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darman
10-12-09, 08:51 PM
So I am trying to catch up on Dexter and have watched the first two seasons in the past week or so. Now I am downloading season 3 a few episodes at a time. What is strange is there are 2 episodes from Season 4 (Dexter S4:02 [HD] and Dexter S4:03 [HD]) that have the green checkmark icons next to them as if I have already downloaded them. If I select one, as to download it, I get the option to "Watch Now". I know I have not downloaded them and they do not appear in my "List".

Any thoughts on how they got there? Does the fact that I have downloaded several episodes of Dexter indicate to DTV to go ahead and push the most recent few to me? Where are they being stored on the drive? Is this normal?

Thanks
JoeTheDragon
10-12-09, 08:56 PM
So I am trying to catch up on Dexter and have watched the first two seasons in the past week or so. Now I am downloading season 3 a few episodes at a time. What is strange is there are 2 episodes from Season 4 (Dexter S4:02 [HD] and Dexter S4:03 [HD]) that have the green checkmark icons next to them as if I have already downloaded them. If I select one, as to download it, I get the option to "Watch Now". I know I have not downloaded them and they do not appear in my "List".

Any thoughts on how they got there? Does the fact that I have downloaded several episodes of Dexter indicate to DTV to go ahead and push the most recent few to me? Where are they being stored on the drive? Is this normal?

Thanks

they are part of the pushed vod that dvr gets.
darman
10-12-09, 08:59 PM
they are part of the pushed vod that dvr gets.

Did everyone get these episodes or was it because I have a recent history of watching Dexter?
spartanstew
10-12-09, 09:14 PM
I don't think it depends on your history. I think it depends on popular downloads overall (but I could be wrong).
Movieman
10-12-09, 09:37 PM
So I am trying to catch up on Dexter and have watched the first two seasons in the past week or so. Now I am downloading season 3 a few episodes at a time. What is strange is there are 2 episodes from Season 4 (Dexter S4:02 [HD] and Dexter S4:03 [HD]) that have the green checkmark icons next to them as if I have already downloaded them. If I select one, as to download it, I get the option to "Watch Now". I know I have not downloaded them and they do not appear in my "List".

Any thoughts on how they got there? Does the fact that I have downloaded several episodes of Dexter indicate to DTV to go ahead and push the most recent few to me? Where are they being stored on the drive? Is this normal?

Thanks

Seems that there is a pattern of this going on. I have been seeing a few of my DOD already checked and they are in the same genre of files that I watch. There has been no official announcement that Directv is tracking the DVR's through the network but the option is there for them. I personally think its great. I download action films in SD all the time and have found HD movies pre-downloaded for me saving me time.
BattleZone
10-13-09, 06:37 AM
There has been no official announcement that Directv is tracking the DVR's through the network but the option is there for them.

It's well-known that DirecTV tracks what people are watching on connected receivers; there have been a number of public announcements of partnerships with other data-collection companies and ad companies, and there are features on the receiver such as the "Who's Watching" feature which is a live snapshot of what other folks are watching.

DirecTV claims that the information is anonymous, and it probably is, with ZIP Code being the closest thing to tie it to a region, but it's definitely happening and will only happen more in the future.

And it's nothing unique to DirecTV; cable companies and Dish do it as well.
David MacLeod
10-13-09, 07:18 AM
DirecTV claims that the information is anonymous, and it probably is, with ZIP Code being the closest thing to tie it to a region, but it's definitely happening and will only happen more in the future.


run wireshark and look at what the dvr sends, if you look you'll see your RID number all over the place.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol
M-SEARCH * HTTP/1.1\r\n
239.255.255.250:1900
MAN: "ssdp:discover"\r\n
MX: 5\r\n
ST :uuid: DIRECTV2PC-Media-Server1_0-RID-123456789xxxxx\r\n

I changed RID- to a (hopefully) fake number.
I blocked all outbound traffic from dvr's....
Igor
10-13-09, 07:35 AM
When you see a show you want to watch later with a check mark and the show isn't in your playlist you should press the R) key. It immediately moves the show to your playlist.

