5/12/08 Tech Chat Recap

[Jason Nipp]

Dish Technical Forum 5-12-08 Recap
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All Rights Reserved

Your Hosts: Mark Jackson and Dan Minnick

Tonight’s Agenda includes:

• AMC Launch Update
• New HD Channels
• HD Viewing Tips
• TV Sports Goes Interactive
• Improved Technical Support
• Digital Transition Update
• Trivia Giveaway
• Q&A

Call or Email Questions

AMC Launch Update - Dave Bair

• Leased entire Capacity From SES Americom
• Contains 32 High Power Channels
• Proton Rocket
• Lower 3 stages went well, the Upper Breeze M stage did not complete
• Upper stage burn shut down early
• Orbit went in at 50 degrees, needed to be 20 degrees
• Tried a Super Synchronous Transfer Orbit to correct inclination
• Would have taken about a year to correct orbit and would burn off most if not all of it’s fuel to do so.
• Talked about a Lunar flyby or Gravity Assist
• Declared a total constructive loss

Mark states not to worry, that they are not changing any plans on launching HD lineup and that they are moving as fast as they can to get a lot more channels put up.

Mark states two more satellites schedule to launch this year

Eric Saul

• Land mark day, never launched as many channels in a single day as they did today.
• Launching 22 new HD channels
  • Discusses some of the newly launched channels
    • Sci-Fi, CNN, USA, ABCFamily, Bravo, Cartoon Network, Biography, 5Max, Cinemax West, CNBC, Disney East, ESPN News, Tennis Channel, Smithsonian, MGM, Hallmark Movie, Toon Disney, WFN, Travel, The Weather Channel
  • Says new launch puts on par with other pay-tv services
  • Made great progress trying to get to 100 local markets in HD and 100 Nationals Channels
  • 95 National channels as of today
  • Launched over 20 new HD local markets in the past month or so with more to come.
  • Also Laredo and Yuma and a new market in Montana in SD this summer

Dan says we all knew HD would really take off, Mark says more and more people are buying HDTV’s, and leads into a proper connection segment with Leslie Harper.
§ Leslie explains how to correctly connect a HDTV ViP receiver to a HDTV Display
§ Leslie walks through HDTV system setup settings
§ End of segment loses audio

Mark and Dan – Trivia Giveaway
1st to call with correct answer wins a ViP612 Receiver
§ What was the first HD channel launched on Dish Network, Demo and Test channels do not count.

Dan talks about leaf fade and reception problems
§ Look down arm at a 45 degree higher look angle to look for obstructions
§ Also goes into rain fade
§ Says DVR’s will continue to work (Playback) without signal

Enhanced Technical Support - Leslie Harper
§ 24/7 on website
§ From homepage, select customer support, then select technical support
§ Discusses features and searches

Trivia answer

• Chuck- From Nebraska
• First HD Channel was HBO HD

Another Giveaway – Harder Question
Archos 705 Portable Media Player
Question- 2 Part Question
§ What is the maximum theoretical speed of a USB 1.1 port in Mbps?
§ What is maximum Theoretical speed of a UDB 2.0 port in Mbps?


Q&A

• Wayne, what is advantage of having broadband?
  • Phone line requirement is no longer required for PPV
  • With ViP612,622,or 722, DishONLINE downloadable movies
  • Waive no phone line fee
  • Other features coming soon
• Wayne 2nd question, Pay for use of external HDD, if I pay the fee can I use any USB device like laptop, or just an external HDD.
  • Just an external HDD
• Wayne 3rd question, Loaded some pictures on receiver, can not get them off
  • Dan, say it is a software bug, you need to reconnect your USB device back to the receiver in order to delete the pictures off the receiver.
• Nathan, Feature request, ability to transfer timers to another receiver for replacement receivers.
  • Jennifer announces a new remote control that will be two-way, will let you store receiver settings, and remote settings into the receiver.
• Lisa, Being billed for PPV she hasn’t ordered, is it possible a neighbor doing?
  • Dan talks about UHF remote addresses
  • Talk to rest of family members and see if someone else in house renting PPV
  • Password Protect PPV
• Donna, confused about OTA DTV channels, will she be able to receive local channels after the transition to DTV?
  • If your getting locals from dish you will be ok, if not you will need a converter box.
• Shawn, does my 612 support HDMI1.3?
  • Jan Johnson says yes the 612 is certified HDMI1.3 compliant
• Jack, are you going to put up CNBC-HD?
  • Yes it is up today
• Paul, What is the bit rate output of dish DVR 722, what’s to select proper HDMI cable for maximum performance
  • HDMI vary on length of cable
  • Receiver work with all HDMI cables out there
  • Small cutoff blurb on marketing hype
• Tom, ViP211 timeline to External HDD, and what fee’s will e involved?
  • Time frame (Q3) Roughly July-August
  • Fee will be one time $49.99 (Household Fee)
  • Makes 211 a DVR

Mark talks about Digital Rights Management and how some PPV movies now have an expiration time.

