921 Dishwire/Firewire activation?

[moooog]

Does anyone out there have any news at all about when the Dishwire feature on the 921 will be activated?

[Mark Lamutt]

Haven't heard a timeframe, only that it will be activated for DVHS vcr devices.

[EatingPie]

I'm bumping to ask a related question... too wimpy to start my own thread. :)

How much time of HD can I store on the HD? IE 20 hours, 40 hours, etc?
Anyone try to swap the HD yet?

Oh, and most importantly, will we be able to archive a program stored on the hard drive to a D-VHS? (Once Dishwire worky, of course.)

-Pie

[Mark Lamutt]

I have between 23-26 hours of HD recording space on the 250gb drive (it varies based on the video bit rate of the channel recorded), and yes, once the dishwire ports are activated, you will be able to archive to DVHS tape.

[sampatterson]

Cable companies may be, being forced to turn on firewire/1394 on April 1st or after (depending on whether this NPRM goes into effect).

From the Atlanta HDTV forums on Yahoo groups.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-03-225A1.pdf

The text within that (large) document relevant to this is somewhere around page 50 or so ...

(4) Cable operators shall:
(i) Effective April 1, 2004, upon request of a customer, replace any leased high definition set-top box, which does not include a functional IEEE 1394 interface, with one that includes a functional IEEE 1394 interface or upgrade the customer's set-top box by download or other means to ensure that the IEEE 1394 interface is functional.

[EatingPie]

I'm on Time Warner San Diego. To be blunt, I deal with boneheads every time I call them...

"Firewire? Your wires are ON FIRE?? Call the fire department!"

I also heard that the Cable Firewire thing would go into effect on Jan 1st, 2004. Obviously that didn't happen. Still, I dled the FCC doc and will check it out...

I'm hopeful, but if it ain't obvious... I'm FAR from optomistic! :)

-Pie

[EatingPie]

Whelp. I contacted TWC and lo and behold they ARE implementing Firewire for April 1st. I went straight to the supervisor to get the scoop (she even said no one knows about it).

I'm still mighty skeptical, but I'll check 'em on April 1st... Supervisor wanted me to call her directly on that date, so I would recommend the same to others.

The next issue would be whether I can record digital cable to D-VHS, due to the QAM 256 issue...

-Pie

[David_Levin]

What aspects of FireWire does cable have to support?
DVHS?
Firewire Monitor?
Hard Drive Storage?

[David_A]

If you read a bit further it also says that by July 1, 2005 cable companies need to support DVI. So hopefully the firewire this year will be for TVs as well as DVCRs. Man I hope this means Dish will be getting in gear.