Should receivers be upgradeable?

[EricD]

What do you think of having a receiver with PCI and ATA bus (or equivalent) like a PC? You could then use the slots to customize your receiver with exactly what you need and nothing more. for example...
PCI slots:
- analog or digital OTA tuner
- 5.1 or 7.1 decoder
- amplifier
- additional input/output ports
- UHF remote
- upgradeable memory/processor (MPEG 2 to MPEG 4)
Drive bays:
- dvd player and/or recorder
- hard drive(s) for DVR

[Jacob S]

I have been saying this for a while now. They need to make receivers upgradable. I hope they have learned their lesson by now and choose to do so during the MPEG-4 conversion when they swap all satellite receivers out. Maybe they will wise up and swap out their card/encryption to a better one by then as well instead of Nagravision.

[DoyleS]

Seems that might prove to be too easy a platform for hackers. Not likely to happen.

..Doyle

[P Smith]

That proposal stop just one step from using x86 COMPUTERs :).
Practically, DP721 and DP921 are the computer-like receivers with proprietary expansion slot(s).
I recall a few years ago Dish did attempt to penetrate into PC market with own PCI board what included smart card slot ( with Broadcom ? ).

[EricD]

That was my next idea... Darn, I can't come up with anything new.

[Stewart Vernon]

Think about this for a minute...

Take your average desktop computer... which you can get say for around $500 now brand new... ok, next year a better video card is out... and it will cost you $250 to upgrade that, or you can buy a whole new computer that comes with a new video card already for $500 again.

Which is the better deal?

Even upgradable computers with upgradable slots can't always take the newest things... Often you need a processor upgrade as well, and often you can't just plop the latest processor in it for various reasons.

IF we could all predict the future, then we'd already make things we want :) Computers and receivers simply aren't that cost-effective to make completely upgradable. Even assuming you could do it, it would cost more to make the original unit and you'd have to pay more for it + the upgrades.... than the cost of cheaper made less upgradable units.

The test of time has shown businesses that by and large it is cheaper to develop the now, and then develop the future... but not try to make the now always upgradable to the future.

Many times besides financial concerns, you have to sacrifice performance in a device now in order to make it future upgradable. Devices dedicated to one specific purpose usually outperform devices that are capable to be upgraded.

Just the way technology works most of the time.

[P Smith]

Not only technology involved - a Profit often dictate the fast-to-sell features or new type of CPU socket solutions. ;) Remember RDRAM motherboards ?

[EricD]

Let's replace the word "upgradeable" with "modular". So you're only utilizing existing technology. You could buy a DVR with an analog tuner if you have an antenna, or a digital OTA tuner, or no tuner at all if you get everything from the dish.

[SimpleSimon]

Let's replace the word "upgradeable" with "modular". So you're only utilizing existing technology. You could buy a DVR with an analog tuner if you have an antenna, or a digital OTA tuner, or no tuner at all if you get everything from the dish.
Old concept. The 6000 has upgrade modules for the tuners.

[kb7oeb]

The 5000 was upgradeable too but its still obsolete now.

[Jacob S]

The reason that the 5000 is obsolete now is due to the fact that certain aspects of the receiver was not upgradable.

[Stewart Vernon]

Modular has the same and different problems.

If you had a modular DVR setup for analog TV... then you bought a Digital tuner to view HD programming... you'd quickly find you needed a bigger hard drive for the DVR since HD takes a lot more space to record... so that's another part you'd need to replace.

And even the best hard drives do die eventually.

Why don't people buy separate ovens from stoves all the time? and separate refrigerators from freezers in the kitchen? Some things sound conceptually interesting, but in reality don't offer as much convenience or savings as you might think.

I had a modular stereo system that served me well for 10 years... but when one component died, then another... it started to look better to buy a whole new modular system and upgrade the parts that weren't dead because the new parts wouldn't integrate as seamlessly as the old ones. And my old receiver was made before Surround Sound in the home was in the conceptual stages so no way it could have been made upgradable at that time anyway.

[Jacob S]

Other types of appliances are different than electronics such as satellite/cable/computers/television in which the technology has been changing rapidly.

[Cyclone]

Do you think that Dish would really want to support millions of receivers at various combinations of capabilities? Or do you think that they'd rather have a set of fixed known receivers?

Plus it likely is cheaper for them just to make a fixed receiver.

[Jacob S]

One has to look at the cost of having several different verisons of hardware and software to support them vs. the cost of having to swap receivers every so many receivers and/or being limited to what the hardware can do when newer technology comes out.