POCKETDISH and 522/625 L2.59 L2.90 L2.91

[dgarlandut]

Many of us have heard of the planned software upgrade for POCKETDISH enablement of the 522/625 DVRs. These units have slow USB 1.1 ports while the only officially listed supported receiver is the 942 with USB 2.0.

Anyone have 522/625 SOftware version L2.59 L2.90 or L2.91 yet? If so, do you get a pop-up when you connect a USB device (try anything, but a pocketdish would be soooo nice to hear about).

Here is the Crux: Big Media stories (numerous) report 522/625 software plans without tech details, laregely dates around the October 2005 introduction of Pocketdish. However, the exciting "clue" it is here worries me:

"12/28/2005: 1325 Software Version L2.59 for DVR625
XDS Support - Extended Data Service (XDS) Allows any receiver with compatible software to communicate to an external recording device such as a PocketDISH and record to it like a vcr. "

When I research XDS, it appears to me to be a way to embed program information into the SD Analog stream. Therefore, I deduce there plan will use analog real-time, not USB file transfer. Pocketdish reports indicate poor quality on analog recordings but excellent quality on 942 USB file copies.

Thanks...when this is resolved 100% - I'll know weahter or not to pick up one of the high volume 942s about to flood ebay with everyone upgrading to 622s.

 

[Too Many Secrets]

I have a 522 with the L2.91 software. I just plugged in a little "jump drive" and the whole thing rebooted. No pop-ups or anything...

I'd love to see that little USB port become active, but I'm not holding my breath either.

 

[ralfyguy]

I wonder what they put the USB port into the receiver, if they never gonna enable it. It's worthless.

 

[BIGHEAVY]

i pm you yesterday. usb does not work with 522 l291, receiver shuts down. you can use erd to schedule recordings to pocketdish but it is in real time. picture is not bad at all.

 

[dgarlandut]

625/522 USB IS *REAL* POCKETDISH FOR ALL!!!

...guess my $550 bet on pocketdish will pay off afterall...no need to buy that 942! I'm so happy I "think I'm going to Truth" (Cobert Report reference, which I'll be watching at lunch at work now!)

From Tech Talk Last night:

Record link will link PocketDISH with a standard receiver such as a 311 or a 301 it will become a pvr device!
Hooks to RCA (composite) jacks… Settop box will control the PocketDISH…
PocketDISH currently works with the 642 or 622 Receivers via 2.0 USB (takes about 5 minutes to transfer an hour program)
Now it will work with the DISH Player-DVR522 and 625 via 1.0 USB 30 minutes to transfer an hour program)software will rollout to these receivers the first week of March…

 

[stevenlpkr]

Now if I could only use the USB to transfer programs to a USB hard Drive life would be sweet.

 

[ronfelder]

software version

I have a 522 with the L2.91 software. I just plugged in a little "jump drive" and the whole thing rebooted. No pop-ups or anything...

I'd love to see that little USB port become active, but I'm not holding my breath either.

Where in sys info do you find out what level software one has?

Ron

 

[Mark_AR]

Press MENU twice on your remote or SYS INFO on the front panel of the reciever.

Look for software version:

 

[Stargazer]

I take it that those with the 522 will not be able to ever hookup an external hard drive? I really wish they would give those receivers the functionality to use them.

 

[Loki]

7 inch pocketdish and usb

I have the seven inch size pocketdish and am truly wanting a way to transfer files faster. I will confess to you guys here that I am a gadget junky....I have a segway, the pocketdish, bluetooth phones and headsets and speakerphones, multimedia palm pilots, and an ipod video. The problem is that I don't like to let on that I buy these gadgets just for kicks ( it doesn''t go over well in house) So I have to find an official use for them and that means they have to be easier to use than the task they are assisting with; they can't be too big of a pain in the ass setup for not much return. And I am afraid that right now my pocketdish is more of a pain in the ass than it is worth. dont get me wrong i love the idea, just taking so long to transfer it makes it really frusterating. I hope that they get the software deal worked out with the 522 soon because I called Dish and they stated that I could still get a 942 however I would have to upgrade my package to HD when in my market hd is still a very expensive setup (we require a superdish for local channels so no 129 satellite location for the new HD. I just dont see it being worth the additional monthly cost for something I probably wouldn't use (
i use the pocketdish mainly since I travel often and find Myself out of town with just crappy hotel cable to watch.
So to recap....as soon as someone gets the new software for the 522 to work with the pocketdish usb please let us know.: <---- me waiting for software update[/B][/B]

 

[CrutchfieldTech]

Dish dvr625 updated today

I turned on my Dish 625 dvr on today and noticed i had a new option for multimedia in the menu and my usb port now seems to be enabled anyone know anything about it?

