You read that right, there is no official announcement, but we've received a number of tipst letting us know that Microsoft and DISH have pulled the plug on the
DISH Network Tuner for Windows 7 Media Center. We could care less about one of our
predictions being wrong, but we are deflated about the fact that all the testers say they were shocked to get the news as we are because the beta seemed to have been going so well. No word on if the entire partnership is dead or just this iteration of the tuner, but the bottom line is everyone who contacted us doesn't believe we'll see a HD tuner for DISH Network for Media Center any time soon. Sorry to get your hopes up.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hamiltonguy @ Aug 19th 2009 4:49PM
Sonovabitch..................
rickhuizinga @ Aug 19th 2009 5:00PM
I think Microsoft is killing Media Center as a solution for living room TV. First the extenders, the Direct TV tuner, now the Dish tuner.
thebasa @ Aug 19th 2009 5:09PM
There's definitely some shenanigans at hand here. Now a second satellite provider pulls out of a device for media center tv? If CableCard is already in there, it must be the cable companies that are preventing competitors from gaingin access to the platform. Microsoft probably doesn't care because that exclusivity probably means kickbacks from the cable operators behind closed doors.
Lazarus Dark @ Aug 20th 2009 8:28AM
MS wants you to rent/buy movies with a 360. There's a lot more money in selling you content than letting you record satellite content.
It's the same with Cable Co's and bandwidth caps. They've got the pipes, but they want you to purchase more channels and On Demand instead of Downloading from somewhere (even legal sources like iTunes are a competitor you know)
Ice79 @ Aug 20th 2009 10:16AM
Ironically I was going to buy a xbox (and maybe try streaming) IF they did release the Dish tuner support. I guess it's back to the drawing board. They're really shooting themselves in the foot with MCE. I really want to love it, but they just make it so hard!
dagamer43 @ Aug 19th 2009 5:02PM
Damn, that sucks. Makes me think that if the FCC hadn't mandated the existence of CableCards, we probably wouldn't have that in Media Center either!
aaron @ Aug 19th 2009 5:09PM
MS really wants media center to die a slow horrible death dont they?
sandfarmer @ Aug 19th 2009 5:11PM
With DISH and M$ involved there are way too many variables involved for a mere mortal to surmise. Or DISH could be waiting to see how the TiVo suit comes out?
But then when doesn't a good thing get canned?
fikhl @ Aug 19th 2009 5:13PM
Conspiracy theories...
keith @ Aug 19th 2009 5:16PM
The correct phrase is "could NOT care less".
TAG @ Aug 19th 2009 11:58PM
Actually in this case when they say could care less, it seems ot be true. They want certian prediciton to be correct and there is the possibility of caring less.
xemumanic @ Aug 19th 2009 5:18PM
First DirecTV and now this?
Something is going on..........
aaron @ Aug 19th 2009 5:22PM
the only thing I would accept is if ms is starting their own true iptv service.... and with silverlight+smoothstreaming its possible but thats even more of a pipe dream than the dish tuner.
javabri @ Aug 19th 2009 5:26PM
Wow, I am really hoping this brief is wrong...Please MS and Dish, give the public what they want!!!!!
Griffon @ Aug 19th 2009 5:25PM
First direct tv now dish? You gotta wonder what is going on with the whole MCE team. Could just be the online tv integration is pissing off the partners but seems like something a lot more.
I was going to dump direct tv for dish of they came out with media center integration. Aw well back to the drawing board.
bkdtv @ Aug 19th 2009 5:35PM
Are you all really that surprised? As a niche product, the Dish Network tuner for WMC never made much market sense given the support costs and any reasonable expectation of revenue.
Only a very small minority of customers would pay $200-$250 upfront for single-tuner ViP211K device for Windows Media Center when they can "lease" a quad-tuner Dish Network ViP922 with a 1TB hard drive and built-in Sling functionality for the same price, plus $5.99/mo. (The upcoming ViP922 has two satellite tuners, and you can add two OTA tuners for an extra $50; it can record from all four tuners at the same time.)
Look for Dish Network join the RVU push next year.
thebasa @ Aug 19th 2009 5:45PM
Not surprising this news arrives the same day as RVU makes the engadgethd front page with Cisco, DirecTV and Samsung signed on. These prices don't deter existing MCE users considering everything else you get with Media Center though. I think any Media Center user, myself included, wouldn't have minded paying $200-250 per tuner. My only other option now is super-ridiculously priced component capture cards, or the $300 per tuner CableCard slot PCI adapter. And we'd do it because we're not just getting a DVR, we're getting MEDIA CENTER, only a small portion of which, in my usage, involves television.
Ordeith @ Aug 19th 2009 5:50PM
Here is hoping RVU dies a horrible yet quick death.
TIM BLACK @ Aug 19th 2009 5:46PM
Can I just say one thing..................
This Sucks Rats Ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank You!
Carry on. :-(
Jim Mallory @ Aug 19th 2009 6:02PM
My guess is that the content providers were requiring a similar arrangement to what Cablecard support requires, which is OEM only. And when the Cablecard solution got "hacked" (not really what it is as the DRM is still in place), Dish probably got cold feet as they probably feel that the solution is not "secure." Gee, I think I predicted that when the hack was publicized. Way to go, guys, w-a-y t-o g-o.
thebasa @ Aug 19th 2009 6:30PM
You're right , there's no "hack" involved. Media Center continues to protect flagged content with DRM when taping it, so why have I not been able to build my own screamin' pc, load some Microsoft software, attach any kind of tuner card (FOR A SERVICE I'M PAYING FOR, be it Satellite or Cable), and record it in Media Center. The OEM thing is a profiteering scam. Buy this pretty $3000 box and shove in some CableCards, ooh! Mine cost a third, runs twice as fast with better components, and supports everything mentioned in CableLabs "protected path". HDCP HDCP, Viiv on-chip... WTF?
