DISH’s XiP 813 Next Gen DVR Nears Launch?

DISH Network’s next generation whole-home DVR passed through the FCC today – with minimal confidentiality requested, suggesting launch may approach sooner than expected. If you recall, the XiP 813 DVR was unveiled a few months back and features 3 satellite tuners writing to 1 terabyte of storage. The EchoStar-produced product is also quite svelte by DISH … Read more

Will The DirecTV TiVo Arrive This Month?

Originally announced in 2008 and expected to launch in 2009, the new DirecTV TiVo unit remains a no show. Back in February, we read the tea leaves to determine that the forthcoming DVR does indeed exist and has been undergoing testing. Unfortunately, given the delays, it features the old TiVo interface running on vintage DirecTV … Read more

DISH Network Embraces Whole Home DVR

DISH Network recently held their annual Team Summit for partners and retailers. Scott Greczkowski of Satellite Guys was in attendance… and came back with a treasure trove of info and photos. The most compelling story for us gadget loving consumers was the unveiling of Echostar’s new whole-home DVR solution, which will be composed of at least one … Read more

New DirecTV TiVo Nears Launch? ($99)

Thanks to a possible slip by DirecTV’s webmaster, we may have just received a glimmer of hope that the highly anticipated TiVo-powered satellite DVR might actually be released in 2011. long time DBSTalk members JBlow and Smuuth have produced screenshots that display they were able to add a $99 TiVo HD-DVR to their respective DirecTV.com carts… … Read more

TiVo, EchoStar, DISH Network Make Nice Nice (To The Tune Of $500 Million)

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After decades of DVR patent litigation, the court’s most recent decision has forced EchoStar (SATS) and DISH Network into a $500 million settlement with TiVo. Above and beyond the court-sanctioned penalty of $100+ million paid in 2008.

As the story goes, TiVo approached DISH way back when to partner and dropped off an early DVR for evaluation. Well, a deal didn’t get done and that DVR was never seen (by TiVo) again. Yet the underlying tech was reverse engineered, finding its way into EchoStar’s own DVR offerings. And, thus, TiVo filed suit. It’s been a long and winding road. Including a sleep-inducing visit to the US Courts of Appeals by yours truly. While most other corporate entities would probably have settled sooner at a smaller cost, DISH/Echo CEO Charlie’s Ergen’s strategy appears to have been dragging litigation out as long as possible until they either caught a lucky break or TiVo ceases to exist. Heck, TiVo challenged the courts to do the right thing and wrap this up in a timely fashion. It didn’t happen, DISH/Echo were found in contempt (again), and here we are. $500 million isn’t the $1 billion (!) TiVo was posturing for. However, for a company that has very rarely found profitability by actually selling its own product, this is a huge windfall and the respective parties can finally put it to bed. Assuming the courts let them.

Some details of the settlement from a joint announcement:

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DirecTV Real Interested In Netflix, Contemplates Launching A Competitor

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DirecTV (DTV) hit up some of their customers today with a web survey. A very interesting web survey. As it’s nearly all about Netflix (NFLX) – usage patterns, both physical discs and online streaming. Most intriguing is revelation of a DirecTV “concept” that would provide a “Netflix-like service” to existing satellite television subscribers:

In this next section, we would like you to evaluate a new service that DIRECTV is thinking about offering to their customers. DIRECTV plans to offer a streaming-only Netflix-like service for a flat fee per month, which would appear as a line item on your monthly bill.

  • The service would allow you to stream thousands of movies and television shows over a broadband internet connection to your television, computer or tablet.
  • The content available would likely be past season of current shows as well as older TV series and older movie released (released more than 5 years ago).
  • You could watch as many programs as you want for one flat monthly efe, similar to what Netflix streaming offers.

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DISH Network To Acquire Blockbuster

DISH Network has won the bankruptcy court auction of Blockbuster in a transaction valued at $320 million. Although they’ll surely invest much more as they attempt a turn around of the sullied but “highly recognizable” brand. At first blush, their play struck me as highly bizarre. However, acquiring a streaming video solution and 1,700 brick & … Read more

DirecTV iPad App Now Available

After a mere 5 day tease, DirecTV is out with their free Apple iPad app. DBSTalk has produced a multi-page overview, which you can peruse above, and also kindly provided the screengrabs below. Given its size, I find the iPad cumbersome as a full-time remote replacement. Yet, like TiVo’s iPad app, DirecTV has rounded out the … Read more