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Echostar 'PocketDish' to Playback Video from DVR
Trip Ericson writes "Echostar has released its PocketDish, a portable multimedia player that will store audio, video, and images. Coming in up to 40GB flavors, with varying screen sizes up to 7 inches, the real news is that it allows for the transfer of content directly from a Dish DVR onto the player. From the article: "The PocketDish can download content from Dish Network digital video recorders (DVRs), enabling users to watch TV shows on the go. An hour of content can be transferred to the PocketDish's hard drive in about five minutes." Looks like Echostar is trying to beat the long-rumored iPod Video before it even hits the market."
what kind of DRM is involved here? can you copy the video/audio to a laptop instead of this overpriced thing? theres no reason you shouldnt be able to
i really wish they had added THAT function
While I could see these sort of portable media devices being used in places like Japan or Europe, where they have developed mass transit systems that are widely used, are they used much in the more auto-dependent countries, like the US, Canada and Australia? I mean, chances are that if you're driving, you probably can't watch a movie or a TV show on such a device. Now I'm sure some people will try, but I'd image they'd get thrown through their windshield soon enough. But if you've got a 40 minute train ride to work, then yes, you might get by watching a movie on a device such as this.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
...its the sound of a lawyer feeding-frenzy getting started...
Who did what now?
My little Casio LCD receives broadcast ANALOG TV just fine thank you very much.
And I don't have to tell anyone my name, credit card, or phone number.
How about a 300 GB device? It would also act as a external HDD. Now that would be convenient!
Memory is cheap, for $599.00 why not maximize its storage size to make it a worthwhile 21st century product?
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Comparing the device pictures on www.archos.com and www.pocketdish.com... they're the same. So are the corresponding brands (Archos AV400, AV500, AV700 vs Pocketdish AV402E, AV500E, AV700E). So is this really a new device?
I refuse to use
...or if you do, you don't take them on long road trips. There's nothing like having a stash of Dora the Explorer or a disc full of Charlie and Lola to keep them entertained for boring parts of the trip. (For those who do not have children, and/or have forgotten what its was like to ride for a couple of hours in the car as a child, the "boring parts" would include the time from when the key goes into the ignition until you actually get out of the car at the destination. License plate games, I spy, and all the rest are boring...just not as boring as sitting quietly.)
I've captured a bunch of stuff off my DirecTivo (via analog capture) and reauthored it onto disc. It not only helps on long car rides, but also expands the number of shows available when we're at home without filling up the TiVo needlessly.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I do have children. They just grew up far before this nonsense with parents thinking that they only way for kids to be entertained was for them to be watching TV or playing video games. Hell, on long trips we'd give our children books to read. And you know what? They were usually quite quiet and well behaved. They might've even learned something, too.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Well Tivo does have the option for Tivo2Go which allows you to hook up your standalone Tivo to your network and transfer via software. Unfortunately you need a Tivo Pro subscription which runs $15 a month and there is that little thing called a Broadcast Flag that has been causing controversy.
Now I know what those USB ports are doing on my Bell ExpressVu(BEV) 9200 HD-PVR (equivalent to a Dish 942). They are labled for 'future use' in the manual. I hope BEV does something similar, or at least enables the ports to download content to my computer.
They mention connectivity to various devices, but most mini-DV camera's and other digital video devices require firewire connectivity whereas they only support USB. This limits the devices usefulleness and appeal to me.
a side note: on the DishNetwork website, under software, there's already a lineitem for the PocketDish software and updates. Apparently you have to hook it up to your 942 receiver, and software updates will process through your 942. Sounds like they may use their some type of authentication at their receiver to lock out other methods of attempted USB access. Dish Network Software
Well this then answers what was meant by my 522 spec sheet:s html)
(1) USB 1.0, *for future use (http://tech.dishnetwork.com/receivers/522/index.
This states that its USB 1.0 which certainly doesn't have sufficient throughput for transfer of this size of files.
I can only imagine (because the spec sheet doesn't SPECifify) that the Dish DVR 921 (HDTV DVR) has a USB 2 port on the front.
I wonder if only a software upgrade will be needed for my DVR.
They showed it in one of those chats that Dish Network's CEO gives every once in a while. You can get more info here. The interesting thing is that the satellite receiver is the one that sends the video, you don't download it. As soon as you connect the cable it will recognize that there is a PocketDish at the other side (at least that's how it looked to me). I'm sure someone will make a PocketDish emulator for PCs soon. :)
One afternoon I was forced to follow someone off the interstate with a portable DVD player mounted on the DASH of his car! At the traffic signal I could clearly make out details of the movie he was watching. Guess what, no cops at a busy intersection at rush hour. Believe me, it did affect his driving performance. Of course I've also passed folks using game boys, reading books, not to mention the proverbial oblivious woman doing here hair,etc.
