The next receiver

[Frank7004]

Just curious what the new/next receiver will be? A dual tuner 922 w/ sling? A receiver with google tv inserted?

Personally I have a 722k. Really, I could get away w/ a single tuner receiver and mirror my tvs but I don't wanna upgrade if something new will be out in 6 months...


Edit: just noticed I put this in the tech section. My apologies. I'm posting from the iPhone app which I didn't realize I was in the tech section. Mods move if you wish.
-frank

 

[boba]

Just curious what the new/next receiver will be? A dual tuner 922 w/ sling? A receiver with google tv inserted?

Personally I have a 722k. Really, I could get away w/ a single tuner receiver and mirror my tvs but I don't wanna upgrade if something new will be out in 6 months...


Edit: just noticed I put this in the tech section. My apologies. I'm posting from the iPhone app which I didn't realize I was in the tech section. Mods move if you wish.
-frank

Frank there is no need to move nor is there an answer for your question. As good as Scott is he can't predict the future.

 

[lakebum431]

Well the 922 is already a dual tuner (quadruple if you count the optional OTA module). I'm guessing you mean one that does TV2 output. Per the rumors in the 922 forum it sounds like that support is coming soon.

 

[3HaloODST]

The only thing I really care about is if/when TV2 will ever be HD.

 

[Bob Haller]

E will likely show a new receiver at CES. A real breakthru with tons of great features.

In 2 or 3 years it will finally be in limited distribution, but not fully functional and a year or so later charlie will admit its underpowered, and it all stars over again

sorry I couldnt resist

 

[Frank7004]

I haven't got a real chance to sit down with the 922 just yet, only push a few buttons here and there unfortunately. We simply don't have the customer base here and with dns not advertising the thing, no one knows about it unless your a technology junkie. I think with the one pallet we have gotten only a hand full have been installed since the beginning.

I want one but I don't want to get one and then find out that in a short time another cooler rcvr is coming out.

I love my 722 but wish it had the interface that the 922 has. The interface is really attractive IMO. Of course the option of the sling would be great too since my wife and I both carry iPhones.

Anyways, I called csr about a diu as i'm eligible and they still want $200 from me. For $200 I'll buy an external hd and the sling box and have a really sexy 722. Or I'll omit the external hd and splurge a little for google tv.....and avoid them sealing me in for another 2 years.

Decisions.

 

[Quantum]

TV2 could have been HD from the beginning, if they'd used ATSC rather than NTSC.

But they're frightened we'll record...

 

[mike123abc]

I expect the next "big" receiver from Dish will be a whole house receiver with HD to multiple TVs. It will not be ATSC or clear QAM distribution, they could never get that through the programming providers.

An interesting idea would be to use encrypted QAM for distribution. They could then use "off the shelf" components from the cable TV industry.

I hope they have their box ready to at least demo at CES. Of course they could always just have a mockup sitting on a stand with the marketing overview showing.

 

[harshness]

TV2 could have been HD from the beginning, if they'd used ATSC rather than NTSC.

But they're frightened we'll record...

That and the cost of ATSC modulating (probably including on-the-fly conversion of MPEG4 to MPEG2) being what it is. AVC didn't appear in the ATSC standards until 2008 so there's a lot of equipment out there that wouldn't be able to directly handle a stream.

Similarly, I'm not convinced that enough QAM gear supports MPEG4 to warrant going in that direction.

I remain convinced that the ultimate solution will involve LAN transmission to some sort of media box. Pity the fool that hasn't figured out that they need hardwired, switched Ethernet or something with equivalent or better throughput.

 

[Lord_Vader]

It would be great if they would do a DVR with 2 tuners that can take either 1 or 2 additional modules of 2 tuners each. Then either stream to sling catchers / ROKU / XBOX / or something else like that. Let customers buy the catchers with no monthly fees for the catcher.

 

[lakebum431]

If we are talking whole house DVR it would need to have a minimum of 4 HD satellite tuners for me. I'd prefer 5. It would need to output HD to as many other TVs as I wanted (I would assume with some type of "receiver" at each TV). The hard drive would need to be at least 1TB of space for ME TO USE (so if Dish wants to use 500GB for the VOD and other "stuff" like they do for the 922 it would need to be a minimum of a 1.5TB drive). I would want built in sling and DNLA support (like the 922 has). Add an internet browser (like the 922 reportedly had before it was released) and I'm good to go. I know, I know, I'm dreaming.

 

[mike123abc]

I think 6 satellite tuners is quite doable for Dish in a whole house DVR, plus maybe 2 OTA. This is what I would like to see:

1. 6 satellite tuners, could be taken care of by a single DPP33 switch or the current dishes.
2. 2 OTA tuners
3. 2 TB of disk space.
4. Ability to output to up to 6 TVs with tuners dynamically allocated on the fly. In other words if you are recording 3 satellite tuners, any 3 TVs could watch live, not having to say that the DVR is busy recording on your TV's output. 4 TVs would be out of luck if they all 4 wanted to watch satellite channels that were not already being recorded if 3 were in use by timers.
5. HD output ability to all 6 TVs.
6. The ability of course to pause on one TV and resume on another.

