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Watch Satellite TV anywhere - just be sure your facing south!

pvrwire.com — DirecTV is set to release a new portable satellite TV player. Its an odd looking thing with a breifcase design with 1970s brown and beige colors. Since the satellite forms part of the case you will likely need to keep the TV facing a certain direction to get good reception. Pretty annoying. Think I'll stick to my cable TiVo DVR, slingbox and PMP.

Bury

MrSolutions 1 year 311 days ago, made popular 1 year 311 days ago

453 diggs
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jeromeerome, on 10/12/2007, -17/+5http://digg.com/tech_news/DirecTV_To_Go_Portable_Player_Revealed
- goat77, on 10/12/2007, -16/+26It's "you're" not "your", scalawag.
- mrops, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Now Kids, don't be confused, DirectTV satellites revolve around the earth, so when they say "...the satellite forms part of the case...", they really mean the "satellite receiver".
- drgruney, on 10/12/2007, -12/+4@mrops
  
  Now idiot.. don't be confused... it was directly implied that the receiver resides in the briefcase. "...the satellite forms part of the case..." They really mean the satellite dish.
- pureliquidhw, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@the idiot doctor gruney:
  
  have you ever used an XM radio player with a satellite dish? It probably has an omni-directional antenna built into the case.
  
  the receiver is a piece of hardware in the case that interprets the EM resonance(signal) received by the antenna.
- ayeroxor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@drgruney: You're calling an idiot the fellow that knows the difference between a satellite and a satellite receiver?
  
  Ahh yes, you're the kind of person for whom the block button was invented. Keep being blissfully ignorant. Keep insulting those who know things you don't. I won't see it any more.
- DreKor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@ drgruney
  
  Implied, drgruney, or implode? Seriously, that doesn't make sense. If I want to sell a computer with an ethernet card, I don't suggest that the Internet makes up part of the computer. If anything, a satillite reciever IMPLIES the existence of a satillite. There's wrong, and then there's just stupid.
  
  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/imply
- cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Are you guys six years old? Reality check. As the Digg mob Diggs up stories, many are from blogs. Blogs are not high end journalism. Bloggers put their stuff out there asap, they mistype, misspell, and basically obliterate what we were taught in grammar school. The point is the basic point being made, not the little nit picky tid bits that may offend your sensibilities.
  
  Grammar/spelling/small-point-police will not stop, but they have become annoying as hell.
- jerbaker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3If they can't take the time to proof read, why are we supposed to take the time to read it?
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1To everyone digging down jerormeerome - if you look at his story, you'll see the only comment was from this submitter, spamming back to this story.
Sharkee, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12Well, only face south if you're in the northern hemisphere. The southern hemisphere would face north. The equator would face straight up
- zydeco, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11DirecTV doesn't work in the southern hemisphere. The satellites are pointed at North America only.
- aletornw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2yes it works! here in argentina directv is from a long time ago... but no hdtv
- *Ica*, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A satellite dish can't see a satellite that is over the horizon so you do have to be in the US or close to the US to receive DirecTV. The DirecTV sats are aimed at the US only. If I remember correctly they use a few different satellites to make sure the
  whole of the States is covered too.
- election, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Heres a list of north facing satellite companies: http://evdo-coverage.com/satellite-wireless-internet.html Just make sure you're in the southern hemisphere for these guys
ronfez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I guess they used the same focus group as Microsoft used for the Zune.
jeddyftb, on 10/12/2007, -6/+17I simply cannot digg a headline with incorrect grammar. Sorry
- richofsilence, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2That's what I'm saying!
- willis77, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4The best we can do are systematically label this junk "inaccurate" until readers learn there grammar.
- rherbert, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4I'm confused, do I dig willis77 up or down? I agree with the sentiment but not the "there"! Is he being ironic like Alanis?
- willis77, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5you think I used the word "systematically" but got my theirs and theres wrong?
  
  your crazy.
- Doomsdalicious, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Good article! Youu guyz is getting way much fired up about this!
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Why does someone get labeled a "n00b" for not knowing their tech, but is given a free pass for not knowing basic spelling and grammar?
nanunanu, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8The satellite is the part in orbit. The dish is part of the case. Got it?

