Dish Gets RedZone / DirecTV Improves DVR Software
Dish Network has announced that they will carry the NFL’s new RedZone channel when it launches on September 13th. The new channel will be available to Dish Network customers subscribing to the Americas Top 200 package or higher plus subscribe to the $5.99 a month Multi Sports package.
The announcement was made today on a special Dish Network Retailer Chat by Dish Network Senior Vice President Ira Bahr.
The NFL RedZone channel promises to bring football fans every touch down from every game.
In a press release from the NFL earlier this year the NFL sad that the “NFL RedZone is one of the most exciting new products for football fans since the invention of instant replay,”
The new channel will be made available to Dish customers in both stadard definition and high definition forums on channel 155.
DirecTV Upgrades HD DVR Software
An impressive software update started rolling out this weekend to DirecTV customers who have HR series DVR’s.
The new software has added long awaited and much requested features to the DirecTV line of MPEG4 High Definition DVR’s.
New feaures include the much requested “Doubleplay” feature. Doubleplay takes advantage of both tuners in the DirecTV DVR so that customers can enjoy two programs at the same time. Many customers refered to the Doubleplay feature as the “Dual Live Buffer” feature. To enable Doubleplay a customer presses the down arror on their remote, by doing this it enables the buffer from the second tuner. To switch back and forth between tuners a customer again presses the down arrow. The customers can now rewind up to 90 minutes back on both tuners. This is one feature a lot of DirecTV customers have been wanting on their DirecTV DVR’s.
Another new feature is “Live Extension.” The DirecTV DVR’s are smart and knows when events being shown are live events, these events incluse sporting events. When it detects that you want to record a live event it will ask you if you want to extend the recording beyond the scheduled time. The default extention time is 30 minutes, but customers can extending the recording time up to 3 hours to make sure they don’t miss a second of their live events.
Customer Care has been renamed the TVMail feature. DirecTV plans to use this feature in the future to notify customers of upcoming special events and programs.
DirecTV also added a new subtitling feature, subtitling is like closed captioning but instead of text with a black background when using subtitling viewes see a much more pleasant yellow test with no background on their screens.
All of the features of the new software were beta tested by consumers who are part of the DirecTV Cutting Edge Program. The DirecTV Cutting Edge program allows DirecTV customers to download beta software to their receivers every Friday and Saturday nights.
While beta testing might sound like fun to many, be warned that its not for everyone. If you use your DirecTV receiver all the time to record stuff and rely on it to do its job then the Cutting Edge program is not for you. The Cutting Edge software is beta software and because its beta it has bugs, meaning that your receiver might do strange things such as reboot often while watching TV, wipe all the DVR recordings from your receiver or even fail to record shows that you had timers set for. In other words if you want to beta test software just so you get first access to some of the exciting new features DirecTV is working on then chances are being a member of the Cutting Edge is not for you.
As much as I say I like Dish Network’s DVR’s better then DirecTV’s, I will be the first to admit I am blown away at the features DirecTV keeps adding to their DVR’s. In the Dish Network side of things when they have major new features usually you need to buy a new receiver to get those new features, but with DirecTV the engineers keep working hard to improve the receivers that are out there in the field.
DirecTV Cutting Edge members have helped DirecTV beta test and improve features like Double Play, Video On Demand, TV applications, The DirecTV iPhone application and many more exciting new features.
If you are interested in helping DirecTV improve their receivers and becoming part of the DirecTV Cutting Edge then check out the Cutting Edge forums found at DBSTalk.COM or SatelliteGuys.US.
Chris commented:
DTV does carry BBC America (channel 264) - to get it depends on which programming package you have / get.
Kevin W commented:
Just spoke with DirecTv moments ago, this firmware update has been temporarily canceled, with no projected future date of roll-out set.
DirecTv is flakier than NASA!
Boo commented:
The DirecTv boxes have had 30 second skip for years. I think some of the old boxes needed a sneaky code to enable it, but the HR20/21 boxes all have it built right in.
For those that aren't understanding what the new feature is it allows you to switch to another channel without losing the ability to fast forward or rewind another channel.
Tman commented:
Both my DVRs have had a 30 second advance feature for as along as I've had them, 3yrs. Press a button and DVR forwards 30 seconds. You can press multiple times and will forward that many times. Is this the feature or something different?
enough with the DBSTalk Crap commented:
I wouldn't bother with the CE program at BSTalk. If you are critical of DirecTV Earl's D* fanboys will nuke it. If you want to discuss stuff in the open, try SatGuys.
Dan commented:
Will direct-tv include the 30 second advance found on Dish DVR's? I too will go for the first system that goes with BBC America in HD. Add to the wish list Fox Soccer Channel HD in January.
SciFi Addict commented:
Glad to see Dish has some HD spare capacity. New HD is always welcome. However this subscriber will migrate to the 1st one that adds BBC America HD. I don't think Dish or DTV understands how many ardent SciFi fans exist.