[Ron Barry]

Some Pictures of the External USB Drive support from Richard King.

New Updated Pictures showing more screens from external USB Support

 

[bobukcat]

On the thumbnail it shows something like 2 hrs of transfer time remaining and it appears that message stays on the screen the whole time. I can only HOPE that there was a ridiculous amount of programming selected to transfer!!

 

[Beer Kahuna]

On the thumbnail it shows something like 2 hrs of transfer time remaining and it appears that message stays on the screen the whole time. I can only HOPE that there was a ridiculous amount of programming selected to transfer!!

It looks to me that you can hit the "View TV" button to go back to watching TV while it's transferring. Also, it appears this is an external drive that they will be selling if I'm reading the card on the right correctly.

 

[James Long]

E* will be selling a drive, but one can also connect their own USB drive.

 

[Ron Barry]

For the people with poor eyes...

The bullets on the info card read from what I can tell.

1) Build your own, limitless video library.
2) External Hard drive expands Vip622 DVR recording capability.
3) High-definition and standard entertainment programming for later viewing.
4) Unlimited Storage Space.

 

[montge]

So when will this autually work? Will it work with existing 622's, or do you need one of the VC-1 based ones?

 

[Ron Barry]

I would expect it to work with existing ones.... As to when.. Well in the conference there was some mention of it mid-year which would be a push back from Q1 that we heard in a recent Charlie Chat.

 

[joebird]

I love their inconsistency. On their slide (another post) about Portable Media Recorders and Video To Go, they have a bullet that says "No additional fees -- it's your content!".

However, I understand there will be an external USB drive "enabling fee" for this feature when it's available. Isn't it still "our content" (and our USB drives, too)?

 

[James Long]

I believe they are concerned with "training" customers on how to use the feature.

The few minutes you spend with the CSR getting it activated plus the later calls back if you don't understand what you are doing cost them money. It isn't a free feature. At least it isn't (reportedly) a recurring fee.

 

[tcooper185]

E* will be selling a drive, but one can also connect their own USB drive.

I'm pretty certain that's a Western Digital external drive, like the older Dual-Option external drives. The blue button looks just like those...
PDF link

 

[AVITWeb]

On the thumbnail it shows something like 2 hrs of transfer time remaining and it appears that message stays on the screen the whole time. I can only HOPE that there was a ridiculous amount of programming selected to transfer!!

If you look at the one screen, it does show 1 of 25 items...and at least one of them is 2:30 hours....even still...its worth it!

Actually I take that back...in the one photo, nothing is selected....

 

[brettbolt]

USB 2.0 has a maximum raw transfer rate of 480 Mbps, or 60 MBps. However, in practice I've read that it is more like 40 MBps.

So if it takes 1 hour and 55 minutes at 40 MBps, then it would work out to be a total transfer size of 276 GB.

But the destination drive does not have that much space, only 207 GB, so the transfer rate must be less than 30 MBps if it takes 1:55.

So the best case scenario is 30 MBps. If they are not all HD shows being transferred (like the first one in their list), then the transfer rate could be as low as 10 to 20 MBps.

 

[bobukcat]

I believe they are concerned with "training" customers on how to use the feature.

The few minutes you spend with the CSR getting it activated plus the later calls back if you don't understand what you are doing cost them money. It isn't a free feature. At least it isn't (reportedly) a recurring fee.

:nono:

James, I understand your point but what percentage of the users will actually have to be trained??? The fact is that their DBS competition already has this feature available on their much newer HD DVR and a lot of us are getting sick of all the nickel - dime fees addiing up (DVR per receiver, lease fee for 622s even if the only reciever, etc. etc.) so another fee for external USB usage is simply gouging IMO. Personally the only time I need CSR help is when Dish has screwed something up or equipment has failed, and I would guess a large percentage of HD DVR customers are the same as me - tech savvy - in fact most times we know more than the CSRs!!

 

[Richard King]

In the conference Charlie mentioned that you could use anybody's external drive. Basically a bring your own drive situation.

 

[Zero327]

:nono:

James, I understand your point but what percentage of the users will actually have to be trained??? The fact is that their DBS competition already has this feature available on their much newer HD DVR and a lot of us are getting sick of all the nickel - dime fees addiing up (DVR per receiver, lease fee for 622s even if the only reciever, etc. etc.) so another fee for external USB usage is simply gouging IMO. Personally the only time I need CSR help is when Dish has screwed something up or equipment has failed, and I would guess a large percentage of HD DVR customers are the same as me - tech savvy - in fact most times we know more than the CSRs!!

So you'd rather take your chances with a HR20? You're braver than I. Nice picture btw.

 

[bobukcat]

So you'd rather take your chances with a HR20? You're braver than I. Nice picture btw.

Go back and look at the problems many of us have been through with 921s and even the 622, we know all about buggy receivers so the HR20 may feel just like the old days - besides you have to figure they'll get it stable soon (there is already a lot of D* HR20 users with no problems). In spite of all of that, I didn't say I want to leave, but I am getting sick of the BS extra fees E* keeps hitting me with. I've been an E* sub for 8 years and an HD sub for 3+, but enough is enough - providing external USB support will cost them no more than the cost of s/w development and a little support time, but their main competition already has this feature enabled, and competition is what it's all about in America!!

 

[Stewart Vernon]

A lot of people don't know their ViP receiver is set to 480p by default and not 720p or 1080i... other people can't grasp the HD vs SD time remaining counter on their receiver, and we see thread after thread of folks explaining that one too.

Keep in mind we at the forum are in the minority... Dish has many many more customers than we will ever see on this site... so there is no way to accurately extrapolate experiences here vs Dish entire subscriber base.

That said... I am pretty sure that if someone goes and buys an off-the-shelf USB external drive, plugs it in, and has a problem... most folks will call Dish and expect them to help them out. Some will even get mad that it didn't work, citing how they heard/read that "any drive will work" or quoting Charlie by saying "Charlie said it at CES"... and you just know we will see threads about it here discussing how someone bought such-and-such USB drive and can't get it to work because "Dish is incompetent".

So... while I don't like the idea of more fees... I completely understand Dish wanting something for the feature, knowing they will have to support it through free online/phone call service for a bunch of people who simply cannot handle it by themselves.

I'm just hoping it is the one-time fee, and it is low enough to not be a big bite out of my wallet... but I am looking forward to having the ability to walk into my local Best Buy and grap a cheap external drive and be able to archive and keep some stuff in HD and free up some space on my ViP... also the future flexibility to be able to take that external drive to another room in my house and connect to another Dish receiver and play content there will be a cool thing too.

 

[BobaBird]

Many months ago we were hearing that at initial roll-out, the external HDD would be "married" to an individual 622 and that a future upgrade would allow it to be used with any capable receiver on your account. Is that still the case or will we get the desired functionality at release?

 

[Calvin Carrigan]

I jusy got my 622 in November. Can't I already do this with the front USB port?

 

[ChuckA]

No. Currently you can only use the USB port to copy pictures from a camera for a slide show or you can copy SD recordings to a PocketDish. Copying to an external hard drive is not yet supported.