Comments on: Daily Blog - John E. Johnson, Jr. - May 5, 2008: WHAT’S THAT USB PORT ON THE BACK OF YOUR SATELLITE RECEIVER FOR? http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/ Secrets of Home Theater and Hi Fi Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:16:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Rob Pleak http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/#comment-743 Rob Pleak Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:54:29 +0000 http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/#comment-743 Dish misleads you to think you can set up individual drives to store different catagories of programming, or just archive stuff on any number of external drives. What they DON’T tell you is that if you connect/disconnect a drive more than 3 times, you are forced to reformat the drive, losing everything on the drive… Dish misleads you to think you can set up individual drives to store different catagories of programming, or just archive stuff on any number of external drives. What they DON’T tell you is that if you connect/disconnect a drive more than 3 times, you are forced to reformat the drive, losing everything on the drive…

]]> By: ovation http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/#comment-661 ovation Wed, 07 May 2008 13:18:45 +0000 http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/#comment-661 Of course, no one WANTS people to have permanent recordings of material (especially HD material). My HD PVR from my cable company has all sorts of connecting ports that are "for future use" (i.e. not active). I doubt I'll ever see them "for present use". I hope you find a solution that works, as I will then put pressure on my cable provider to get the same feature, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. Content providers have NEVER wanted people to have unlimited and portable access to content and current technology allows them to limit portability, especially, as never before. Of course, no one WANTS people to have permanent recordings of material (especially HD material). My HD PVR from my cable company has all sorts of connecting ports that are “for future use” (i.e. not active). I doubt I’ll ever see them “for present use”. I hope you find a solution that works, as I will then put pressure on my cable provider to get the same feature, but I don’t see it happening anytime soon. Content providers have NEVER wanted people to have unlimited and portable access to content and current technology allows them to limit portability, especially, as never before.

]]> By: Tyler http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/#comment-660 Tyler Wed, 07 May 2008 05:16:45 +0000 http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/#comment-660 I certainly agree that that is how things should work....unfortunately DirecTV doesn't feel the same way. :( I certainly agree that that is how things should work….unfortunately DirecTV doesn’t feel the same way. :(

]]> By: JEJ http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/#comment-658 JEJ Tue, 06 May 2008 19:08:29 +0000 http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/#comment-658 Well, that is a big problem then, because the USB port on the Dish Network satellite box lets you move recorded programs from the internal hard drive to the external one for archiving. Both drives are active at the same time. That is the whole point of having the external drive. However, I don't know what happens when the satellite box fails. Whether you can recover the programs on the external hard drive with the new satellite box is a good question. I hope so. Otherwise, that could be a deal breaker. The external hard drive, to me, is a place to store important recordings permanently and safely. When the next satellite box is installed, it should be able to access that hard drive with all those archived recordings. Well, that is a big problem then, because the USB port on the Dish Network satellite box lets you move recorded programs from the internal hard drive to the external one for archiving. Both drives are active at the same time. That is the whole point of having the external drive. However, I don’t know what happens when the satellite box fails. Whether you can recover the programs on the external hard drive with the new satellite box is a good question. I hope so. Otherwise, that could be a deal breaker. The external hard drive, to me, is a place to store important recordings permanently and safely. When the next satellite box is installed, it should be able to access that hard drive with all those archived recordings.

]]> By: Tyler http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/#comment-657 Tyler Mon, 05 May 2008 22:16:48 +0000 http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/05/daily-blog-john-e-johnson-jr-may-5-2008-whats-that-usb-port-on-the-back-of-your-satellite-receiver-for/#comment-657 John, It doesn't matter if the USB port ever works on the Directv HD DVR. The E-sata port already does work, so you can already hook up an external hard drive. However, two things: First, when an external drive is hooked up, the internal drive is bypassed (stupid, yes). Secondly, the Directv HD DVR encrypts all recordings so that they are only playable on that particular unit. So you could have all of your shows stored on an external drive, but they would become useless if your box failed or if you wanted to watch them elsewhere. Apparently Dish's HD DVRs work differently. John,

It doesn’t matter if the USB port ever works on the Directv HD DVR. The E-sata port already does work, so you can already hook up an external hard drive. However, two things: First, when an external drive is hooked up, the internal drive is bypassed (stupid, yes). Secondly, the Directv HD DVR encrypts all recordings so that they are only playable on that particular unit. So you could have all of your shows stored on an external drive, but they would become useless if your box failed or if you wanted to watch them elsewhere.

Apparently Dish’s HD DVRs work differently.

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