Where is USB External Storage for the 942/ViP622?

[Scott Greczkowski]

The first time I saw external storage in beta, it was on a DISH 721 receiver. Anyone remember those?

However I feel this will be available in the near future because the marketing department has figured out this is a way to reduce churn. If people fill up a few drives with great content they are not going to want to leave Dish Network as all those recordings stored on the drives would not work anywhere else.

I wish their marketing depatment figured this out months ago, as if they had External storage months ago they would have prevented churn from people who wanted this feature.

 

[Smith P.]

Can't find it Scott - looks like time to rebuild vB indexes.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Its not in the indexes, just something I saw a long time ago.

 

[mike123abc]

Serving what? Ripped DVDs? Avi? Recordings that were transfered from a DVR? HD? Enquirings minds want to know.

You could send your DVR recordings to the media server and play them back from any connected VIP receiver. So, if you recorded on a 622 in one room, you could copy it to the media server and play it in a different room.

 

[NpaulTodd]

ok but are they going to make us stick with "dishNetwork Hard drives" or can we use our own

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

You will be able to use your own.

 

[ChetK]

The first time I saw external storage in beta, it was on a DISH 721 receiver. Anyone remember those?

However I feel this will be available in the near future because the marketing department has figured out this is a way to reduce churn. If people fill up a few drives with great content they are not going to want to leave Dish Network as all those recordings stored on the drives would not work anywhere else.

I wish their marketing depatment figured this out months ago, as if they had External storage months ago they would have prevented churn from people who wanted this feature.

Reducing churn was a reason I stated here about a year ago. They're just now figuring it out?

 

[John Kotches]

Reducing churn was a reason I stated here about a year ago. They're just now figuring it out?

Maybe they're busy trying to figure out how to charge us for it

Cheers,

 

[waltinvt]

Still in beta is a bunch of crap. While they may be fine tuning a few minor things, technologically they've been ready for a while now. Think about it. When has Dish EVER spent this much time "testing" anything. They don't. The quality of some of their software downloads speaks for itself.

No, there must be other reasons why we haven't seen external storage yet. My guess is it's something to do with the broadcast flag and the powers that be not wanting to give high definition any kind of portability.

As prices continue to drop it's possible to envision libraries of HHDs and consumers having the ability to archive hundreds of HD movies. This is bound to have an effect on the high-def DVD industry, which has yet to reach potential due to format wars.

 

[sprintcarcrazy]

Yep, I bet that the hold up is a copy protection issue, they must satisfy the studios !

 

[Sammy033]

You could send your DVR recordings to the media server and play them back from any connected VIP receiver. So, if you recorded on a 622 in one room, you could copy it to the media server and play it in a different room.

That would be very nice.

 

[navychop]

"...This is bound to have an effect on the high-def DVD industry, which has yet to reach potential due to format wars...."

The format war might be about to come to a sudden screeching halt. See this thread. Maybe.

Anyway, at least early on, more external storage might help feed the demand for high def discs. Not a lot of HD movies being pushed from the satellites today. People can start stockpiling, but get antsy waiting for more, and go buy/rent. And, vice versa, those with high def disc players might decide they want HD from satellite (if they don't already have it), and be more likely to sign up for an HD plan. Synergy.

 

[FitzAusTex]

Doesn't D* already allow their customers to do external storage? I also thought that the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD box allows this? If so, not sure why E* is holding out...

 

[Smith P.]

Correct - D* HR20 have eSATA port for sustitute internal disk and SC box use external FIreWire disk as addition to internal.

 

[jdr01930]

Yep, I bet that the hold up is a copy protection issue, they must satisfy the studios !

Didn't they already work that out with certain cable companies and allow them to support external USB drives (and maybe D* - don't recall if they already support USB drives)?
If the studios' were already satisfied with one providers copy protection, why does the wheel need to be reinvented? I would think the "standard practice" has already been established.

Edit - I'm not talking about the technical method, I'm talking about what they are allowed and not allowed to do. That part has already been established for the industry in a precedent as set with the cable companies that support said feature, one would think.

 

[waltinvt]

Correct - D* HR20 have eSATA port for sustitute internal disk and SC box use external FIreWire disk as addition to internal.

Didn't they already work that out with certain cable companies and allow them to support external USB drives (and maybe D* - don't recall if they already support USB drives)?
If the studios' were already satisfied with one providers copy protection, why does the wheel need to be reinvented? I would think the "standard practice" has already been established.

Edit - I'm not talking about the technical method, I'm talking about what they are allowed and not allowed to do. That part has already been established for the industry in a precedent as set with the cable companies that support said feature, one would think.

But how "portable" is the high def archiving with their system(s)? Maybe I've misunderstood but I think "E" has talked about theirs being able to use off the shelf HDDs that could be used with any receivers on the customer's account.

That not only means you could watch your HD "collection" on other receivers in your home but also vacation houses, campers, etc. Even more important (to some of us) is if your receiver (s) dies or you just want to upgrade, you don't loose all your recordings.

This is potentially a huge churn stopper for "E" because while it allows the customer a lot of flexibility with their recordings, with no loss of HD quality (well at least from what "E" beamed down) and it essentially negates the effect of the broadcast flag.

Of course the producer's idea of "archiving" is that you should buy the high def DVD and if it dies, buy another. Barring that, they'd like to see DVRing confined to "record once" on the original receiver, so it's archive life is relatively short lived and portability is severely limited.

 

[HeavyC]

But how "portable" is the high def archiving with their system(s)? Maybe I've misunderstood but I think "E" has talked about theirs being able to use off the shelf HDDs that could be used with any receivers on the customer's account.

That not only means you could watch your HD "collection" on other receivers in your home but also vacation houses, campers, etc. Even more important (to some of us) is if your receiver (s) dies or you just want to upgrade, you don't loose all your recordings.

This is potentially a huge churn stopper for "E" because while it allows the customer a lot of flexibility with their recordings, with no loss of HD quality (well at least from what "E" beamed down) and it essentially negates the effect of the broadcast flag.

Of course the producer's idea of "archiving" is that you should buy the high def DVD and if it dies, buy another. Barring that, they'd like to see DVRing confined to "record once" on the original receiver, so it's archive life is relatively short lived and portability is severely limited.

Is that right? Can you really move the external HD to say another stand alone HD receiver and plug it in to its USB port and watch the content? That would be really great.

 

[lakebum431]

The answer is we don't know yet. I'm sure it won't work that way when USB support is first activiated, but hopefully in the future!

 

[HeavyC]

That sure would solve a lot of problems at our house.

 

[mike123abc]

Is that right? Can you really move the external HD to say another stand alone HD receiver and plug it in to its USB port and watch the content? That would be really great.

Dish was showing this at the team summit meeting. This was VIP recievers that could do this. You can take your own USB hard drive and plug it in to a VIP211 and it would become a DVR (if you wanted to).