Entries Tagged 'Satellite TV' ↓

Mike Cullison has been playing with DIRECTV’s New HD DVR. His report is not encouraging: 

The box works, but I’m not sure it’s really ready for prime time. Last night, for instance, I had to do a hard reboot two times because it locked up and would not respond to the remote. It did a terrible job recording Ugly Betty (on ABC) last night. The video was really mangled, almost to the point that it was not watchable.

The recordings also seem to stall during playback, almost like a bad DVD. When it stalls, no amount of button pushing — fast forward, reverse, play — seems to make it go. It just sits there for a while and then starts over again from the beginning of the recording.

Earlier in the week, the box lost its mind somehow, and would no longer receive my local HD channels. Just all of a sudden they weren’t there when it was time to start recording prime time shows. I called on that one and they sent some data to my receiver and then had be reboot and they came back.

Ugh. I’ve been hoping that this new DVR (with an updated antenna dish) would finally replace my slowpoke DirecTiVo and allow me to get local channels in HD. Looks like this one isn’t ready for primetime.

Meanwhile, DirecTV pushed a setup message to me over the weekend informing me that the long-awaited 6.3 software update will arrive “soon.”

And no, I won’t fork over a grand (including the cost of a lifetime subscription) to TiVo for its new Series 3 box. For one thing, that price tag is ridiculous. For another, it would mean switching to Comcast. Shudder.

OK, I have serious gadget lust. As much as I love the interface of the DirecTiVo HD box, it has too many flaws. No local HDTV, horrible lags (sometimes more than minute) when saving changes, no folders or multi-room features like Series 2 TiVos…

So I was thrilled when PVRWire provided a link to Earl Bonovich’s review of the new DirecTV HD DVR at DBSTalk. I first wrote about this last October, when it was just a rumor.  The review format is a strange one, chopped into a series of forum posts with pictures available only via links. But it’s loaded with information from someone who has clearly spent time with this product.

Some details:

Here is a brief summary of the HR20 features

• High Definition TV Output (via HDMI and Component)
• 2 Sets of RCA (Red/White/Yellow Outputs) - 1 S-Video
• 1 Optical Digital Output
• Dual SAT Tuners
• Dual ATSC Tuners (functionality is disabled at this time, see notes later in the review)
• Wired RJ-45 Ethernet Port
• External SATA Connection
• 300gb SATA Internal Hard Drive
• RF Remote Compatible with the Included RC24, and the soon to be released RC32RF

Estimated Recording Space (Not a cumulative value)

• ~ 30 Hours of MPEG-2 (OTA) HD
• ~ 50 Hours of MPEG-4 HD
• ~ 200 Hours of Standard Definition (SD)

Unit was manufactured by PACE

The Official Model Number: HR20-700

I could have used more direct descriptions and comparisons of the interface, which after all is the TiVo’s big strength. But the existence of an external SATA connector is a huge plus.

If you’re looking for a DirecTiVo HR10-250 recorder, something tells me I’ll have one for sale real soon.

This DIRECTV press release has details:

DIRECTV named 14 more markets where it will offer local HD programming later this year. When the markets are added, DIRECTV will offer local HD programming in 50 major metropolitan areas, representing more than 65 percent of U.S. TV households. The rollout is scheduled to begin in the third quarter.

One of those 14 markets is the one where I live. Hallelujah.

The press release doesn’t mention whether new dishes or new set-top boxes will be required or what happens to owners of DirecTiVo units. Presumably, nothing has changed since last October and tuning into the new channels will require a major hardware update.

This CES press conference sounds intriguing.

DirecTV says, “We are blurring the line between your TV, computer and mobile devices…” They plan to announce “a new partnership designed to greatly enhance our customers’ viewing experience…”

Any guesses?

In the comments to an earlier post on two-way CableCARD technology, Peter Filippone asks:

What is the likelihood that Satellite providers (DirecTV, Dish) will implement CableCard technology or some similar technology?

If and when two-way cablecard technology takes off, do you think that will spur the satellite companies to get on the bandwagon?

I’m really curious to see where the chips will fall when the dust settles. (Will the dust EVER settle?)

Good questions!

In my opinion, the cable companies and satellite providers share the same instinct to lock down their platform and lock in their customers. (In DirecTV’s case we’re talking Rupert Murdoch, who isn’t exactly the king of open media.)

CableCARD technology exists because it is mandated by the FCC. The cable companies fought this initiative for years and finally lost. If it weren’t for the FCC mandate, nothing remotely like CableCARD would exist.

Satellite content providers aren’t currently regulated by the FCC. They’re under no obligation to open up their systems, and in fact DirecTV’s split with TiVo suggests that they want to control the data stream from beginning to end.

So, what are the chances that a CableCARD-like technology will open up satellite providers to third-party hardware? Slim, verging on microscopic.

DirecTV has a frustratingly incomplete news release about its new plans to deliver high-definition content, Highlights:

• New set-top boxes will be built by LG Electronics, unlike the DVR products, which are from NDS. [Update: As a mysterious commenter points out, NDS Group makes the conditional access software only, not the hardware. No word on who will make the new MPEG-4 compatible DVRs or when they will actually appear.]
• LG “has begun production of set-top boxes” for use in DirecTV’s new MPEG-4 broadcasts. The new boxes use the Broadcom “VSB” chip set and can also decode MPEG-2 SD programming and ATSC (over-the-air) digital HDTV and SD signals.
• The digital signal is locked down using “advanced security and protected digital outputs (HDMI/HDCP) with simultaneous component and composite output.” So, no, you can’t connect the digital output to your Media Center or other PVR. Sorry.
• The new set-top boxes have a USB port, but there’s no indication of what it will be used for.

