921 Dishwire for Download and Storage of content

[scottchez]

"DISHWire connection for future downloading and storage of
content"

This was quoted in there Press Release.

This may have been answered before in the technical answered section, but I am confused.

What does this mean? Can I dump movies to my Computer as a large file like you can do was some hacked Tivos or does this mean you dump it to a DVHS vcr that also has Fire wire?

[xgrep]

Can I dump movies to my Computer as a large file like you can do was some hacked Tivos or does this mean you dump it to a DVHS vcr that also has Fire wire?While I would love to see at least the latter, it would seem, at the very least, to be against the trend of making less HD content accessible to the consumer who paid to receive it. "Download" usually means loading content into the unit, not from it. Perhaps this means that you'll be able to "archive" material from D-VHS cassettes onto the hard disk of the 921. Or you'll be able to receive material over the internet for storage and viewing on the 921.

Frankly, I don't have a clue what it means. I do have the impression that "Dishwire" means "copy-protected MPEG-2 over firewire".

x

[Peluso]

I do have the impression that "Dishwire" means "copy-protected MPEG-2 over firewire". x

Nobody seems to like the idea of using the phraise firewire. Ultimately the 921 is supposed to hook into a D-VHS deck for archiving purposes, in theory they could also hook it into a HD-DVD when they become available. Now that would be cool!

[xgrep]

Ultimately the 921 is supposed to hook into a D-VHS deck for archiving purposes [...]Are you sure about this? It would be very nice if true, but how would they limit copying of protected content? Some sort of SCMS scheme?

x

[Peluso]

I'm not 100% but i remember that was being one of the origional selling points at the CES show.

[Eyedox]

It better not just be another useless port that takes DISH two years to activate. If I am going to drop $1k on a receiver, I better be able to export to my D-VHS deck.

[wcswett]

Are you sure about this? It would be very nice if true, but how would they limit copying of protected content? Some sort of SCMS scheme?

There are several levels of copy protection:

1) No recording (supposed to be for expensive one-time pay-per-views and such, but vehemently opposed by home recording rights advocates)

2) Record Once (the program is deleted from your hard drive when you copy it to DVHS/HDDVD, leaving only one copy in existence at a time)

3) Unlimited recording (you can dump it to tape and keep the copy on the hard drive)

So, yes, it's SCMS. There is a similar scheme embedded in my Panasonic DVD recorder, but I have yet to encounter any flags.

--- WCS

[xgrep]

There are several levels of copy protection:

1) No recording (supposed to be for expensive one-time pay-per-views and such, but vehemently opposed by home recording rights advocates)

2) Record Once (the program is deleted from your hard drive when you copy it to DVHS/HDDVD, leaving only one copy in existence at a time)

3) Unlimited recording (you can dump it to tape and keep the copy on the hard drive)

So, yes, it's SCMS. There is a similar scheme embedded in my Panasonic DVD recorder, but I have yet to encounter any flags.

--- WCSThanks, interesting info. I could live with 2 and 3, though I really prefer having a backup copy that 2 wouldn't allow. The first sucks big time. Do they seriously think people are going to be trading 30Gb files all over the place and wiping out the film industry? Maybe in 10 years, by which time everything we own today will be in a landfill, anyway. These people are truly paranoid morons. When Xerox introduced the photocopier in '57, people predicted the end of the publishing industry.

x

[Peluso]

Thanks, interesting info. I could live with 2 and 3, though I really prefer having a backup copy that 2 wouldn't allow. The first sucks big time. Do they seriously think people are going to be trading 30Gb files all over the place and wiping out the film industry? Maybe in 10 years, by which time everything we own today will be in a landfill, anyway. These people are truly paranoid morons. When Xerox introduced the photocopier in '57, people predicted the end of the publishing industry.

x

Someone should put together a list of every time some content provider sued to keep a new technology from being introduced. I'm sure most of the time it was baseless.

I know that it goes as far back as the sheet music companies suing the player piano makers claiming that people would stop buying sheet music.

Scary thoughts.

[ocnier]

This is an odd question, but here goes anyway. Does anyone know what the longevity is on the D-VHS tapes? The main reason I was uninterested in them was it seemed like they would potentialy have the same flaw of regular vhs in that after you watched them 20 times or more the tape would start to degrade. This was why I liked DVD to begin with. 2000 or 3000 times viewing is a much better number (and feels more "permanent") to me. I have no problem buying movies, but never liked how the MPAA was fleecing me to increase residual profit with vhs. They are already baulking big time over the blue laser players as it is now. These discs will easily hold hd movies when they finally come to market especially with the new compression standards that are coming out. I just hope sony and pioneer agree on a standardized format for recording this time.

[DarrellP]

The tapes are prone to dropouts. There is a Forum (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=42) on AVSForum that is discussing this very issue in the HDRecorders section. Tape is not reliable, period.

Dish has stated that their "Dishwire" will only work with designated recorders, so if you plug it into a foreign piece of equipment, it will not recognize it.

[xgrep]

Dish has stated that their "Dishwire" will only work with designated recorders, so if you plug it into a foreign piece of equipment, it will not recognize it.This seems to me to be a flawed strategy, as it will probably not be too hard for hackers to spoof a given authorized device. What this will do is create a gray market for devices that can pretend to be one of the authorized devices, just as we have zone-free DVD players.

x