DISH Network
Dear Gary:
Jim Holt from Cincinnati, Ohio wrote that he was disappointed in DISH Network for not having an IEEE1394 port. While I believe my receiver has this as well, I know for a fact it has a much simpler solution. For a one-time licensing fee, my HD-DVR can be hooked via USB to an external Hard Drive (up to 750 GB) to archive old shows and movies. (I own the ViP622––the new replacement model is the ViP722, which changed the chassis to black and added additional hard drive space). This one-time fee includes the use of multiple drives and the ability to use drives on any of your receivers. The shows are then accessed through a separate DVR list menu and can be stopped, paused, rewound, etc., just like the internal drive. The only limitation I’ve found is that you can’t PIP two recordings from the external at the same time, like you can the internal drive, and you can’t edit the names of the recordings, like you can on the main drive. But you can transfer the recording back to the internal drive at any time and do all these things. It does reformat your hard drive, so don’t expect to use it on your computer to make copies or watch.
This, to me, is the ultimate archival solution. Any movie I love I record when it comes out on the HD movie channels, and then archive it to the external drive. I am running out of space and eventually will have to span hard drives and have some sort of method to determine which hard drive each recording is on, but hopefully they will support larger hard drives or network storage in the near future. Their Internet port has already been activated and you can download movies on demand, but their selection is sparse last I checked and their prices aren’t stellar for the “rental” fee, but if they dumped this “rental” thing for network-based On-Demand to compete with cable’s On-Demand features for movie channels, etc., they would definitely be a Titan in the industry!
John Andrews, Sandhills Home Theater
Managing Editor Danny Richelieu Comments:
To sign up for this feature, phone DISH Network at 888 241 2205. As John mentioned, there is a one-time Archiving Activation fee of $39.95. The hard drive must be between 40 and 750 gigabytes in total storage size, and anything that is on the drive prior to connecting it to your ViP622 or ViP722 will be erased when the drive is formatted.
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