to restore your full 14 day guide
You will lose your guide cache when reverting from CE to national.
Please do not report sluggish issues within the first 12 hours of download

Version History

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New features
CE:21:01 (0x034D) - Left Menu appearance
CE:21:01 (0x034D) - Support for Linksys WET610N Wireless Adapter
CE:21:03 (0x353/0x354) - MRV is back!
CE:21:05 (0x035B) - New Playlist and Playlist sorting persistence
CE:21:05 (0x035B) - DIRECTV On DEMAND program detail screen facelift
CE:21:09 (0x036A) - MRV is back!
CE:21:10 (0x036F) - Unified Search
CE:21:10 (0x036F) - "Watch Now/Soon" from DIRECTV Cinema
CE:21:11 (0x0374) - Enriched Guide Data:
Similar Shows
Cast & Crew
GUIDE Artwork
Actor Filmography
Actor Awards
Star ratings for movies

CE:21:12 (0x0379) - Smart Search now includes suggestions!

Improved/Updated
CE:21:01 (0x034D) Very High Risk
Playlist touch ups
Prioritizer renamed "Series Manager"
"Rec. Once" and "Rec. Series" text now more user friendly in To Do List and Guide
In the TO DO LIST for upcoming recordings:
Rec. Once is now Episode Options
Rec. Series is now Series Options
In the TO DO LIST for programs currently recording:
Rec. Once... is now Recording...
Rec. Series... is now Series Options
In the GUIDE for non-series-link programs:
Rec. Once is now Record Once
Rec. Series is now Record Series
Under the hood
CE:21:02 (0x0350) Very High Risk
Under the hood
CE:21:03 (0x353/0x354) Very High Risk
Under the hood
CE:21:04 (0x0356) Very High Risk
Under the hood
CE:21:05 (0x035B) Very High Risk
Under the hood
CE:21:06 (0x035F) SCARY HIGH RISK
Under the hood
CE:21:07 (0x0364) Customer Candidate
Under the hood
CE:21:08 (0x0368) Customer Candidate
Under the hood
CE:21:09 (0x036A) Moderate Risk
Media Share Improvements
Under the hood
CE:21:10 (0x036F) Moderate Risk
Under the hood
CE:21:11 (0x0374) High Risk
Quasi under the hood
Playlist Sort Order: Alphabetical sorting of folders now chronological within folder
CE:21:12 (0x0379) Very High Risk
Under the hood
CE:21:13 (0x037E) High Risk
Under the hood
Must reenter IAMANEDGECUTTER keyword to get Misc Options
CE:21:14 (0x0380) High Risk
Under the hood
CE:21:15 (0x0384) High Risk
Under the hood

 

[NutFlush920]

So far this week is working great. Not sure what to make of the statement about MRV being free while in beta. I don't see how DirecTV can possibly charge for something that I wired myself in my home, the network I mean. I am simply just making use of the software on the HDD that makes MRV possible.

Are they saying that there will be a MRV software version and a non MRV version of the software for our HD DVR's?

 

[DJ Rob]

From what I have read, they will be able to turn MRV on or off in the receivers and MRV access will be in the neighborhood of $4 to $6 per month.

 

[This1]

I am shocked they would charge for that so if you opt in they will have a hand full to troubleshooting a homenetwork now they will have to have another group just for that
Not sure how or dishnetwork does it but I would think it is not through someone home network....

Wonder if you opt in will they come out and run cat cables and set it up for you

 

[cfb]

Wait until they start charging for it and 3/4 of the people who try to use it find that their existing wireless and powerline networks dont work properly with it and they either need to buy more expensive wireless and powerline stuff, pull a wire or buy a bunch of DECA stuff, a SWM, and pay directv to install all of that.

Bet theres a high level of retention on those monthly fees

What'll actually happen is that directv will get $4, the customer will call in to complain 5 times (costing dtv $150 worth of customer service time) only to eventually be told that the solution is hundreds of dollars worth of hardware and a bunch of network fiddling, the customer going ballistic because absolutely everything else in the way of video and streaming works fine on their existing network, and customer retention having to hand out $100 worth of credits when they start screaming "cancel!!!".

You just cant charge for a simple feature thats just a minor convenience. Especially when it is so demanding of a customers networking equipment. I frankly have a lot of doubts about the customer success factors of a real time unbuffered streaming HD feature when its for free.