• Andy Karofsky talks about DRM and how every PPV distributor has to make the change
• Going forward, there is a 24 hour record period expiration.
• Also, if you record a PPV and do not watch it, it will expire and self delete at a time frame that is title dependant (set by studios)
• If PPV provider does not implement, they will not be able to distribute PPV content.
• Have to manually delete expired content

New features

• New Guide Feature, cycle HD through your favorites lists?
• External Hard Drive now has Household key
  • Overcomes 3 receiver move to limitation
  • Discusses EHDD Drives
    • Compatible Receivers ViP612, 622, 722
    • USB 2.0 external HDD from 40GB – 750Gb
    • One time $39.99 Activation fee, will be changing to $49.99
    • 1-800-241-2205 to activate drive
    • Cannot be multi-moon, stacked drive
    • Needs to be self powered
    • Explains uses of External HDD

Scott Higgins – Interactive Update

• Tennis Channel –French Open – 6 different matches at once – May 25th 5am est each day
• ESPN – USOPEN Golf Championship – 6 different cameras – June 12th
• Tennis Channel - Wimbledon – 6 matches at once – June 23rd
• Dish Decision 2008
• 3 new international services
• DishONLINE to manage DVR timers, and download movies directly to DVR in September

Mark talks about upcoming DTV transition
DTVPal – Michael Hawkey

• TR40 renamed
• 7 day EPG
• Parental Locks
• Closed Captioning
• Analog Pass thru
• Low cost –
• Two coupons for $40 off from the US Government, go to website DTV2009.gov
• Dtvpal.com on how to get the unit

Phone lines down, email questions

Second Trivia Answer – Larry – California

• USB1.1 = 12Mbps
• USB2.0 = 480Mbps

Q&A

• Mike, Presently Dish DHA customer, plans to become a permanent RV resident.
  • Will work with the 501, however in-motion may require another box or solution.

• Anthony, ViP622, EHDD almost full, can multiple drives be attached?
  • Later on this summer you should be ale to connect multiple drives at the same time.
• Bob, when I try to switch mode on remote, gets pop up, what is this about?
  • Mode reminder.
• Maggie, trying to set a timer to record multiple events, what happened to resolution setting.
  • Resolution preference only available when setting up a Dishpass search timer
• All option verses new option on timers, how does timer know what new or not?
  • Talks about problems with guide data from provider (Original air date not always provided)

Upcoming Charlie Chat will air Monday June 9th at 9PM EST on Channel 101

[clyde sauls]

how do you disable mode reminder ?

[Lincoln6Echo]

It's not there on a ViP622.

[DishTSR3Mentor]

I have tried every dish network receiver and not a single one of them do as you've suggested. There is a guide popup that you can setup to alert you that you are switching epg lists. However, there is no function to prevent the "tv is in use" screen from popping up on any dish pro receiver.

[Jason Nipp]

Sorry, I could have swore there was a way. I also could have swore it was talked about on a Previous Tech Chat. Oh well, I've been wrong before.

Sorry

[Grandude]

I'm a little confused about one thing from the tech chat. They said there would be a one time $50 fee for enabling an external HDD on the VIP211 receivers. Does this mean there will be an additional one time fee for that receiver even though we already have paid a $40 one time fee for the VIP6/722, or will our already paid fee cover the VIP211?

It sounded to me like we would have to pay again ($50) for the VIP211. I hope I'm wrong about that.

[Jason Nipp]

Originally Posted by Grandude

I'm a little confused about one thing from the tech chat. They said there would be a one time $50 fee for enabling an external HDD on the VIP211 receivers. Does this mean there will be an additional one time fee for that receiver even though we already have paid a $40 one time fee for the VIP6/722, or will our already paid fee cover the VIP211?

It sounded to me like we would have to pay again ($50) for the VIP211. I hope I'm wrong about that.

