We have good and bad news after visiting the Dish Network booth first thing in the morning. We're happy to say that Dish was proudly displaying a Dish Tuner for Media Center 7 at its booth. The bad news however is that it was just a "proof of concept." Which means no matter how hard we tried, no one would tell us anything about price or availability. The other thing up in the air was if the actual implementation would be based on VIP211K HD STBs like the demo, or if instead there would be a dedicated tuner. The last unknown was around VOD or PPV, which
we know was recently being tested, but still no word if it'll make the final version. The other bad, but not unexpected news, is the fact that like the first generation CableCARD tuner for Media Center, all the content is copy protected. As for how it works, looks good, but the channel changing was slower than our CableCARD tuner enabled Media Center. We did grab a video, but you'll have to wait until we can get it uploaded.
posted Sep 10th 2009 11:28AM
I dont have a big TV but i must say the Windows 7 media center looks gorgeous on a massive TV.
It is pretty slick. I've been running the RC on my 47" TV for quite a while now. We actually dropped DirecTV to save some money and I'm running 4 OTA tuners with an antenna. I would seriously take a hard look at integrating Dish into the mix if it turned out to work well.
Dropped DirecTV to save money? Hope you like it when Dish starts raising your prices without telling you. My grandparents have the America's Top 100 package. That's the smallest, most basic package. They have one TV running on Dish, the rest are just on OTA. They've been with Dish for a few years and they started out paying $30 a month. Now they are paying over $70 for the same package, they have not switched packages, and they have never had any premium channels outside of the "free trial" weekends. "Why would you ever pay more for TV?" More like "Why would you ever pay more by switching to Dish?"
Indeed it does.
Media Center is about the slickest piece of software I've seen yet in terms of aesthetics.
@WindowsFTW
Have you seen www.xmbc.org ? Get that installed, then throw on the Aeon skin, then your sittin purdy :)
what ever happened to the sling enabled boxes? 722s? they don't exist.
@jonyah
the 922 series is the sling enabled receiver. it is still in testing as far as i know.
Is anyone else wondering why it's taking us so long to get STB functionality in HTPCs? I know that the cable companies might not like the idea, but they'll rent you a cableCARD, so they can't be that opposed. Does anyone know what the barrier for easy "Tru-2-Way" cableCARD PC devices is?
My only question... when I PVR, can I copy shows to a Zune, iPod or other Media Device/extension?
Based on what I heard about the beta of this, there was no way to watch the recorded content on anything other than the Media Center computer that recorded it, or an XBOX360 acting as an extender. Not even other certified extenders would work. It was very similar to the CableCard restrictions (except those could play on 3rd party extenders). With the announcement of CableCard loosening it's DRM up yesterday, I would imagine that Dish would do the same if this thing every becomes a product we could get our hands on.
I watch my cablecard recorded shows on my xbox360, and linksys extenders without any fuss, but not the zune. MS announced that local channels and other channels labled "FC" (Free Copy) will be DRM free in Windows 7 (maybe not at launch though, since I'm on Windows 7, and still have DRM....I think....)
ATTENTION TV PROVIDERS, I would pay for this!
Why must they toy with us like this?! Either release it or don't...stop manipulating us.
I'm not really impressed. We've been getting tugged along about this "coming soon" technology for a while. The fact of the matter is that Hauppauge, ATI, etc. make some powerful tuner hardware and PC's are loads more powerful than a STB. This has bee POSSIBLE for years now. All it takes is some engineering to figure out how to get a PC tuner to act like a STB and facilitate bi-directional communication to tap into the PPV side of the equation. VOD...let it go. If you've got a PC driving your TV experience, you've got loads of VOD options available from torrents to Hulu to Netflix.
There are only three reasons to put a STB in the living room and they're all to benefit the service provider, not the user:
1) Provide a "consistent" and supportable interface (7MC and VMC do this already)
2) Provide a vehicle for generating PPV revenue (which I suspect is waning these days due to VOD)
3) Provide an additional revenue stream for box "rental"
So, fine. Charge us to rent a USB tuner box or a cable card, let us use 7MC or VMC, and figure out how to get the USB tuner box to order PPV. Done.
I think this issue parallels what is happening with the iPhone. Cable and Satellite companies can provide more, but stand to make more money if they trickle out the features to end users. These days it just doesn't pay to innovate at light speed. They just blew their wad on HD and figure that it's "halo effect" will bolster consumer satisfaction. No reason to add anything novel until the HD buzz wears off.
You don't need two0way support to watch PPV. Just call in or use your provider's website to order.
I've heard this before. I was all excited about the DirectTV tuner so I could tell comcast were to stick it.
Ill believe it when its not vaporware.
How about the 922? Finish one project before you start another.
I wish the receivers could at least talk to the computer. Back in the day I could connect a replayTV with a serial port to a DirecTV box and get full control of the box. It worked like a DirecTV DVR and the serial port allowed communication so that the DVR knew what channel I was on or if the receiver was even turned on.
IR Blasters stink because they get no feedback from the receiver.
I would love to run two of the into SageTV!
How about just incorporate this into the 922?!!
dish TV on media center w/o compromises:
Step 1: buy old import FTA box for $20 off Ebay
Step 2: wire your dish reciever output to the FTA input, FTA output to Media center PC
Step 3: enjoy.
this aint rocket science, I've been doing it for years. Works great with all dish content.
This is more than a "proof of concept", its proof something is missing from my HTPC.
Bin there Done that, well its never to late to bring something that should of bin there a couple of years ago oh well.
Please make this a reality. The dish tuner would blow the competition away. I live in a medium town (10,000 people) that has one cable provider that only offers staticy analog cable. Dish and Directv are the only real options. I currently use Dish on my media center computer with IR blasters. This is workable, but incredibly frustrating sometimes. Dish has been incredibly progressive in the past... please don't stop now. However, as XBOX has more and more services available to th platform (netflix and sky in europe), satellite provides need to be increasingly adaptive to continue to justify their business cases.
I'm soo happy to see this. It says something to be publicly showing this integration off. I would see that they want to train their staff and get through with testing before actually making it available for us. I would think that they want to have this be an option on all their boxes. Imagine getting dish service and then oh yeah you can plug this box to your computer and watch satellite tv through it. I'm sure they would charge the standard fee to turn that on. And i think using windows media center would get them out of hot water with tivo.
Dish HD on Media center! Bring it on!!
what do u mean by "...like the first generation CableCARD tuner for Media Center, all the content is copy protected" i have cableCARD tuner for vista media center and all the content is protected, is there a 'second generation' CableCARD that is not protected, because the sentence above gives me the impression that there is a second generation CableCARD that is not protected.
A firmware update has been announced that would remove copy protection from most media center content.
that looks just like the WD media player screen
it works just like the HDhomerun box did
The satellite companies have been testing products to work with the PC for almost 10 years now. Prototypes pop up and then you never hear about them again. I was very excited about the Directv tuner card and now that's not going to happen either.
I don't even know why they bother with showing this stuff because it seems to never see the light of day for consumers.
Wow Media center for 7 just keeps getting better and better!