If all the signs are right, DIRECTV will launch new features on its HR44 and HR54 DVRs in the next few months: live streaming from your DVR and easy transfer of recordings from your DVR to your mobile device. The latter capability is already available to those who have a GenieGO device, but those haven’t been sold in a while. The new capability seems to be even easier because it will prepare your programs ahead of time so you can move them to your device in under 5 minutes per program. It’s also looking like there will be some limited live streaming.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the video is strictly SD quality and it’s going to expire 30 days after you transfer it. But when you think about it, that’s not terrible news, it’s just not great for people who thought they would finally be able to move content off their DVRs for archiving purposes.
DISH has had similar capabilities in their Hopper DVRs for years, so why has it taken so long for DIRECTV to bake this capability in? My guess is that there is low customer demand. DISH hasn’t released any statistics about how many people use their built-in Sling and DISH Explorer capabilities, but it seems like the DIRECTV community has largely gone on growing without those features. GenieGO, although it continued to improve over its lifecycle, was never a real hit, and it wasn’t incredibly surprising that the product was discontinued after several years of sluggish sales.
Personally, I have had the capability to stream DIRECTV for years with an outside product, and I rarely use it. I’ve had a GenieGO for about the same amount of time I and I rarely use that either. I know that there are people out there who really do like it, and who depend on that offline storage so they can catch up with the TV they want to watch while traveling. I’m just not one of them. My appetite for streaming from my home DVR dropped significantly when Hulu started doing the heavy lifting of storing and streaming most of the shows I want to watch. Occasionally I will copy something to a tablet for use when I’m flying, but it’s more likely to be offline content from Starz or Amazon; I’m just more into movies when I fly.
So I’m kind of curious about what you, the Solid Signal faithful think. Are you anxiously awaiting this capability? Are you already beta testing it (hint: you probably shouldn’t admit that) or do you just think it’s a waste of time? Have you used DISH’s solution and do you think it’s going to be something you want to see on DIRECTV?
I’m looking for input… leave your comments below!
