Will GenieGo Ever Get OOH Download Capabilities?

I know that this will all be speculation (right?), but I'm just curious if anyone thinks or believes that we'll ever be able to download shows to our devices while out of home?

To me, this would be the greatest capability this device could have. I think of all the times i travel and finish watching all of the shows I have downloaded to my tablet and see new stuff in my DVR list back home that I would much rather just download to my device(s) overnight instead of dealing with OOH streaming's constant hiccups and stoppages.

Is it a rights issue? Why would the rights be different for downloading to device at home vs. remotely? What other reasons for not allowing this are there?

 

Having had DIRECTV for close to 20 years now and not really staying too far up to date on competitors offerings, is there anyone that offers this right now? Does DISH's TV Everywhere allow you to download shows from your DVR to your device when not at home? Does Xfinity have anything that even comes close to this? Not streaming, mind you, but the ability to download shows to your device (whether at home or not)?

 

Yes, but I am not talking about adding shows to my DVR, I am talking about being able to download prepared shows that reside on my GenieGo to my device when I am out of my home. You need to be home and on the same network that your GenieGo is attached to in order to actually download shows to devices now.

As far as subs sharing programming with non-subscribers, it seems like they are undermining that with TV Everywhere already. All I'd need to do is give someone my userid and password and they could log in to the DIRECTV website or into a DIRECTV app to stream whatever channels are available for out of home streaming. I was at my brother-in-law's house this weekend. They have DIRECTV, but subscribe to the package that doesn't have ESPN. I wanted to watch the Cubs game on Sunday, so I fired up my tablet, logged into ESPN GO, and we watched the game. How easy would it be for me to just give him my password so he can watch ESPN whenever he wants? Not that I'm going to, but my point is they are already undermining the point of view of "sharing programming with non-subscribers."

 

Absolutely true. That's why I wouldn't do it.

I was simply trying to illustrate that not being able to download prepared GenieGo shows while outside of/off of the home network where the receivers and GenieGo reside should not be a consideration for DIRECTV from a subscription/program sharing point of view. The GenieGo has a limit of 5 devices, those devices need to, at some point, be activated on the network that has the subscribers DVRs & GenieGo, and they would also have to have access to the sub's username and password (in the case that the app stopped/logged out/etc.)

 

I am revisiting this to answer my own question regarding "Does any other provider allow out of home downloading from your DVR?" The answer is yes...Comcast Xfinity allows you to download shows recorded on your DVR to devices while you are out of home. However, there are limitations to this: when you download a show from your DVR (whether in home or out of home), you "check it out" which renders it unviewable even when you are home and watching TV on the DVR the show is recorded on. To watch it at home on your TV or on any other device you need to check the show back in. Also, there is a limit of 10 shows that can be on a device at any given time.

I still like the GenieGo solution over Comcast's, but would love it even more if I could download shows when I am out of my home.

On another note, Peds, even the GenieGo uses your DIRECTV user name and password for authentication. I stand by my claim that if they are trying to prevent non-subscribers from accessing programming via not allowing out of home downloads, they are undermining that already with TVE. There are several ways to provide a non-sub with access to programming (share ID and password and the non-sub can access VoD via the app, live streaming via the app, live streaming and/or VoD content via content owners apps (the FOX apps, ESPN Go, etc.), stream shows from GenieGo via that app) and I find it pretty funny that THIS is the line in the sand for them.

 

I'm not sure why I think this, but I thought you could have multiple streams going on the DIRECTV app? For example, if I were streaming a channel on my tablet and my wife were streaming a different channel on hers? No? Something to test tonight! (I know you can't stream to 2 separate GenieGO apps at the same time.)

As far as Comcast vs. GenieGo, I agree. I much prefer the DIRECTV solution. Perhaps you are right and the limit is coming from the content owners. It still seems like a silly limit to me, but then what do I know?

Also, could Xfinity's limitations be due to the fact that their DVR is cloud based and not set top box based like DIRECTV's? Just another thought.