Mark Holtz
01-25-03, 12:24 AM
It's a fairly safe assumption that everyone received the P168 update now for the 501/508. Too often, on the web boards, people are very vocal when something isn't working properly. I figured it would be a great opportunity to express our appreciation to the 50x team for improving the receiver, and making it something that one can recommend to a Dish subscriber. It may lack some of the nicities of a Tivo, but it's certainly more powerful than a VCR. Hmmmm.... "Schedule your programs around your life, not the other way around."
So, I figured I would start up a thread as to the improvements we've seen and liked. Here is my list, along with the order of how good the improvement was. Your rankings will very, and it's entirely possible that some additions or changes that some of you use aren't even listed here.
1. View Guide While Recording or Playback - Believe it or not folks, during a slow period of a movie, you couldn't visit the program guide to set up timers.
2. Nine Day Guide - While many people would place it at the top of the list, I place it second. Introducted in November, 2001, being able to set up events one week ahead of time is great.
3. Number of timers - Initial shipments of the 501 unit limited it to 10 timers, but it was quickly increased to 50.
4. Search function (Part 1) - A few revisions ago saw the introduction of the "Search Feature", which allowed you to search by key phrases. Even through there was some minor irritations with the introduction (Punching in YuGiOh would initially produce no matches for Yu-Gi-Oh), this was fixed in a later released... and improved.
5. Timer screen - Many users were begging for improvements on the Timer screen. Dish delivered in a big way on P168 by introducing a sort function by date or title, putting the title on the screen, and making the screen very usable.
6. Search Function (Part 2) - Yes, a second entry for search simply because of the improvements. If you press search, it will fill in the show title for the show you are watching OR the entry currently highlighted in the guide. You can also search by title only or search through descriptions. Very handy.
7. Local channel mapping - Although this upgrade applied to all OpenTV receivers, not just the 50x, mapping the local channels to their OTA positions certainly made it easier to remember that channel 3 is 003 instead of 8632.
8. Edit recording - One recent upgrade allowed you to select the timer from the guide and edit or delete it. Coolness.
9. The PVR screen - One upgrade allowed you to sort the timers by either date of recording or by name of recording. A manage recordings function from the PVR menu allowed you to easily select a series of recording to protect, unprotect, or erase. Also included was a confirmation that you wanted to erase the recording.
10. Time remaining - Earlier revisions of the software didn't allow you to see how much time was remaining on the recording. This was fixed a year ago, and can be accessed by pressing Cancel.
11. View fron end - Added in the last revision, you can rewind from the end of a recording instead of trying to FF to a particular point again. Nice.
12. Improved record function - I haven't used it much, so it's ranked low. But, by pressing the record button, it brings up a record menu asking if you want to record until stopped, record until end of event, and such.
13. Slow-mo/Freeze Frame - Most VCRs have it, and it's nice that the 50x now has it too. Again, haven't used it much, so it's low on the list.
14. "Live warning screen" - If you were not watching the program as it happens, but rather behind in the buffer, it gave you a warning that the function could only be carried out in live mode.
BONUS: With every major upgrade, Dish Network sent down a "New Features" video showing the new features of the 50x. It would be great if, from the customer service application in the Dish Home menu, that the user can "order" on-line videos showing various features of the PVR. Not everyone reads the manual, and, for some functions, the manual is outdated.
Now, for some feature requests that probably doesn't violate anyone's patents:
* Mr. Blinky must die - It is most irritating when I'm watching something off the PVR (or transferring a program to tape), and the flashing clock comes up reminding me that another PVR event is about to record. We have named it Mr. Blinky (probably a Simpsons reference), and it's as irritating as the Microsoft Office paperclip. I can certainly understand if it is a VCR recording, Auto-Tune, or Reminder, but not PVR.
* Get the red out of Timers and Themes - The biggest problem with themes and search is that it turns up results on channels which I am not subscribed to AND have no intention of subscribing to. This is especially irritating when you have the second dish installed and do a search for the show title "24". Just let me see what's available for the channels I'm subscribed to. Thank you.
