Dish TV launches USB recording on existing HD STB via firmware upgrade

[haisaikat]

All,
Dishtv has launched a new feature by which via normal software upgrade the existing HD set top boxes would be recording capable and that too on a USB drive that can be connected to the existing USB port at the back of the STB.

The recording option needs to be activated via SMS one time and a separate remote of Rs 300 needs to be ordered. As per dish tv this will allow recording which will be limited only by the capacity of the external drive(s) but it seems these recordings will not be readable via PC later on. Yet to check, will try ordering the remote over the weekend.

:: Dish truHD plus ::

 

[Kapz]

It's a good option. Here is my take on it:

- It requires a dedicated USB HDD/pen drive which will be formatted by the STB for sole use on the STB. In my book, that's like wasting a resource.

- All recordings will be encrypted. I am not sure if you can copy these recordings to another disk for sharing. Essentially, these recordings will be playable only by the STB which recorded them.

- No recording on MoD.

These are negatives as far as I am concerned. Only those "muffins" whose wives demand to see "Don" might be the ones interested in such an upgrade.

 

[haisaikat]

It's a good option. Here is my take on it:

- It requires a dedicated USB HDD/pen drive which will be formatted by the STB for sole use on the STB. In my book, that's like wasting a resource.

- All recordings will be encrypted. I am not sure if you can copy these recordings to another disk for sharing. Essentially, these recordings will be playable only by the STB which recorded them.

- No recording on MoD.

These are negatives as far as I am concerned. Only those "muffins" whose wives demand to see "Don" might be the ones interested in such an upgrade.

Hi Kapz,
I think the the negatives you have posted are true for all present day Set Top Boxes having DVR option.

Moreover one contradicting negative point you have posted is that it will not record movie on demand but at the same time you have said that it will be of use to watch Don at 3am which is a Movie on Demand service once again.

Some obvious advantages that I saw and ordered immediately are below
1. Cost wise this is the cheapest option of all presnet hay DVR STBs in market. While others sell it at around INR 4000, dish is offering at around INR 2500 by eliminating the in built HDD, only upgrade cost is the 300 INR remote control with 4 additional buttons to control recording.
2. It is upto me to decide whether I will put a 400 INR pen drive to start with or a more higher capacity HDD, of course I do not expect it to support HDDs in TB range but will post this feedback once my remote comes.
3. If I run out of space then I would have options to add more space but adding another HDD which existing DVRs on other STB do not offer easily since their HDD is fitted inside the box so you have to live with whatever you are given with initially.
4. On the other hand this DVR option is very useful for persons like me who like to watch Bollywood songs on HD channels like MTunes HD, I can record individual songs and build my song library which I can get to play the same way via my TV and AVR (audio passthrough from STB). Now whether it is in portable HDD that I play via XBMC or some other player or via STB should not matter since end of the day it is playing on my TV. I do agree that others cannot share my items but for me only encrypted songs will not be much of a problem. I can even record documentaries / etc from Nat Geo HD / Discovery HD / CID on Sony / Travel XP HD for viewing later on, not to mention scheduled recordings.

Whether Dish HD users can exchange such recordings I am not sure and probably would have to find out after some more R&D.

 

[Kapz]

haisaikat, I agree to all your points and do not deny at all the VFM nature of TruHD+. When I wrote about "Don", I was merely refering to an ad

Here is how I think STB is going to work for HDD/pen drive:

When you connect the media in USB slot, STB will recognise it and proceed to format it. What will be the file system of this formatted media (Fat/NTFS/Ext3), is not known.

After formatting, it is going to convert the media into a virtual drive (like steganos does, I am only thinking here). So when you take this media to your PC, PC will not see the virtual drive.

Once you get your remote, do give an update on whether you need to input any encryption key or that option too is taken away from user.

For me, personally, if the recording can't be shared, its of no use. Later, when all pseudo HD channels get converted to real HD, I might get convinced and go for it. Till then, I guess I am gonna wait and watch.

 

[haisaikat]

okay sure, I think I will be able to post some feedbacks earliest by coming weekend.

I do not expect it to be shareable content like you said.

My target for recording will be the true HD channels only. Regarding size of recordings etc I will post them once I get it.

 

[k2max6]

Its a great move. Wish airtel digital tv also comes out with something similar,then i won't have to shell out 4k for the dvr.In anycase i have a number of pen drives lying extra with me which will come to use.
But won't it take away some market share of the DVR?

 

[spirovious]

Thats good news.I hope ,airtel does the same.

 

[yrk1969]

If it does not have two tuners (??), then it utility is limited, e.g you can't record a channel in the background while watching another live.