Nick @ Aug 19th 2009 6:26PM
Wow, big deal. Another MS only tuner gets canned. Watch as I cry. Let's talk linux tuners...
kevin @ Aug 19th 2009 6:28PM
Somebody really needs to put a copy editor on this story. Wow.
QuambaFu @ Aug 19th 2009 6:57PM
This is ridiculous but par for the course. The biggest problem I've seen with Media Center for 2 years now is getting HD channels. Sure there's cablecard but an OEM PC and a $300 tuner... come on? What makes this so frustrating is that the technology exists to do what we all want but a combination of consortiums, partners and DRM feel the need to screw us. I'm at a point now where I think I will implement Ben's RSS torrent download solution for TV shows.
There better be something coming soon to get HD into MC or the community will soon be a small hut village of green buttons.
RL @ Aug 20th 2009 9:42AM
Cablecard??? I have tried for two years to get Cablecard, my local cable companies always give me the shaft. Cablecard is only a solution if it's actually supported by your local cable company!! I was hoping we might be able to move beyond the dark ages.
Alton @ Aug 19th 2009 7:35PM
Funny how everyone(Including myself) gets mad over the rumored cancellation of a rumored product.. :-)
thebasa @ Aug 19th 2009 7:53PM
I know I was kicking myself after getting so incensed, but with every passing CEDIA and CES we see technology like this that would completely propel the Media Center platform it's been complete failure and neglect time after time. Note to big companies making or looking to partner up with Windows Media Center: I have money, I have Media Center, and I want to spend the money on anything else I can integrate into the singular 10' experience.....No really, I want to give you money.....
Jim Mallory @ Aug 19th 2009 7:57PM
I wonder how much this really hurts Media Center. Sure, it's kind of drag for the enthusiast community. But Microsoft has never really paid that much attention to us. This really has no impact on the A/V custom integration market as that market seems to be happy with just Cablecard. In fact, if you look at the high-end systems installed in homes, more often than not you see a rack of Motorola or S/A cable boxes instead of DirecTV or Dish boxes. I don't know why that is and I am sure there are exceptions but that seems to be the trend. I think it really comes down to a few things.
1.) Dish realized that the market for this was very, very, small. Basically enthusiasts and high-end custom installers. Both markets are going to have high expectations for support that can't be farmed out overseas.. I think the economics just didn't work out.
2.) Content providers demanded an OEM only arrangement like Digital Cable. Now, if you've just eliminated most of the enthusiast market and those bad economics above just got a lot worse.
3.) As I pointed out above, the high-end market seems to use cable as the service provider of choice for whatever reason. Probably not going to to sell the tuners in that market either.
AndyS @ Aug 19th 2009 8:59PM
As to the size of the market and whether that's why these things keep getting cancelled, it's really a chicken and egg situation. It will remain small as long as there is no easy plug and play solution with the providers, and there will probably be no easy plug and play setup until MS partners with one of these providers with a nearly preconfigured solution.
They somehow need to lever/integrate their solution for cable boxes that AT&T already uses with Uverse or something.
L3 @ Aug 19th 2009 8:55PM
¿Donde Esta el VIP 922?
Frankinla @ Aug 22nd 2009 12:48PM
So, on the eve of CEDIA, Dish pulls away thieir tuners, just as DirecTV did on the eve of the release of Fiji. On the eve of the release of Vista, MS announced the term for use of CableCards, which was a deal breaker for many Media Center enthusiast. And where is the IPTV U-Verse client promised with the release of the xbox 360?
Similarly, four or five years ago many TV mfrs released CableCard equipped TV on the market, only to see them disappear within a few months. The higher cost of the sets, as well as the quirks and limitations imposed by the CableCard technology, were a deal breaker. Today, we wait as tru2way is delayed again. Past is prologue.
Microsoft, as well as every CE mfr, should know by now that these providers have no intention of ever opening up their user base to third party solutions. Tivo get some leeway, but Tivo has an enforceable patent. Cable Labs seem to exist solely to provide the appearance of regulatory compliance, but the implementation by the providers themselves rates from good (Verizon) to abysmal (your cableco here).
Personally, I am currently very happy with Media Center, but that's because I have ditched my cable provider for OTA (better quallity), downloads (better economics), and streaming (better choice), but that's not gonna work for everyone. While Microsoft perhaps cannot directly support devices such as the HD-PVR for drm/copy protection reason, they should definately consider tacit support, such as the use of m2ts in .wtv.
demon @ Aug 24th 2009 5:14PM
@RL:
Who is your cable provider? Some small local, or some MSO? Don't be afraid to go to the FCC website and submit a complaint against your provider. I had to do it to get CableCARDs for my Series3 TiVo when I moved into my current apartment. It may take up to a month to hear back from them, but unless they're a provider that covers just your (small?) town, they're almost certainly subject to the requirement. Don't let them snow you out of getting them.