External Hard Drive and VOD

[brooster]

If I install an external hard drive will Dish put VOD's on that drive also?

From what I have been told on the Dish support line the 722k has 45% of the drive allocated for VOD's and etc's and the 922 has 50% of the drive yada, yada.

Isn't broadband the culprit?

[James Long]

If I install an external hard drive will Dish put VOD's on that drive also?Nope. DISH only sets aside space on the internal hard drive for VOD - which can be requested via broadband (DishONLINE) or sent via satellite (channels 501).

[Stewart Vernon]

It's also a little bit harder to explain these days.

Initially Dish (as James said) reserved space on the internal hard drive for PPV, and Dish Online when that started... and then the rest was yours to use as you saw fit.

At some point in the last year or two, however, Dish has tweaked this slightly. The reserved portion seems to be almost exclusively used for their SAT-delivered VOD service. PPV and even Dish Online broadband downloads appear to take up what formerly was the customer-space.

At least this was true last I tried a Dish Online download and noted my available space decreased.

Of course the external archive drive is only used for whatever you archive to it UNLESS you are talking about a 211 non-DVR with an external drive added for DVR features... in which case some of that drive is used for the extended EPG and other things.

[brooster]

Thanks James and Stewart for the info!