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What Dish needs: Cloud storage for recorded shows

2K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  hoophead 
#1 ·
Not sure if this is best here because it is a general comment or in some hardware forum- anyway:

As the new TV season starts up, we have a few evenings where there are 3 shows on at the same time that we'd like to watch. Currently, our answer to that is to record one on the second DVR in the bedroom, then move it to the USB HD, then move that up to the den and connect it to the DVR in that room, then watch it.

It occurred to me as I was using cloud storage on our PS3 that it would be very cool/convenient if you could somehow move recorded shows to some type of cloud storage you could then access from any DVR in the house.

Thoughts?
 
#2 ·
Sounds like a good idea to me. It would have to be access restricted with the EHD account id, but wouldn't be that difficult to implement - some kind of routine that would mimic the current transfer to an EHD. And, obviously, it couldn't be free. Don't know what a reasonable price would be.
 
#5 ·
fudpucker said:
How does DirectTV handle the "watch on any TV" feature on their systems?
DIRECTV uses MoCA networking to stream files peer-to-peer.

The OP was suggesting more of a client-server model from what I can gather. In the client-server model, all content would be available to all viewers at all times versus the peer-to-peer model that allows one client to access any DVR at a time.
 
#6 ·
fudpucker said:
...It would be very cool/convenient if you could somehow move recorded shows to some type of cloud storage you could then access from any DVR in the house.
phrelin said:
It would have to be access restricted with the EHD account id, but wouldn't be that difficult to implement - some kind of routine that would mimic the current transfer to an EHD.
The idea here is to replace the "sneaker-net" process of carrying the EHD from room-to-room.

What the OP suggested is moving content we've recorded on the internal drive of one DVR to an "archive" cloud account which content then can be moved to the internal drive of another DVR on the same account. I see the process as similar to what we can now do with EHD's which are also considered "archives."

Just replace the EHD with a cloud account. This would not involve direct viewing (streaming) but just moving files to and from an EHD formatted with the account id located on a distant server. Conceptually this might avoid issues involving copyright-related licensing.

Of course, Charlie would have to get Sony, NBCU, Fox, etc., to sign off.:sure:
 
#7 ·
There would be no point in moving shows to the cloud. They can just have them there to begin with. It's really just ondemand with access to the channels you subscribe to. Right now there are many ios apps that allow you to watch full episodes of shows if you are a pay tv subscriber. There are new TNT and TBS apps this week. There are others. Just log in with your dish id and watch what you want. So it wouldn't be a stretch for that to be made available on a dish receiver if they so wished.
And so many ISP's throttle bandwidth and have caps that it may not be a good solution for most.
 
#8 ·
What DISH needs to do is allow the EHDs to basically be NASs, Networked Attached Storage devices. They could then be accessed on your home network if you're hooked up. Given that you can have an EHD on each receiver and each receiver on your network, there's really no reason why you shouldn't be able to access all of them from any receiver.
 
#9 ·
dmspen said:
What DISH needs to do is allow the EHDs to basically be NASs, Networked Attached Storage devices. They could then be accessed on your home network if you're hooked up. Given that you can have an EHD on each receiver and each receiver on your network, there's really no reason why you shouldn't be able to access all of them from any receiver.
That, of course, would seem like the easiest thing to do. On the other hand (here comes my pessimism), they haven't even implemented custom folders on the EHD's yet, so I'm not sure any of this is much of a priority.:rolleyes:
 
#10 ·
What would be better yet is to be able to record direct to the cloud. The restriction now is that there is generally a max of 2 sat. tuners per receiver. If you could mark a show to record direct to the cloud Dish could just make that show available on your cloud drive and you could then download it later. Cut the receiver out of the record loop completely.

When you wanted to watch it you start the download to your drive, once a few minutes has downloaded you could then start watching it. Not quite streaming since you would actually be watching the programming from your HD, but close to it.
 
#12 ·
dmspen said:
Given that you can have an EHD on each receiver and each receiver on your network, there's really no reason why you shouldn't be able to access all of them from any receiver.
Other than someone with a hubbed network or a weak wireless b network is going to want to load it up with video sessions and it tops out at one session or less.
 
#13 ·
My biggest problem with ALL 'cloud' technology is the ISP. We're being given all sorts of cloud this and cloud that, streaming this and streaming that. Then my ISP turns around and says, "Oh, by the way, you're limited to x GB downloads per month. If you go over we steal your wallet."
The ISPs said most users would never hit this limit. I didn't think this was a big deal until I had a small update application running in the background. It actually exceeded Comcasts limit 3 months in a row. Add a few Netflix and Amazon videos and BAM! Extra charges.
Same thing with my cell provider. It's a limited (no unlimited available) download plan. If I exceed I get whacked. Then Apple and Amazon tell me, "Use the cloud. Stream your music and videos to yourself everywhere." Once again, If I actually did this, I'd get hit with overage fees. RAM in my phone is a lot cheaper than a monthly overage fee. Similarly, a large EHD is far cheaper in the long run than cloud storage.
 
#14 ·
dmspen said:
The ISPs said most users would never hit this limit. I didn't think this was a big deal until I had a small update application running in the background. It actually exceeded Comcasts limit 3 months in a row. Add a few Netflix and Amazon videos and BAM! Extra charges.
If you're hitting 250G per month I would say that is more then "a small update application". ;)
 
#15 ·
HobbyTalk said:
If you're hitting 250G per month I would say that is more then "a small update application". ;)
Hm, well, uh, yes...uh, maybe it did update itself every 20 seconds 24 hours a day...but isn't that what unlimited means?

I killed the app and my 'normal' usage dropped to about 25gb/month - mostly dependent on movies and 'other' downloads.
 
#16 ·
What we do, just in case one or more are not over the air networks, is find another night via 'timer' to record it. We do it all the time.
 
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