 

[terence_fdes]

I think we need to be patient and watch out for a "Full-Review" about the new DishTV + Unlimitted Recordings on external usb drives. I am basically interested in
1] Quality of recording in HD - 1080p & how much size/space would say a 1 hour programme take up.
2] What is the largest capacity drive it can handle - 1 to 3 TB ?
3] Programmed/Timer recording option - while I continue to watch any other thing on my TV (say, another channel/s; or a movie from my Media Player or Blu-ray)

Note: Tata Sky came out with the same option and If I remember well, there were countless guys on this forum who went gaga over it and pre-booked the system in 1000's ?

 

[nindo]

Thats good news.I hope ,airtel does the same.

airtel, as told to me by their engineer, is soon going to offer a firmware upgrade for their HD STBs (at least AFAIK) which will enable USB (which it already has) recording/reading and LAN support as well- but don't know the extent to which the LAN will be useful. He could not tell me whether it will enable full internet browsing or will give access to certain apps/services provided by airtel through internet.

none-the-less when one has done it, others will follow suit by default, sooner or later.

 

[Kapz]

1] Quality of recording in HD - 1080p & how much size/space would say a 1 hour programme take up.

In 1 GB of disk space enables approximately 50 minutes of SD recording OR 20 minutes of HD recording.

2]

What is the largest capacity drive it can handle - 1 to 3 TB ?

Dish truHD+ supports up to 2TB of recording on a single external USB device, however you can attach multiple devices to record unlimited.

3]

Programmed/Timer recording option - while I continue to watch any other thing on my TV (say, another channel/s; or a movie from my Media Player or Blu-ray)

Program based, Time based, live recording, pause during live recording features are available.

 

[ashiquerahiman]

Hi all;

I have ordered for new remote,I have tried to record with old remote,I am able to do it.
This is good move by Dish HD+ to launch these facility as Tata sky and Airtel has increased their HD DVR cost from 4990 to 5990.
Only draw back I found is the provision for watching one channel and record another one is not possible with Dish TV

 

[haisaikat]

somehow I tried doing recording from old remote from Menu (New Recording) but everytime they show DVR is not authenticated on this STB. Probabaly will give a try after new remote arrives.

 

[ashiquerahiman]

Make sure the firmware of STB has been updated as it working fine for me with old remote

 

[haisaikat]

Today finally the new remote arrived, there was some activation problem with recording that was instantly resolved by customer care when I called them. I am now able to record on a 1 GB Pen Drive any channel (not tried movie on demand). First time the STB will warn you that the drive needs to be formatted and proceeds on your confirmation. Regarding size of recordings I will update later. However another info is that if you put the formatted USB in to PC (Win 7) , PC does not detect the filesystem probably because it has EXT2 or something else. I will do some R & D with ext2 readers and update later.

 

[haisaikat]

For other's reference here is a side by side pic of the existing HD remote (on the left) and the new DVR enabled remote (on the right). As you can see that the newer version is longer and has glossy finish but most importantly has recording and playback related buttons near the middle and I noticed some additional buttons like Dish Buzz, etc.

 

[just4kix]

For other's reference here is a side by side pic of the existing HD remote (on the left) and the new DVR enabled remote (on the right). As you can see that the newer version is longer and has glossy finish but most importantly has recording and playback related buttons near the middle and I noticed some additional buttons like Dish Buzz, etc.

The USB disk is formatted in a proprietory format and not readable by standard os such as win or Linux. Also the custom formating will set aside some disk space for some custom software widget that is probably used for drm / encryption.

The recorded content is thus protected and we cannot transfer it to pc.

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk

 

[haisaikat]

Confirmed yesterday that the recording can happen in one channel at a time only and cannot be done on another channel while watching one channel. If you are watching one channel and you have a recording scheduled then it will automatically take you to the recording channel and start recording. Same way if you are on a channel here recortding is on going it will warn you if you try to switch channels using Guide etc saying that recording will stop.

Also the partition is one single with the entire drive of the USB disk as one, no separate reserved partition since I verfied this from window's disk partition manager which can readily read the partition info.

 

[mailalok]

Confirmed yesterday that the recording can happen in one channel at a time only and cannot be done on another channel while watching one channel. If you are watching one channel and you have a recording scheduled then it will automatically take you to the recording channel and start recording. Same way if you are on a channel here recortding is on going it will warn you if you try to switch channels using Guide etc saying that recording will stop.

Also the partition is one single with the entire drive of the USB disk as one, no separate reserved partition since I verfied this from window's disk partition manager which can readily read the partition info.

You don't have to worry abt all these things with TataSky HD+ but yes it comes at a cost!!

 

[haisaikat]

Today I checked the settings on the STB regarding recording usage and it shows the following for my 1GB pen drive

Total Space 1GB
Used 2% (Internal usage)
Free 98% (no previous recordings)
HD Recording: 25 mins
SD Recording: 42 mins

so kapz's guess is more or less correct.