There’s a lot more HD content on the horizon:

DIRECTV will launch the most dramatic expansion of programming in its history when it begins offering local broadcast channels in HD this fall in major markets throughout the United States. By 2007, DIRECTV plans to offer more than 1,500 local broadcast channels and more than 150 national channels in HD.

Without a DVR, though, why would any early adopter be interested? DirecTiVo owners won’t be able to view the new MPEG-4 content, and there’s no sign that the HD-ready DVRs from NDS will be ready until mid-2006 or later.

DirecTV’s new ad campaign is all about its DVRs. How many people are going to be disappointed when they discover that the new DVRs don’t do high-def and that the old DirecTiVos won’t tune in all those new channels?

(Via PC Magazine and Digital Media Thoughts)

The New York Times has details of the new non-TiVo DVR’s about to be rolled out by DirecTV:

DirecTV’s standard DVR, originally set to be released this past June, will be introduced in late October, and another model featuring high-definition service will be introduced in mid-2006. The standard DVR will feature up to 100 hours of recordable space, compared with TiVo’s 70 hours.

Wonder why the HD boxes are being delayed so much? Could it be that the combination of HDTV and DVR is still a niche product?

HDTV is hot, no doubt about it. But it would be interesting to know how many DirecTV subscribers have the standalone HD decoder boxes. Demand for HDTV is highly driven by sports content. (Look how many TVs get sold around the time of the NFL playoffs in January.) I suspect your average Sunday football fan is more motivated by the ability to watch high-definition football games in real time via Season Ticket than in time-shifting those games.

Just thinking out loud.

Chris Lanier has an excellent response to the ongoing discussion over HDTV in Windows Media Center Edition 2005. I don’t agree with 100% of what he’s written, but I agree with most of it, and I think most of our disagreements are based on market approaches more than technical facts. I’ll have more to say about this later.

I was really, really disappointed by Thomas Hawk’s response, however. I though this remark in particular was a cheap shot:

According to Chris, Vista will change everything and finally give us, through our savior DRM, the closed box within an open box and the HDTV that I and others crave along with it.

Thomas is grossly misinterpreting Chris’s argument. To characterize Chris as advocating for “our savior DRM” is insulting and wrong.

Thomas is not alone. Chris has taken a bunch of arrows in the past few months from people who can’t seem to get past their emotional response. They keep ignoring the most essential fact: The DRM is already there in the encrypted cable or satellite signal. Any company - Microsoft, TiVo, the Myth TV community, or any third party - has to deal with it.

The satellite companies have no mechanism of any kind to allow third parties to access the encrypted data stream. None. TiVo cut a deal with DirecTV to build DVR hardware into DirecTV’s set-top box, but DirecTV sells those boxes and owns those customers. TiVo just collects a few dollars per subscriber for supplying the back-end services.

Cable companies have an umbrella organization (CableLabs) and a technology (Open Cable Application Platform) that third parties can implement to get their technologies into the encrypted data stream. Getting certified by CableLabs means you’ve successfully met their requirements for maintaining a secure data path that can’t be copied.

The implication of the sarcastic remarks aimed at Chris is that he is in favor of selling Windows users down the river by advocating that DRM be imposed on our wonderful free digital world. In reality, Chris is explaining what technology companies like Microsoft have to do to play successfully in the modern media universe. You might not like that universe, but that’s the one we live in.

Over at the TiVo Community, they’ve got details on DirecTV’s plans for upgraded HD DVRs. This cheery note came from Heather in the DirecTV Customer Service Department:

Thanks for your patience while we researched this issue. We’ve got good news! We’re almost ready to begin rolling out local HD programming. We expect to be serving at least 12 cities by the end of this year (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington, D.C.). We will be adding more cities soon after these and gradually expanding our coverage to even more cities over the next two years, as we deploy new satellites that use state-of-the-art MPEG-4 technology. The local channels we offer will carry a mix of digital standard-definition and HD programming.

Customers who have DIRECTV HD equipment and want to receive local HD programming from DIRECTV will be eligible for an MPEG-4-compatible receiver replacement at no cost after we launch local HD programming in your city. (If you want to replace your HD DVR, you will need to wait a bit longer. Our new MPEG-4-compatible DIRECTV HD DVR receiver is expected to be available in early 2006, after we roll out our local HD programming to our first group of cities.)

So, the basic receiver will be a no-charge swap, but you’ll notice there’s no word on how much DirecTiVo owners will have to pay to swap boxes.

I don’t expect there will ever be a way to get HD output from a DirecTV box onto my Media Center, so for now, at least, I’ll continue to have both technologies. It will be an interesting set of choices if CableCARD for Media Center becomes available in 2006 as well.

Lost Remote passes along details from a study reporting that satellite TV now reaches 27 percent of households. That’s up from 19 percent just a year ago, according to J. D. Power & Associates. Some of the growth came from people like me, who switched from cable. But most, according to Steve Kirkeby, senior director of telecommunication research at J. D. Power, represents new subscribers: “It is satellite that is picking up new subscribers, folks who’ve never had pay TV before. Their growth isn’t necessarily coming from cable.”