Dumbass.
- ayeroxor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"Since the satellite forms part of the case"
  
  That's a huge ***** case!
DigitalPirate, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5For anyone please please do yourself and your loved ones a favor stay away from Direct TV Plus DVR this thing blows ass. And what sucks is they wont let me have the old tivo receiever they used to have.
- jerbaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I second this motion. The DirecTV DVR does not have the same capabilities that the Tivos had. You can't record two shows and switch between them while it's recording, for instance.
- smb3d, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1In around a years time all Directv satellites will use MPEG-4, which the dtivos don't support, so there's a reason they wont let you have the old one. The new HD DVR is not that bad, especially for their first DVR. I've had it since day one and I've had no problems whatsoever with the unit. It's missing a couple Tivo features, but it's not really that big of a deal. The new Tivo is cable card only, so unless you want the crappy, pixelated, analog converted to digital garbage that is digital cable, then I guess you're out of luck.
fozzie, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3I just switched to Dish Network from D* because I got an HDTV television. Sure, I am going to miss NFL Sunday Ticket but there's no way I am using that piece of sh** DVR for 100% of my TV viewing. God I loved my Tivo one.
40bslove, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2whats with the engadget site cloning? be original.
- chad3405, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4They are owned by the same company, Weblogs Inc.
xsxs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why are you guys losing your Directivos? I still have mine. Did yours fail or something? I just want to know because I don't want to lose mine.
RickyBennett, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i wish direct tv wold use the tivos agen mabe them i culd copy all the shows to my computer thay need to put a clock on them to
DigitalPirate, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0Well Direct TV is pushing there service DirecTV Plus dvr because they somehow they think that if they do away with paying loyalty fees to TIVO & push out there in house unit they can make a profit. Um which genius came up with this theory beats me. Because if you know anything about customer service & ease of usage not to mention functionality than this unit would've been designed with customers in mind & better quality. NO COMPARISON OR MATCH TO TIVO

Here are some of the so called worthless functions AKA Bugs.
* Does not record your seasons correctly so you tend to miss a few episodes
* if you hit fast forward it might go way to far into the program thus resulting in you to lower the rewind speed just to get where you left off.
*DVR Freezes or changes channel in the middle of watching recorded program which then results in you fast forwarding to the moment you left off Good for recorded Nascar race.
* frequent resets.

Etc...etc... I can list about 20 total maybe more you get the point and when you call DirecTV about these issues they can give a F***
- DigitalPirate, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0I forgot to mention that there contract with TIVO is set to expire i believe in 2k8 nothing further. My friend who works for Direct TV says by then they will be issuing existing Tivo customers to upgrade to DVR PLUS in order for operations of recording to function.
  
  Direct Tivos according to him would not receive schedules tiers and or updates from the Birds in the sky =manual dvr recorder
- ayeroxor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2their.
- TheBarge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You forgot to mention the most important missing feature. Dual live buffers. Anyways, settle down. DirecTV is pushing their HR20-700 (non-tivo) unit because it supports mpeg4. They're suffering from bandwidth problems and can't support anymore HD channels, so they're moving to mpeg-4. The HR10-250 (tivo unit) doesn't support mpeg-4, so sooner or later you will be forced to upgrade whether you want to or not. Personally, by the time that happens, I'll no longer be a DirecTV subscriber, and I'll most likely own a new Tivo Series3 with cablecard via my local cable provider.
chad3405, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1You don't need to be facing south for this to work. They have the same type of satellite for cars and they automatically find the signal no matter what direction you are facing.
- dgendreau, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3dugg down for retarded use of the word satellite.
- cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2@chad3405,
  
  You are the guy who starts his sentences with "actually" quite often, aren't you...
- jerbaker, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1@cliffzdude: And I take it you are the guy that usually has his facts wrong and has those sentences directed at himself?
vypergts, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Nobody would need this if more people just got on board with free wifi and placeshifting...