Please mod me 1 or troll. It's where the truth is these days, even on Slashdot. Beware the power of moderators everywh
I've been waiting for a year since the dish 512 came out for someone to get into this. I've wanted to take the stuff off this hard drive from day one. It's gotta be encoded in some really simple format. Let me tell you guys (and i dont work for dish, this isn't a shameless plug) but this thing is godly to have around. I come home at the end of the day and have a full list of stuff -i- want to watch. It interfaces perfectly with the guide that's -already there- and there's zero programming to it. Hell my mom can even use it perfectly without hours of training (for once). Now, if only there were a good way to hack into it already.. maybe put a nic on it and transfer stuff directly to my other hds... *dreams*
But hey, maybe this little player will open those doors.
Oh yah, one more thing. Immune to this DRM and "red flags" crap that tivo seems to be updating to. And if it does, there's a handy "turn off updates" feature!!
This was announced several months ago on Dish Network's Charlie Chat. A representative from Archos was there giving the presentation. This is just a customized and possibly crippled version of Archos's standard product line. I don't think Dish Network will allow transferring the program material to other devices such as a DVD burner.
I know it's not what they intended, but I bet this opens up a creative way to get the content off of dish network dvr's to PC... but like previous posters have wondered aloud, what type of DRM/encryption is involved here.
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Or any other protocol. As long as I can take a show I recorded on my PVR and send it to the computer to burn it on DVD. I don't want to buy a standalone DVD burner just for the shows I want to keep.
You're confusing "one way to entertain" with "the only way to entertain".
On a 6 hour trip, kids will get bored. My 3 year old "reads", colors, and watches TV on long trips, as well as listens to some childrens books on cd/tape. You may also be confusing Rugrats and GTA for more educational TV and games (you're allowed to put Sesame Street on if you feel that learning spanish and memory skills from Dora is too progressive). If you think that TV is not educational, I would say that you're not using it right. I would suggest you need to watch a bit more childrens television to find the programs which are useful. I've found very few "educational" books for my daughter that didn't require active adult participation. No that adult participation is bad, but reading stuff to kids for 6 hours in a car is not my idea of a relaxing trip.
I grew up when it was common place for kids to crawl around the back seat and count licence plates, do Mad Libs, color, sing, and ask "are we there yet" every fifteen minutes. I remember being bored out of my mind for most of the time, regarles of the number of games we had. I suspect that an hour or two fo Superfriends would have gon a long way to my childhood trips being more enjoyable. I can only imagine that beingn strapped into a 5-way harness as required by law can only make the process less enjoyable today.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Depends on quality. My guess is the newer PVRs likely utilize USB 2.0 but some of the compatible models are equipped with 1.x
That's still not too bad as you can simply dock it and start the transfer.
Because what I really want to do is download my shows off the PVR and watch them on a 7" screen in the broom closet, while my wife commandeers the big screen to watch her Supernanny reruns. Not! Why not develop devices that follow real people's watching habits? Such as cheap media extender boxes that let you watch your PVR content on other TVs in the house, so you don't have to have PVRs scattered all over the place with endlessly duplicated show subscriptions? Yes, there are such systems available (e.g. MCE) if you want to change your back-end and lose the convenience of the cable-provider's tuner(s), which always work more seamlessly than third-party kludges. But since they're developing hardware anyway, why not create something people will actually use, such as $50-$100 media extenders that don't require extra monthly fees (as would be the case with multiple TiVo boxes).
You can already rip satellite programming right off the Dish PVR hard drive (7x00 and 5xx series, at least). Why should I buy this instead of any other portable media player?
I know tivo honors the broadcast flag on HBO and Cinamax, but does Dish? Will it allow you to copy those shows to this device. If they honor it, I think it may be short lived as more station start to use it. If they don't they are one of the few DVR left they don't enforce that yet.
Freedom of Speech only include discussion that are approved by the RIAA, MPAA and DMCA.
My Dish Network DVR has no USB ports. How am I supposed to transfer anything? I'm going to assume this only works with either the latest model or the high end models.
The dual-tuner Dish (Echostar) PVRs can already send the recorded shows to any other DVR, can't they? Maybe I'm just thinking of the ability to hook two TVs up to the same DVR. You can hook several TVs up to the channel-3 modulated output (preferably after a cheap TV antenna amplifier) and have show one on the "main" TV, and show two on all of the "auxiliary" TVs pretty easily with current, cheap tech...