I bet this would satisfy more than 95% of Dish households. I doubt there are more than 5% (probably less than 1% realistically) with more than 6 HDTVs active at once, or need more than 8 recordings at the same time (6 sat/2 OTA).

 

[Lord_Vader]

I agree with you both. I just think it would need to be modular. Start with a 2 tuner model with maybe a 1 TB drive. Then have slots to add additional tuner modules ( either Dish or OTA ) and more storage.

That would keep the initial costs down. ( the same unit could be used for a variety of installs )

 

[lakebum431]

Number 4 on your list is huge. I hadn't really thought about that, but it is absolutley essential. Personally, I don't care about cost that much. Charge me $600 bucks for a lease and lock me in for 2 years on mike's box and I'm golden.

 

[mike123abc]

Charge me $600 bucks for a lease and lock me in for 2 years on mike's box and I'm golden.

The thing is that the box does not have to be that expensive for Dish to make.

8PSK sat tuners have to be cheap as dirt by now for Dish considering the millions that they have ordered. The 2 tuner OTA module runs $35 at dishstore.

2TB drives are around the $100 mark. With some RAM buffer (also very cheap) any 7200 RPM drive could do 15 streams. Even if you do 20mbit streams to make the math easy (Dish is doing 5-6Mbit) that is only 300 Mbit/sec or 37.5 mbyte/second transfer rate at peak (15 streams is 8 tuners (6 sat + 2 OTA) + 6 TV streaming prerecorded programming + 1 USB HD transfer). Most of the time recording HD via dish would be 5mbit*6+2*19.2 (if your OTA is peak and not running sub channels) or less than 9 mbytes/sec, watching limited to 6*19.2 or 14.5 mbytes/second if you were watching all max OTA, or in the 24mbyte/second max transfer rate.

You would just need 5 (assuming one TV is HDMI) or 6 encryption chips. You could make this box pretty dumb, just record streams to the hard drive and let client boxes handle all the playback. The clients could treat this box as a file server and do all the trick play locally. Perhaps one TV is attached via HDMI and it has enough hardware for a DVR client trick play. The main CPU power of the master box would be to simply schedule the tuners and handle requests from the clients.

They could probably manufacture this box for $400 or less. The small client boxes would probably be in the $30-$50 range, essentially 211s without sat/ota tuners, but have all the networking, DVR and HDMI hardware. They would probably have to have a smartcard built in and a slot for the future, and you would probably have to pay a monthly fee but hopefully they could get it down to something like $2/month.

 

[cjwct]

I haven't got a real chance to sit down with the 922 just yet, only push a few buttons here and there unfortunately. We simply don't have the customer base here and with dns not advertising the thing, no one knows about it unless your a technology junkie. I think with the one pallet we have gotten only a hand full have been installed since the beginning.

I want one but I don't want to get one and then find out that in a short time another cooler rcvr is coming out.

I love my 722 but wish it had the interface that the 922 has. The interface is really attractive IMO. Of course the option of the sling would be great too since my wife and I both carry iPhones.

Anyways, I called csr about a diu as i'm eligible and they still want $200 from me. For $200 I'll buy an external hd and the sling box and have a really sexy 722. Or I'll omit the external hd and splurge a little for google tv.....and avoid them sealing me in for another 2 years.

Decisions.

Can someone please explain why that interface cannot be downloaded into the 622 or 722? Considering its attractiveness, you have to figure that may even attract more customers!

 

[mike123abc]

Can someone please explain why that interface cannot be downloaded into the 622 or 722? Considering its attractiveness, you have to figure that may even attract more customers!

I think it probably has to do with processing power and on board RAM size. Instead of a simple text list of the programs it has to go and get icons of all the shows. The 622/722 are a few years older units, the processing power is probably 1/2 to 1/2 the 922 would have, assuming the natural progression of chip design. Given the free fall of RAM prices, the 922 could have 2-4x the RAM.

 

[vash1090]

I think 6 satellite tuners is quite doable for Dish in a whole house DVR, plus maybe 2 OTA. This is what I would like to see:

1. 6 satellite tuners, could be taken care of by a single DPP33 switch or the current dishes.
2. 2 OTA tuners
3. 2 TB of disk space.
4. Ability to output to up to 6 TVs with tuners dynamically allocated on the fly. In other words if you are recording 3 satellite tuners, any 3 TVs could watch live, not having to say that the DVR is busy recording on your TV's output. 4 TVs would be out of luck if they all 4 wanted to watch satellite channels that were not already being recorded if 3 were in use by timers.
5. HD output ability to all 6 TVs.
6. The ability of course to pause on one TV and resume on another.

I bet this would satisfy more than 95% of Dish households. I doubt there are more than 5% (probably less than 1% realistically) with more than 6 HDTVs active at once, or need more than 8 recordings at the same time (6 sat/2 OTA).

Good enthusiasm, but flawed in practicality. How do you propose feeding HD to 6 tvs from a centralized location? Take into account that most houses with 6 tvs have either:
1) Large square footage
Or
2) Multiple story house
Or
3) Detached guest houses or offices

 

[vash1090]

And how big would that be? Anybody remember the 921?

 

[lakebum431]

And how big would that be? Anybody remember the 921?

I don't care how big it is. That's what an AV rack is for.