* Three minutes after - Already available on the 721, you should be able to select the box to record three minutes beyond the established record time.
* Timer screen - As I said before, Timers were very much improved. One improvement would be to highlight the timer and press the "Info" button to get the exact times, channel, and description. This may be harder than it sounds since, thanks to networks running programs back-to-back, I have to program my Thursday night CBS timer from 6:59-9:00 PM to catch both Survivor and CSI. 6/11-This has been added in P196
* Stop warning - Because of the close proximaty of the stop button to the pause button, it is too easy to stop a recording in progress. A verification screen is needed. 6/11 - This has been added to P196
* One-time override warning - If I set up a timer to record a movie or special that overrides several of my repeating timers, a warning box should come up saying: "This one-time event will override repeating timers." The options will possibly be "Search for alternative airing", "Override", "Cancel Timer".
* Alphabetical sorting - It would be neat to sort the guide listings by channel name instead of channel number.
* View - In live mode, it would be great if I highlighted the channel ANYWHERE in the guide and press the view button. This would bring up the channel in the preview window. Pressing view again will bring it full screen.
* Lock/unlock recording - I just thought of this just now. Although parental locks and ratings locks already exist, and there is a protect feature, they could also put in a lock/unlock recording feature. "Locking" a program means that you have to enter a code to view the program/erase the program/etc, while "Unlocking" the program will allow you to view the program without entering any futher codes. This would be great for parents who put on restrictions for certain programs or movies, and want to preview the program before allowing the kids to see it. Likewise, kid on restriction? You can record their favorite program, but it will be locked until they behave.
* Hard drive upgrade - As I have said before, and I'll say it again. No matter how big a hard drive you put in, it is never big enough. According to www.newegg.com (OEM, Drive Only):
* 40 GB (used on the 501) - $75-$93
* 80 GB (used on the 508) - $97-$116
* 120 GB - $138-$147 (There was also a Maxtor with a 8MB buffer for $194)
* 160 GB - $215
Probably because of Dishplayer problems, Dish has married the hard drive to the receiver, making hard drive upgrades almost impossible.
So, I figured I would start up a thread as to the improvements we've seen and liked. Here is my list, along with the order of how good the improvement was. Your rankings will very, and it's entirely possible that some additions or changes that some of you use aren't even listed here.
1. View Guide While Recording or Playback - Believe it or not folks, during a slow period of a movie, you couldn't visit the program guide to set up timers.
2. Nine Day Guide - While many people would place it at the top of the list, I place it second. Introducted in November, 2001, being able to set up events one week ahead of time is great.
3. Number of timers - Initial shipments of the 501 unit limited it to 10 timers, but it was quickly increased to 50.
4. Search function (Part 1) - A few revisions ago saw the introduction of the "Search Feature", which allowed you to search by key phrases. Even through there was some minor irritations with the introduction (Punching in YuGiOh would initially produce no matches for Yu-Gi-Oh), this was fixed in a later released... and improved.
5. Timer screen - Many users were begging for improvements on the Timer screen. Dish delivered in a big way on P168 by introducing a sort function by date or title, putting the title on the screen, and making the screen very usable.
6. Search Function (Part 2) - Yes, a second entry for search simply because of the improvements. If you press search, it will fill in the show title for the show you are watching OR the entry currently highlighted in the guide. You can also search by title only or search through descriptions. Very handy.
7. Local channel mapping - Although this upgrade applied to all OpenTV receivers, not just the 50x, mapping the local channels to their OTA positions certainly made it easier to remember that channel 3 is 003 instead of 8632.
8. Edit recording - One recent upgrade allowed you to select the timer from the guide and edit or delete it. Coolness.
9. The PVR screen - One upgrade allowed you to sort the timers by either date of recording or by name of recording. A manage recordings function from the PVR menu allowed you to easily select a series of recording to protect, unprotect, or erase. Also included was a confirmation that you wanted to erase the recording.