 

[espressoman]

I don't think it would be very competitive to be charging an extra fee for the MRV service, considering Uverse provides it with out any extra charge. I really hope DirecTV doesn't plan on charging for the MRV service once it goes public.

 

[wildbill129]

I am shocked they would charge for that so if you opt in they will have a hand full to troubleshooting a homenetwork now they will have to have another group just for that
Not sure how or dishnetwork does it but I would think it is not through someone home network....

Wonder if you opt in will they come out and run cat cables and set it up for you

Dish network doesn't charge for their version of MRV, but it's not the same animal. It uses one tuner from a two tuner DVR, via an RF modulator, and it's an SD only option. It's still kind of cool for a bedroom or a guestroom...

 

[wildbill129]

From what I have read, they will be able to turn MRV on or off in the receivers and MRV access will be in the neighborhood of $4 to $6 per month.

Which means that many, myself included, will dump some premium channels to pay for it.

 

[NutFlush920]

If they do start charging for it, I will go back to just recording my shows on multiple DVR's like before. I have multiple HD DVR's so no biggy.

I'm not going to pay for something when I was the one who invested all the time/money on setting up the network to make it work in the first place.

My theory is, make a free option for those who have a home network configured. If you need DirecTV to set up your network for MRV then charge.

 

[cfb]

I dont have the good fortune of being able to mirror series links since we're using all 50 on both with no duplicates.

However, it is sort of humorous to realize that if they charge $4-6, that you could add a whole extra hd-dvr for about the same monthly fee.

 

[espressoman]

However, it is sort of humorous to realize that if they charge $4-6, that you could add a whole extra hd-dvr for about the same monthly fee.

Good point. You'd still have to pay the up front cost of buying a new receiver, though. I wonder how this will effect the new DirecTV Tivo box... if it ever comes out.

 

[cfb]

If you cant get one for free or $99 from directv, at least its probably cheaper to pay out the $169 for a new receiver than a bunch of new wireless N or 200Mb/s powerline stuff, or pulling a lot of wire.

I suspect that the new directv box wont have MRV at all. Tivo's current MRV offering wont transfer anything with the "dont copy" bit set, while directv's MRV streams shows, which doesnt violate the DNC bit. I dont know what channels/shows have the bit set on directv, but I know a lot of tivo customers are fighting with their cable companies for marking everything 'dnc' and effectively disabling tivo mrv for their customers.

So unless tivo has built a new mrv offering for the directv tivo that streams instead of copies the shows, it'll be a no-go.

Then of course its anticipated that the tivo offering will have a higher monthly dvr fee, and if they're going to charge for mrv on the directv box, I imagine they'll charge for it on the tivo box too.

Backing up into the OT, so far no major problems with this release even through a heavy-use weekend. A couple of times the boxes would become unresponsive for a few seconds, not blinking the power light when the remote was pressed and not responding. Came out of it a few seconds later and all was well after that. Response to some key presses at times like 'list' or 'menu' is very poor. 6-8 seconds or no response at all until I press it again.

So I'm wild-ass-guessing that they've lowered the UI priority again in favor of something that needed the cpu cycles to avoid an mrv hiccup or some other critical problem.

 

[cfb]

Bunch of oddities. Several times I've watched a show, deleted it at the end and had the box go back to the playlist but not respond to the remote anymore until I hit 'exit'. The power light would blink when I hit a remote button, but it'd be stuck there.

Still having the weird little thing where if you're watching a long show (like a football game), and with the remote sitting on a table, the play bar will pop up and then go away. Last night the playbar popped up about halfway through the game, showed the play position at ~40 minutes (we were 90 minutes in), the bar refreshed and the pointer moved to the ~90 minute mark, and the play bar went away. I've seen this happen 4-5 times in the last 5-6 weeks of CE's.

MRV still has glitchy splats on a 100Mb/s switched network with all hard wires. Seems a little better than a few weeks ago and reasonably acceptable but not as good as local. Trickplay also seems better but is also not as good as local.

 

[trehutch]

Do they really think they could charge for MRV? this seems like a Customer Service nightmare on their end

 

[ChrisK114]

Do they really think they could charge for MRV? this seems like a Customer Service nightmare on their end

Oh they can and they will and it probably will be.

 

[cfb]

Hey c'mon guys. At one point, "New Coke" seemed like a really good idea.