Slingbox FTW.
- spudicus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Even better ...
  
  Slingbox + EVDO, at least in most major metropolitan areas. No need to be "tied" to a wifi hotspot.
sremick, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Ah, DirecTV. I remember them...

I wonder if people are still hacking their cards. Last I knew the Hu card hadn't been cracked, but that was eons ago.
- ThisistheEdge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hu card was hacked and subsequently EOLd eons ago.
agent888, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is gonna be great for tail gating. It's cool to walk around LSU campus during a home game, seeing so many tail gaters with plasma / lcd screens out by their campers.
Doomsdalicious, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yeah, seems pretty cool. Nice that you don't need a Internet connection like Sling box. How I can watch TV sitting on the beach yeah! I could see this being convenient in long car trips, but changing the satellite direction would sort of suck. Wonder when they will improve with an automatic satellite alignment, HD, etc.
aeproberts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sounds like a great idea for tailgating.
dosle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What if you are at the North Pole?
- Tabris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You get eaten by polar bears.
- jerbaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You're too busy swimming among the melted sea ice to watch the Discovery Channel special on global warming. You also can't shoot that annoying ***** swimming next to you who claims that there is still scientifically valid debate about whether global warming is real.
BufordT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It looks like a prototype of what TV's could look like in the future from a 1970's era Popular Mechanics Magazine.
kr0n0s82, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think this is either bogus or vaporware. I don't really have numbers to back up my claims, but based on personal experience with aiming satellite dishes, this would be incredibly difficult. Nevermind that the antenna on this thing looks way too small. This device would need 3 actuators to properly align itself.
1. for azimuth (East-West direction)
2. for elevation (up and down aim)
3. for skew.

Skew is important because satellite beams are polarized so the LNB on full size dishes need to be rotated. For those that don't know, an LNB is that cylindrical thing being held at the end of an arm on a full size dish. I don't even see an LNB for this little gizmo. If it is fixed, then the whole dish/antenna would have to be rotated, which from the picture this device doesn't look like it can do. Also, even if this thing did work, it would eat batteries quicker than a walmart digital camera. Think of it powering 3 actuators to make position adjustments, an LCD screen, and a high gain antenna. Aditionally, Most satellite providers broadcast using multiple satellites in orbit. Full size dishes can receive signal with either an additional offset LNBs or elliptical dish. To receive programming across multiple orbital locations, this thing would be adjusting the antenna on the fly as you flip through your channels.

The only way this device could work is if one of the satellite providers has struck a deal with some ground based infrastructure companies that repeat the satellite signal with terrestrial based transmitters (like sirius or XM). But if this were the case it would not have to always be facing south and probably not have to look so goofy.
jcronkhite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If this a real product in development, and it does come to fruition, I must have it! For NFL fans at least, this would be great for tailgating or just backyard football barbecues. Also, for those of you who are rarely home this would be great. Let's hope it's real and that they get the price right.
sucram65, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Your cable DVR is NOT a Tivo. At least not yet if you are a Comcast subscriber. Let's not confuse the two.
reviewcentre, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Anyone ever heard of getting satellite tv on your pc? There's a good review on satellite pc tv at http://www.squidoo.com/Satellite-Tv-On-Pc-Review that has helped me and saved me a lot of money as I'm no longer paying for a monthly satellite service!

Hope it helps you as much as it's helped me
danlm, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0I've seen a couple of reviews about satellite TV for PC so I decided to give it a try after reading this review: http://www.squidoo.com/free_satellite_tv_for_pc/ on how to get satelliet TV for PC. Been using it for 3 days now and so far, so good!
rogerdavis, on 06/24/2008, -0/+0I recently came across this information site that listed satellite tv for pc and other tv watching products.
http://www.squidoo.com/watch-tv-on-satellite-tv-fo ...

I've been using it for a about a week, its great
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Watch Satellite TV anywhere - just be sure your facing south!

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