Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom

So back in April Dish Network was slapped with an injunction against selling certain DVRs in the wake of the TiVo patent infringement case. The models affected included the HD 942 DVR that I have as my upstairs unit, but Dish’s announcement of the injunction specifically said units already in use were not subject to the the injunction and may continue to be used by customers.





Or not.

This afternoon I got a call from Dish customer service saying that my 942 DVR will no longer receive Dish programming after August 1 and must be replaced. That’s very different from what was said before and has apparently been reported to this point. Dish, as usual, is cool about the whole thing - they’re setting me up with a no-cost lease of another HD 622 DVR (because I own my 942) and hustling a technician out here on Monday at no cost to set it up.

I’ll have to endure the usual pain of either losing recorded programs or moving them off the 942 to something else (I don’t remember if the 942 supports USB transfer or not), but the 942 doesn’t get the expanded set of HD channels I get on my 622, so all in all I call this good for me.

It’s not so good, however, for the unaware folks who are about to close a deal on eBay for a receiver with a useful life of 28 days from today.

I can’t stay I still quite understand what makes the newer DVRs not infringe upon the TiVo patent, but Dish has filed suit to get that judgment made official by a Delaware court. So given that they are taking a solid move to rid the world of the offending DVRs, filing suit against TiVo’s statements about their new one and heavily promoting their new DVRs, they must feel pretty strongly that they’re in the clear now.

Let’s hope so. New DVR will be something like my 10th one in about seven years.