DirectTV went to DTV branded recievers to avoid multiple makers .....

[sgnhaf]

But with 3 makes of the R15 - 2 of the HR20 - ? of the H20 - ? of the D10 11 12 series ..

are we not getting back to those issues before, difrrent guts causeing software problems and having diffrent makes of each series ?


Would it not be Prudent to have each line

D12 and beyond

R16 and beyond

H21 and beyond

HR21 and beyond

HP21 / HMC and beyond

made by 1 maker for each platform ?

[drx792]

isnt the reasoning behind so many manufacturers to have less shortages of equipment?? Especially the HD DVR's.

I think it is best to have 2 for each receiver cause then there isnt to many to confuse people and there should be an adequate amount for no shortages.

[Tom Robertson]

When you get to costing, I believe DIRECTVs experience is that common UI is the most important thing. So all the receivers have as common a UI as possible. Sure there is a cost to maintain each manufactured model, but I think it is much smaller than we fear (and especially in comparison to the old days of many different UIs).

And competition can be very helpful in a couple ways. Different manufacturers can compete on pricing for the HR20, driving costs to DIRECTV down. Manufacturers also compete then compete on features for the next round of equipment, say the HR24 or HR30. If they didn't have the experience of working with DIRECTV, innovation can be harder, IMHO.

Cheers,
Tom

[boba]

D* is just like DISH in that they have a common User Interface so when a customer calls in they don't have to find out what make and model it is, then find the right computer screen to help the customer. Also you don't think all DISH receivers come from one manufacturer and country do you? It is all based on competetion for pricing on a common design. A D10-100/200 &300 don't look exactly the same but they now work exactly the same.

[jonaswan2]

They also went with the common UI to get a longer shelf life out of all of their models.

[Fish Man]

They didn't do it to have "one maker", they did it to have in house control of the entire design (hardware design, firmware design, user interface, etc.)

They own the entire design, lock, stock, and barrel.

Then, they can contract as many manufacturers as they need to build their design to get the required volume.

[sgnhaf]

and as I was saying . With multiple makers per platform (R15) for example . If one maker of box people have problems and the other 2 does not, but has other problems then you have 3 times as many issues ....

not good

[Brent04]

They didn't do it to have "one maker", they did it to have in house control of the entire design (hardware design, firmware design, user interface, etc.)

They own the entire design, lock, stock, and barrel.

Then, they can contract as many manufacturers as they need to build their design to get the required volume.

Then why don't they have each of the manufactures use the same components and electronics so it does not make DirecTV have three different firmwares for one base model? In house control to me would be DirecTV going to the manufacturers and saying I need this receiver made with these components and design not each manufacture changing the components or design of the case that would cause different code for each manufacture. That way when DirecTV updates code for the R15 then the same firmware could be pushed out to all three manufactures of the R15 and not having to spend possibly three times as much time changing and testing code for the R15. But maybe there is only a very small difference in the code for each of the different manufactures such as what model number that appears on the info screen.

[Redlinetire]

and as I was saying . With multiple makers per platform (R15) for example . If one maker of box people have problems and the other 2 does not, but has other problems then you have 3 times as many issues ....

not good

But even WORSE is having one maker, maker goes bankrupt, then you have MUCH BIGGER problem.

You generally try to spread the manufacturing to at least two, or three, suppliers if you can. Single source isn't the best solution in the electronics world.

And no matter what you build, people will have problems. That's why you have an incident tracking system and model numbers. Makes them easy to track and resolve, regardless of how many manufacturers you have.

At least that's what we did back when I was a product manager at an instrumentation company. ;)

[Stuart Sweet]

There are other reasons that they went to branded receivers. Marketing, for example. Dish has had nothing but self-branded receivers (IIRC). Maybe DIRECTV simply decided that it was better for marketing purposes to eliminate other manufacturers' logos so as to build brand loyalty.

[Ken984]

Didn't Dish have some JVC receivers at one time? Seem to remember seeing that somewhere, or maybe JVC is a Dish OEM.

[Earl Bonovich]

Didn't Dish have some JVC receivers at one time? Seem to remember seeing that somewhere, or maybe JVC is a Dish OEM.

IIRC... the very first Dish Receivers where JVC.
I know my grandfather still has one, in his entertainment system. (it isn't functional anymore... just not worth taking it out)

[captain_video]

I believe one of the first Dish DVRs was also a JVC. I'm not sure but I believe there was a JVC D-VHS VR that worked with Dish, similar to the one marketed by Hughes for DirecTV.

[Stuart Sweet]

Not the point.

The point is, that I don't see where the OP's assertion (that the move to self-branded receivers was to avoid multiple manufacturers) comes from. I think there were probably many reasons to do so, and I don't know if there has actually been any time when all the receivers had the same manufacturer.

[Fish Man]

The bottom line is this:

They didn't change to branding their receivers "DirecTV" to cut down to one manufacturer. That would be a potentially fatal decision!! Multiple sources are a good thing. For many reasons that have been pointed out by various people in this thread. They include obtaining a high enough volume as well as "safety" in case one of the manufacturers runs into a financial or technical problem that would kill or reduce production of the product.

They made the change for consistency in marketing, consistency of user interface, and in-house control of both of those things.

[dishrich]

IIRC... the very first Dish Receivers where JVC.


Actually, the JVC's did NOT come around until later. Since I was selling E* since it came out day 1, the first receivers were first HTS branded (which was a carryover from the C-band receivers that Echostar corp. made) then they also made Echostar branded receivers.

The JVC's came out when they started making the D-VHS receivers, then started making other models. There have been Phillips branded receivers as well.

[Upstream]

Multiple manufacturers for each box = good idea.

Multiple designs for each box = bad idea.