Today's Show:
Lately
when we have been talking about VOD we have been talking abut AppleTV
or Vudu. After going to CEDIA last week and visiting with DirecTV and
Dish Network we decided to see what improvements both companies have
implemented in their respective products.
DirecTV and Dish Network Video On Demand
DirecTV
Before we get started in order to use the service with DirecTV you must have:
- A DIRECTV Plus® HD DVR receiver
- Broadband Internet service with a minimum connection speed of 750 Kbps or higher (DSL or cable)
- Ethernet connect to the DVR
The
DirecTV GUI is easy to navigate but not as nice as the AppleTV or Vudu.
Selecting movies is similar to navigating folders. The categories are
down the left side and movies in each category on the rest
of the screen. You can choose content by genre or channel. There are
about a hundred channels of on demand content when you include SD
material. DirecTV claims to have o
ver 4500 movies, TV series, kids’ shows, specialty programs, music videos and more in both SD and HD.
The
first movie up was a Standard Definition version of American Pie. It
was wide screen but within the 4:3 window. The movie came with a brief
advertisement for Showtime on demand. The movie was watchable within
three minutes but would stop because not enough of it was downloaded. I
wasn't patient enough to find out how long you needed for a Standard
Def movie to buffer before it was watchable without interruption but it
was more than 10 minutes. Quality was similar to SD content on DirecTV.
Then
it was on to HD. There is a selection of free and for pay movies. I
selected Rocky Balboa which was free from Showtime on demand. I was
able to watch it within a few minutes but like the similarly to the SD
movie it stopped playing in about a minute. The picture quality was
what we have been calling DVD+. The guide said that the audio was 5.1
but I was only able to get pro logic out of it. In fact none of the on
demand content that I downloaded that was tagged as 5.1 actually played
in 5.1.
HD is
not on demand. I would call it kind of on demand. To make the best use
out of it I would recommend deciding on a movie a couple of hours
before you want to watch it and start the download.
The
movie selection is pretty good with a mix of new and old movies ranging
in price from free to $4.99. The pay movies have a 24 hour rental
period once you start watching the movie. DirecTV has about 75 HD
movies and content from Showtime, Smithsonian, and the 101 (a DirecTV
channel).
Each
free on demand recording comes with a commercials that you can skip
through. Not everything on a given channel is available for download.
For instance I wanted to watch Emeril Live but unfortunately it was not
available. Throwdown with Bobby Flay was available so I tried to
download an episode as I was watching another on demand title which was
currently downloading. Unfortunately you can't do that. One download at
a time regardless how fast your connection is. Once I stopped the
current download, Bobby Flay started showing up on my DVR.
A
nice feature that this on demand system has is that you can select a
feature and have it download from the Internet. You can use any
computer of even your iPhone. Its actually easier to see what's
available using your computer. I selected a few music Videos in HD on
my lunch hour and had them waiting for me when I got home later that
evening.
Overall On
Demand is nice addition to the HD DVR. In a pinch you can find an HD
movie and there is plenty of SD content to watch. But if you do
download 1080p, plan on downloading it the day before.
Dish Network
Dish,
on the other hand, isn't quite so easy to navigate. There are three
"on demand" options. The first is HD Pay Per View, which really isn't
On Demand, but it's close so we count it. The second is the standard
On Demand downloads via the Satellite network and the third option,
Dish Online, offers broadband download. Obviously the PPV offering is
easy to use. It's just like any other PPV that you've ever seen, so
we'll focus on the other two.
Most of the content is available
using the On Demand system. It isn't the easiest thing in the world to
navigate. There's a giant list of movies or TV shows to scroll through
to find what you're looking for. Some cost money, some are free, and
there's a little dollar sign icon letting you know which is which.
They don't have an HD icon in this system, which leads us to believe
that there isn't any HD content there yet. We sure couldn't find any.
The
interface does let you filter the list by categories such as movie
rating, genre and release year. Or, if you know what you're looking
for you can search for it by name, actor name, etc. In general the
interface is not quite up to par with other offerings. Even the
Playstation Video Store does a better job.
You can download
multiple programs at the same time and even watch one while others are
downloading. That barely makes up for how slow the system responds to
even the smallest interaction.
The Dish Online offering,
however, is much, much easier to navigate. This is the side that
requires a broadband connection. Setup is simple if you're using DHCP,
and the UI is pretty snappy. Perhaps that is due to the fact that only
10 movies are available for download. All are listed as HD and all of
them cost $6.99 to rent. Not a ridiculous price, but not great
either. They look fine after you get them to the box, but certainly
not Blu-ray quality.
Dish looks like they're moving in the right
direction, trying to provide as many options for content as they can,
they just haven't quite arrived yet. Sure in a pinch you could get a
movie or TV show to watch, but we won't be getting rid of our AppleTV
or Vudu boxes just yet.
Blu Ray