 

[dgarlandut]

625 USB POCKETDISH REVIEW - one gotcha

Okay, L2.92 onboard. My 7" Pocketdish finally is born into a meaningful existence.

Summary: Simple, Works Great, USB 1.1 transfer speed (slow, but so what). Good video and audio quality.

Pros and Cons:

Cons: when transferring files to the Pocketdish AND viewing previously recorded DVR events on your TV, the DVR playback event is unwatchable - image jumps or halts every second or so. This does not occur if you view "live TV" or I believe if you view a DVR Event as it is being recorded.

Batch copies over night: selected a bunch of shows for overnight transfer (12 hours expected copy time), and it appears the transfer stopped when the 625 updated/restarted? as I believe it does nightly. This thwarts my main idea in buying it, as I always planned on overnight "batch" processing of file copies with the slow USB 1.1 on the 522/625.


Pros: AV700E Model PcoketDish: trade magazine reviews I've seen note the sound from the onbaord speakers is not loud enough and thus headphones are always required. ALmost bought the AV500E 4" model instead due to this. Good news - Dish DVR events transfer with a high level audio track - so playback is plenty loud to hear over average background noise in public place! Before L2.92, I recorded some Olympics via analog real-time s-video connection, and the audio levels were too low, and one jumpy white line displayed at the bottom of the image. These worries are gone now, and the picture quality looks good with fullscreen/maximized playback.

 

[jbcheshire]

Can you unplug your 625 from the phone cord when you want to do the transfers without having to incur a charge?

 

[dgarlandut]

re: phone line and pocketdish

Good question. (re: phone line and pocketdish). I'm not sure exactly what middle of the night operation caused my pocketdish transfers to stop - maybe it is the nightly phone call....I'll unplug it tonight and try again, but I'm pretty sure I awoke at 4am when the 625 rebooted - the tell-tale "whoosh" of the cooling fans is kind of loud. Also, this was day #1 of L2.92 for me - and I didn't force a reboot/power cycle. I've forced that today and we'll see...

on the fee: I think the 625 has to fail phone connection for quite awhile before you would be charged. Maybe a month or more?

 

[n0qcu]

The auto-update has nothing to do with the phone line. Unless you change the setting all 322/522/625/942 and I am sure the new models shutdown at 3:00 am to download any new software and update the guide.

If you want to batch transfer to your pocketdish over night just change the update time to a different time of day when it wont interfere with you watching/recording.

You do not need to update at 3:00 am you can do it any time of day you want.

 

[kholmar]

>>> This thwarts my main idea in buying it, as I always planned on overnight "batch" processing of file copies with the slow USB 1.1 on the 522/625.

change the time that it does the reboot/update cycle to be sometime while you are out of the house (assuming nobody else is watching it at that time)

 

[dgarlandut]

PocketDish Followup: The halting/jerky picture on the TV while transferring files to the pocketdish has improved, maybe one 1/2 second halt every 5 minutes or so.

Night/Batch Update: moved my update time from 4am to 4pm. This clearly helped with the batch overnight file transfer...but...although I'm no longer losing the session at 4am sharp, I have noticed the transfer stops, and the list I gave the 625 for it - gone! A number of times, sometimes within minutes or hours of starting, the transfer session stops without any message on the 625. FYI: when a tranfer session finishes normally, there is a pop-up informational message.

Still, as Scott G says, "I love my PocketDish". Life altering technology, for sure. Will use mine during the lulls with an upcoming 50 hour straight work shift as I upgrade our core business servers.