Sling to 922 to Hopper family tree?

[Miner]

I had an epiphany yesterday. When Dish bought Sling several years ago, the objective at the time appeared to add Sling technology to the Dish family, which led to the Sling Adapter and 922, and what would have been the Sling Extender. Did Dish abandon the Sling technology in favor of Hopper/Joey? Or is it the evolution of it? I'm not talking the ethernet or MOCA layer, but the underlying technology and implementation?

What if Dish had bought Tivo 5+ years ago? Would D* and everybody else be on the other end of a lawsuit for borrowing technology?

I'd like to think Dish bought Sling for the technology to create the Sling Adapter / 922 and Extender, and think the concept of "Whole Home DVR" made the existing hardware obsolete, and Hopper / Joey Dish's answer to the competition.

Miner

 

[Scherrman]

Dish is still using Sling. They will sling adapters with the Hopper system. Sling still seems to be important to Dish in order to provide service to customers everywhere they go.

 

[Miner]

I know I can still use the Sling Adapter on the Hopper. My question was a bit more technical than I probably explained. Does the Hopper to Joey stream use the same technology as a Sling Adapter (or 922) to Sling Extender, but with new hardware?

Another question I have is does Dish get any subsidy from the Big-4 for the Primetime Anytime feature?

Just random thoughts.

Miner

 

[Scherrman]

I believe the Hopper/Joey system is a different animal all togther than Sling technology. The Hopper is using Moca technology which uses coaxial.

 

[lakebum431]

No, totally different technology. They were to release the Sling Extender for TV 2 HD, which used sling technology, but it has been abandoned.

 

[JM42]

I know I can still use the Sling Adapter on the Hopper. My question was a bit more technical than I probably explained. Does the Hopper to Joey stream use the same technology as a Sling Adapter (or 922) to Sling Extender, but with new hardware?

To the best of anyone's knowledge - no. The hopper is just relaying the existing sat data stream to the joeys.

Sling for inside the home was was always a dumb idea in my opinion. To get a comparable picture it takes more bandwidth to use sling than to just relay the original sat data stream.

 

[Miner]

To the best of anyone's knowledge - no. The hopper is just relaying the existing sat data stream to the joeys.

Sling for inside the home was was always a dumb idea in my opinion. To get a comparable picture it takes more bandwidth to use sling than to just relay the original sat data stream.

I thought the Joey is tunerless, only processing some degree of signal from the Hopper's 3 tuners.

And to me MOCA and Cat 5 ethernet are merely a transport media.

Miner

 

[BobaBird]

Hopper goes back to using the add-on Sling adapter for TV Everywhere. I guess they decided that was more cost effective than adding Sling on the board as is done in the 922. Future Hopper models might be SlingLoaded since the next generation BCM7425 STB processor (Hopper 2000 has the BCM7420) has Sling integrated on the main chip.

 

[JM42]

I thought the Joey is tunerless, only processing some degree of signal from the Hopper's 3 tuners.
And to me MOCA and Cat 5 ethernet are merely a transport media.
Miner

They are tunerless. I didn't mean the Hopper relays the entire sat signal, just the data stream for the channel your watching after being received by the tuner and demuxed in the hopper.

Sling has to take that same data stream, decompress it, and then re-compress it using a lossy algorithm, a lot of unecessary work. You end up with a copy of a copy that takes more bandwidth than the original sat data stream.

 

[nelson61]

I think they just saw a great product (Echostar is the owner) and the market is much bigger than the Dish customer base.

I have many friends that do not have Dish but do Sling their hometown tv to another location.
It's really a very nice tool for remote tv streaming.

 

[butters]

Another question I have is does Dish get any subsidy from the Big-4 for the Primetime Anytime feature?

Just random thoughts.

Miner

Judging by the comments I have heard, I don't believe the networks have anything to do with this feature. It is simply a feature that Dish decided to implement.

 

[Miner]

They are tunerless. I didn't mean the Hopper relays the entire sat signal, just the data stream for the channel your watching after being received by the tuner and demuxed in the hopper.

Sling has to take that same data stream, decompress it, and then re-compress it using a lossy algorithm, a lot of unecessary work. You end up with a copy of a copy that takes more bandwidth than the original sat data stream.

That makes sense for the live stream to the Joey. Last time I looked at files from the External Hard Drive I thought they were MPeg files, encrypted. Does the Hopper send the encrypted (or unencrypted) MPeg file to Joey? I'm just curious about that.

I can totally agree the Sling signal is bloated; but if I put a fast enough hardware and big enough pipe (MOCA), I could probably make it work in the home, esp if I can control the 2 units internally (not going to sling.com or dishonline.com).

 

[DishSubLA]

Sling--for Dish, anyway--is all about watching TV using portable devices (smart phones, pads, etc.) and computers anywhere you can access a network, or the so-called "TV Everywhere" concept/service.

 

[3HaloODST]

Now, if only Dish could get Sling to actually WORK PROPERLY... That would be great!!

However the concept of Sling is not diminished by Hopper/Joey as Hopper/Joey are WHDVR solutions. They are also Dish's solution for getting HD in every room in the house, which has nothing to do with Sling's functionality, which is to allow Live TV and DVR content to be streamed over the Internet. I guess you could say that Hopper/Joey superseded the Sling Extender for sure, but not the Sling concept as a whole...

 

[mike123abc]

That makes sense for the live stream to the Joey. Last time I looked at files from the External Hard Drive I thought they were MPeg files, encrypted. Does the Hopper send the encrypted (or unencrypted) MPeg file to Joey? I'm just curious about that.

I can totally agree the Sling signal is bloated; but if I put a fast enough hardware and big enough pipe (MOCA), I could probably make it work in the home, esp if I can control the 2 units internally (not going to sling.com or dishonline.com).

Scott had mentioned that the Joeys had a built in smartcard (and a slot). This would indicate that they are going to get the encrypted satellite stream (the single channel not the full transponder) sent to them.

Sling never worked well even in the house with direct ethernet connection. Your picture would slowly build up in quality as it ramps up the rate, and trick play would be sluggish and the quality would drop back down and then have to ramp back up.

 

[Miner]

Very good info to know.

I like to think Dish has made good technical decisions at times, but also can point to places where they seem to have made poor decisions (Web TV, 921, 922, Google TV). They do, however realize their mistakes and, to me at least, don't throw good money after bad.

I have a sling adapter and I use only inside the house. It works great once it starts but as Mike123abc points out, the starting, pausing and trick play, as well as the GUI make it almost unworkable.

Miner

 

[JM42]

Sling--for Dish, anyway--is all about watching TV using portable devices (smart phones, pads, etc.) and computers anywhere you can access a network, or the so-called "TV Everywhere" concept/service.

Agree. Even though I always thought the extender concept was misguided, Sling for outside the home is good. Would be great if they ever get the DishOnline issues fixed.