10. Time remaining - Earlier revisions of the software didn't allow you to see how much time was remaining on the recording. This was fixed a year ago, and can be accessed by pressing Cancel.
11. View fron end - Added in the last revision, you can rewind from the end of a recording instead of trying to FF to a particular point again. Nice.
12. Improved record function - I haven't used it much, so it's ranked low. But, by pressing the record button, it brings up a record menu asking if you want to record until stopped, record until end of event, and such.
13. Slow-mo/Freeze Frame - Most VCRs have it, and it's nice that the 50x now has it too. Again, haven't used it much, so it's low on the list.
14. "Live warning screen" - If you were not watching the program as it happens, but rather behind in the buffer, it gave you a warning that the function could only be carried out in live mode.
BONUS: With every major upgrade, Dish Network sent down a "New Features" video showing the new features of the 50x. It would be great if, from the customer service application in the Dish Home menu, that the user can "order" on-line videos showing various features of the PVR. Not everyone reads the manual, and, for some functions, the manual is outdated.
Now, for some feature requests that probably doesn't violate anyone's patents:
* Mr. Blinky must die - It is most irritating when I'm watching something off the PVR (or transferring a program to tape), and the flashing clock comes up reminding me that another PVR event is about to record. We have named it Mr. Blinky (probably a Simpsons reference), and it's as irritating as the Microsoft Office paperclip. I can certainly understand if it is a VCR recording, Auto-Tune, or Reminder, but not PVR.
* Get the red out of Timers and Themes - The biggest problem with themes and search is that it turns up results on channels which I am not subscribed to AND have no intention of subscribing to. This is especially irritating when you have the second dish installed and do a search for the show title "24". Just let me see what's available for the channels I'm subscribed to. Thank you.
* Three minutes after - Already available on the 721, you should be able to select the box to record three minutes beyond the established record time.
* Timer screen - As I said before, Timers were very much improved. One improvement would be to highlight the timer and press the "Info" button to get the exact times, channel, and description. This may be harder than it sounds since, thanks to networks running programs back-to-back, I have to program my Thursday night CBS timer from 6:59-9:00 PM to catch both Survivor and CSI. 6/11-This has been added in P196
* Stop warning - Because of the close proximaty of the stop button to the pause button, it is too easy to stop a recording in progress. A verification screen is needed. 6/11 - This has been added to P196
* One-time override warning - If I set up a timer to record a movie or special that overrides several of my repeating timers, a warning box should come up saying: "This one-time event will override repeating timers." The options will possibly be "Search for alternative airing", "Override", "Cancel Timer".
* Alphabetical sorting - It would be neat to sort the guide listings by channel name instead of channel number.
* View - In live mode, it would be great if I highlighted the channel ANYWHERE in the guide and press the view button. This would bring up the channel in the preview window. Pressing view again will bring it full screen.
* Lock/unlock recording - I just thought of this just now. Although parental locks and ratings locks already exist, and there is a protect feature, they could also put in a lock/unlock recording feature. "Locking" a program means that you have to enter a code to view the program/erase the program/etc, while "Unlocking" the program will allow you to view the program without entering any futher codes. This would be great for parents who put on restrictions for certain programs or movies, and want to preview the program before allowing the kids to see it. Likewise, kid on restriction? You can record their favorite program, but it will be locked until they behave.
* Hard drive upgrade - As I have said before, and I'll say it again. No matter how big a hard drive you put in, it is never big enough. According to www.newegg.com (OEM, Drive Only):
* 40 GB (used on the 501) - $75-$93
* 80 GB (used on the 508) - $97-$116
* 120 GB - $138-$147 (There was also a Maxtor with a 8MB buffer for $194)
* 160 GB - $215
Probably because of Dishplayer problems, Dish has married the hard drive to the receiver, making hard drive upgrades almost impossible.