Would this be workable? VOD+PVR

[Mark Holtz]

Hmmmm...... I was just thinking about this..... and here is the origin of the idea....

I was playing around with the downloading of several large demo MP3s and Divx movies at work, and then it hit me: It takes seconds for me to download the sound file that take minutes provided that I have enough bandwidth. That it hit me.... what prevents us from doing the same with video on demand?

Under the present DBS system, video has to be encoded in "real time" for broadcast. But, VOD material doesn't have to encoded in real-time, it can be pre-compressed and optimized for usage. You then just dump the video file as a pure data file to the PVR in minutes and have it ready for playback, and at a fraction of the time. Playback could even be done while the movie is "downloading".

Do you think this is actually workable with software modification on DishPVR, DirecTIVOs, and UltimateTVs?

[Jacob S]

The video probably takes up so much more space than the audio that it would require a lot more space.

I am waiting for all of this to be stored on small chips. Want more memory for space? Add more chips, they would be a lot more smaller and cheaper. This is when this technology comes about.

[Rick_EE]

I believe that a few companies are working on the concept. Including Echostar.