I agree that there would be a lot of unhappy people. This guy does some of that high end home theater work so I suppose he has some decent contacts. I didn't understand why he was pushing for me to get the current HD-DVR. I mentioned waiting for the new Mpeg 4 version and he said if I went with it I'd loose my local digital weather channels and other stations that Directv doesn't carry. It didn't click when he was explaining it, but now it makes way too much sense. It makes a lot of business sense for Directv. Very bad for the consumer though.
MPEG4 HD DVR and Home Media Center news:
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LonghornXP said:
LonghornXP,
What's your take on the omission of any details about the HMC in the D* CES press release? It was touted so heavily at last year's CES, yet it doesn't even get a mention this year. Is D* thinking about pulling the plug on this project?
peterl1365 said:
I've been talking to a few people over the last few days and they haven't yet decided what they actually will do but I'll tell you what I know and can say. Right now the HMC will still be on schedule for release but they are looking at the Motorola hardware and its limitation of portable device transfer and securing of content. From what I've heard they will either call the HMC the sametime as their Pro device announced at CES or if they scrap the HMC as we know it they would go beyond what the HMC is today. The Pro system was eventually going to be the second generation of the HMC but it may endup becoming the first generation. Its just hard to say right now what they will do as they have so much invested in the current HMC product. Also how long can they go without the HMC product if they start over is another question they need to think about.
I'm leaning towards the HMC being scrapped and replaced with a better non Motorola hardware product that will be launched towards the end of 2006 instead of the start of the year. To be honest these aren't great times for DirecTV when it comes to national HD programming, picture quality of HDTV, pricing of both hardware and programming and last but not least hardware availability of MPEG4 HD boxes including an HD DVR of any kind with MPEG4 support.
I don't see a way to sugar coat any of this news that is for sure. Its funny but its starting to seem like Dish is getting things right for once instead of DirecTV. Boy have times changed.
Damn. I was really hoping to get a box with 4 tuners to help alleviate any of those recording conflicts.
Just go with what they got now and make the wireless HMC the non Motorola hardware.
Just go with what they got now and make the wireless HMC the non Motorola hardware.
Of course Bill Gates jumped in with his media center and announced some kind of deal with D*.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/04/technology/ces_gates/index.htm
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/04/technology/ces_gates/index.htm
My Rant!
This is unbelievable!
To spend the development $ and to let competitors pass you by, and still
hesitating to push a product out on the market is unacceptable.
That is why there is 1.0 and 2.0 software, that is why the phrase NEW and Improved is so widely known.
At CES 2007 will they back off from the HMC because they see some new technology application they can add to their unit if they start all over again?
There is a big difference between not making money and loosing A Lot of money.
If D* does not get a HD-DVR MPEG4 out before E* they will be loosing paying customers.
The HMC 1.0 needs to hit the market quickly also.
This is unbelievable!
To spend the development $ and to let competitors pass you by, and still
hesitating to push a product out on the market is unacceptable.
That is why there is 1.0 and 2.0 software, that is why the phrase NEW and Improved is so widely known.
At CES 2007 will they back off from the HMC because they see some new technology application they can add to their unit if they start all over again?
There is a big difference between not making money and loosing A Lot of money.
If D* does not get a HD-DVR MPEG4 out before E* they will be loosing paying customers.
The HMC 1.0 needs to hit the market quickly also.
The bottom line is that D* could have had MRV and a product superior to the HMC with the TiVo core. They chose not to do it.
It is Deja Voom all over again.
This reminds me of last year's CES when Voom had nothing to show but mock-ups and sealed prototypes.
This reminds me of last year's CES when Voom had nothing to show but mock-ups and sealed prototypes.
Great. This was the only thing keeping with DirecTV. The promise of the HMC. Within minutes of reading this thread I was typing www.dishnetwork.com. Wonder is Dish has anything like this. Let the research begin.........
timmac said:
Well they do have a directway dish that you can get sat internet and directv programming on the same directway dish, maybe they are gonna go from that, and wrrite some software code to enable this, thats the way i see it happening.
Kentstater72 said:
Just for the record the HMC is a real true working product at this point but the boxes themselves just refuse to support portable transfer to janus devices no matter what they do and this isn't good. I'm not quite sure why they bothered with a limitation like this considering they must have known about their own plans for portable video players. They might still offer this product with a big warning that it won't work with any portable devices such as the DirecTV 2Go players. Right now I have no idea what this company is thinking and for all I know they might change their minds in a week on all of this. We rumor people with contacts are setting ourselves up to get burned time and again and its not our fault. Its no wonder we all are keeping quiet nowadays and who can blame us.
It seems to me that d* has their head up their ass right now. The dump tivo for there own boxes and thus far the r15 is a disaster. We are promised this HMC box that will be fantastic which now they might not even make 
Way to spend your R and D money wisely. And what is this Directv Pro does anyone have any real info on it? So far this CES has made me seriously regret getting an HD tivo and reuping D* for 2 years. If the Series 3 tivo comes out when promised and D* still hasn't delivered a decent HD dvr that does mpeg4 its hello comcast.
Way to spend your R and D money wisely. And what is this Directv Pro does anyone have any real info on it? So far this CES has made me seriously regret getting an HD tivo and reuping D* for 2 years. If the Series 3 tivo comes out when promised and D* still hasn't delivered a decent HD dvr that does mpeg4 its hello comcast.
XP
I was going by Scott's talking head comparing D*s display that he could not touch and E*'s interactive display.
Should have referenced that.
I was going by Scott's talking head comparing D*s display that he could not touch and E*'s interactive display.
Should have referenced that.
Since D* is screwing the pooch here, does anyone know when Tivo will release either their standalone HD-DVR or the one with Comcast?
Here's another take on this:
What if Directv can get all of the functionality that they want from the HMC- Network connections, Multi Tuner support, Interactive support, Portable device support,etc. AND they do not have to support it, design it or pay to have it built?
How does this pipe dream come true? The Intel Viiv platform. Small, simple PCs running Windows Media Center that have all of the basic requirements in place already and we have seen in the past few hours that a DTV tuner card is coming at Vista time..... along with XBOX 360 Support (think clients)
Sounds like a way to get a super HMC without doing any of the work....
What if Directv can get all of the functionality that they want from the HMC- Network connections, Multi Tuner support, Interactive support, Portable device support,etc. AND they do not have to support it, design it or pay to have it built?
How does this pipe dream come true? The Intel Viiv platform. Small, simple PCs running Windows Media Center that have all of the basic requirements in place already and we have seen in the past few hours that a DTV tuner card is coming at Vista time..... along with XBOX 360 Support (think clients)
Sounds like a way to get a super HMC without doing any of the work....
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Bingo. I'm offically drooling at the prospect of having one of these things - especially if I can switch from cable to D* at a whim (or at least MUCH more seamlessly!)
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