DirecTV begins beta testing video on demand

I've been waiting for a satellite provider to do this, but I didn't think it would ever happen. Seems very cool! Too bad I have DN though lol, but maybe they will eventually implement this too?

I have the HD-DVR HR21-700 series box, and I took advantage of the beta. All I had to do was connect my ethernet cable to it and the software came a day or so later.

The On-Demand is not bad at all, and you can start watching the movies before they download in their entirety. There is alot of variety, though it is lacking HBO and Regional networks (CBS, NBC, etc.) and has little HD content. Most of the other networks are well represented, but as usual, it's typically the shows they want to push (advertise) versus what you may want to watch. The movie channels (Showtime, etc.) are represented pretty well too.

The other major benefit is being able to stream media from your PC. All you need is either WMP11 (which only supports windows media stuff) Windows Media Center, or you can run TVersity and stream just like you can to the Xbox 360, however, it appears to have issues with 5.1 audio streams, just like the later.

Will some one finally hack these guys again?

Those were the days :)

These guys just keep getting bigger and bigger... Imagine what a hack would do now >:)

Vinny were you been man. im using a hacked DirecTV DVR as we speak, im waiting for the card in it to go poof. it usally takes a couple of months...

My hacked DVR includes A Big White Old Steel Comcast Dish W/ Green mold spots and the DirecTV DVR HR20.

Originally posted by DXR88:

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Vinny were you been man. im using a hacked DirecTV DVR as we speak, im waiting for the card in it to go poof. it usally takes a couple of months...

My hacked DVR includes A Big White Old Steel Comcast Dish W/ Green mold spots and the DirecTV DVR HR20.

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This sounds like it would really tie up your broadband connection. I'd much rather stick with the cable company, but then again, I don't watch "TV."

Sure you can, Just need to have the right stuff First you need to have your own Ceramic dish with a passive mode modulator.

ComTech has some
GTE has them
And the old black CoMcast dish has them so do the ceramic ones

then you need somebody that has the passive mode codes for your recever, I have friends that know the codes becuase they work at DTV.

About a given every three months they change the passive codes, those cards that dont change get fried by the DTV Pirate BE Gone zapper system.

witch by the way there oh so fond of.

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You can't use hacked cards with DirecTV..it's not possible. I've heard from dozens of people that DirecTV is UN-hackable. And the one guy that did know how to hack them got sent to the slammer.

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Video On Demand will be a failure for the dish companies since they will have to download the movies via the dish very slow and expect lots of crashes.. Could be several years till they work out the bugs. Screw the dish.

I was able to download all of Click (in SD) in like 10-15 minutes, if that. I'm almost 100% sure it relies on your broadband connection, and does not download from the satellite, since you MUST have the ethernet cable plugged in for this feature. (I could be wrong, but that's my guess.)

It's not that slow, and it saves the movie to the DVR drive, that way, you are not streaming it, and can watch it at anytime, just like a recorded movie.

For those of you talking about FTA and hacked DTV, I'm pretty sure DTV is bulletproof for the most part. I just moved into a new home, and I have 2 dishes now, instead of one. The smaller dish with one transponder is supposed to be for local channels or those they haven't switched over to the other satellites. The other oval dish, has 5 transponders and points in a different angle. The installer told me that this dish receives 5 different signals and is necessary for HD channels.

I was wondering if any of you can elaborate, as I'm not that savvy with satellite tech.

Transponders Are like information pipelines For Content. the more you have the better the Send/Receive Signal. You need at least 32 transponders for Ku-band and 24 for a C-band Satalite. Most transponders Usally have bandwidth between 27 MHz and 50 MHz.

And think of the dish as a sling the bigger the dish the farther the Microwave's travel. the dish bing oval has nothing to do with the number transponder or the type of signal that it can receive.

Transponders and Data type's it can recieve are loosly based on each other's. the more transponders the better. the bigger the dish the more satalites in space you can pick up.

Gee, BROADBAND CONNECTION NEEDED. Will Comcast cut the bandwidth usage so they get the DirectTV customer frustrated to switch back to their wired-ran cable service? You know Comcast High Speed Internet will know that customers are downloading on demand programs from Direct Tv. Does anybody know where this is going? I sure do. Piss the customers off to join your service instead.

Originally posted by mlsgiant:

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Gee, BROADBAND CONNECTION NEEDED. Will Comcast cut the bandwidth usage so they get the DirectTV customer frustrated to switch back to their wired-ran cable service? You know Comcast High Speed Internet will know that customers are downloading on demand programs from Direct Tv. Does anybody know where this is going? I sure do. Piss the customers off to join your service instead.

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You're right mlsgiant! Kudos for seeing that one! omg Comcast will say they're using "reasonable network management practices" to "shape up" their out-of-line customers.

Know what's so funny, I have several people on my Xbox 360 friends list who use Comcast for their internet and they ALL lag and get constant error messages in game while playing Gears of War. Comcast will surely screw your download speeds up when downloading movies from an competitor such as a satellite provider. Thank god I got Roadrunner...I've never had any connection issues or so called "Network Management" issues. Hopefully all other Cable operators are watching this Comcast fiasco go on and realize that they could be next if trying to screw their customers over!

Sweet i was just gonna switch to DTV.This just gives me more reason,I have RCN now for cable not sure if anyone even know what that is if your not from the east coast but ya im fed up with them this stupid cable box i have loves to reset all the time and its always oh were having netowk probs sorry just be patient were aware of the situation . :( And my kid and the old lady want on demand. RCN's internet is awsome though and not capped YAY! lol