That's how I understood it. They emphasized the fact that enabling the EHDD on a 211 turns that receiver into a DVR. Thus they higher fee was justified in Jackson's comments.

[nmetro]

# Tom, ViP211 timeline to External HDD, and what fee’s will e involved?

* Time frame (Q3) Roughly July-August
* Fee will be one time $49.99 (Household Fee)
* Makes 211 a DVR

From what i can see from this above comment, if one already paid for the VIP622, then it should cover the VIP211. The enabling fee was deemed a "household fee" for the VIP6222, so it should include the VIP211. However, I suspect another $5.99 charge will be added as a DVR fee when the VIP211 is activated.

[Grandude]

Originally Posted by nmetro

# Tom, ViP211 timeline to External HDD, and what fee’s will e involved?

* Time frame (Q3) Roughly July-August
* Fee will be one time $49.99 (Household Fee)
* Makes 211 a DVR

From what i can see from this above comment, if one already paid for the VIP622, then it should cover the VIP211. The enabling fee was deemed a "household fee" for the VIP6222, so it should include the VIP211. However, I suspect another $5.99 charge will be added as a DVR fee when the VIP211 is activated.

I hope you are correct about this. My gut feeling is telling me otherwise though.

It would also be nice to know how it would work. I would presume it would NOT work like a normal DVR where you can be watching something and do a quick backup to catch some dialog you missed. Or would it only be used for watching something that you recorded on your 622, transfered to the HDD and then connected to your 211?

Has anyone seen a demo/mockup of this feature yet?

[Jason Nipp]

Originally Posted by nmetro

# Tom, ViP211 timeline to External HDD, and what fee’s will e involved?

* Time frame (Q3) Roughly July-August
* Fee will be one time $49.99 (Household Fee)
* Makes 211 a DVR

From what i can see from this above comment, if one already paid for the VIP622, then it should cover the VIP211. The enabling fee was deemed a "household fee" for the VIP6222, so it should include the VIP211. However, I suspect another $5.99 charge will be added as a DVR fee when the VIP211 is activated.

I just played it back to review. There will be a 49.99 fee to enable the 211's HDD, which will be a household fee for all 211's in your home. Jackson specifically said for all "211's". I still interpret this as you will need to pay the fee for 211's whether or not you paid one for the 622/722 series.

[Henry]

I think Jason's got it right. From what I understood, the 211 will be transformed into a DVR, which means to me that its software will have to contain many, if not all, of the same features the 622/722's have today. It'll have to operate seamlessly like the 622/722's. Maybe that's why they feel justified in charging the extra $10 for the activation fee.

I wonder if we'll be able to piggy-back an off-the-shelf EHD in addition to the DVR drive? It would make sense to me, and bring the 211's functionality more in line with the rest of the ViP line.

[Jim5506]

Mode reminder toggle on ViP211 - Menu, Preferences, Mode Reminder, Enable/Disable.

Haven't checked my 622.

[DustoMan]

Sigh... yet another tech chat with no mention of DLNA streaming support.

[BobaBird]

I watched the show live, with the intent of getting the EKB summary up not long after, then didn't feel like writing it. This edition had its moments, but the initial impression was a bit underwhelming. The May 2008 Tech Forum Summary finally got done 5 hours after the show ended.

[RASCAL01]

It would seem that since you paid $39.95 for your 622 EHDD and this is now a household key that there would be no additional fee for the 211.

[Henry]

Originally Posted by RASCAL01

It would seem that since you paid $39.95 for your 622 EHDD and this is now a household key that there would be no additional fee for the 211.

Not hard to accept if you don't consider it as a port activation fee, but rather consider it an upgraded 211 that is converted from a plain-Jane HD receiver to an HD receiver/DVR.

[DustoMan]

So considering that the EHD fee is going up. I should probably tell my dad to pay his fee now even though he doesn't have a EHD to use on it yet. And the household key will let him move a show from one 722 and be played on another right?

[Ddavis]

One time $39.99 Activation fee, will be changing to $49.99

I think the household fee is just going up for all...

[Jason Nipp]

Originally Posted by Ddavis

I think the household fee is just going up for all...

That's what I understood from Mark Jackson's comments during the chat.

[Jim5506]

So if I've already paid my $39.99, do I owe another $10 to keep it running?

Will it cost me the $10 or $49.99 to add my 211 to my 622?

Can I move EHD's from the 622 to the 211 or is the system different on each?