Predictions for Team Summit and the Future of Satellite TV

[Stargazer]

What are some of your predictions of what we will see at Team Summit and the future of satellite tv?

I predict that we will see a new design of the receiver in the future where there will be modules that you can add to a central hub / box. Those modules could be tuners, memory, cards, etc.

 

[dlsnyder]

If they could find some way to make use of the CableCARD interface built into newer TVs to control the hub that would go a long way toward increasing acceptance of satellite. That is one thing that alot of people don't like - needing to have that big ugly box hooked to their TVs. Maybe the new CableCARD 2.0 standard coming out later this year has the kind of two-way communication capability that such a hub would need in order to do the channel changes. You wouldn't even need an RF remote - the TV would pass through the signals from the Dish remote through the coax to the hub. The image would be transmitted digitally (QAM) from the hub to the TV, using conditional access to prevent piracy. It could even be made to work with PCs if the piracy concerns could be overcome somehow.

 

[Poke]

Well since most have USB input I think it would be cool to be able to record to a external USB HD.

 

[Stargazer]

That is something that is really needed, to be able to record to an external hard drive. They should have a hub where all of the tuners and main hardware is at then distribute it throught the house and a future version to make the distribution wireless. I think they are wanting to do some of these things over the power outlets.

 

[mike123abc]

I have to admit I thought the 622 drive would be enough, but now I have 2 622s and it is not enough. I am starting to record so much HD now that the drive seems tiny. I am not even trying to archive stuff. I tend to look through the HBO/SHO/HDNet/HDMovies etc and look what is going to be in HD for the week and record. Now that they are uplinking National Geo HD I am really going to be in trouble.

I need 300 Hours of HD recording space! If they have a way to hook up an external drive I want one of the 750 GB drives pronto! Heck I would even consider a raid configuration if available for multi teribytes!

 

[Purogamer]

"Charlie, the customers want to watch more HD, should we give them bigger hard drives so they can watch it at their leisure when it's most comfortable for each individual cash-money paying customer we have?"

Charlie - "Um, nah. Release some new software that keeps them from recording new content...and audit them...If they're still here, send them a coupon for a free PPV movie..."

I'll believe external storage when I believe it. The MPAA won't just sit idly by while that happens...