It's hard to remember a time since the advent of TiVo when the set-top box (STB) was actually cool. Sure, gadget connoisseurs might keep tabs on them, but few consumers pay them any mind.
Satellite provider Dish came to CES hoping (or rather, hopping) to change that with a new multiroom DVR/client device dubbed Hopper and Joey. The idea, explained CEO Joe Clayton during an introductory press conference, is to break the downward cycle of the pay TV price war and woo new customers with a technology-first pitch.
The Hopper is a multiroom DVR/server with a gargantuan 2TB hard drive. It’s a device capable of recording more TV than is healthy for any individual (or family) to consume. Indeed, when introducing the Hopper at a CES press conference, Dish communications director said that consumers were absorbing an average of 30 hours of TV a week – a figure that, astoundingly, has actually increased over the last year by 40 minutes.
The Hopper will incorporate three satellite TV tuners (a Dish spokesman also indicated an over-the-air tuner box would also be made available later in the year) to enable a feature Dish is calling "Prime Time Anytime." Simply activate Prime Time Anytime and the Hopper will record all of the major broadcast networks' prime time lineups in HD for up to eight days. An Internet connection will give the Hopper access to Blockbuster@Home, a streaming service owned by Dish that's designed to compete with Netflix.
Joining the Hopper is the Joey - a thin client set top box that connects to the Hopper via coaxial cable to deliver all the features of the Hopper to multiple sets in the home.
So how important will the Hopper be for Dish? Well, it has its very own mascot - a kangaroo - which Clayton explained was in keeping with his corporate heritage (Clayton headed both RCA and Sirius, two brands with animal mascots).
It's interesting to contrast Dish's approach, which plays up the speeds and feeds of its hardware, with DirecTV. While DirecTV also has its own multiroom DVR server/gateway product (which beat Dish to market by several months), it came to CES touting a partnership with Samsung that eliminated the need for a set top box entirely. Well, almost entirely. Samsung will include DirecTV's RVU protocol in its lineup of Smart TVs, which essentially makes those TVs "thin clients" for DirecTV customers with the company's HD Home Media Center. But unlike Dish, DirecTV hasn't tapped the animal kingdom for branding purposes.