If I read correctly, the "DRM" on this machine is largely that you can put whatever you like in the portable device, but you can't take stuff off, only delete it. Since you always have your dish DVR as your backup, that has a certain simple appeal.
Of course you can crack the usb interface all day, blah blah blah, but the "one way" approach is the most sensible thing I've heard of in this space, especially since it is just an extension of a larger backup device.
I'd buy this if it was under $200.
Maybe, I don't have the Dish PVR. But even so, that's a low-tech approach and not quite a media server. You should be able to have a number of extender boxes watch independent shows off the main PVR without this sort of analog "fallback", and without requiring RF remotes that control the back-end PVR through the walls (which I assume the Dish system does).
These are just rebadged Archos PVPs - which is no bad thing with Archos's laissez-faire approach to DRM! Echostar bought 25% of Archos for $10m. Vive la France.
Da Blog
Actually the 942 DVR (I have the Canadian equiv., Bell ExpressVu 9200) has a nifty modulator built in to the thing. It will output on ch. 21-69 UHF or also on the higher cable band so you can actually integrate it with existing household cable. Even if you had cable you could put the PVR on say ch. 120 or something so as not to interfere with the cable chans.
:)
The 942 also includes a second UHF remote for the TV2 feature, basically the receiver acts in two modes, in single mode both TV1 and TV2 show the same content and can be controlled by either remote. In dual mode you have seperate content going to each TV, each acts basically like a seperate receiver entirely. Each TV can be watching seperate live or recorded material.
The 942 has 2 satellite tuners built in, you can record 2 shows at once from it (HD or SD), plus it also has a OTA tuner inside so if you can receiver OTA digital you can actually record 3 programs at once.
Oh, and that modulated output, it is a MTS stereo output so the remote TVs also get full stereo sound over the coax, very few consumer receivers have that feature, I've seen it on a few analog Cband receivers before and maybe the odd high end VCR.
Overall the 942 is a pretty sweet satellite receiver. Just wish it held more than 25 hours of HD content
Can you say "Killer App"? This is EXACLTY what a portable video player should be.
It would be killer to sync up my dish reciever to my portable before I hit the gym (cardio machines) or take a long trip or flight....
As long as this is less than $400, I am definitly buying one.
these new pocket dish gadgets look strikingly familiar.............
http://www.archos.com/products/av_700/
Before you read this, this is NOT flamebait.
This is just what we Americans need. Not only do we not go outside enough, but now when we do, we'll still be sitting so we can be comfortable watching our "PocketDish." It's not like the iPod, you can't use it at the gym while working out.
Besides, there's already something that can do what the "PocketDish" does. It's hard to find, and I shouldn't really be telling what it is, but...
its a laptop
Mobile video devices.
Tivo does have the option for Tivo2Go
ReplayTV's show sharing is DRM-free. Using a client such as DVArchive, you can stream and move shows to any Java-equipped device. And watching them on Archos/Echostar PVPs is trivial. Has anyone cracked the Tivo2Go DRm yet? That would really put me off buying one.
Da Blog
Any broadcaster who uses NDS Videoguard CA in their decoders will not allow their control over the material to be compromised by copying it to a non-CA external device. NDS have a "Secure Video Processor" plan (http://nds.com/conditional_access/svp.html) that they will insist must be implemented in the mobile PVR before they will export material to it, or even allow the USB port to be enabled.
People don't understand that a broadcaster's CA'ed PVR is not the same as a build-it-yourself PVR. The latter is not comparable because it is not built for the same purpose. In the world of mobile PVRs "trusted computing" is already a reality because, if its not, then CA'ed material is not available to it. In this context the broadcast flag is just a FTA issue.
K
Didn't Tivo do that a while back? I coudl swear that there was a DVR that would let you stream shows across an existing ethernet network... I guess it's likely that whatever it was that did that has been disabled by now, due to "piracy" concerns, etc...
Echostar is barking up the wrong tree if they're trying to compete with Apple on portable video. PocketDish and the video iPod are two totally different devices, one meant to siphon content from a DVR, the other apparently gets its video content from on-line sources. Echostar should really be concerned about Sony and their recent PSP upgrade which allows viewing of streamed video. Speaking of which, Sony uses an off-shoot of Apple's AAC audio technology for video playback.
Yes, TiVo does that, and I alluded to that in my OP. But you need to buy a full-fledged SA TiVo box for each TV, and pay monthly dues on each one. All I want is a lightweight extender box without local storage that streams shows off a central TiVo or whatever.