Shows that are no in the playlist may get deleted by D at any time.
harsh
10-13-09, 07:39 AM
ST :uuid: DIRECTV2PC-Media-Server1_0-RID-123456789xxxxx\r\nThis traffic must happen on the local network for MRV and DIRECTV2PC to work the way it does.

It is the DIRECTV media server advertising its availability to the LAN.
RACJ2
10-13-09, 07:44 AM
After reading the posts in this thread, I was curious if the Dexter shows were added to the "Directv Cinema" tab. So I pressed List and then selected the "Directv Cinema" tab to see. I didn't realize that they don't even list any of the pushed programming under that tab anymore. Just instructions on where to find it now. You can tell how much I take advantage of that programming.
David MacLeod
10-13-09, 07:53 AM
This traffic must happen on the local network for MRV and DIRECTV2PC to work the way it does.

It is the DIRECTV media server advertising its availability to the LAN.

this was outgoing.
firewall logs also show udp traffic going to and from 239.255.255.250:1900 before outgoing blocked from them.
with all outgoing blocked all internal items still work as they should.
mrv is not something that should be discussed in this thread.
Spanky_Partain
10-13-09, 08:39 AM
I have found that the GREEN check marks make the show capable of immediate viewing. I have even watched some HD 1080p movies that have the GREEN check mark and they were immediate and did not require waiting for a download to occur.

Is it possible that some shows are primed to a instant SAT connection for viewing?
Tom Robertson
10-13-09, 10:16 AM
run wireshark and look at what the dvr sends, if you look you'll see your RID number all over the place.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol
M-SEARCH * HTTP/1.1\r\n
239.255.255.250:1900
MAN: "ssdp:discover"\r\n
MX: 5\r\n
ST :uuid: DIRECTV2PC-Media-Server1_0-RID-123456789xxxxx\r\n

I changed RID- to a (hopefully) fake number.
I blocked all outbound traffic from dvr's....
I changed the bolded section to highlight the TCP/IP details. M-Search is a UPnP packet type. IP address 239.255.255.250 is multicast address that won't go outside your LAN.

In short, this packet is meant to advertise your DVR via UPnP for several features including DIRECTV2PC.

Cheers,
Tom
The Merg
10-13-09, 10:19 AM
I have found that the GREEN check marks make the show capable of immediate viewing. I have even watched some HD 1080p movies that have the GREEN check mark and they were immediate and did not require waiting for a download to occur.

Is it possible that some shows are primed to a instant SAT connection for viewing?

Don't think so. Those shows should be located on the reserved portion of the drive and were pushed down via satellite in the middle of the night. Just an enhancement to DirecTV's original Showcases feature.

- Merg
Movieman
10-13-09, 11:57 AM
It's well-known that DirecTV tracks what people are watching on connected receivers; there have been a number of public announcements of partnerships with other data-collection companies and ad companies, and there are features on the receiver such as the "Who's Watching" feature which is a live snapshot of what other folks are watching.

DirecTV claims that the information is anonymous, and it probably is, with ZIP Code being the closest thing to tie it to a region, but it's definitely happening and will only happen more in the future.

And it's nothing unique to DirecTV; cable companies and Dish do it as well.

run wireshark and look at what the dvr sends, if you look you'll see your RID number all over the place.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol
M-SEARCH * HTTP/1.1\r\n
239.255.255.250:1900
MAN: "ssdp:discover"\r\n
MX: 5\r\n
ST :uuid: DIRECTV2PC-Media-Server1_0-RID-123456789xxxxx\r\n

I changed RID- to a (hopefully) fake number.
I blocked all outbound traffic from dvr's....

I didnt want the OP getting nervous that big brother was tracking the receiver but officiall Directv hasnt said that they are doing this even though we know they do. ;)